Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/501315
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 APRIL 2015 Opinion 17 Regaining trust A week has passed since the results of the local elections became known. These were the elections which Joseph Muscat had tried to avoid holding, by postponing them for a number of years. The results these elections yielded seem to give us the hindsight to understand why he had tried so hard not to have this round. The elections came at a crucial point in the current legislature. Just two years after being carried to power by a landslide victory fuelled by promises about anything to just about everybody, and the subsequently proved hollow mantra of Malta Taghna Lkoll, Joseph Muscat and his Labour felt that they should not be subjected to this test of the level of public support which they still enjoy. These two years have not been a rosy time. We have seen environmental concerns being thrown out of the window, with carte blanche being given to unbridled development practically everywhere. We had the embarrassing national issue of the sale of our national identity through the notorious citizenship scheme, a scheme that generated negative press world-wide, and was also challenged by Joseph Muscat's Socialist partners in the European Parliament. We have seen a failed attempt at cold-blooded pushback of migrants by our Prime Minister, who since then seems to have found a conscience somewhere in his repertoire of gimmicks, and is now shedding crocodile tears. We have seen a Cabinet which has lost no fewer than four of its original members to various factors ¬– dissent with the Prime Minister, being too popular for the Prime Minister's liking and hence kicked upstairs and safely out of the way, or outright fired for the covering up of the scandal of the policeman/ driver shooting. We have seen the proverbial cherry on the cake with the still ongoing saga of the Café Premier scandal, where over four million euros of public monies changed hands in a deal fraught with allegations of wrongdoing, including by the office of the National Auditor. We have seen the highest fuel prices in Europe being paid by Maltese consumers, notwithstanding the plummeting international fuel prices. We have seen appointments and promotions being handed out on the meritocratic scale of political affiliation, including to ministers' wives, with competent and serious professionals being kicked out to make way for what we have come to know colloquially as Taghna Lkollers. I could go on and on, querying certain associations with individuals and countries, such as Azerbaijan, which we are seeing developing on a daily basis, but I am sure that most of us are well aware of the track record of Joseph Muscat's first two years in power. And this awareness has manifested itself quite clearly in the polls we had just a few days ago. No amount of juggling with numbers, and stretching numbers to pull wool over a segment of the population's eyes will hide a simple fact – that the gap between Joseph Muscat's Labour and the Nationalist Party has narrowed significantly. A certain number of people have expressed their disapproval at this style of government. Publicly made promises of transparency, accountability and meritocracy were not kept, while the secret ones with developers and certain prominent individuals were immediately rewarded. The results however do not mean that the Nationalist Party has won back the support it had enjoyed for a long time. It is a very good indication that we are listening and being listened to, and that our message is getting through. The narrowing of the gap is a sign that people are increasingly feeling let down by Joseph Muscat's Labour, and slowly beginning to trust the Nationalist Party more and more. We are still far from arriving where we want to be, but we are happy that these results have pointed us squarely in the right direction. Much more work needs to be done, and will be done. We shall continue to be the people's Opposition, the voice which will say NO on behalf of the people, and who will say YES constructively when the initiatives are worthwhile. For the momentum which has started to continue to build up, all of us need to continue to pool our efforts, to continue to re- establish links with people, and to understand more so that in our turn we shall be understood and trusted more. Two messages came out of this result. For us, it was encouraging, but for Joseph Muscat's Labour it was the oft repeated sentence that 'You can fool some people for some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people for all of the time'. This is the first crack shown in Joseph Muscat's seemingly unassailable armour. There will be more. Chris Said is secretary general of the Nationalist Party Chris Said The results do not mean that the Nationalist Party has won back the support it had enjoyed for a long time. It is a very good indication that we are listening and being listened to, and that our message is getting through with their brittle human form or be- come one of the 'evolved'. Naturally elated, Mighty Box CEO Marvin Zammit said that the team's most optimistic prediction for the campaign was hitting the $40K mark, but that "within the first few hours numbers shot up so rapidly that we couldn't make heads or tails of where it would go". So what was the secret to Mighty Box's success? As ever, pinpointing this can't ever be an exact science, but Zammit offers some compelling reasons as to why the game enjoyed some healthy traction early on. First and foremost though, Zammit as- sures me that their confidence in the product was never in ques- tion – surely an important starting point for any project hoping to get funded, be it on Kickstarter or any- where else. "Gordon Calleja's game design is excellent, and the game's graphic design by Mark Casha, our stu- dio's art director, is very appealing and functional," Zammit said, also praising the group of visual artists who have contributed to the game: Nel Pace, Chris DeSouza Jensen, Jake Mifsud and Arjuna Susini. And though the crowdfunding success of Posthuman should be seen for what it truly is – a culmi- nation of bona fide hard work by a grassroots business – Zammit em- phasised that collaborating with an international (albeit also 'indie') game publisher like Mr B. Games helped to give Posthuman a crucial push towards the global scene. "Our publisher also brought a con- siderable number of backers who have bought other products he has published. Their confidence in him gave our campaign a solid start," he added. Further help came in the form of online video game critics with a healthy online following – among them 'Undead Viking' and 'Rahdo Runs Through' – who helped to sustain the buzz for the Kickstarter and lend it further legitimacy. (It's also worth noting that Mighty Box aren't exactly an unknown quantity to the global independent gaming scene, with their 2013 dig- ital game Will Love Tear Us Apart attracting the kind of international attention that no other artistic product in Malta arguably ever did. Taking its cue from the Joy Division song Love Will Tear Us Apart, the high-concept, notoriously 'not fun' game attracted both praise and ire from both gaming and Joy Divi- sion fans; some of whom praised its avant garde structure, while others bemoaned the 'blasphemous' no- tion of adapting a beloved cult song into a digital game.) Another crucial piece of the puz- zle for the Posthuman Kickstarter campaign was the promotional vid- eo on the Kickstarter page itself – an atmospheric animated short film that puts the viewer straight into the action of the dystopian board game. "[The video's] planning was a team effort, with the script written by Gordon Calleja, voiced over by Dav- id, soundtracked by Thom Cusch- ieri (our audio guy) – and ultimately brought to life by Fabrizio Cali' (our animator). Fabrizio did an amaz- ing job, using meticulously crafted 3D visualisations and animations. It's quite clear from the comments we've received on the video that it played a major role in reassuring potential backers that this was a project worth pledging to." But apart from critical confidence and slick presentation, Zammit ex- plained that interaction with back- ers and prospective backers was also crucial to keep momentum alive and cement the idea that the project was not only on a sound footing, but that it would also be accepting and incorporating constructive criti- cism. To this end, the team took on board David Chircop to see to this aspect of the crowdfunding process on a practically "full time" basis. "David is doing an amazing job coordinating between the pub- lisher, manufacturer and design- ers. Together with our publisher they make sure that any queries our backers have are answered, and also that any request or suggestion is considered and followed up. This made a lot of the backers extremely happy because they felt actively in- volved in the campaign, not just giving money," Zammit said, adding that at the time of writing, "there have been almost 4,000 comments on Kickstarter, which shows that the engagement level is very high indeed." Mighty Box team will use the sur- plus funds from the Kickstarter to increase the projected print run for the game, while also strengthening future projects. But Zammit added that the finan- cial boost is also bound to have a ripple effect on the (small) compa- ny's infrastructure, since the viral success of the Kickstarter campaign has – on top of everything else – served to expand the company's fan base, ensuring that any upcoming projects will be easier to market. "Games can take considerable time and resources to develop. This makes it a risky endeavour because we invested a lot of our time and money with no guarantee that we would get revenue other than our faith in the product," Zammit ad- mits. "We had started development be- cause we all were of the opinion that this game would sell, but only now, after a year of development, do we actually know that we were right!" treljic@mediatoday.com.mt