It was the best of Kickstarter, It was the worst of Kickstarter

So, we have two stories on Kickstarters- one that, in my opinion, was one of the best successes that I've backed, and one that was the worst failure that I've ever come close to backing.

First up, we have Shadowrun Returns.  A pretty ambitious game, and one close to my heart, Shadowrun was a SNES game back in the 90's that I played through several times.  It was based off of a PnP game, Shadowrun, that's recently released its 5th edition.  Shadowrun is basically what happens when someone wants to release a Cyberpunk game but gets beat out by a bit (and they have that info as a bit of an easter egg in the game)- a combination between Cybernetics and Magic based on the end of the Mayan Calendar.

The game just released, about 6 months behind schedule, and it's a great implementation, with the right mix of homage to the old game, introduction of the updated gameplay, and adherence to the game systems.  It's been getting great reviews, and is one of the best backings that I've done on Kickstarter.  It's available on Steam, and at only 6 months late with the amount of content that was added in the way of stretch goals, I'm impressed.

Next we have the The Doom That Came To Atlantic City!  It was touted as Lovecraftian Mythos meets Monopoly.  And that's just one of the things that got it in trouble by way of Hasbro.

The post is here (along with a clarification), and the post from the actual developer explaining that basically they don't know where the money went is here.

Several people have filed fraud charges, and things are getting ugly.  I guess the point is that Kickstarter is not a silver bullet- things can go well, and thing can go spectacularly bad.  I wonder how this will affect Kickstarter specifically, and crowdfunding as a whole?

Other media coverage
http://www.geekosyst...h-baker-kickstarter/
http://www.geekosyst...-board-game-failure/
http://www.geek.com/...y-collected-1563478/
http://www.gamepolit...refunds#.UfLlJtLOvW0
http://www.escapistm...laims-of-Malfeasance
http://penny-arcade....-released-refunds-mi