The Illusionist & After Sound Playing Cards by ARK

[krystalie]

I don't know how to add pictures without using imgur but maybe this might be the cause?

"Dear Backers


Many friends gave feedback that pledge was cancelled, which was not operated by us, but cancelled directly after Kickstarter failed to deduct money in advance. For details, please check out the latest rules of limited options in reward issued by Kickstarter this week.


Click here to see the new rules


To avoid canceling Pledge, make sure you have a good credit card balance.

Thank you again for your support.


Best regards

ARK Team"

I jus copied the update text, no falsification. Literal Ctrl C+V.

[GandalfPC]

That linked article says nothing to that effect - it only speaks of a queued system that allows for 15 minutes to check out when pledging (so if you select items you have a chance to check out before they are gone). Nothing whatsoever about charging cards early or cancelling pledges…


Regarding cards being charged or preauthorizations - this was from 7 days ago - and it says that if a preauth is done, it is done right away - so it also does not explain Arc’s drops.


“If the project you’re backing is successfully funded, your card will be charged when the project reaches its funding deadline. If the project ends but it hasn’t reached its funding goal, your card will never be charged. Similarly, if a project is cancelled before it reaches its deadline, then your pledge will not be collected and no additional action will be required.

Some backers may see a temporary authorization of funds at the time of pledging, before a project has successfully funded. Authorizations generally drop after a few days, but this process can vary depending on your financial institution. If you notice an authorization that doesn’t drop, we recommend contacting your bank or card issuer for more details about their authorization procedure.”


Note: I am currently in the midst of programming a card processing gateway, have done several in the past as well - and I even have a credit card or two in my wallet - The explanation provided by Arc holds no water

[Adamthinks]

I don't know how to add pictures without using imgur but maybe this might be the cause?

"Dear Backers


Many friends gave feedback that pledge was cancelled, which was not operated by us, but cancelled directly after Kickstarter failed to deduct money in advance. For details, please check out the latest rules of limited options in reward issued by Kickstarter this week.


Click here to see the new rules


To avoid canceling Pledge, make sure you have a good credit card balance.

Thank you again for your support.


Best regards

ARK Team"

I jus copied the update text, no falsification. Literal Ctrl C+V.

It's a strange update as the rules they link to don't mention anything about credit cards. My card hasn't had an authorization check either, so something here is fishy.

[GandalfPC]

Seeing that the cancelled pledges seemed to have been so outlandishly large over so few people, perhaps it was some special fraud investigation that took place - hard to say - but luckily I pulled out due to not liking the cards enough earlier and don’t have to worry about whatever it is thats going on…

Also, the maximum amount you are allowed to pledge a Hong Kong project is 75,000 HKD which is currently around $9,500 USD

The pledges in question seemed to sit around there (perhaps over)


https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/a ... a-project-

If pledges were cancelled for being too large and they were legitimate, one would expect that they would be reinstated for slightly lesser amounts to get below the limit…. Haven’t seen that happen yet.

[GandalfPC]

I do suppose its possible that the kickstarter article mentioned above (regarding preauths from 7 days ago) might have come into effect and had them process preauths that they hadn’t before - to give Arc the benefit of the doubt

Although, looking at the dates, that would be a bit shaky of a guess…. It assumes they had some difficulty implementing the system (assuming it was indeed a new policy, which I’m not sure it was) and that they processed things late

[Adamthinks]

I do suppose its possible that the kickstarter article mentioned above (regarding preauths from 7 days ago) might have come into effect and had them process preauths that they hadn’t before - to give Arc the benefit of the doubt

Although, looking at the dates, that would be a bit shaky of a guess…. It assumes they had some difficulty implementing the system (assuming it was indeed a new policy, which I’m not sure it was) and that they processed things late

I'm about ready to cancel my pledge for this one. I had backed the previous campaign for the wooden frame sets and they just arrived finally yesterday. The cards, tucks, and frames are all gorgeous, but the Time Machine tuck has a bunch of printing defects all over it and I've yet to get a response back from them. I'm not comfortable backing a new project without any communication from them regarding that. Plus the weirdness that's developed on this campaign over the last week or so gives me pause.

[EndersGame]

I don't know how to add pictures without using imgur but maybe this might be the cause?
[snip]
I jus copied the update text, no falsification. Literal Ctrl C+V.

Here's a screenshot:



The link to the "new rules" takes you to a post from Kickstarter dated 8 June:

https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/we-fix ... kickstarte

I had a quick read of that Kickstarter update, and can't quite seem to see how that would account for what we're seeing happen with this project.

[Adamthinks]

I do suppose its possible that the kickstarter article mentioned above (regarding preauths from 7 days ago) might have come into effect and had them process preauths that they hadn’t before - to give Arc the benefit of the doubt

Although, looking at the dates, that would be a bit shaky of a guess…. It assumes they had some difficulty implementing the system (assuming it was indeed a new policy, which I’m not sure it was) and that they processed things late

I'm about ready to cancel my pledge for this one. I had backed the previous campaign for the wooden frame sets and they just arrived finally yesterday. The cards, tucks, and frames are all gorgeous, but the Time Machine tuck has a bunch of printing defects all over it and I've yet to get a response back from them. I'm not comfortable backing a new project without any communication from them regarding that. Plus the weirdness that's developed on this campaign over the last week or so gives me pause.

I ended up canceling my pledge. Their response to the tuck issue on the previous campaign was that the ink wasn't able to fully cover every textured depression of the silver cardboard. And that because they used copper ink on that edition of the deck, the silver cardboard showed through on the areas that the ink didn't cover as thoroughly. This was an issue for every one of that particular tuck, so a replacement wasn't possible. The other editions that used darker inks weren't affected by this. That was never indicated on the campaign or updates at all. So I no longer trust their decks will come as described.

[Honeybee]

I recently picked up the standard set of After Sound on special.
The tuck is a cute gimmick. It looks good but looks even better under an overhead lamp (or torch) to create a theatre effect
I didn't buy the decks for the tucks but was attracted by the genre and particularly the Courts
The color deck was the main driver but now that I have them, I somewhat prefer the B&W deck
The color backs look a bit muddy - not enough contrast and too much going on without real clarity. As usual the advertising pics are taken under a bright light and therefore look brighter than in hand
The 2 stage characters on the backs are too small to distinguish clearly and I think they would have been better off going with the empty stage (which they used for the tuck)

It isn't surprising that I like the B&W courts as much as the color as I like a lot of B&W deck art. The B&W backs lose the muddiness of the color but would still have been better with the empty stage and being even darker like the tuck pic of the same scene
The pips are a feature and look good in both decks and their arrangement is interesting. While the color deck pips are fancier I like the ornate blue and white/ red and white pips of the B&W deck better (although I would have preferred a deeper red)
For playing cards the suit indices are a bit small

I will post some pics later

[Honeybee]

The comparisons