Because that's the terms of your investment.

Kickstarter is donation based because of laws for investing in securities, which is what ownership would require.

Even the pledge rewards aren't guaranteed.

This is why my rules for Kickstarter are never invest money I don't mind losing unless I trust the developer implicitly (such as the Skullgirls kickstart or At the Gates- two devs who had good track records)

Some kickstarters are much more likely to pan out than others.  I mean, random sucker - yes, $10 max, but someone like Jon, I'd risk more because of his track record. 

That's not being an idiot.

The recent articles about Peter Molyneux stated that the extra rewards (pledge awards?) that you get when you donate extra money HAVE to be delivered. I couldn't find anyting about it on Kickstarters site nor a googling of it though.

  Star Citizen should be a game I lust after but I cant seem to find any game there. A bunch of modules with no story to connect them. CR started the kickstarter on a whim and now he has all this cash with no clue what do do with it....

You could argue that it is a waste of money, but if the product will not be made without the funding, it's not like you have the option of going to the competition. You don't give money to a kick-starter in hopes of getting a return on your money, you give money in hopes that whatever you are funding will be created in the first place. 

You give money to charity....like the Guide Dogs, Deaf-Blind...et al.

You do that so the charity helps people.

Giving money to a dreamer so you can have a 'I-spent-500-and-all-I-got-is-this-bloody-Tshirt' tee shirt is only useful if you are out of tee shirts and want an expensive one...

...or rather a cheap-arsed one for a lot of money...

Can't wait till Kickstarter, Early Access and MMO's become one product...lol

YOU fund it.

YOU pay to beta.

YOU pay to play.

Be careful of what you wish for... You just might get it.

I only invested (donated, or whatever) on 2 kickstarter games. Planetary Annihilation, and Star Citizen. Why? because i did trust the developers to produce a decent product. The former i am disappointed with, but not to the point of "nerd rage". It's just an average "ok" game. The "awesomeness" factor they pushed went out after the first asteroid strike. Now its just Total Annihilation on spherical maps with a Starcraft paced frenzied click fest added to it that gives you absolutely NO time to think. Not my cup of tea. No biggie. I pledged the minimum, and i don't consider it a loss.

Star Citizen on the other hand does have the "awesomeness" factor from what little i played of it on my system that it just barely works on, because it doesn't have the specs. Still the love that is going into that game SHOWS, and when i can build a system that can run it smoothly i am going to be spending a lot of time on that game. So i consider that a very Good Investment.

There are many kickstarters that seem "shady". I do think some of the pledge prices are ridiculous. Why would you want to pay $100 for something that may never happen? (and has "never happened" lately with quite a few games). That they don't even have any alpha footage, or one line of code written for it yet? Just so you could get the rhetorical "T-Shirt"? or whatever their so called "super package" offers? HELL NO!! Show me a damn product FIRST! Show me proof that you will follow though with your "claims", and not cave in, and shut down after you get 10 grand, or else I will keep my money thank you very much.

The phrase holds true for this as in anything else... Buyer Beware. Do your research before you invest.

(Don't even get me started on the lack of education system)

Quoting charon2112,

reply 16

I think Jafo might've gotten burned on a couple of kickstarters.

Nope...but I am jealous of the bloke with the idea 'this is your last chance to send $1...'

Truly inspired....