Wasteland 2 Funded by Kickstarter

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/15/wasteland-2-brought-to-you-by-kickstarter/

Not sure what I think of this.  Having never played the games mentioned, I can’t comment on that, but I do wonder what the exact value is of something like this.  With this being in such an initial phase of development, people are buying… the Wasteland 2 name?  And the vague outline of people who will work on a game.  Seems like a risky bet to me and one more likely than not to lead to disappointment for many of the people buying in (I am guessing expectations are already high, and no work has been done at all).  Don’t get me wrong, I am enthusiastic about more games always everywhere, and I will pick it up if it looks really promising/sounds fun, but if I have to vote with $X of my hard-earned money to support developers, I am going to reward products that have proven themselves.  For example, I just picked up Orcs Must Die on a Steam sale.