Crowdfunding on Kickstarter.com: Exploring the relationship between consumers and producers

Abstract

Crowdfunding is about utilizing the power of the crowd to seek funds for your project, company, charity, or anything else. The process of crowdfunding suggests a blurring of the lines between gamer and game, and thus consumer and producer. Through two in-depth case studies we’ve seen how producers and consumers interact. As ORION’s developers put it; “through our constant updates, consistent interactions with our fans and press, we are laying out new grounds and blurring out the lines between gamer and game developer” (The Indie Dream). Whereas the unsuccessful WanderPets project intended to blur these lines as well, they did not act on it. There was no active user engagement in the WanderPets project, and this attitude was reciprocated by the consumer. This shows that the interaction currently present on Kickstarter cannot be seen as a static set of rules. Crowdfunding holds the potential to turn traditional relationships around and redefine them to the advantage of both actors. It is as Jenkins (2006) urges us to keep in mind: “convergence refers to a process, not an endpoint. (p. 16).