Is the Kickstarter (crowd funding) model the future, or is it a fad?

It’s both. At the moment anyone and their mother can make a Kickstarter and have it succeed, and while there are definitely success stories like Ouya or Wasteland 2, for every one of those there has been 5 bandwagon games/products/services/whatever that receive full funding while showing practically nothing.

The point of Kickstarter is that you don’t actually pay the money until the project meets its goal. Instead, you pledge a certain amount; if enough people pledge and they meet their goal, then everyone pays up. If the project doesn’t meet its goal, then everyone keeps their money. So, there’s not really any risk, other than that the final product will suck (which is always a chance) or that something will happen between the funding and the final product.

Yeah, I pledged towards Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs Women in Video Games”. I’m excited to see it when it’s all done.

Not a fad. Tax write-offs will always exists and quirky new ideas will always a rise.

Oh,I’m sure there are already a lot of cases where people list their money. I’m not sure that’s the yardstick to use. And to some extent, I’m not sure this isn’t less a investment and more of a gamble or a lark.

“The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed.”

This is just better distribution of something that already exists.