I like the idea, but not sure why systems need to be bought. Wouldn't it be simpler to find a couple good collectors and travel to their location and set up a photo shoot? Seems like this would be cheaper and easier than buying systems.
I like the idea, but not sure why systems need to be bought. Wouldn't it be simpler to find a couple good collectors and travel to their location and set up a photo shoot? Seems like this would be cheaper and easier than buying systems.
Leave it to the mouthbreathers of the Digital Press forums to shit all over this great idea.Originally Posted by bigbacon
No, it wouldn't be simpler. As explained in the kickstarter, if you would've taken the time to read: "When I take pictures with collectors, I only have a small amount of time to photograph, meaning I have to focus on quick, basic shots. Owning lets me spend time to create the comprehensive galleries I've been yearning to make."
The OP even whipped up this image to explain the difference between a photoshoot using borrowed consoles and a photoshoot using consoles in possession of the photographer themself:
It's very commendable in my eyes even if it does boil down to (in the stupidest of caveman terms) people buying this dude the consoles for him to take pictures of. This project is grand and will take a ton of time, hard work, and patience to do, and as proven by the kickstarter link, this guy has the skills to pull it off. I mean, c'mon, a database of high quality photos of consoles set up in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible... this is something I know I'd spend hours and hours exploring and drooling over if only someone had the skills and time to put it together. This guy is trying to do something really fucking cool, something I feel needs to exist, and if you want to help out, you can throw a few bucks his way. If you don't want to help out and can't grasp the importance of a database like this and just think this guy is scheming against you to get your money so he can amass every console ever for no reason other than to just own every console ever without there being some greater importance to amassing every console ever, you can shuuuuut uuuuuup please.
-GoTaS
If only high quality digital cameras and basic photography skills were easily obtainable by anyone on the planet and not just locked down to just this one guy.
Sarcasm aside, maybe it's difficult for this one person to take more than a few hours to photograph systems, but that's just him. I'm sure people would be willing to bring their equipment for an exhibition at any of the various gaming conventions held around the world. Surly a few high quality, HD photos can be shot at any of these events. In short, there are any number of better, cheaper and generally more fun ways to do this than to just fork over handfuls of cash.
I like the idea of these photographs, but I question why he didn't ask the community first before creating a kickstarter. Surely there are people with spare consoles that they can give to him for free (or on a long term loan) on the premise of getting photographs. It would probably be cheaper than buying them off Ebay right now.
<Evan_G> i keep my games in an inaccessable crate where i can't play them
It appears that the only one incapable of rational thought and analysis is you. The fact that you have accused people of being "mouthbreathers", "cavemen" and told anyone who dares question this project to "shut up" is a pretty poor reflection on both you and the OP. If you had bothered to read the entire thread, you would have realized that even those of us who have issues with the campaign recognize his skills and the appeal of doing something like this.
Having said that, this is not the first time someone has done a project that would require long-term loans of equipment from other collectors. In fact, protos regularly get sent to other collectors for dumping and analysis and that process can take weeks and involves trust at a significant level if the owner doesn't want the data released to the public. The fact is that this guy probably hasn't explored those possibilities and frankly, it's not like most of what he is looking for is rare in any way, so I am certain that those of us with duplicate consoles would be happy to do such a long-term loan. Failing that, it would be pretty simple for the OP to update his Kickstarter campaign and either agree to donate the consoles to a recognized museum such as the ones he said he would be loaning things to or to agree to auction them off at the end of his work and donate all proceeds to those museums.
God, what happened to these forums?
Again, He's taking Money from people, Just for what his site and pictures
It doesn't take skill to do that,
For a movie yeah, But for this no
It became full of practical adults once all the children left for NA and GFAQs.
The grownups live at Atari Age. This is the forum where ideas go to die amongst grumpy old curmudgeons who scream at the neighborhood kids for making too much noise, and having too much fun.
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It takes more than basic skill to professionally light, shoot, and edit photos. Then again, this is the community that expects people to single-handedly create entire video games in their basement for free ("labor of love"), instead of asking for Kickstarter donations.
Last edited by Rob2600; 10-23-2013 at 07:25 PM.
People just love throwing Cash..
The Kickstarter for Mighty #9 now that I will put $$$ down, if I have $$ to blow
This is stupid
"grumpy old curmudgeons" implies adults, which the term "grownups" refers to.
Correct, it also takes basic equipment and a few minutes time.
No, it involves professional equipment, professional software, and more than a few minutes to set up the lighting, adjust the white balance, string everything up, process the RAW file, etc.
There's a difference between a high quality professional photo, and someone snapping a grainy point and shoot pic on their dining room table.
Last edited by Rob2600; 10-23-2013 at 08:22 PM.
That's odd, the professional photographer I've known for 20 years doesn't have billion dollar equipment and seems to get work left and right, has won various awards for her work, etc. There is a difference between someone claiming they can't do their job unless they have a billion dollar piece of equipment and someone who knows their art well enough that basic equipment is enough.
I can already tell this is going to be another agree to disagree situation.
Edit: We're also getting straying from the point. We all seem to agree that this high quality photo gallery is a good idea, we just disagree on how to go about it. Just as a way of straw polling people partaking in this little topic, how many people would be willing to bring a console or two to a convention or gathering for the purposes of photography? For my part, I'd be willing with what little I have.
Last edited by JSoup; 10-23-2013 at 09:13 PM.
Yes, because prior to 2009 when Kickstarter was founded, there was no such thing as any video game ever made by anyone other than fully funded professional video game studios and everyone knows that ever since Kickstarter came along, nobody has made a video game unless they were part of a fully funded video game studio or a Kickstarter campaign. Gosh, I hope someone has informed the thousands of independent game developers out there that there are now only two options for making games and if they don't go with Kickstarter, they have no choice but to go with an established studio. Do you even bother to think before you type or are you just so keyed into knee jerk assaults on anything that differs from your personal worldview that logic and reasoning and frankly facts have no place in your arguments?
See now, this is EXACTLY why crowd sourced campaigns happen. People feel that the product being offered is worth the funding. Do I care about this specific project? No, however I don't feel the need to skewer this because the campaign is being completely honest about the whole thing. If there isn't enough support it won't happen and he'll maybe get enough support in other manners from people (donated consoles etc) to continue on with the work.
The work done by this guy will end up serving the massive community at large and doing it in a manner that will hopefully be continually helpful to everyone seeing the images be it in an article, or a how to guide or video.
Sure lots of people have cameras and other equipment, but do they have the ambition to sit down, take the dozens of shots, edit, clean and upload them all only a server that they're running? I highly doubt that.
Because it makes no attempt to be great, it is therefore extremely great.
Some of My Game Collection Mah Mac n' Cheese Blog
Sure I would too, but would you be willing to let said photographer also fully disassemble your equipment at a convention so that he can take detailed shots of each component and it's location?
I mean, that's the basic reason it seems like he wants to have the consoles on hand, is because he wants to take internal shots of all sorts of internal stuff that would probably not be feasible to do over a single day or two at a convention.
Provided the photographer can put the thing back together correctly, I don't see why not. And even if he can't, I've opened a few systems before, I'm sure I could figure it out.
Make a list of games created by independent parties based on well known game licenses, totally on their own dime, which did not look like the crap found on Jakks Pacific Plug and Play games. It will be a short list. To say nothing of the big publishers who will not release sequels to long ago franchises. Another KS is asking $375K for Boogerman! Granted that will never happen, but if they ask for that high a number, I have to believe given that so many of the KS reach well into the 6 digit frame, that's what it costs to make it happen. But I forgot that everybody is an expert on what video games cost to make. My apologies.
The photographer is not buying photography equipment, he wants to buy video game hardware. He explained clearly that loaning hardware is too time consuming, and showing up at a collector's door won't work either. Obviously like your friend, this guy also does regular photo work for which he is paid. He's not charging for these images. As people have testified here (who run websites), there is a need.
Yes it's fine to fork money over for something YOU personally want, but if anyone else does the same for something they personally want, they're stupid? Brilliant.
WELL SAID!
Last edited by Greg2600; 10-24-2013 at 06:34 PM.
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Did you even bother to read what I was responding to? Here is the exact quotation - "Then again, this is the community that expects people to single-handedly create entire video games in their basement for free ("labor of love"), instead of asking for Kickstarter donations". Do you notice there is zero mention of well known game licenses? Frankly, most well known game licenses aren't available to independent developers whether they use Kickstarter or not. The recent Kickstarters that use well known licenses are generally for IP that has been long dead or inactive and for which the rights have generally been recovered by some entity controlled by the original creators. River City Ransom is about the only recent exception to this I can think of where something was actually licensed and part of the Kickstarter went to licensing fees. Many other projects were described as "spiritual successors" and certainly there have been plenty of those over the years released on platforms like Steam, XBLA, PSN, etc...which had no crowdfunding behind them.
There have been many, many great independent games created over the past two decades that weren't done by studios and weren't done through crowdfunding. The fact that people have now adopted this belief that crowdfunding is the only way to get something done are not only wrong, but frankly lack creativity and entrepreneurial sense. Crowdfunding can be a good option for some projects, but it's not the only means of creating and publishing great independent games.
As for your other point, this is exactly what you have been doing in this thread and elsewhere. Anyone who doesn't share your wide eyed enthusiasm for every Kickstarter that is related to video games that comes down the pike is a cranky old man not entitled to their opinion. I'm someone that has now backed over 50 Kickstarters, almost all of them video game related. I certainly believe that crowdfunding has its place. I believe with equal vigor that every project should be closely evaluated and scrutinized and yes, criticized. If projects can't stand or succeed as a result of that scrutiny, then the inherent gatekeeping in crowdfunding has been a success.
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