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Star Citizen's crowdfunding passes $250,000,000 milestone

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Yeah, after lootboxes and P2W, next step in milking gamers more is obviously Pay 2 Wait and buying microtransactions for a game that will be never released. Future of gaming. I bet that EA is extremely jealous of what kind of scam Roberts pulled.
Can't wait for the servers to be pulled and everyone's $5,000 pixel spaceship goes poof.
 

Starfield

Member
Y'all just negative for the sole purpose of being negative and edgy. Cuz edgy seems cool nowadays

you all got the coolness :messenger_sunglasses:
 

Daniel Sacui

Neo Member
Yeah, after lootboxes and P2W, next step in milking gamers more is obviously Pay 2 Wait and buying microtransactions for a game that will be never released. Future of gaming. I bet that EA is extremely jealous of what kind of scam Roberts pulled.

Jesus christ dude talking about the game itself. From what I watched its all open-universe and stuff.
 

raduque

Member
$250 million and they still haven't actually released as a game.

Many of the core features are missing and have yet to be introduced in beta state.

So what have they actually been doing with that money?! How much do they need to raise to go into beta? Another $200 million? 500? 1 billion? How much for an actual release with "gold" code?
 
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Any other suckers out there who can't really play the game that well? I've played it both on a few different 10XX gpu systems and it's a slideshow. I guess optimizations come later after gameplay is developed. Whatever the hell that will be about.
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
It's insane to me how much money has been wasted on a game that may never actually see a full fledged release.
 

Dunki

Member
It's insane to me how much money has been wasted on a game that may never actually see a full fledged release.
How is this wasted. This game is actually a milestone regarding next gen and whats posisble. FDor example it is highly recomended to have an SSD. The shit they are doing is remarkable. in the end. The Scale, the atmosphere etc. Every Planet has more atmosphere than everything in Mass Effect.
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
How is this wasted. This game is actually a milestone regarding next gen and whats posisble. FDor example it is highly recomended to have an SSD. The shit they are doing is remarkable. in the end. The Scale, the atmosphere etc. Every Planet has more atmosphere than everything in Mass Effect.
It's 250 million dollars spent on a game thats not even close to an alpha state.


It's wasted money.
 

Thanati

Member
It is called an alpha. Why should they release an unfinished product and call it version 1.0 ??? Many of the core features are missing and have yet to be introduced in beta state.

Or do you want this game to be a DayZ where highly anticipated core features were just scrapped and an alpha version (0.63) got renamed to "1.0"


Yes the game isn't close to being ready as a full release yet, yes the game is in development since 2012 but you know what? They didn't have over 500 employees at the start of 2013 or even in 2015! And by that time they just only started to develop their own engine (kinda their own cry engine version) for this game. They are building new tech from the ground up which has never been used in ANY other game as of yet.

I recommend watching this video by Digital Foundry:






Yes, there is alot to critizise about the way that CIG is getting their money for funding the game and yes it is absurd to pay 1000$ for a ship that may not be a real thign yet...but people tend to buy all sorts of absurd things and there are ALOT of people around the world who want their "dream game" to be made and so far Chris Roberts hasn't dissapointed as of yet. It's getting closer and closer each day we count. Just watch all the tech that has or will be introduced in this month's patch. Just google "Star Citizen Planet Tech v4" and you will know what I mean.


I understand the development process, and if it’s STILL in Alpha, then this game is literally going to go nowhere.
 

Bigrx1

Banned
I'm honestly confused about this game, I've heard about it for years and years is it still in development or something? I need an ELi5 on this game.
 

Dunki

Member
It's 250 million dollars spent on a game thats not even close to an alpha state.


It's wasted money.
They did establish multiple Studios around the World. They are revolutionizing this Kind of Genre. They defined scale to another Level and they established a community who is willing to pay Tons of money and who are hooked already.

In terms of Business or for the people living this it is not a waste of money
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Holy Hell, if this Game bombs, or worse, the Studio becomes Bankrupt, the Bloodbath will be immense. xD
It's more likely to die very slowly over a long period of time as less and less money will come from whales and new supporters.
 

zeorhymer

Member
They did establish multiple Studios around the World. They are revolutionizing this Kind of Genre. They defined scale to another Level and they established a community who is willing to pay Tons of money and who are hooked already.

In terms of Business or for the people living this it is not a waste of money
This sounds like drug dealers and the druggies.....
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
Look at all the salty dogs outraged at the idea of perfectly sane adults freely pledging their money (a crowdfunding pledge is not a "donation") to support a developer making the game they want to be made.

Stay hilarious.

PS: for those actually interested in a good listen about those who back this game, instead of irrational hating something they obviously know very little about, here's a good one:



I watched this whole video... Poor guy is delusional. This would make a great Dr. Phil episode!
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
They did establish multiple Studios around the World. They are revolutionizing this Kind of Genre. They defined scale to another Level and they established a community who is willing to pay Tons of money and who are hooked already.

In terms of Business or for the people living this it is not a waste of money
Agree to disagree.
 

Thanati

Member
$250 million and they still haven't actually released as a game.



So what have they actually been doing with that money?! How much do they need to raise to go into beta? Another $200 million? 500? 1 billion? How much for an actual release with "gold" code?

THIS! So much THIS!

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 had a budget of 75 million plus 15 for marketing.
 
Kinda wonder if some just pay to be a Star Citizen member, you are now part of a digital game membership YAY your life must be great.
 

jaysius

Banned
The Bernie Sanders of gaming.

It has many neat aspects, but I don't know if it'll ever be finished.

I wonder how long til console ports? PS55?
 

Starfield

Member
I understand the development process, and if it’s STILL in Alpha, then this game is literally going to go nowhere.
I guess you weren't there when they literally had to create all of their offices and hire staff first from 2012 to 2015. The real game development like you see from big studios actually only started around 2015
 

o5ca12

Neo Member
I have friends who are supporters and their feeling is pretty even down the line - some disappointed, others confident in the development plan. It seems like those that are happy just feel they're always going to contribute to an ever expanding sci-fi universe. Which is pretty cool. But I totally get that I'd want something substantial to play already.
 

Javthusiast

Banned
This will never see the light of day as an actual full game product, but go down as a showcase of a studio burning a gta v type development budget on a fucking alpha version of space ships you can walk in, lmao.
 

Thanati

Member
I guess you weren't there when they literally had to create all of their offices and hire staff first from 2012 to 2015. The real game development like you see from big studios actually only started around 2015

They’ve raised a quarter of a billion dollars. You could transport the fucking Taj Mahal brick by brick, create a studio inside it and still release a game by now with that money!

Nope, I’m sorry, this now a joke.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
I don't understand. What is so fantastic about the game. I'm genuinely asking because I've watched the streams and have been bored to tears. How far along is this game?
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Goddamn, so this is now the most expensive game ever made? I mean it hasn't even been MADE yet, so it might get even more expensive.
Well to be clear...the game hasn't been "made" yet. Also, wasn't Destiny 500 million?

Edit:
Eh...nope. GTA V was 265 million though.
 
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Trimesh

Banned
I don't understand. What is so fantastic about the game. I'm genuinely asking because I've watched the streams and have been bored to tears. How far along is this game?

I think it's impossible to say. Right now, there is lots of stuff that's at about the 80% point - but rather than concentrating on getting them to the 100% point what seems to happen is that the scope of the project continually expands, creating even more things that will no doubt be worked on until they hit that same ~80% mark and will then be put to one side to concentrate on the next set of shiny goalposts.

I've worked on projects like that - the only way they ever get finished is by going into triage mode, cutting out everything that's unnecessary and concentrating 100% of your efforts into getting the core parts working.

My problem is that I can't see them doing that, since right now their whole revenue model seems to be based on NOT finishing the game and soliciting donations to pay for development costs. This obviously provides a strong incentive to remain in development mode for as long as possible.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I don't understand. What is so fantastic about the game. I'm genuinely asking because I've watched the streams and have been bored to tears. How far along is this game?
I think it's impossible to say. Right now, there is lots of stuff that's at about the 80% point - but rather than concentrating on getting them to the 100% point what seems to happen is that the scope of the project continually expands, creating even more things that will no doubt be worked on until they hit that same ~80% mark and will then be put to one side to concentrate on the next set of shiny goalposts.

I've worked on projects like that - the only way they ever get finished is by going into triage mode, cutting out everything that's unnecessary and concentrating 100% of your efforts into getting the core parts working.

My problem is that I can't see them doing that, since right now their whole revenue model seems to be based on NOT finishing the game and soliciting donations to pay for development costs. This obviously provides a strong incentive to remain in development mode for as long as possible.
Just wait when the dev announces everything will go through a graphical overhaul. So please be patient, donate more, and come back in 2025 when everything you see will now be ray traced to the max.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
I think it's impossible to say. Right now, there is lots of stuff that's at about the 80% point - but rather than concentrating on getting them to the 100% point what seems to happen is that the scope of the project continually expands, creating even more things that will no doubt be worked on until they hit that same ~80% mark and will then be put to one side to concentrate on the next set of shiny goalposts.

I've worked on projects like that - the only way they ever get finished is by going into triage mode, cutting out everything that's unnecessary and concentrating 100% of your efforts into getting the core parts working.

My problem is that I can't see them doing that, since right now their whole revenue model seems to be based on NOT finishing the game and soliciting donations to pay for development costs. This obviously provides a strong incentive to remain in development mode for as long as possible.
shouldn't someone be in jail for this by now?
 

Trimesh

Banned
shouldn't someone be in jail for this by now?

I might sound like I'm really down on this project, but I honestly don't think there is any malice or intent to defraud at work here - the problem is that when you are working on a development project the part where you get it to ~80% is the fun bit - you can see things coming together and everything start to work. The last 20% is not fun - it's the horrible grindy bit where all the issues you ran into that you couldn't quickly fix have to be resolved.

Since they have a funding model that to date has apparently allowed them to stay in the fun part of the development process they have decided to do so - and, to be fair, in the end everyone would like to produce a really outstanding end product.

My concern is that at some point it's likely people will get tired of waiting and paying and the funding will slow down or dry up completely - and if that happens while they still have a huge codebase full of stuff that's almost, but not quite, there then there is a real risk it will simply end up not happening at all.
 

Starfield

Member
I think it's impossible to say. Right now, there is lots of stuff that's at about the 80% point - but rather than concentrating on getting them to the 100% point what seems to happen is that the scope of the project continually expands, creating even more things that will no doubt be worked on until they hit that same ~80% mark and will then be put to one side to concentrate on the next set of shiny goalposts.

I've worked on projects like that - the only way they ever get finished is by going into triage mode, cutting out everything that's unnecessary and concentrating 100% of your efforts into getting the core parts working.

My problem is that I can't see them doing that, since right now their whole revenue model seems to be based on NOT finishing the game and soliciting donations to pay for development costs. This obviously provides a strong incentive to remain in development mode for as long as possible.
They tend to release a new feature in the most playable state but barebones. The want to slowly get every promised feature in the game before working on fleshing them fully out. To me that seems fair because there's alot of features yet to be implemented.

If we go by the roadmap from now next year they should be implementing: first iteration of medical gameplay, prisons, gas cloud tech, and salvage. However it seems that this is going to be delayed but we will see.
 

Trimesh

Banned
They tend to release a new feature in the most playable state but barebones. The want to slowly get every promised feature in the game before working on fleshing them fully out. To me that seems fair because there's alot of features yet to be implemented.

If we go by the roadmap from now next year they should be implementing: first iteration of medical gameplay, prisons, gas cloud tech, and salvage. However it seems that this is going to be delayed but we will see.

My point is that this is a terrible way to develop something. I'll give you an example - one of the things that had been recently added the last time I looked at Star Citizen was a train, so I went and had a look at it. It's a nice train. While I was walking around and admiring it, I clipped through the floor and went out of bounds.

That's a very old bug - it can be somewhat mitigated by using a fast machine and running a SSD, but it doesn't fix it entirely. This just struck me as being an example of badly misplaced priorities if they apparently have time to model and code a train but can't be bothered to fix a very old basic engine bug.
 
I just don't get why people put so much money into this, and I'll stop there because I will hurt someone's feelings.
I remember paying full price for Wing Commander 2 (see what I did there?) on a disc, it was perfectly playable and I enjoyed it a ton. I didn't have to wait for years for the game to be completed and fund it all the way.
There has been games that were long in development for a long time, Half Life 2 comes to mind, I also recall some Atari ST RPG game advertised as having taken 5 years to develop back in the days (it had some big red dragon in the advertising, I can't recall the name).

But nobody had to pay upfront, unless they invested in the game.
 
I just don't get why people are surprised that gamers have donated 250 million to an ambitious project like this. It's nothing compared to how much money is being spend on cosmetics or similar microtransactions for BR/mobile games. At least this money actually goes towards pushing game development forward.
 
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