I’m still addicted to kickstarter. I love the quirky videos explaining the projects. I love the creativity being showcased. I love that for a small price you can help make the projects a reality, influence the design, and get early access to the finished product. Too bad the projects never seem to live up to the hype. Yet, for some explainable reason I keep backing more. The only cure for the inevitable letdown of the final product is to back a new project.

18 months ago I backed my first kickstarter projects. One never got funded and the other two ran into problems shipping to Canada. The Bicycle Portraits books eventually arrived, but the project creators ended up spending as much on shipping as I paid them for the books. I had high hopes for windowfarms and it still looks like an excellent product, but they refuse to ship it to Canada. Apparently there are issues with the cost and concerns about moving agricultural products across the border. 18 months after they took my money ($118) they won’t answer emails, they refuse to give me a refund, and there’s no timeline if they’ll ever be able to ship windowfarms to Canada. Needless to say, I’m pissed off. The fourth project I backed cost me an unexpected $20 to get it through customs.

I should probably stick to funding digital download games (like Republique and Banner Saga which are both close to shipping, and Massive Chalice which is currently raising funds). However, I’ve been tempted by a few fascinating board games. Urbanization was a huge disappointment, but Viticulture will arrive next next week and based on the positive experience I had with the campaign I also ordered Stonemaier Games 2nd project – Euphoria. Hopefully these games help redeem kickstarter for me or I might have to go cold turkey. There’s only so much abuse I can take from kickstarter.