The returning scam of Fig - A deeper look into Fig and its investor practices

So what’s up with Fig? Well, apparently they have a new game up for crowdfunding. Well, there´s nothing wrong with that right? One would think that yes, but there is more to Fig than most people could imagine. You see Fig´s investor practices are rather fishy. So this is my (Justin Easler, TGG) take on the matter.

[alti]

god, that begger in the picture. Literally his whole career he's done nothing but produce flops. Title with niche interest. And every other day he has another plan at begging for cash. Tim.. schaffer? Idk his name at this point, but every time I see him it's because he's begging for more cash.

[TGG_overlord]

Yes, It´s Tim Schaffer...Aka, one of THE biggest beggars in the games industry (Broken Age anyone?).

[Simon_the_sorcerer]

Not to mention all the other scandals that Schaffer has been involved with as of lately (like the GDC 2015 sock puppet fiasco).

[Littil_Devil]

I knew that Tim was up to no good when he asked for even more money for Broken Age (or when the game got split into two episodes).

[rainslacker]

This is actually very common practice in video game investment. Schaffer just opened it up to a bigger audience. For the most part, all games, and investors run on the same kind of scheme with varying degrees of returns.

The big money investors make their own rules for what they'll get back, and often times the actual sale of the game isn't even in the equation when they're investing through larger publishers. They can do this, because they're big money investors, and not just throwing everything into a melting pot of whoever comes along, and they have more control due to funding a significant portion of the game. For the most part, even the big publishers do not use their own money, but rather investors money, which they pay returns on. It removes the risk of losing big time on a flop or series of flops.

In the case of Scaffer, he's come to the realization that the big money is in brokering investment, not the development of games, or even the investment in games, which tends to see high returns, but involves extremely high risks outside the tested staples. This is the biggest reason why we see so few new IP's compared to prior generations where the risk was much greater, and the success of a franchise didn't involve putting everything into MT or DLC content.

I'm not really a big fan of Fig, or even Scaffer. And I feel this article was a good informative piece on how it works. I just feel that maybe the indignation is aimed at something which is common practice because it's the only way to actually get these high risk investors to invest. Schaffer has removed some of the doubt for those who aren't as savvy with investing, or at least obfuscated it for those who are less inclined to put down tens of millions and be smart about it. I also believe the actual reasons you are required to be a certified investor is due to the way it's structured, which will have it's own laws that they will have to abide by for how they're handling dividend returns.

[Simon_the_sorcerer]

Broken Age was the game that made me turn my back to Schaffer...Because his nothing more than a big con artist.

[Littil_Devil]

Schaffer plays in the same division as Queen Anita, ZQ and Brinna Wu.

[TGG_overlord]

I knew for sure that he was fooling people out of their money when he pulled that stunt off...

[Littil_Devil]

I used to like Tim, but that was wayyy back in the early 90s...You know. Tim wasn´t a scam artist nor a SJW ass ho** back then.

[TGG_overlord]

I used to like Schaffer back in the 90s as well, but then something happened to him (I guess that he went through the same SJW transformation that David Jaffe did).

[NotanotherReboot]

Leave Tim alone

[Pintheshadows]

Tim Shafter. Because he loves to shaft people.

[Simon_the_sorcerer]

Oh dear...Not another Tim Schaffer project :S

[Littil_Devil]

I have a feeling that Tim will throw more sca...I mean "projects" like this in the near future.

[TGG_overlord]

With no doubt, since Fig aims to be around for a long time from now.

[TGG_overlord]

Well, of course ;) How else will he be able to take pictures of himself and other people´s money?

[Littil_Devil]

I had no idea about Fig, but the very moment that I saw the picture of Tim Schaffer + Money + the Fig logo. I immediately knew what kind of read I was in for....

[TGG_overlord]

I heard about Fig when the Psychonauts 2 campaign kicked-off. That´s also when I started to doubt Fig, since I saw that Tim Schafer is heavily involved in Fig...

[00]

Around the 3.3 million dollar man prepare for a scam, hopefully these indie parasitic garbage Devs crash and burn with all the good will they have destroyed.

[TGG_overlord]

That´s why I don´t get why the Wasteland devs thought that it was a good idea to use Fig for Wasteland 3? :S

[hells_supernova]

I would like to believe that they went that sway so they can return the favour to people who support them. I still believe a little bit in humanity. Wasteland 2 was amazing and I would've thought they wouldn't need another crowdfunding round.

[The 10th Rider]

I got really burned by Wasteland 2: Director's Cut. I bought it to play on my laptop when I go places, but there's some weird low-frame rate glitch that has no known fix, and they're not releasing any more patches. I get like 12 FPS on the lowest settings, 720p, with an I5-6300 and 8gb of DDR4.

[ginganinja]

Maybe because the CEO of inXile, Brian Fargo, holds a similar seat to Tim Schafer on Figs' Advisory board ?
Or did your hard hitting 'journalist' just forget that there's more than just Schafer involved in the project ?
Also on that board are Cliff Bleszinski, and also the current CCO of Harmonix and the CEO of Obsidian.

Seems like the entire nub of this 'deeper look' basically boils down to 'you're not guarenteed anything back on your investment' (well, duh!), and the author is a spiteful numpty who doesn't like Tim Schafer.
Wow, what a pathetic piece of nonsense.

[kraenk12]

Give it a rest everybody...overreacting anyone?!

[uth11]

I thought it was just me.

Maybe Fig has a high hurdle for investors to see a return, but with kickstarter you aren't guaranteed anything at all for your money, so how is it a bigger scam?

[TGG_overlord]

"Maybe Fig has a high hurdle for investors to see a return, but with kickstarter you aren't guaranteed anything at all for your money, so how is it a bigger scam?" - Read Kickstarters FAQ/investor section, and then read through Fig´s...

[TGG_overlord]

"overreacting anyone?!" One can never overreact when it comes to Tim Schafer and asking people for money.

[rainslacker]

These are kind of common practices for any high risk investment. Just the fact they require certified investors means they are held to the laws which surround investment of this sort.

For the most part, the brokers are the only ones who are guaranteed to make any money off an investment, and that's what fig is, a broker.

[TGG_overlord]

@hells_supernova
"I would've thought they wouldn't need another crowdfunding round."

That´s what I thought as well...I mean, how many millions of USD did they get in the end?

[akiraburn]

It's also worth noting that InXile has actually run Kickstarters for 3 different projects already prior to this Wasteland 3 Fig campaign. The first one (as mentioned in your article) is Wasteland 2, but their other Kickstarter projects were "Torment: Tides of Numanera" and "The Bard's Tale IV". Wasteland 2 raked in over 3 million in Kickstarter and Paypal funding, while Torment managed to accrue over 4.2 million, and The Bard's Tale about 1.5 million. It is very odd that they decided to approach this route for a fourth time. Adding to this is also the fact that they were able to get publisher funding for the console release of Wasteland 2, and recently announced that they acquired a publisher (Techland) for the full release of Torment on PC and Consoles.

Though, that aside, I am mostly disheartened by the situation involving them and Fig. I was previously a big fan of InXile's general approach to gaming and wanting to revive a lot of excellent old franchises. I backed their games on Kickstarter. I was a fan of Brian Fargo's work in the past even before starting up InXile. Up until recently, the company's current track record was admittedly a bit rough (drastically missed release dates, backer fulfillment problems, running Steam Early Access before all the backers were provided access, etc), but generally it wasn't anything that I felt was worth being concerned about at the time. However, Brian recent involvements with Fig (which it seems that he is involved as a key member of the company), and InXile's decision to fund through Fig have completely turned me away from any consideration of getting the game or supporting the company.

As you and many others have detailed, Fig can not be summed up with anything less than being a wholly corrupt company with a myriad of anti-gamer persons looking to make a quick buck from anyone thinking it sounds like an investment opportunity. For anyone who has not seen the video linked at the bottom of the article, that articulates exactly how Fig is a corrupt business.

[kraenk12]

What a stupid article you wrote and what a despicable human being you must be inviting your friends here to hate on Tim Schafer. How low can you go?!

[DarXter]

Good read, the video from dangerous analysis also sheds light on all the dubious practices.

In summary, you basically pay 500 dollars for a share with a value of 0.0001 dollar (figs actual text) and in return you get o rights, while accountants of fig have stated that they are close to bankrupcy... In which case all money goes to double fine and they can do whatever they want.

[quent]

Show me someone at Randy pitchforks level of douchbaggery, then we can talk about scam artists, 90% of the AAA industry has become a festering swollen tumor of inequity, this^^^^^^ prick just so happens to be on top of the $#!T pile.

[Gruberator]

Oh man why would Brian Fargo work with this crowd?