Honestly, I generally like you, but you're being an idiot if you can't see that we were cheated. They apparently fraudulently claimed that they were working on a DRM free game, and now it turns out that it's a limited release for the 36k KS backers. And that we're being forced to choose between the DLC and the DRM free version.

And no, the "cheating" as you put it, is not being blown out of proportion, I would never have given them any money to develop what is effectively a Steam only release. Had they said that up front, I would never have given them any money.

So, yes, they were fucking cheating people of their hard earned money. Yes, I do get a game, but I don't get the game that I paid for, I get either a Steam game, which I don't want, or a DRM Free version that's unlikely to see the kind of expansion that the Steam version will get.

It's pretty much inevitable given that the total user base of the DRM free version is less than 36k.
Which will work just fine so long as the mods don't use assets from later DLC, and the mod authors bother to make it available outside of Steam.

The point here is that they fraudulently claimed to be working on a DRM free game, and now we find out that it's Steam only for anybody that didn't buy a copy during the KS campaign. I don't fund Steam only software.

What's more, I'm being put in a position where their fraud has caused me to buy into something where I'm being forced to either use Steam or do without potentially great content.

I don't think that bitching about fraud is unreasonable. They sure as hell wouldn't have gotten any of my money had they been honest about it.
Except it's not exactly what we were told about. We were never told that we were funding the development of a Steam only game. And that's really important to me, I don't like Steam exclusives and I sure as hell ain't interested in funding them with my preorder money.

I don't care if they have a Steam release or not, but making it the only source of the software after the KS campaign ended is something they shouldn't have done. And they sure as hell shouldn't be limiting us to the Steam version if and when they release new DLC.
You said they never hinted that MS might be joining them, and now you're claiming that they never said that MS was imminent. Make up your mind, I already proved that they had hinted at it, now you're changing the standards.

Well, they are honoring their word to provide a drm-free version so they haven't broken their promise. I don't buy their reasons for not including future dlc in the drm-free version, but it is their choice.

Now if they put in artificial measures to specifically prevent people from putting in fancontent or dlc instead of just not supporting it, dick move. But they kept their word.

You had no actual evidence, just "hints". "Hints" don't prove a damn thing.
Did they ever post even the vaguest allusion to say, Age of Empires? Halo? MS Flight SImulator? As far as I remember, no. And don't mention those blurbs on Twitter about "major publisher support" which never even came close to mentioning MS or any MS franchise. If you see something along the lines of "system downloading..." THEN you'll know MS is showing up. If not, you're relying on tinfoil hat theories.

The "stop bitching" people keep skipping over the fact that the DRM free version IS gimped a bit. I wouldn't want a gimped version either.

I say this as someone who generally thinks this is no big deal.

I was thinking about that for a moment, I've just upped my pledge to collectors box, but after some thinking, I guess I'll take it anyway. First - this apparently might be the only way to get it DRM-free. And second - as someone said, modders will help those who don't want to use Steam. Of course I'm not going to play those DLC for free, I'll just buy them on Steam and search through the net to find a way to use them with my DRM-free copy.

I think the larger issue is the fact that the license wasn't as solid as we would have thought. Granted, this could have been a situation of something unexpected popping up, but the fact that it happened (and had to happen sometime after the kickstarter ended) and we weren't told is what bothers me.

Overall, I can't say I'm too pleased with what Harebrained Schemes (Gee, that name seems a bit...interesting now) did and more importantly, that they never came out and told the backers what was going on in a timely fashion. THAT I'm finding a bit more worrisome (Or maybe I'm spoiled by Project Eternity...so many emails).

I guess, it feels weird that everyone's taken a hardline approach, but sorta missed the thing to really be bothered by (I'm assuming part of the modified licensing agreement requires them to make the second city into DLC for payments, but the fact that they never came clean about it bothers me).

I guess i'll wait for a 'complete edition' on GOG then.

Some backers pledge in part (often a large part) because they want to push an agenda (DRM-free, Linux, etc.). These are the backers who are disappointed now. Harebrained implied (although it left what it said open to a different interpretation) that there's going to be a DRM-free release for all, and I'm sure some DRM-free proponents backed because of this and feel cheated.

For people for whom DRM-free isn't an agenda, just something they like, the current solution can feel good enough. For people who don't care about DRM there obviously isn't any problem. I imagine many of these people don't understand what the agenda crowd feels, because to them Harebrained delivered as promised.

I understand the position, but from the looks of it, that was a choice that was taken away from Harebrained (Again, I dislike how they communicated this). I'm looking at it trying to figure out exactly what was going on, but the only thing that makes sense is they're either lying through their teeth, or it's a legit issue that came up out of nowhere when they thought they were in the clear. The only thing I can notice is that they're trying, from what appears to be a fairly bad situation, and that things change as time goes on (Which is why a Kickstarter campaign should involve a good deal of updates to the situation on what is happening).

Considering that they promised to release and sell a DRM free version to people after the KS was over, I'd say that they aren't keeping their word at all. What's more, they had an obligation to tell us that we wouldn't be able to get any future DLC DRM free.

Despite what some folks may think, omission is ultimately a form of lying if the party omitting it has a reasonable expectation that people need the information to make a decision.

You nailed my sentiments about the whole shabang.

I take a comment in kickstarter page....

Grzegorz Koczyk

People are assuming DRM is about backers having it DRM-free. It isn't - it is and always was about EVERYONE being able to get it DRM-free, uncrippled. This is why Kickstarter matters for some of us older geeks, because it is a way of giving back to the world. This is why there is a Wikipedia, why there are multiple open source projects on the web and why there are donations made for public schools and public art museums in most countries.

HBS should have told people that negotiations were ongoing, upfront. We would likely have backed anyway (out of love for Shadowrun and trust for the guys who created it), but would not feel misinformed. Personally, I am not mad with them, but I am quite disappointed.

Trust is a scarce commodity, operating mostly on credit. HBS depleted a portion of this credit and that will make things harder for other awesome projects.

This +100
I will never ever back a single project again even for the CD Projekt RED developer

source : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/453037#comments

Stating things succinctly is a good way to leaving them open to interpretation. :) "For PC/Mac/Linux, the game will be available DRM-free from our website" can have the interpretation of "for backers", and still be left true. The DRM-free download is fully featured, contains all the content which was promised as part of the Kickstarter, the editor and the ability to share user-created content. So Hairbrained is giving away what it promised.

Well no, the DRM free version isn't fully featured if you can't load future DLC into it. It takes a bit of squinting to interpret it as such when it's not even going to be for sale on their site anymore.

I'll have to dig up those FAQ entries, but my computer right now won't open them when I click the links for some reason. But, they were pretty explicit about it. The comments section has reposted the original statements a few times.