It's insane to see Chris Robert's immense contributions to various 90s games which everybody should be familiar with by now, and then see something like Star Citizen never get off the ground. All...
It's insane to see Chris Robert's immense contributions to various 90s games which everybody should be familiar with by now, and then see something like Star Citizen never get off the ground. All I remember about Star Citizen was having huge joystick problems for whatever reason (Ironically, wing commander joystick support was plug n play).
Sorta a classic example of what happens when the creatives are in charge and you don’t have limitations and deadlines. It’s even worse in tech because every year you fail to release your tech...
Sorta a classic example of what happens when the creatives are in charge and you don’t have limitations and deadlines.
It’s even worse in tech because every year you fail to release your tech falls behind the curve
I'd like to generously point out that clipping out of the back of your spaceship during quantum because you tried to walk around during flight will never fall behind the curve /s At least they...
I'd like to generously point out that clipping out of the back of your spaceship during quantum because you tried to walk around during flight will never fall behind the curve /s
At least they have somewhat of a fire under their ass for some reason. Usually every year they just say "hey, the games coming out someday, give us money for more giant concept ships". But since last Citcon, there's something afoot, I'm used to getting barely any content every year and now there's been a huge amount of work in the last 8 months.
My guess is that Chris woke up and read a calendar, and had a mid-life crisis.
FYI, the following is inflammatory but also just my personal opinion. If the game is never released, then it's not a product, it's a service. And for what people pay for ships, it's a service...
FYI, the following is inflammatory but also just my personal opinion.
If the game is never released, then it's not a product, it's a service. And for what people pay for ships, it's a service designed to suck money out of whales' pockets.
They have no incentive to finish core development and have a general release to the public.
They spend so much time on each feature without a payoff. Star citizen is a promise that can never be fulfilled and diehard fans are essentially in a cult-like mindset. They give and give and give with the promise of something that is patently undeliverable. Bigger studios have done more with less and Star citizen continues to be a leach on gullible people.
I won't deny that what they actually have delivered seems impressive, but I would expect soooo much more for 700 million and the length of time this project has existed.
I have no dog in the Star Citizen race, so I'm not anti Star Citizen by any means. But everything you said is completely true. You see it constantly all over indie games. Anything that has "early...
I have no dog in the Star Citizen race, so I'm not anti Star Citizen by any means.
But everything you said is completely true. You see it constantly all over indie games. Anything that has "early release". The Patreon, or continuous "donation" funding model, definitely encourages developers to never finish and never officially release. They just keep collecting donations every month.
Most of those projects tend to slow way, way down after they start getting money coming in. Somehow, when they're unknown and hungry, they can pull together considerable amounts of code and art and the rest of it. Often quite quickly, a matter of months sometimes. Then, once they're in Early Release and money starts rolling in ... everything slides to a near halt.
Updates come further apart, and are thinner when they do. The excuses begin. "We had to rewrite, we had to get new tech, we had to create custom code libraries, our office burned down, I had a personal death in the family, a disgruntled employee sabotaged us ..." On and on.
Sure there are successful honest Early Access projects. Rimworld comes to mind, so does Factorio. But the whole model is very abusable, and a lot of "developers" figured it out pretty quick. The only thing about all of it that puzzles the hell out of me is how many people are so willing to sign up for ten, fifteen, twenty-five dollar monthly recurring charges for all these "projects."
Used to be, con artists had to be face to face with you to get your cash. Now they can empty your account and never even talk to you. Or ask for it. People sign up and are like "here, take my money. No, no, I don't need the game yet. I'm just happy to know you're 'working' on it."
The few honest developers just help the cons blend in. The honest ones, who actually did need the money to finish, and did use it to finish their projects, those are who the cons point at.
"No, no, this is a legitimate release model. You're helping us create the game. We had planned on having a brand new ship and an asteroid field battleground for this month, but there was an unfortunate hardware failure that cost us several days, so all we can offer are some pictures and a new skin for that battleship we sold you guys last year. But we love every one you, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your ongoing support. Big things are coming, so stay subscribed to get the latest news as soon as next month rolls around and we need to post another bullshit PR statement to try to keep more of you from wising up. Cheers!"
Almost as bad as how many of them who are willing to subscribe and pay, pay, pay, are the ones who pay and then fly off the handle at anyone who questions how legit any of it is. "No, fuck off, (developer) is a legit guy who is super cool and working night and day to finish." And they'll say that bullshit with a straight face, completely ignoring how so often the project they're vehemently defending was started five or more years ago, and hasn't really budged that much since.
Each month, sucking cash in from all the "backers."
I bought in on the original Kickstarter. I remember being super excited. That is now more than 10 years ago and I just don't care. My tastes have changed when it comes to gaming. I don't have near...
I bought in on the original Kickstarter. I remember being super excited. That is now more than 10 years ago and I just don't care. My tastes have changed when it comes to gaming. I don't have near the free time I did 10+ years ago and rarely play anything online/multiplayer. Even if the game ever actually releases, I'm not sure that I would care or even know how to get my copy.
It's insane to see Chris Robert's immense contributions to various 90s games which everybody should be familiar with by now, and then see something like Star Citizen never get off the ground. All I remember about Star Citizen was having huge joystick problems for whatever reason (Ironically, wing commander joystick support was plug n play).
Sorta a classic example of what happens when the creatives are in charge and you don’t have limitations and deadlines.
It’s even worse in tech because every year you fail to release your tech falls behind the curve
I'd like to generously point out that clipping out of the back of your spaceship during quantum because you tried to walk around during flight will never fall behind the curve /s
At least they have somewhat of a fire under their ass for some reason. Usually every year they just say "hey, the games coming out someday, give us money for more giant concept ships". But since last Citcon, there's something afoot, I'm used to getting barely any content every year and now there's been a huge amount of work in the last 8 months.
My guess is that Chris woke up and read a calendar, and had a mid-life crisis.
Oh, if only. Can the one true king of scope creep finally knuckle down and get it out the door?
Duke Nukem Forever and Beyond Good an Evil 2 would like a word...
...in two years, star citizen will match duke nukem forever's development cycle...
With $700 million funds raised across over 5 million backers, I'd say it is well past "getting off the ground".
FYI, the following is inflammatory but also just my personal opinion.
If the game is never released, then it's not a product, it's a service. And for what people pay for ships, it's a service designed to suck money out of whales' pockets.
They have no incentive to finish core development and have a general release to the public.
They spend so much time on each feature without a payoff. Star citizen is a promise that can never be fulfilled and diehard fans are essentially in a cult-like mindset. They give and give and give with the promise of something that is patently undeliverable. Bigger studios have done more with less and Star citizen continues to be a leach on gullible people.
I won't deny that what they actually have delivered seems impressive, but I would expect soooo much more for 700 million and the length of time this project has existed.
I have no dog in the Star Citizen race, so I'm not anti Star Citizen by any means.
But everything you said is completely true. You see it constantly all over indie games. Anything that has "early release". The Patreon, or continuous "donation" funding model, definitely encourages developers to never finish and never officially release. They just keep collecting donations every month.
Most of those projects tend to slow way, way down after they start getting money coming in. Somehow, when they're unknown and hungry, they can pull together considerable amounts of code and art and the rest of it. Often quite quickly, a matter of months sometimes. Then, once they're in Early Release and money starts rolling in ... everything slides to a near halt.
Updates come further apart, and are thinner when they do. The excuses begin. "We had to rewrite, we had to get new tech, we had to create custom code libraries, our office burned down, I had a personal death in the family, a disgruntled employee sabotaged us ..." On and on.
Sure there are successful honest Early Access projects. Rimworld comes to mind, so does Factorio. But the whole model is very abusable, and a lot of "developers" figured it out pretty quick. The only thing about all of it that puzzles the hell out of me is how many people are so willing to sign up for ten, fifteen, twenty-five dollar monthly recurring charges for all these "projects."
Used to be, con artists had to be face to face with you to get your cash. Now they can empty your account and never even talk to you. Or ask for it. People sign up and are like "here, take my money. No, no, I don't need the game yet. I'm just happy to know you're 'working' on it."
The few honest developers just help the cons blend in. The honest ones, who actually did need the money to finish, and did use it to finish their projects, those are who the cons point at.
"No, no, this is a legitimate release model. You're helping us create the game. We had planned on having a brand new ship and an asteroid field battleground for this month, but there was an unfortunate hardware failure that cost us several days, so all we can offer are some pictures and a new skin for that battleship we sold you guys last year. But we love every one you, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your ongoing support. Big things are coming, so stay subscribed to get the latest news as soon as next month rolls around and we need to post another bullshit PR statement to try to keep more of you from wising up. Cheers!"
Almost as bad as how many of them who are willing to subscribe and pay, pay, pay, are the ones who pay and then fly off the handle at anyone who questions how legit any of it is. "No, fuck off, (developer) is a legit guy who is super cool and working night and day to finish." And they'll say that bullshit with a straight face, completely ignoring how so often the project they're vehemently defending was started five or more years ago, and hasn't really budged that much since.
Each month, sucking cash in from all the "backers."
I have no dog in this, but the comments after the article are golden.
I bought in on the original Kickstarter. I remember being super excited. That is now more than 10 years ago and I just don't care. My tastes have changed when it comes to gaming. I don't have near the free time I did 10+ years ago and rarely play anything online/multiplayer. Even if the game ever actually releases, I'm not sure that I would care or even know how to get my copy.