I think if Chris Roberts is the sort of person who will go into a demonstration of his monumental, frequently criticized magnum opus cold without even testing out the controls, let alone walking through the script, then that’s totally what he should do.
And then no one should complain when some viewers think it was unprofessional and gave a bad impression of the game.
That video is amazing. Once again, the people making Star Citizen demonstrate they have no idea what they’re doing. Except for making millions of dollars.
-Tom
It’s like a masterclass on how not to demonstrate a title, work in progress or otherwise.
My favourite has got to be the other player insisting on running around the platform once Chris finally gets into a ship and photo-bombing the stream.
Amateur hour.
“Try again later”
“Oh, everyone already has a ship!”
Yeah. That’s exactly the experience everyone expects for $100 million.
I still see a lot of potential in this project and a lot of warning signs that could spell problem or be false warnings…
However, this video is irrelevant (other than being a marketing tool). The video is not demonstrating the game, not it is it’s purpose (there’s a public alpha out there that demonstrates the successes and shortcomings of the project much better than any video could). It’s a video to put Chris Robert’s face out there and generate community engagement (which they have succeeded in, judging by the responses and diffusion of the video).
We’ve gone from no way they will keep raising that much money, the project is doomed, to they haven’t released anything related to the core of the MP game, it’s a scam, to look, CR doesn’t know how to play his own game and shows lack of familiarity with aspects of it,it’s obviously a disaster of epic proportions…
People are putting too much emotional involvement in pre-judging the quality and relevance of a project way before it’s finished. It’s going to be very hard for many people to step back and judge the final product on it’s own merits, one way or the other. Once it’s out, there are many critics that are going to have a hard time being subjectively objective about it and ignoring previous baggage (in both ways, both critics who are defending something still not concrete and critics who are attacking it).
This is a huge project, and Chris Roberts involvement is at the top of the huge pyramid. He’s not an isolated indie coding and making art of his own game and knowing all of it. His job is more about managing creative talent and offering general direction than to know exactly where every part of the project is at, I think…
I wish we could go back to being honest and criticize the suspect business model (which fro me is the biggest warning sign)…
Steve_G
2588
Emotions aside here is an objective review of what I saw:
- The frame rate is choppy
- The animations are choppy (the salute by the guy outside the ship)
- The chat interface is hard to use or it could be case of PEBCAK
- Walking through the station to your ship takes a lot of time
- Trying to choose the ship you want appears to be hard
- The game freezes and crashes for no reason
- Chris Roberts ‘appears’ to be incompetent - he reminds me of my 77 year old father trying to browse the Internet - well that’s a little more subjective
rhamorim
2589
Juan, emotional involvement has no bearing here. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of professional behavior will perceive the extreme unprofessionalism in clear display on that video. I’ll admit that it doesn’t necessarily mean the game itself is a disaster or a scam - after all, it might be that incompetence and amateurism are limited to those who participated in that video - but it certainly casts a shadow on the project as a whole. It’s rare enough to see ambitious projects succeed when everyone is professional about it; it’s way more difficult for projects to succeed despite of the incompetence of its managers/owners.
I have no stakes on Star Citizen, so I have no reasons to be emotionally involved. I will certainly react to the things I perceive about it, though, since I’m not only a reasonably observant person, but a professional software developer myself with decades of experience. The warning signs are everywhere I look, where Star Citizen is concerned. Does that mean it will fail? Not necessarily, even if that is possible or even likely. But, at the very least, it means that the project will take more time and effort than it would otherwise need with a more focused/competent/professional approach.
If anything, you’re the one who sounds emotionally involved. You might want to keep that in mind.
Wow, calling out your interface team in public like that just because you’re embarrassed - that’s quite shitty behaviour, and it makes me think that some of the stuff posted about him being a crap boss are maybe right.
Also, he looks puffy - either he’s on drugs and/or he’s super-tired. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
The very fact that either he or his video-making team, or both, didn’t make damn sure that everything was working for the vid, so the boss wouldn’t be embarrassed like he has been, doesn’t inspire confidence.
On the plus side, it looks like there’s something vaguely resembling a game there that’s more or less functioning.
Chris also sucked at playing Wing Commander in the play through they posted. And that game turned out OK. He’s the design and ideas guy. It doesn’t mean he’s someone you would watch to see high level play.
I understand why many think it’s not projecting a good image of the project. But that’s how he is. The alpha is out there for people to judge by themselves.
I’m an analyst and coder. My software is used by multinational companies. Doesn’t mean I would be any good at doing the job it covers. But yeah. I prefer demos to go smoothly. :)
Wendelius
Nah, it’s just that game development is not software development. 4 months before the witcher 3 release I heard from a programmer in the team that the game was a disaster, with cray, focus less leadership and with broken core mechanics (the jump was mentioned as one of them). That game turned out ok. I see a lot of warning signs in Star Citizen, but nothing outside the norm from what I’ve been told to expect from AAA game devs (which, granted, might be a crazy and inefficient business).
There are potential issues, but nothing that sticks out as definitively worrysome or out of the norm (which is worry some in itself with a huge percentage of cancelled projects). It’s just that stuff like this is normally kept under the rug, but you can’t really do that with the most successful crowd funded game to date…
My impression of the Alpha 2.0 so far.
“Server is full”
ridge
2594
Interior door…opening…
Cash…burning…
Exterior door…opening…
Begin…crashing…
Grifman
2595
There’s a difference between sucking at playing a game not understanding the mechanics of how to play. This was the latter, not the former.
Timex
2596
One thing that should be noted is that the control schemes for star citizen is extremely complex. Not that it’s necessarily counterintuitive, but rather there are just so many controls that need to be mapped.
And somehow it’s still playable with a gamepad, as the video demonstrated. Was that your point? ;)
Timex
2598
Eh, I don’t really think it’s playable with a game pad alone. You need to combine the game pad with the keyboard.
And even in that case, I think you are making some significant compromises to use a game pad for flying, as it doesn’t really have enough buttons to handle the job. I suspect it you wanted to actually try to map just the flight controls to the game pad, you would need to make heavy use of modifier buttons.
At Apple HQ in Cupertino, CA the company policy didn’t have assigned spaces for upper management and it was an egalitarian parking lot with a first come first privilege parking ethos. Despite that Steve Jobs consistently parked in handicapped parking spaces and reportedly drove without license plates either (always owning a Mercedes Benz less than 6 months old based on a leasing deal). This was kind of background information and Jobs is/was adored by many despite his eccentricities.
I’m beginning to think that Chris Roberts is falling into that mold. And I guess if the money keeps rolling in who gives a shit how he acts. He probably could have done that stream pants-less with a bottle of Jack Daniels on the desk and generated another 1.2 mil for SC. If you are raking in that kind of money it doesn’t matter how unprofessional you are, you will have defenders.
I find the whole thing surreal, but also one of the largest social experiments to occur in gaming that inspires a little rubber-necking.
-Todd
Nah, it’s just that what I’m seeing is not that much more unusual from other horror stories I’ve heard from AAA game. And that trying to compare game dev with traditional software dev is insane. They are hugely different disciplines in practice.
Case to the point. Some five months before the release of TW3 (a game I was excited for) I happened to share a couple of beers with a guy who was friends with a programmer from the team. And man, he was a downer on the game. I was told the project was a disaster and in complete disarray, that many core mechanics did not work (the jump was mentioned as the more egregious) and that leadership was fickle, uninterested in their own game and chaotic, with constant shifting goals. Yet the game turned out ok. It was just the POV of somebody right in the middle of a development too big to properly assess from that position. This is just the most recent story, but I keep hearing similar things from other AAA teams.
What I see in Star citizen development from out vantage point is indeed worrisome, but it is as worrisome as everything I’ve ever glimpsed in any other AAA project I’ve been allowed to peek into (admittedly not that many). But this kind of project problems are normally swept under the rug in an industry with an inordinate number of cancelled failed projects. Yet that’s not an option in the most successful crowdfunded game ever, and that’s why e are witnessing some crazy inefficient development, but I think many AAA projects are crazy inefficient. Not all, of course, but enough so that this is not that strange anyway.
This might yet turn out to be a disaster, but it will be so if the game fails to deliver in technical or design terms, or if the business model is indeed (as it very well might be) exploitative. But stuff like the behavior of a CEO in a marketing video designed to generate community involvement is not something we can’t even judge without more insider info… Specially when the video has done it’s job fantastically as a marketing tool (which is what it is). The more people talk about Star Citizen, they more money they rack in, and since people are more willing to criticize than to praise, I guess they don’t really care…
I got the 2.0 installed today and ran around the planet a little bit; checking out shops and displays and whatnot.
Am I bound by an NDA somewhere by being a backer, or can I post my impressions?
You can post your impressions. Did you go to Crusader and experience the meat of 2.0? Right now ArcCorp is pretty devoid of meaningful content.
