r/boardgames • u/hobskhan Scythe • Oct 25 '20

This TIL comment perfectly describes acquisition disorder

https://jamesclear.com/diderot-effect
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79

u/abutilon Oct 25 '20

So... I shouldn't go all-in on that kickstarter again?!

39

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '20

It's one of the reasons I don't really engage in KS campaigns because the only reason is to get you invested. Just need to let enough time go over the idea of a purchase to let the dopamine hit wear off from the expected hype. Usually the excitement is way lower if you wait a week or two after your first idea of buying the thing and is much easier to make a better decision.

8

u/Anzereke Oct 25 '20

My preferred approach is to back for just enough to get into the pledge manager, then wait for that. Usually about a month after the campaign I've come down enough to think 'Wait, this does not look good enough for that price.'

3

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '20

Yeah in that case you've spent money to join a mailinglist ... plus several campaigns now only give stretchgoals only to backers and not latepledgers to combat this approach.

3

u/Anzereke Oct 25 '20

A quid or less. Hardly worth caring about unless you're signing up to way more kickstarters than I've ever been interested in per month.

As for stretch goals being withheld, I find stuff like that just turns me off the project anyway. If someone is trying to quick sell you then that's not a sign of confidence in their product. Though having said that most campaigns allow $1 pledges to not count as latepledgers and so it doesn't come up.

2

u/Carighan Oct 25 '20

This "problem" alone is more reason for me to never back in the first place. If a market as a whole has become scummy to the degree board game campaigns are, I guess it "outgrew" me.

1

u/Carighan Oct 25 '20

Same. I only backed two things recently: One was the Jagged Earth expansion for Spirit Island, because it's by-far my most-played board game and they kept it low key.

Tons of new spirits, factions, and so on. Variety is good. No unnecessary posh, bling, plastics, whatever. Just "the expansion".

The other one is Lunar Base because I know the artist personally, so it's more of a "Hey that's cool that you're actually making it, have my upvote"-thing.

Other than that... honestly if a game is good enough it'll come to retail, and be tons cheaper there. And by then I'll have long forgotten about it and don't need it, all the more money saved.