Crowdfunding has changed the world of tabletop gaming. Platforms like Kickstarter were originally a vehicle for creatives to bring innovative and radical ideas to life. Over time, however, the churn of new campaigns has become primarily a marketing framework for design studios to push mounds of plastic and cardboard at ever-increasing price points. Publishers are taking in millions of dollars, gamers’ shelves are reaching a breaking point, but it’s the games themselves that suffer. The biggest victim of all? Board game expansions.
In the before times not pre-COVID, mind you, but pre-crowdfunding a board game would come out, players would react and give feedback, and then the publisher would follow suit with an expansion if demand warranted. This was a lengthy process, and some games would not see new content for a couple of years. The industry was slower then, and keeping up was more like drinking from a faucet than a firehose. That delay between initial product and follow-u