Windows Star Citizen

It's a balance. Yes, you're providing funding to a project based on faith alone - possibly influenced by previous work or the like, but it's still a jump of faith and with the knowledge that projects can (and have) failed. However the failures are very rarely because of fraud - it's usually an inexperienced team trying to do something they don't have the skills to pull off.

Fraud in this case would be CR blowing all the money on hookers and cocaine. That's not the case. It's clear that a game is being made - perhaps not in the way you like, or as fast as you would like, but it's still being made.

Asking for a refund, in my mind, isn't honest. You backed the project, or rather, the development. That development is ongoing. Your funds have been spent. The way to express your displeasure at delays, attempts to get more money etc. is to not give any more money.

CIG need money at the end of the day. They have a large monthly wage bill to pay. The money they have right now may well pay for SC to be "complete" and launched if no more was added to the total, but then they've got to run expensive servers en-masse when it is live, regular maintenance and content updates which require keeping on a whole bunch of staff members. There's no subscription, so they need that money from somewhere. Backers like most of us here aren't going to be buying much/anything in terms of micro-transactions when the game arrives either, because we've got what we want already. So really it's a case of everything being front loaded at this stage.

Am I happy CIG keep increasing prices? No. That they just push out new concept ships constantly? No, not really. I just don't buy them. However more ships does ultimately mean more variety when the game launches - just seeing the same 10 ships over and over would be tedious.

 

They have 300X their initial kickstarter goal, 25X their maximum kickstarter stretch goal. They do not need money to complete their initial value proposition.

What they're doing now is creating a different game; An fps with vehicles, not just a space sim. Better? Maybe. Different? Definitely, which is why it's not dishonest to insist on a refund.

They have allowed ambition to direct development, rather than fulfilling their contractual obligations having missed three of their own release dates. Any sought funding and any delays are due to that ambition, which is no guarantee of a better game just a more expansive one.

I fear that this is no longer a kickstart project, and is now an ongoing business model - Why deliver a game that won't live up to expectations, when promises alone can generate nine-figure sums, not counting the additional, undeclared subscriber revenue?

 

I don't agree at all. A key element of Kickstarter and its ilk are stretch goals - something established well befor SC was on the scene. The crowd funding process very very clearly used these stretch goals to add features, which explicitly increased the scope of the game. By commiting your money both yourself and the community signed up to these goals - which included all the FPS stuff. It's different from a pure flight sim game for sure, but these extra features were put in place a long long time ago.

CIG also stopped the stretches a long time ago as well (time and money that is), acknowledging that any more was too much. The features in development today are simply the ones the community voted for with their wallets.

If forever crowd funding was a business model it's a pretty bad one. Why have 300+ developers if your aim is to defraud? Have 100 and pocket more money rather than spending it instead.

I too get frustrated at CIGs inability to deliver to deadlines and wish they'd just crack on with things and deliver. They make plenty of mistakes, especially with marketing, but it's still clear they're making the game. As I said, I feel their need for more money is due to an expensive as hell wage bill and ongoing considerations for post launch. Have they gotten a bit too greedy on occasions? Sure.

 

I will say what I said 3 years ago and was laughed at. Star Citizen has a 50/50 chance of been launched fully before 2020.

Project has too much ambition, It honestly feels like the Space to planet stuff is even too much at this point for the servers to cope with more than a few planets at once.

3.0 still not out feels like a major deal considering it was orginally promissed less than 1 year after arena commander.

I have my 1 ship and will keep it at that, Think if it launches might get some play time, but by the time it launches it might of been in development longer than even Duke Nukem.

 

Well, the top players are getting a bit worn out now. CIG aren't pulling in what they used to. There's still hope, but many are just waiting it out now (for the next couple of years) or are expecting 3.0 to be something special.

Basically, if CIG are having money troubles, 3.0 needs to be a massive step forwards to get people spending again.

 

I think they may have been better taking the ED way of things - namely launch the core game and add elements later. Saying that, it isn't like Frontier don't take a regular hammering for their practices either.

 

Although it's easy to apply 20/20 hindsight in these matters, I do think that they should have got something on the board and then added/refined from there, because at least that way they get a product out that resembles their original spec within a reasonable timeframe (i.e. closer to what they promised). I know that the appeal of crowdfunding is (or was) that no publisher means no arbitrary release deadlines, but to be perfectly honest at this stage I think they need some sort of launch date focus because constantly moving the goalposts is a great way to never get a project completed.

And sure, Frontier copped a load of flak for the way they did things, but at least they've launched a game. Not comparing the scope of the two games (or speaking to their respective qualities) as they're different creatures entirely, but one of them has launched and the other hasn't...

Anyway, I do sincerely hope that SC is excellent, and I'd settle for very good at this point, but my faith in CIG is ebbing away steadily. I'm glad that I've got very little skin in this game, because if I'd ploughed a significant amount of cash into SC then I think I'd be pretty unhappy right now. That's my personal opinion, and others will feel differently, of course, but I'm certainly not going to give CIG another penny at this stage of development. That might change in due course, but for now the wallet is definitely shut

 

Me too. I backed right at the beginning; little did I expect to still be waiting all this time later. The scope just kept on growing, to the extent it's no wonder it's still so far from release. I'm just sitting back, with my Freelancer in my hangar, fingers and toes crossed it will be worth the wait but the worried, nagging feeling is constantly there.

 

I have one ship, which means I invested exactly the amount I was willing to lose. Also, it happens to be the exact amount I would buy the game for in hard copy. I don't play the alpha. I'll wait until the actual game is released, play it through; then move into the PU as it's intended. I'll build a new PC, play it, invest more into the game once it's done and released. I've stopped watching the updates and interviews; since it's just fluff material. I'll look into all that when I've got my interest piqued by something in game.

I think the degree of openness is now a liability. Too many people are seeing the sausage being made and either aren't butchers or are uncomfortable meat eaters, to use a loose analogy.

 

I popped on here to see if it was worth diving into SC. I've got my one ship and alpha accessand I've logged in a few times to appreciate the hangar and see what I can do. Looked a little confused at the time and haven't even undocked yet....now Makes me thing I should keep waiting for a while longer....guild wars 2 is going to have me covered for a while....and I still have an live account albeit not actively playing EvE still.

 

Yeah, I'd say give it a month or two more. 3.0 is about to be released - which will allow you to land on planets etc. I'd imagine there will be a lot of bugs to start with - but they'll be smoothed out shortly after.

 

Time for another AtV (UK edition):-

 

WHY did they have to ruin the Gladius' cockpit? It was fine, now I have an off centre radar and angled MFDs to contend with come 3.0.

 

First AtV on the new forum - Austin & Turbulent reports, Engine trails:-

 

Okey dokey chaps and chapesses. I'm headed to Citizencon, along with most of the 11th.

 

Me too. I'll be at Gamescom as well.

 

Probably the best AtV yet!

 

AtV time:-

 

Honestly, they are so good at the moment. I really look forward to watching them each week. This is coming from someone who ignored them completely for the last two years or so.

 

At 7pm UK time tonight, there will be a "Happy Hour" livestream on https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen, covering the cargo mechanic we saw on AtV.
Questions will be taken from Spectrum #General chat (Possibly also twitch chat, Lando will clarify at the start of the stream)