Oh, sure, I absolutely agree with all of that, 100%. But to have Derek pronouncing its imminent demise every few weeks for the last 4+ (at least) years is somewhat tiresome. At some point, yes, the sky might (probably) indeed fall. I’m just sick of hearing him say it, as if this time it’ll happen, and that’ll prove him right or something, like some crazy soapbox prophet predicting the end of the world next Thursday, every fucking week- if it just happens once, all the times he was wrong will be moot.
After getting involved in the Westphalia forum game, CIG’s position with this game reminds me not a little of Spain’s at the time: hip deep in debt it’s not able to pay but trading on prestige to keep the house of cards teetering along decades after it should have collapsed.
Reminds me of Tetlock’s “super-forecasters”
I still keep “playing” SC. I guess it has become the equivalent of Windows Solitaire for me. Not much to do, but fun just the same.
I still have only my original pledge $ (from 2012) in the game! So not out any more money.
SC has come a LONG way IMHO. Albeit at a snail’s pace. But it is also MASSIVE in scope: ie. every time I am gifted a new ship to try (free fly events) I am very impressed.
Scam vs. Not a scam… no opinion ATM.
Turns out a guy I play soccer with is a huge SC fan, he can’t stop talking about it. Different strokes, etc.
I mean, I’m a big THEORETICAL fan of Star Citizen. There’s a reason I enthusiastically backed it all those years ago. A persistent, EVE-like first person space game, from the guy who made Wing Commander? Cool!
I remember enthusiastically showing my uninterested friends the gameplay footage from CitizenCon one year, and jokingly declaring that Star Citizen was essentially going to be the end of my real life, as I got absorbed into this amazing, detailed space world. It was EVE Online, but with you AT the helm, not staring at spreadsheets and a PNG render of your avatar.
What I have next-to-zero faith in any more, is that Chris Roberts or CIG can actually deliver that vision, beyond a bunch of disparate, unfinished alpha components, a planet or two, and carefully curated vertical slices of “gameplay” at conventions.
At some point, the tornado of nonsense around the game’s development became more interesting to speculate about, than the game itself, which is not likely to ever actually exist as a finished product.
If it actually does some day? Then hey, maybe my $75 several years ago wasn’t for nothing after all. I’m not holding my breath.
Well obviously if a bunch of whales weren’t propping it up, then it would have failed since 2015. I mean, according to their own financials they were defunct in YE 2017. Hence the $46M bailout. That’s how Ponzi schemes work.
So you’re sick…of some guy posting stuff you don’t like. On the Internet. Are you high?
Only a fool gets into an argument with a crazy soapbox prophet. Today, I am not that fool!
Says “Don Quixote” :)
I did say “today”. Heh.
Every time I do Quixotes I get a case of the la manchies.
Its neither a ponzi nor a pyramid scheme, using these labels just makes this stupid. Backers are never going to get their money back or some interest from this…they might get a product, but that’s actually just well…business.
It’s not stupid to refer to the game in those terms at this point, given the uniqueness of its current state and development history. I’d agree it isn’t a perfect description or analogous to a ponzi scheme or classic pyramid, but there are very similar elements at this point. The promise of “more” (better ships in a better game with better features) to backers who fund things by putting more cash in year after year makes it a reasonably apt comparison for now.
I think that it is less like a ponzi or pyramid scheme than just directly a cult. The long time true believers are under the impression that they will be awarded both riches and status in the game which has basically been sold as a perfect second/afterlife at this point.
It’s a ponzi scheme mostly in the sense that people are buying ships that don’t/won’t exist, to fund other things in the MMO (like other ships that are made), as well as funding things they didn’t pay for at all, like green screening actors for SQ42, or Sandi’s acting career and Chris’s mansion.
They are robbing Peter to pay Paul. Once Peter (the whales) stops paying the whole thing will collapse. Will be interesting to see if they actually launch something before that happens. I put about $40 in many moons ago but have written it off at this point.
I put $30 in via Kickstarter seven years ago, and probably wouldn’t even want to play it at this point.
I never did buy in. I should have taken the $30 or whatever I briefly considered spending and stuck it in an index fund or something, hehe.
Do you know how a Ponzi scheme works? Good. Here’s the context.
- Backers paid for a $2M game (11/12)
- They didn’t get a $2M game (11/14)
- They paid for a $65M game (11/14)
- They didn’t get a $65M game
- They paid for a $255M game (YE 2017)
- They didn’t get a $255M game
- CIG gets a $46M bailout (05/18) investment for a $300M+ game
- Backers still don’t have a $2M game (12/19)
Using new money to deliver promises unfilled by old money, is how a Ponzi scheme works.
It’s why they collapse when new money stops coming.
It’s why CIG was on the verge of collapse YE 2017 when their financials showed they were OUT OF MONEY.
It’s why in the Summer of 2018 - UNKNOWN TO BACKERS (but revealed by me, though nobody paid much attention) - they got a $46M investment (only revealed 12/18).