Although Molyneux's history of over-promising and under-delivering should probably have been taken into account by backers. I don't think he was being dishonest I just think he is passionate, optimistic and idealistic and doesn't reign that in for pitches.
> “People get so frustrated with me, so much so that they’ve threatened me, they’ve threatened my family and it just cannot go on, it really can’t.”
Seriously, who does suffer from such backlash outside of the videogame industry?
Now with that said of course he doesn't deserve threats, and I agree that gamers tend to be quite the vicious bunch. It's pathetic on their part. I still bought Godus, I was disappointed by it and believe Molyneux deserves criticism for once again delivering something that's not what was promised but I don't understand how/why people go to such extremes.
There are various industries where this happens (heck, I've seen it happen in local mom and pop shops). I think it is the intersection of Molyneux celebrity status and being vocal on the internet and a high number of internet users (gamers). You probably have the same stuff happening with actors/musicians, but they usually not around blogging and raising funds through kickstarter, so while they are more public in a sense, they are more distant from the end customers on the internet. Also, they have assistants that filter that crap, forward it to the police, etc. Molyneux probably has his email somewhere public where he gets the threats directly.