Hey folks,
I'm one of HGA's followers (not related at all to mektek.net or Stompybot), and I kinda want to see this project succeed. I'm posting here because iVoid mentioned the thread, and reading NGTM-1R's comments compelled me to offer a response...
Everything NGTM-1R points out about the kickstarter campaign is true. It was mismanaged, mistimed, and they didn't have the content they needed to make a convincing argument anyone should support them. But that wasn't due to malice; it was due to inexperience. Mektek.net was a modding team that managed to do great work with MW4. They kept that game alive for longer than anyone thought reasonable or possible. However, they're not a full-fledged developer. They're a small team of like-minded people trying to revive an abandoned franchise. If their efforts don't seem professional, it's because their knowledge and interest is in *development*, not marketing. The unrealistic goal for their kickstarter is another sign of this. Why post a huuuuuge goal if they never intended to make the game? If they wanted to fleece the community, there are far, far better ways to do it. They were being as honest as they could when they posted the kickstarter. They didn't do their marketing research properly though, and they panicked when they realized what had happened. That's why you see that equivocation.
As for the project itself... well, they have to show more. They absolutely have to. They're caught in the catch-22 of money-for-content and content-for-money... so they made a quick demonstration of what they can do in the Paxton trailer and the Gear Bay video on their spare time. They showed their technical proficiency then. They just haven't been able to work on this for long enough to make their case. They're paying the price for their mistake now, but the game they want to make, and CAN make if they got the support, would be glorious.
If you'd like to know more about their intentions, the one guy they have working full time on this talks about their vision and goals here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ZCYLciylYI'm not posting this to try to convince anyone to pledge to their kickstater campaign, but I did want to address the perceived "sketchyness". It's a shame they launched when they did. They're trying to revive an excellent franchise and they want to do it -right-. They just have no clue how to sell that idea.
As for choosing the Arena... You do realize that Khayr Ad-Din has been part of the universe well before the computer games came out, right? There was this lil' ol' book called The Duelist Handbook, where the Arena setting was described, and the new Arena game DP9 made published was a refactoring of that. You're praising the old DP9? This is part of that world. In fact, you'll see far more variety in the Arena than you'd see in the battlefield, as far as Gears are concerned. Listen to the podcast I linked, you'll see why they made that choice.