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Saturday 30 March 2013

Help a 9 year old make a RPG or help a millionaire get more money?

There are a lot of dubious kickstarters out there but the most recent controversial one has to be this

So, this is the story of a girl who wants to learn how to make RPGs using RPG maker but her 'mean older brothers' don't think she can. So she wants to prove them wrong and get the money to go to RPG camp and what better way now to do that than to use kickstarter? It has all the earmarks of a warm and fluffy cause and you'd almost expect them to use puppies and baby seals on their KS page just because.

However, the truth may be a little more sinister than that. From the content of the KS page, it's very obvious that almost none of this was written by a 9 year old child. That or it's a very sophisticated child with the language skills of a snarky 20 year old. A little more digging uncovers a lot more dirt.

Turns out the mother; who's also the one whose account is running this KS, is rich. By various accounts she's a millionaire. Who also has her own business and own kickstarter website called fundher. What is known though is that she's fairly rich and has bought 1500USD shoes which she posted on her facebook. She claims she splurged on them to reward herself for something. Ironic that she can do that and yet she couldn't afford the 800+ bucks that were her initial goal to send her daughter to RPG camp to learn how to use RPG maker. Apparently, getting women into STEM is important but not as important as a pair of 1500 dollar shoes. There's something to be said about rich people who are too damn cheapass to pay for their own stuff but to be fair, that's quite common. 

That's not all though. Turns out this isn't the first KS that the family has launched to try and fund their own lifestyle. I point readers towards this little indiegogo, which was launched by a Christian Wilson. Notice the surname. That's not much to go on, but going by the comments page, they are definitely from the same family. Note, Susan Wilson is the same one from the judgment group, which is also the company the KS Susan Wilson runs. It's definitely the same person. 

So two times, a rich family has tried to use a crowdfunding resource to try and fund their own private lifestyle. Once was when they tried to fund their vacation with indiegogo and now when they're using KS to fund their daughters RPG camp. Sounds like a wonderful family. Of course, now there's even speculation they lied about their childrens ages, which frankly wouldn't surprise me. Judging from their past KS or indiegogos, they seem like a pretty slimy family.

I would be lying if I said that on some part this KS; and by extension, its creator, didn't disgust me. While I have nothing against women learning to program; having actually studied programming back when I was in school, I would have LOVED for more women to be in the course -_-, I do have an issue with rich people panhandling. Supposedly, this is all to teach the value of money to her daughter but I'm going to ask this. What value is she going to learn here? That if she goes onto the internet and says she's a girl doing something, people will throw money at her? How is this any different from the sugardaddy lifestyle that the creator claims to be despise? Well, for one thing, those girls with sugardaddies actually have to give something in return so they might actually be slightly less parasitical. 

If you honestly honestly wanted your kid to learn about money, make them work for it. Running a KS is not work. Kinda. Make them run a lemonade stand or do chores for cash. They won't make 800 but they will at least have an idea of how hard it is to earn cash sometimes. This stupid KS won't teach them that. And if they're short of 800, just top up the rest. Sell those damn 1500usd shoes you're so proud of if you have to. 

As for the people donating to the KS, there are lots of other children in the world that ACTUALLY need food and water and medicine. And you're donating to a rich family to send their daughter to computer camp? I really hope you're donating to better causes as well.

As of the time of writing, the stupid KS has gotten 23k in funding. Also attached below, a graphical layout of what's so suspicious about this KS.


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