Quite shocked at the continuing negativity about Braben's acknowledgement of the writers. OK, yeah, we've established that £4,500 is a hefty sum for the license to write official stuff in the Elite universe, but there is evidence to suggest that it is far far more difficult to get licenses to write official fiction in other "universes". Most of the time the writers have to be approached specifically to write a novel. In this case, DB has offered the services of Frontier Devs to market and publicise the book.
Remember that the ED kickstarter is an effort to gauge whether Elite still has an audience, and the pledges may be a representation of that. The volume of cash that DB is asking for to get the license is maybe high because if someone/some people out there in the interweb tubes are willing to go to the expense of that pledge (or, indeed, the effort to organise a fundraiser) then I think he will get a vehement answer to his question.
Remember also that there's the security of the investment as well. Frontier have now advertised that there will be Elite Dangerous fiction. By asking for a large "deposit" up front they are securing the likelihood that the books will actually get written, and that people won't just agree to it on a whim and then have no intention of following through with the work. Loads of people would LOVE to write an Elite book. Having to shell out £4.5k in advance of it will make amateurs and dreamers think twice about committing to it. It also should weed out those who are in it for the money and hopefully draw those in who genuinely want to contribute to the Elite legacy. Drew KNOWS he can do it - he's done it before and has proof. Hence he has no qualms about doing it and we as a community have no qualms about backing him.
Two weeks ago there was no chance in hell of official Elite novels being sanctioned by DB or Frontier Developments. Now there are two official novels in the works with maybe more on the way. That's pretty exciting.
A lot of press time has been given to the fact that DB hasn't handled the kickstarter very well, but I think he's managed it pretty well, since it now gives him a good idea how much interest there is. Magazines are publicising Elite and the novels and the Kickstarters and our favourite game is now very much in the spotlight. I think the timing of the launch was poor, given that Halo 4 launched on the same day and that the run up to Christmas is maybe not the best time to ask people to splash the cash out on a game that will only come along in a year or so, but I think it's done very well considering.
I do agree the pledge is high. Kickstarters to change over time, though, and before the end, Mr B might alter the terms of the license a bit. Even now, if the ED kickstarter fails he is going to reduce the pledge terms by half and still allow official Elite fiction. So no matter what happens next, Drew WILL be writing Elite: Reclamation. Fan-frakking-tastic!! And he'll have the marketing sway of a major software publisher behind him too.
God I can waffle. Sorry.
