Collecting Communities

Well, it seems the companies are following their preened and fatted auteurs to the great trough of Crowdfunding. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing (don't take it personally auteurs, I would hitch myself to that wagon for guaranteed food forever too), and the recent success stories certainly demonstrate the merits of such a funding source. Square, franchise breeder and recent seriously-thats-a-lot-of-money NOT maker is attempting to leverage that collection of franchise genealogy to outsource the actual game making. So. It's a Collective because COMMUNITY. And there seems to be a list of franchises people can choose from, pitch games based on it, people vote, Square nods sagely, and the team in question gets to carry their license in a great parade over to
IndieGoGo and fund the damn thing themselves because they are adults and don't need no mollycoddling.

“So children, can you tell me what this is?”

“Is it a way for game companies to both have ownership of a franchise and make money off of it and also not have to fund the games that drive it?”

“And how would we say that with a well known colloquialism?”

“Ummmmm.... Have their cake and eat it?”

“Gold Star Suzie! You get to eat lunch today.”

Two things currently absent from their website are the franchises in question and how Square would actually make money on it. I'm sure they will have a list smaller than preferred without some franchises people really want to see (I think it's pretty much just old Eidos properties), but that's life with corporations. The further line blurring between the body and personality of franchises is the interesting part of this. To me, anyway. I mean, sure, you can pitch something to the collective that ISN'T part of a franchise and just get Square's help planning the thing, but who cares about Rent-a-Management? The fact that they are allowing people to pitch from the crowd instead of just funding from it (Crowdpitching?) is indicative of the fanward motion of franchises these days.

When I say “Fanward” motion I am referring to the decision-making process becoming more and more fan centric. If the kinds of games that a franchise produces are being chosen by the fans of the franchise, then we must conclude that Square is literally attempting to bring the term Fanwankery one step closer to sickening life. However, it could be a good thing. Too many franchises go the way of the dodo from the inability to understand the appeal, or from understanding the appeal and not being able to do anything new with it. It sucks, and it's hard, and MAN fans can be a goddamn nightmare to deal with. No wonder they want to just throw the responsibility of actually making the things to some hapless goons who would cut their toes off to make their perfect (INSERT FRANCHISE) game. And to be honest, even with my reservations, it's probably a really good idea. Once they detail how they will be involved, in any case. They could just be publishers without actually risking their money, which would suck. Or not, if the removal of financial risk means that they are willing to give the creators enough slack to make the damn game interesting. Could be a lot of things. For now, we wait, hungry, hungry for the FF7/Tomb Raider game WE ALWAYS WANTED.