It’s a year and a half old, but I think that this is the best example of how they are literally selling a dream instead of a game:
There’s a lot of players who buy large very expensive fleets and then post a lot about how once the game is finished they will have huge crews who want to be their minions just to get to be on the big ships. They really do think that they are buying status.
There’s a reason that they tie ‘ranks’ and exclusively to a literal dollar spent tracker.
Obviously, that storytelling trailer is fanciful. And yet, there recently was a player organised in game event with that ship.
The owner hired escort ships and security inside the ship. They hired staff for a party (receptionist to show guests around, …). Players attending were encouraged to show off their best, non spacesuit attire. They were also encouraged to donate some money to a pool to help cover the cost.
The plan was to go cruising the system, hang out, and give newer players a chance to make money by helping with the staffing / security side of the event.
The organisers hired the security because they fully expected some pirates to try and crash it. C’est la vie in the verse.
I do not know how the event went. It was likely glitchier than envisaged. But group flights and in-game meets are a thing. And it’s a pretty cool use of that ship and “status”. Player organised events aren’t new in MMO’s. And there are groups of long time (and flush with aUEC) players who currently hire pilots or miners to give them a chance to try ships and make money.
That’s with little in the way of game mechanics supporting this. Hiring a pilot or escort can make sense (though it will become more interesting once the low security Pyro(?) system is added). The multi crew gameplay is not yet implemented (AFAIK) beyond manning turrets, at least not the engineering side of things.
But some players are indeed already thinking of and trying out ways to bring those trailers closer to life. And that’s pretty cool.
I just found the perfect contrast to the “What is star Citizen?” trailer. It’s funny as hell, but bear in mind it’s the other extreme from the CIG trailer. Most of the clips here are from the PTU (test server) from when 3.13 was in testing. Some still occur though. I loved it regardless.
WHAT IS STAR CITIZEN HONESTLY (streamable.com)
Found here, where the OP links to the source material they used:
What is Star Citizen? [Honest Trailer!] : starcitizen (reddit.com)
Set your expectations somewhere between the 2 trailers, and you’ll be fine. :)
Heh, every time I see that trailer, I think “Fifth Element” and how everything could go so wrong so quickely. I’d pay good money to see someone pull a “Fifth Element” at an event like that :)
Re: video gaming whales, my understanding from David Heron is that most are Silicon Valley people with some money or oil prince offspring, etc. Perhaps this is wrong, but I don’t feel as bad if they spend thousands on a game. I know there are some famous Star Citizen customers who clearly can’t afford it, and that’s sad, but do we know if their whales are predominantly like that or of the type to have more money than sense? Not asking this to accuse or defend selling expensive ships for an unfinished game, just in respect to the morals of the marketing psychology department. Just curious.
My experience doing customer support for free to play MMO’s in the UK back in the day is that “the whales” are very ordinary people on the whole
Yeah, I kept waiting for the rest of that scene to play out. Would have been cool.
And if CIG can somehow manage to place homages to scenes like that from famous space movies in there, and make it work…that would be almost irresistible. Hell, I’d be tempted to pay to get to play a part in those scenes.
Better yet if those kinds of events could happen organically, rather than a pre-placed event, and I suppose that’s what everyone is hoping for.
I think more research needs to be done but here’s an interesting article which highlights a few cases where the whales are living paycheck to paycheck.
To be clear, I don’t think Star Citizen is emblematic of the worst of this kind of behavior, since I think that would be primarily gacha games and loot boxes. I mean, if someone knowingly paid $25,000 for a JPEG, they know what they’re going to get. But you could equally be paying the same money to pull the one-armed bandit on loot boxes, and that has real analogues to gambling.
Thanks for that video.
In it, one of the last callers mentions another video, and he says that every time he watches it, it inspires him to have faith in the game and what it could be.
I watched that video, and while it’s heavily edited, it is pretty damn epic, and funny as well:
Nice. I hadn’t seen that one before. That was fun and quite the epic play session too.
It shows off how much CIG has crammed into the game. Flying, multi crew ship combat, driving, mining, prison and escape routes. You might not want it all, but it’s in there.
Like those guys, I tend to run with FOIP (the face mapping) off as it increases framerate and is hardly necessary. It works decently nowadays though.
I checked out more of that guy’s work (BedBananas), and apparently he’s just really really good at creating epic movies from game footage. Whoever he is, he’s gotta be some kind of film editor in real life. Definitely has a talent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNwz6wj1yRs
Fleet Week and the new Free Flight event have been officially announced:
In game, Fleet Week is a week to celebrate those in the UEE Navy and other armed forces. It translates into a fleet of Navy ships touring the system, celebrations and getting to try out lots of ships for free. This year, there will also be an opportunity to tour a Javelin destroyer, one of Squadron 42’s capital ships.
Generally, the focus is on military ships. And it’s believed the C2 Hercules will make its debut and be available to fly during that week.
More practically:
Star Citizen is free to play from May 22 to June 3!
If anyone does decide to create an account for Fleet Week, I recommend that you put in the referral code from another player during account creation. This is because this will give you free in-game money (5000 credits).
You can use mine ( STAR-FQL7-VBQN ), the code from another member here, a streamer or a random code: https://gorefer.me/randomizer/STAR
Full disclosure, there are in game rewards for recruiters: Referral program - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42 . But I’m not in it to recruit people, so it makes no difference to me if you go random. That said, do get yourself some free money for your first piece of armour and gun, for instance.
I’ll probably post a reminder and more detailed instructions on getting started for any curious parties the week before the free flight event starts (if anyone is interested).
Bad timing. Elite Dangerous: Odyssey releases on May 19. Assuming there’s overlap in the ED and SC communities, that is.
Heh. Are you kidding?
If he means Erectile Dysfunction
My latest adventures in Star Citizen took a turn from the technical to the whimsical. I’ve had a couple wannabe pirates or PvPers take pot shots at me while making deliveries or trading. So I decided it was time to upgrade my
This involves purchasing civilian, industrial or military parts (depending on purpose and operating budget) from various locations all across the Stanton system. The goal is to hit the right mix of performance / stealth / firepower / …
Until physicalised components are in, this is all managed from a ship loadout screen:
This is where my session took a turn from playing Star Citizen to Star Tourist. Upon arrival in New Babbage, I could not resist getting a plushie from the airport gift shop.
Together, we went on a tour of the station (getting lost a few times; New Babbage is big, and will be even more so once the hospital complex is added later this year).
We had such a grand time taking the high speed train together.
We went to see the ice spire and I showed off my new friend to the locals. They all seemed duly impressed!
After a long tour, we stopped for a drink. I think I stood out as an outsider. I did not realise the local custom was to stand on the chairs. How rude of me!
Alas, I got distracted by the shiny ship parts later and forgot my friend somewhere.
I hope it went to a good home.
Still, mission accomplished. My 2 ships are now nearly fully upgraded. Come at me PvPers! (actually, don’t. I still suck at ship combat…)
A few more ship based pictures from those travels.
Entering atmo on Aberdeen
If you go mining at sunset, be aware that things are going to get eerie and really dark on the dark side once the thin wind rises.
Putting the ship size into perspective.
Leaving the station
I like ship silhouettes
This is hilarious.
That’s a good point. Kind of insensitive of me. Maybe in the future that’s the local tradition and who am I to question it?
