Star Citizen - Chris Roberts, lots of spaceship porn, lots of promises

[dsmart]

So Skadden amended their lawsuit, and as part of that, added some very harsh language.

Thread by @dsmart: "BREAKING (thread) On Jan 2nd, Skadden filed an amended...

[cicobuff]

On the other hand, I think it would be totally awesome (even as a theft victim) to be able to steal an expensive ship, or to have it stolen from you. If you are the theft victim, you would then make it your life’s mission (in game) to put together a group to go and retrieve your ship. This could result in some epic battles. Also, the very expensive ships shouldn’t be that easy to steal. I imagine them having better protection. I dunno. I just think the option for real in-game theft would give the game a bit of extra zing, and people would be really invested in their ships.

It’s extremely easy to fall into the infinite feature creep. A feature is available and we poor humans let our imaginations run just a little bit. With enough of us, the feature list gets blown up…

[SadleyBradley]

That happens all the time on their forums and subreddit. RSI announces “You’ll be able to buy land,” and within the first five posts is someone saying how they can’t wait to become a land broker and host races and hunt wild animals and charge rent and on and on and on.

[Gordon_Cameron]

It’s extremely easy to fall into the infinite feature creep.

NO SALE if I can’t fill out a series of tax forms in triplicate while purchasing real estate in one of Star Citizens’ fully-rendered cityscapes!

And no, Chris Roberts, duplicate will NOT suffice. Triplicate! Triplicate!

[cicobuff]

And no, Chris Roberts, duplicate will NOT suffice. Triplicate! Triplicate!

Is that reference to Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield?

[dsmart]

I have a new thread in which I also reveal who RSI/CIG hired to fight the case. It’s hilarious.

[Gordon_Cameron]

Is that reference to Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield?

No, never read it. Just riffing on a quote way upthread where someone posted a Star Citizen forumgoer (aka true believer) who wanted to land on a planet, walk to the real estate office, negotiate with an agent, and pick an apartment.

[rei]

I love that Denis Dyack’s new company takes credit for Pacific Rim because one of the founders did some uncredited stunts on it and whose blurb reads “marquee star” of Pacific Rim. That’s pretty damn sketchy. All it needs is Tim Langdell.

[Harkonis]

Hell I’d like to see Criterion take their part of SWBF2 and make it a full blown space shooter stand alone. It’d be a start at least.

[CLWheeljack]

So if you “PvP steal” an insured ship it gets replaced?

So, way back when, I remember hearing a lot of discussions about insurance in Star Citizen. Basically, the discussion was that insurance was probably not a great idea, but that because lifetime insurance was one of the original Kickstarter tier rewards, they were locked into providing it, regardless of how it would affect the game economy in the long run. So, that became one (of several) immovable objects w/r/t the game design.

I don’t know how true it is, but I wonder the degree to which those immovable kickstarter promises like insurance have shaped the game design (which we don’t really know yet, because there isn’t an actual game yet).

[Brooski]

I don’t know how true it is, but I wonder the degree to which those immovable kickstarter promises like insurance have shaped the game design

And immovable Kickstarter promises like financial disclosure?

[mok]

Hmm, console lock for use when at a public station. 4-6 digits or pass phrase. No insurance if you don’t lock it.

UPS (vs GPS) locator for where the ship is, so you can chase it if you forgot to lock it.

[Timex]

The stuff about the insurance was discussed in pretty great detail. The issues folks are suggesting already have specified solutions. I wouldn’t worry about it at this point.

[dsmart]

So RSI/CIG sent out a letter to their concierge big spenders asking for $350. For no apparent reason. Like, at all.

Read it. Then stay tuned for the regularly schedule lol-along choir.

DISCLAIMER: It’s real. That’s NOT a Goon Photoshop. We’re not that brazen. Yet.

So, the company backers gave $175M to build a game they have yet to deliver, is now charging the big spenders for a meet and greet.

Here we thought them taking backer money to manufacture cheap Chinese goods, then selling them back to backers at a mark up profite was bad.

LOL!!

[Chris_Woods]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like they’re only going to net $60k out of the deal. 3 x $350 for a ticket, and a limit of 60 tickets. The cost of doing the event they’re talking about has to be more then that.

It just sounds like some dumb “come visit us” thing. Unless I’m missing something, they’re not really “Asking for $350”; they’re pricing visiting the studio and having dinner with the bigwigs at $1000.

Chris Woods

[SadleyBradley]

I mean, it’s brazen, but 60 attendees at 350 bucks a pop only works out to 21k, and if it were really about the money, they’d probably need more than that.

It reads more like some extreme buttering up to big spenders in order to keep them big spenders.

[BrianRubin]

OMG AN IN-GAME T-SHIRT??!11!!???!??11

[dsmart]

I mean, it’s brazen, but 60 attendees at 350 bucks a pop only works out to 21k, and if it were really about the money, they’d probably need more than that.

It reads more like some extreme buttering up to big spenders in order to keep them big spenders.

Precisely. It’s just so shameful.

[Quaro]

Eh, selling ‘ships’ that are basically just .jpgs and may never do anything cool for $1000 dollars is predatory. But selling a tour/dinner/meet-and-greet is legit. You know exactly what you are getting and you get it. That’ a pretty reasonable crowdfunding type reward IMO.

If they are just using as a chance to sell them on spending even more money than that would be pretty terrible though.

[dsmart]

$175M raised from backers, over a 6 year period.

And they can’t spend $21K to invite 60 lucky backers to the studio they PAID for.

This is absolutely mind-boggling to me.