A Perspective on Kickstarter for Game Crowdfunding  Matt
Barton's picture   Unfortunately for these companies, the
internet proved a much more difficult market. It wasn't like the
old days of TV or print, where consumers absorbed all your
commercials and didn't get a chance to talk back. As Henry
Jenkins describes so well in his book Convergence Culture,
consumers were now unwilling to be passive. Critics emerged from
every corner to rate, review, comment, and support stuff they
cared about. Witness the rise of Amazon, with its heavy emphasis
on user reviews and recommendations, and Wikipedia, which is
perhaps even more fundamental--public participation in the
making of knowledge itself. As Jenkins and others have pointed
out, given the increasing fragmentation of consumers into so
many disparate groups, it's now more important than ever for
companies to target niches rather than going for the broad
demographics they're accustomed to. In short, the only way to
succeed is to cater to your fan base, doing what