How Kickstarter Killed the Completionist in Me
My journey into tabletop gaming is probably similar to many others. At some point in the early 2000s, I was introduced to The Settlers of Catan. Up until then, board games made me think of Risk, Axis and Allies, and Monopoly. Yet things changed when I played my first euro game. After one go, I knew I had to have more. Carcassonne, Zombies!!!, Munchkin, Mage Knight Dungeons, and the Renier Knizia Lord of the Rings game often graced my tabletop. I was in love.
In 2003, Gen Con moved from Milwaukee to Indianapolis and it was there that I got re-introduced to promo cards. I don’t quite remember the games, but I loved the concept. Free cards for games I either had or might someday get. It was both fun and a way to get more content for games I already loved. This also tugged at my inner completionist.
I used to be a comic book collector, and I LOVED getting full runs of series. Nothing bugged me more than missing one issue out of a run of 20 (thanks Powers #2). So when I got into board games, I not only checked out if there were any expansions, but also any promo cards I needed to find. It was a game within a game.
Fast forward to 2012 and what do we see? Zombicide hops on Kickstarter. I had backed a few games here and there on the platform, but never really spent that much time browsing it. I remember seeing Zombicide’s price tag of $100 for the “all in” and thinking that was a CRAZY price. Who would pay $100 for a board game sight unseen? (oh sweet summer child) Well apparently almost 5,000 people were on board for that, because the Kickstarter was not only a rousing success, it changed the way many future Kickstarters were ran. Enter the age of stretch goals and Kickstarter exclusivity.
CMON figured out the secret sauce of
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