What's Your Level Of P&|a Commitment

[Trip]

It will be interesting to see if their commitment continues if/when a similar device is released.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd like to respond to this with my own point of view, if I may; I have no interest in potential similar devices which may or may not do similar things - my interest is in this device, and the community that goes with it. :"]

Ditto[/quote]

I see the situation more like this: Few people, known to be talented, start making this really cool handheld I want to happen. They need money to get it done. I donate money to them, and they promise to give me one of the first units when they come out. Yes, I see the situation like this. Of course I wouldn't have donated as much as I paid if I didn't get a unit for it. If you think of it this way, you'll start using less energy thinking how you've been screwed over as a customer, ripped off, lied to or anything like that. If you knew the risks when you got on the wagon, you shouldn't be complaining. Just concentrate on being happy that the pandora is happening at all. We're all anxious to get on with it here.

That's the way I look at it too.
I've had more than my moneys worth out of these devs over the years anyway so screw it. I'd be gutted if I never got my hands on a Pandora, but I wouldn't give much thought to loosing the money

 

[Prometheus]

Can you imagine the amount of crying that would be going on here if Gamepark did the same exact thing as OP did? The idea of prepaying for something is just a bad idea.

I don't mean to be picky here, and my memory may perhaps be a bit fuzzy, but I pre-ordered a GP2X back in the day and seem to recall that pre-paying was exactly what had to be done with those too, and I also seem to recall that there was a fair wait afterwards due to some delays (perhaps not a year, but the basic principle appears the same to me). :huh: Yes it was some time ago, but still...

 

[White Demon]

I'm in the forever group.

My money's been with them for almost a year now (not counting the refund/repay business), no point in trying to get it back now.
It's not like I can do anything else that's more entertaining/needed with the money.

 

[Kyo]

, it was delayed. I was ok with that, i've been told an estimate, so a delay is reasonable. Then it was delayed again. And again. Every time we were finally a little closer the release date was reset to "in two months". Now, I got a coupon for my birthday at the end of august, and then purchased a preorder with money provided by my father in exchange for the coupon (actually I still have the coupon, maybe I should ask him for the money again"]. If I still don't have my pandora by my birthday, I will cancel my preorder and ask for my money back, because that will be the point when I have been "invested" in it. Not the actual preorder, mind you, but I gave up getting a present straight away for the pandora. So yeah, I'm patient but not endlessly patient. If it does get delayed till late september or later, I'll cancel my order and buy myself something else for the money. I'll probably still get a pandora maybe from the second or third batch.

Can you imagine the amount of crying that would be going on here if Gamepark did the same exact thing as OP did?
Honestly, I think there would be an equal amount of whining were the OP team as "distant" as GP. Fact is, we can just say "hey craig, what gives" and we might even get an answer. Then there's the regular updates. That being said, you can't really say there's not a lot of whining. [/quote]QUOTE
The idea of prepaying for something is just a bad idea. People pre-paid almost a year ago and have nothing to show for their money which had more purchasing power a year ago than it does today so even if you got a refund, it would only be a partial refund because you won't get 330 in purhasing power back if you get 330 back. You have effectively invested in OP without getting paid. If you took that same money and invested it at the bottom of the stock market you would have much more money, perhaps triple + dividends. I am not trying to bash OP, I am just showing what happens when you pre-pay for something a year in advance. You are simply investing in OP without any financial gain.

Chris

To be fair, I paid 250€ so that's what I would get back, and I think this may actually be a financial gain for me

 

[vuffi_raa]

I am hoping it comes out soon- I haven't pre ordered since there has been address flux as I am one of the laid off masses and have been contracting for work- so delivery address changes from month to month- but I will be right up on it when orders are taken for the manufactured units!

 

[worzyl]

I've already sent the cash, so I'll just keep on waiting.

 

[quartercast]

I have a phobia towards open ended agreements, so... I go with Jan 2010.

I think by then it just gets that slight bit ridiculous, and if I needed my pre-order money badly I would ask for a refund.

That being said, I highly doubt it'll take that long for the Panda to be released, I reckon FedEx will be ringing my doorbell around the end of July

 

[MikeL]

forever.

(hsbc sucked up my money anyway so it's not like there's anything I can do about it, LOL!)

 

[Wootson]

I'm with them till the very end. I'm not waiting for almost a year and then bailing out. Doesn't make any sense, does it?

And by the way, I am going to pretty famous worldwide when i show my face on YouTube with a Pandora in my hand, with that Hallelujah tune in the background :lol: andora1:

 

[fretfrenzy182]

If I hadn't already paid I would say December, as Craig made the anouncement that 2009 is the year of the Pandora. If they cannot get the correct year of the release this late in the game, it's time to call it quits.

 

[TheRain]

I haven't preordered my Pandora. I'm waiting for the second batch. However, for me, I'm also hoping the Pandora isn't seriously obsoleted by the time it comes out. There's already OMAP4 and Cortex-A9, but I'm hoping nothing really big comes out in the mean time. If something just like the Pandora, but with more power, comparable battery life and a supporting community comes out, I'm afraid I'll have to jump ship. Just the way it is :/ That doesn't look like it's going to happen, though.

I don't think that's even a valid worry. The PSP and DS have been selling for years now and are SERIOUSELY outdated in terms of technical specs.

This system is far more powerful than either of those systems, AND it will have more longevity simply because it's more of a general computing device, AND... the other point to be made is that the developer community will really have a hard time pushing the limits of this device. I think you'd be absolutely amazed at what some top notch games development house would be able to do with a device of these specs.

 

[optional106]

I preordered and paid for my Pandora, and I have been watching the project and the community here for a long time now, and watching the 2 month shipment date moving along.
( I think that Craig may have been using Venusian Months based on this project, rather than Earth months )
The reason that I bought into this project was that I knew that this was an amazing piece of kit, and as an ambitious little project from the Team, I felt it deserved supporting.

I was happy to pay before hand as the thought of there being no second batch was a bit too much to bear.
I'm not sure if the people new to the Pandora now have considered that there may not have been future batches if there were not enough early 3,000 supporters willing to invest in the first batch.

Good things come to those who wait, and theres a nice library of stuff thats being developed by the Devs, so just chill. We've survived without the $300 in our pocket for this long now, so unless you literally having to sell stuff to survive, I feel its worth the wait.

I'm hoping that is literally only " 2 months " away now.
Its definitely close now, and there have been days before where I constantly F5 looking for information on the Pandora, but when that happens, its best to take a step away from the forums for a bit.
Except now, if you try that, you may lose out on valuable information regarding possible shipment news...
Aiiii what a dilemma ><
Does this remind you of when you were little and sat by the front doorstep waiting for the postman to arrive ?
( ... Maybe that was just me then ? )
Anyway I'm sure that everyone will feel the same pangs of excitement when unboxing their final Pandora as when we were all rushing to pre-order the first batch.

So in response to the poll:
Death - Mom didn't raise a quitter !

Death - Mom didn't raise a qutter !

 

[Sphinxter]

Noticed but did not edit in fear it would screw up the voting once it had already begun.

 

[cappuchok]

I'm in it for the long haul. It's been amazing to follow the development, and it will be equally amazing once the device actually turns up in my mailbox and I see that my pre-order cash wasn't wasted (and I can finally prove all the other techs at work wrong when they say it'll be vaporware). I don't see anyone making a competing device with as many features for a long time.

However, I do have certain "checkpoints" at which I would prefer to already have the device, mainly for various trips over the coming year, during which I really don't want to be hauling my 17" gaming laptop with me. First checkpoint is the last week of June, but I'm not overly optimistic about it being delivered by then. I hope Craigix and the team will prove me wrong, of course, but anyway...

 

[Monk]

Until I decide otherwise - I've already paid the money and frankly I suspect that if we get to September (where I am more likely to draw the line than any toher place, I guess) and 25% of the customers request refunds, I doubt OpenPandora would have the cash to fo the refunds. they spent it already on the Pandora parts for our units. So it seems unlikely I'll be calling for a refund any time soon - I'd far rather have the kit and the download site (heck, just the Pandora and Pickle!) than the money IMHO. Unless/until GamePark or someone come out with a similar device that will also have such a commited community.

 

[Dauric]

I see the situation more like this: Few people, known to be talented, start making this really cool handheld I want to happen. They need money to get it done. I donate money to them, and they promise to give me one of the first units when they come out. Yes, I see the situation like this. Of course I wouldn't have donated as much as I paid if I didn't get a unit for it. If you think of it this way, you'll start using less energy thinking how you've been screwed over as a customer, ripped off, lied to or anything like that. If you knew the risks when you got on the wagon, you shouldn't be complaining. Just concentrate on being happy that the pandora is happening at all. We're all anxious to get on with it here.

That's the way I look at it too.

+1

I spent my money on the second pre-order run, and I considered the possibility that the Pandora could never be finished, I considered the progress that they'd made and the capabilities of the Pandora, and I'd been following their progress for months beforehand. I think the $400 I spent (with case and "I want it yesterday" shipping) is worth the risk/benefit (ie: a bet) I'll actually get one in a reasonable amount of time.

Even if the Pandora comes out functionally surpassed by other machines and OPLtd. busts, I'll end up with an uber-rare handheld system, and there's a local gaming store that has a "Wall of Consoles" that gives store credit if you sell them something that they don't have to add to their collection. If the Pandora does become a blazing commercial success then I'll have a collectible with an early serial number. Between those two extremes I get the Pandora that I ordered in the first place.

I'm really not that worried about the Pandora being surpassed though. DSi is just anti-homebrew and added functions (Camera and Web) added to the DSLite, the new PSP -still- only has one analog stick, and they put the start and select buttons where they could have put another analog stick, even though the lack of dual analog (like all their other consoles) has been a complaint of PSP users since the beginning of the line, and MicroShaft hasn't even dipped their big toe in the waters of portable gaming.

So yeah, I'm in the 'till death' category.

 

[christo930]

I haven't preordered my Pandora. I'm waiting for the second batch. However, for me, I'm also hoping the Pandora isn't seriously obsoleted by the time it comes out. There's already OMAP4 and Cortex-A9, but I'm hoping nothing really big comes out in the mean time. If something just like the Pandora, but with more power, comparable battery life and a supporting community comes out, I'm afraid I'll have to jump ship. Just the way it is :/ That doesn't look like it's going to happen, though.

I don't think that's even a valid worry. The PSP and DS have been selling for years now and are SERIOUSELY outdated in terms of technical specs.

This system is far more powerful than either of those systems, AND it will have more longevity simply because it's more of a general computing device, AND... the other point to be made is that the developer community will really have a hard time pushing the limits of this device. I think you'd be absolutely amazed at what some top notch games development house would be able to do with a device of these specs.

As a general computing device, the Pandora is already behind. Of course, it's not a general computing device so that is besides the point. General computing devices usually have a retail life of a couple of quarters, not years on end like game systems. Your thinking here is backwards. I think the emulator developers will easily use all the cpu power of the system, but I don't think the homebrew scene is going to need all of the power that the Pandora has. There might be 1 or 2 homebrew originals that push the hardware, but don't expect a slew of software that pushes the tech to it's limits.

chris

 

[TheRain]

As a general computing device, the Pandora is already behind. Of course, it's not a general computing device so that is besides the point. General computing devices usually have a retail life of a couple of quarters, not years on end like game systems. Your thinking here is backwards. I think the emulator developers will easily use all the cpu power of the system, but I don't think the homebrew scene is going to need all of the power that the Pandora has. There might be 1 or 2 homebrew originals that push the hardware, but don't expect a slew of software that pushes the tech to it's limits.

I'm not saying that general computing devices have a longer lifespan. I'm saying that as a portable game console, which already will have a long lifespan... the fact that it can do many other general computing tasks will make it more of a "keeper" for some people. But the point was that handheld gaming systems have a long lifespan. In my opinion this will have an even longer lifespan because for many people it will be a "tinkering" machine. Another point is that it is so unique, it's not likely to be replaced for those who find it to be their preferred form factor for a device.

 

[dingens]

As an ex-first batcher I'm not directly addressed by this poll, so I won't vote, but I still want this thing badly, no matter how long it takes and I'm willing to shell out the extra bucks that I've lost by cancelling my order. Just saying

 

[Frogboy]

For First Batch: About 1%. I bailed in Feb. and odds are I won't have the option to slip in right before they ship.

For Second Batch: ~90% ATM. It was much closer to 100% but as time goes on, my job gets more and more unstable and the job market totally licks nuts right now, especially for IT. Jobless or not, I don't see it dropping below 60% though.