Actually as he has formally announced these dates in writing multiple times then it can be argued that they are indeed literal claims he has made, well, because that's exactly what he did. Dont forgot patreon is not the only way he takes payments, he uses his own site as well which don't fall under the same terms.
Yeah, but you're not forced to join patreon now just because gumdrop set another deadline he'll miss.
Suppose a miracle happens and gumdrop makes a release, you can pledge in May, or better yet, in June, after a pirated version leaks out, when there are early reviews and you want access to posts in June, not pay twice for them.
Now the first few times he announced release dates it resulted in an uptick in his patreon numbers, whether this be idiots re-starting their subs because they believed him, new customers who have found the game or current patrons who would have usually cancelled but were swayed in to staying due to an upcoming release. Now with the earliest proposed release date which i believe was late 2018 it can indeed be argued that when he proposed these release dates that he knew full well (based on the fact that it still isn't released now, 15 months later) that this could and would not be achieved, the first one maybe you can let slide and just say he bit off more than he can chew but what we on 4-5 proposed dates now?
I can't understand the motivation behind joining when there's nothing to download or play.
Those people joining are fools and suckers.
The game is a digital download. It doesn't matter whether you subscribe now, before or after the release. You're not getting anything extra because you joined early.
-- !!!Assuming there is a release in May!!! --
Considering the structure of rewards, if you have, say, $20 to spare, better keep it in your pocket and spend it in June -- you'll get access to all posts and that "Custom Edition" crap. If you spend $5 over four months, you'll only get access to the "Regular Edition".
-- ONLY if there actually IS a release!!! --
whats the definition of a scam? - a dishonest or illegal plan or activity, esp. one for making money: - to me he shows all the signs of perpetuating a scam, whether that was his original intent or not, and no matter what the terms in patreon actually say. If your not happy with the scam term maybe the con man definition is even better: a swindler who tries to gain the confidence of the victim in order to defraud
There's no point arguing about the definition of scam here. For me, the reason is how the word is meant here -- people calling DF a scam and GD a scammer use it to claim that GD didn't produce anything and is duping people into paying him for nothing. There was a lengthy exchange (now deleted) in this thread that somebody was going to sue patreon and/or gumdrop if he doesn't get his money back and was sure that he's going to win in court.
The problem with calling GD a scammer is that it makes people believe they can actually sue him when it's clearly not possible.
Besides, despite all the wailing here, gumdrop did produce something, his game is liked by a lot of people, and a lot of people want to see it finished. So much that they're willing to spend good money after bad to make it happen. There are patrons who have been pledging $20 at least since the "custom edition" option appeared, which means each of them paid gumdrop some $500 for nothing (counting from the last release until now) -- and that $500 can get you a lot of quality games (or could have been pledged to other creators).
I know F95zone doesn't care much for this, but gumdrop made a game that's legally his creation and is covered by copyright and a software license.
If you want to purchase it legally, patreon is one option (there's also his site and steam).
Claiming that he has no right to be paid for the game as is just because it's unfinished (when it's clearly marked as such) or because he missed past release dates is wrong. Getting patreon to close the door on him would mean that it would be no longer possible to obtain the game legally through patreon at least.
One tragic angle is that gumdrop is too lazy to even make this a good scam.
If he kept up the pace of releases (which means Act I Part X ~two years ago, and then Act II Part I could take two-three months, then he could keep a two month schedule for Act II), he'd probably be getting a hundred grand or more per month (see how much Dark Cookie is making on Summertime Saga -- another title which is stalling).
Even with his laziness, he could have just hired a copywriter, a programmer and a CG artist for one grand per month each (or whatever) and commission all the hard parts to them, and he'd still be left with $7,000. He would have kept gaining new patrons, getting more money, spending more on those commissions.
The game would have been finished and would have been a lot better, AND he would have made more money.
Not gonna happen. And what's worse, he's poisoned the well for other creators -- a lot of them feel they are free to abandon their projects, that they don't need to keep up the quality. And a lot of patrons are wary of supporting new creators because they might be the next gumdrop.
By the way, it would be hilarious (and I imagine everyone would call it a clear scam) if he made Act I in ten parts, Act II in ten parts and then promised Act III, released Part I finishing just before anything steamy happened and then disappeared. In effect, assuming patron count would go up steadily over time, gumdrop would have then received a couple million dollars for a porn game that did not feature any actual porn (not between main characters, at least).
