If you folks don't know about what has transpired with the OGRE campaign, even if you DON'T CARE ABOUT OGRE, you should probably read this:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/steve-jacksons-ogre-wins-at-kickstarter-more-games-by-printed-and-each-game

Now, OGRE was basically "done", they were gonna run 3000 with the Munchkin money they had, but Steve would have continued to work on their cash cow, Munchkin, and the box would have remained an exclusive 1 time run of 3000 units (no reprints) that retailed at 100 USD.

Kickstarter was used to:
1) Gauge interest
2) Allow fans to actually improve what came in the (already impressive) box
3) Interact with fans to allow an unprecedented amount of input about the game (the core rules changed almost not at all, one unit that had long been talked about was added, along with a terrain type - the rest was about the content of the box and just how folks wanted it)

In addition to the KS capaign raising 710k of the 20k asking amount (yes, you read that right, fans donated over 30 times the asking amount) and completely protecting the company from running an expensive and risky print run, Steve Jackson will now be working on OGRE for a good part (or all) of this year. In addition there will be a remake of the OGRE video game.

In this case Kickstarter was not speculative, it removed risk from the producer for a finished product and solicited community involvement from actual buyers to customize the product more to their liking.

FUCKING BRILLIANT!

I'd never heard of him or Ogre before, but the only thing keeping me from buying a copy is that I'm living overseas and I'm getting fatigue from all the KS campaigns.

Liked the pitch though and I'll likely pick up a copy when they go on sale after I get home.

Seriously not enough board game geeks on this forum...

I simply don't like Steve Jackson... and I sure as hell won't give him any Kickstarter money.

Fuck, if I knew about it earlier, I'd scramble a few bucks and support this.

True. board games FTW!

When I was working in a comic book /tabletop store his games were always overpriced and rather bad in quality (not the rules, but the actual physical stuff). When he didn't just add lame expansions to existing games, often copied other game concepts from smaller groups, changed just enough to not being sued and then used his "Steve Jackson games" trademark to "re issue" them. People then bought the Steve Jackson version because it was the bigger brand. For me Steve Jackson Games is somthing like Activision or EA for others in videogames.

Well, those gripes are a decade old, so I don't know how bad he is nowadays, but he sure as hell doesn't need my money.

I saw this and thought it looked interesting, but then I noticed the overseas shipping costs...

FUCK YES!

I never had any friends that were into them :(

I bought an OGRE game on Kickstarter. I haven't played it before but I have a some people in mind who I think would be willing to give it a try and I think OGRE would be one I would like. I didn't know there was a video game too. I'll be keeping an eye out for that too.

The board game I've been wanting for forever is that one that Chewie and R2-D2 were playing in the Millenium Falcon.

I think you'll enjoy it. It's pretty easy to get into and has a back story that most geeks should love.

Indeed! We need more people here willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money on yet another sector of gaming. Join in! It's fun...and money's overrated. :)

This is indeed incredible. Using Kickstarter to improve a product like this is just... beautiful. And brilliant. I once again feel like I need to throw money at something. The last time I felt that way, a little site called GOG was just being born...

In a way money is overrated, it's simply the placeholder for the thing I trade a piece of my life for. I do think you're overestimating how much it actually costs to buy 2-3 new, high end board games per year, but I suppose that depends on the person and I suppose one might overindulge in more than they can play (though since they take up a couple of square feet of closet space apiece it's fairly obvious if you're buying too many).
I feel the use of Kickstarter in this case is as creative as the game itself (well, not much changed with the core gameplay between the classic version and this one, mostly the quality of the physical game itself). Zombiecide did something similar, I think. The fact that classic counters were included at all was because of the fans, Steve Jackson Games was against the idea. We truly got the product we wanted, in addition we got the option to get some fun stuff that's admittedly pretty geeky, but probably wouldn't have existed at all without the Kickstarter.

Btw, thought I'd point out that they're about to crack 830,000 USD just now.