It is important to remember that Kickstarter primarily for creative (read artistic) projects. Think of it as a modern and distributed system of art patronage (h

It is important to remember that Kickstarter primarily for creative (read artistic) projects. Think of it as a modern and distributed system of art patronage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage). In return for your patronage, the artists promise something (like a copy of the finished project). It is not unreasonable to liken it to a pre-order, but I would maintain that there is a subtle difference. Edit: The point is that you are funding a project for its own sake, because you want to see it brought to fruition, not necessarily because you stand to gain anything by it.