One of the RockyMountainNavy family’s favorite hobby boardgames is Terraforming Mars (Stronghold Games, 2016). The latest expansion, Terraforming Mars: Turmoil is up on Kickstarter. As I write this post, the campaign has over 19,000 backers and over $933,000 pledged with 5 days to go.
I don’t need to back this game. Of the four expansions to date I own three of them. The map expansion is good and I love Prelude. I skipped Venus and found Colonies a bit disappointing.
Looking at the 1300+ comments on the Kickstarter and at least one forum on BoardGameGeek it appears that there are critics out there. The main criticism appears to be that folks don’t like the way Stronghold is running this campaign. Specifically, they dislike the lack of stretch goals. They accuse Stronghold of using Kickstarter as a glorified pre-order system. They also don’t feel the inclusion of new player boards is needed and is driving the price point ($34) up.
Hey, Knuckleheads. Welcome the world of wargamers. Oh, and you don’t matter.
You say “everybody who wanted new player boards already has them.” Except me and 19,000+ fellow players I guess.
You say, “there are no stretch goals.” Right…and 19,000+ supports and nearly $1million says they ain’t needed.
Here’s an incredible figure. According to BoardGameGeek, 49,000 people own Terraforming Mars. Now 19,000+ are backing the expansion. No matter how you look at those numbers, that’s the definition of popularity and success.
Congratulations to Stephen Buonocore and Stronghold Games for showing the hobby boardgame community what a successful Kickstater campaign can look like…
…even without stretch goals.
Feature image courtesy Stronghold Games
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 