Why should I pay 150$ to play beta now? Question from a 'Star Citizenite'

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
really all the good points have been made

to me without going into any selling pitch it comes down to one issue:

$150 is nothing compared to being amongst the stars again in a cobra mkIII. to me that experience nearly 30 years ago remains priceless.

i have spent upwards of EUR 100k on FDEV to date (some of which might or might not bring financial returns) and it comes down to this: i want to do my bit to help get this game made.

everyone has their own limits, it is up to you to decide how far you want to go :D

^this (although the amount of money might be a bit less :eek:)

I loved ED as a kid and now I'm older and have a bit of money to spare it was "worth" it for me. I agree it's a lot of money to pledge for Beta but depending on how excited you are by the game and how much you wanted to help it get made it is great value for money. Being able to play an Elite game again is amazing and I'm really glad my pledge was a small part in making it happen.
 
I have backed both games. And I guess that the main word in this sentence is "backed". You do not buy a game, you back it (support it). In this case the total amount paid is irrelevant - it is as much as you are willing to pay.
 
having interesting rewards for pledges is ethical

Sorry, I didn't mean that as a dig at SC, which I'm also into for about £500. What I meant was, the journey form a lowly crap ship to a mighty death ship is part of the Elite experience. FD didn't want to ruin our fun for their own financial gain, and I truly respect them for that.
 
Premium beta because of "NOW" ,free expansions and a cobra mk3 . We got ships too :) . I backed SC , i have a 325 and a freelancer but i'm pretty sure that i'l be lucky to play with those two years from now .
What i like about SC is that they discovered "walking in ships and around them " effect . Helps tremenduously with the immersion and it's a great magnet (45 mil $ worth of magnetism , lol ) . I would like to mess inside and around my future anaconda too , but not at the expense of the game itself .If you fancy a KSP analogy ... they added too much fuel and cannot take off anymore ...
 
I had the same dilemma, and bought into the beta last week. Reason? I could not give myself a reason why I spend over 500$ on SC and 0$ on ED. So I got ED and I was NOT disappointed.

I think AC will have more game-play in combat scenario's then ED atm (by using blackout and redout combined with Newtonian physics)and it will blow it out of the sky graphics wise (if you have a monster machine) But being able to trade, travel between stars and planets and upgrade ships in ED is great fun. Also visiting a ringed-world is amazing!
 
i have spent upwards of EUR 100k on FDEV to date (some of which might or might not bring financial returns) and it comes down to this: i want to do my bit to help get this game made.

May I assume you are the who is going to name the Founder's World then?:D
 
Chris Roberts and David Braben are making space games again

There is a whole bunch of retro appeal associated with that, however if you grew up in the 80's and had an 8-bit micro or the 90's and had an early PC or 16-bit home computer that's suddenly worth more than a massive collection of current gen console games and the consoles to play them on.

Obviously there is still a risk, either or both might be rubbish
 
...
The more time passed on, the more I became absolutely enamored with the project, team, potential etc etc. Long story short, I have know purchased a 275$ game package and have been a 20$ /month subscriber for the past year and some months, including gifting several 40-60$ packages to close friends.

So when I find out about Elite: Dangerous naturally I'm like "Star Citizen AND Elite?? DID I DIE AND GO TO HEAVEN!?" :)

However, I find myself very very hesitant to plop down 150$ for a "premium beta"
...

To be honest, if you are wondering whether to pay the money on not then you shouldn't bother. The game will drop in price soon enough. You will miss out on the offer for the content which will be available later, but that also gives you the opportunity to decide if you want to buy it.

I'm intrigued by the 20$/month you're paying for Star Citizen. I didn't think anything was released yet. What do you get for your money?
 
Well, I backed both games with 200€ each... so far only ED has really shown me anything worth the investment. SC is still only tech demos and nice words, as far as I'm concearned.
 
I reckon it actually makes a modicum of financial sense to back during the Premium Beta (which is why I'm going to once my HOTAS setup gets delivered). For £100 (~$150) you get access at least 3 months early in addition to the expansion pass. If you waited until the day of release and got the release version and expansion pass it'd cost £70 ($105-110). So if ED launches in September that's £10 for each month of early play you get.

So the Premium Beta is slightly more expensive than the release version, but it's actually not as proportionally more expensive as it first seems. You also get to support the game early and something to play while you wait for the release version of ED and SC to come along.
 
If you don't have a history with Elite or want tobacco David Braben and co to make this game - and make it viable to continue working on it post release, then it comes down to early access.

Right now, we have an early stage test which is fun and very promising but also very limited. Is it worth the money right now. Subjective. You could make a good case that it's not, especially if you've already paid for AC.

It's worth remembering though that it will continue to progress regularly, as we've consistently seen through alpha.

Assuming Star Citizen does go on to deliver a great persistent universe, you can still expect to be playing in an interesting, detailed galaxy filled with emergent gameplay in Elite *long* before you will in SC. And ultimately, you'll have two quite different games to enjoy at the end of it.

So in the end, what it's worth is a personal choice and nobody could say just buying the final release isn't a great option. But if you love space games and want to get in to persistent open ended gameplay in 2014, this is the place to be.
 
I felt the different levels were an attempt to control numbers and be able to phase increasing levels of numbers into the Alpha/Beta/Gamma process.
 
Well, I backed both games with 200€ each... so far only ED has really shown me anything worth the investment. SC is still only tech demos and nice words, as far as I'm concearned.

I backed both games.
As others already said, it is not the same as buying a game. You try together to make enough funds so the game can be as great as you like.
150 for ED is a lot of money, but the good side is you can already play the game, fly, trade, fight and they are building a real copy of the galaxy. If you love this kind of games it is worth it (if you can spend it)
The future plans are promising. So if my money can help a little bit to get this game ready, great!!

For SC I spend even more money, can't fly, but the good part is, while you are backing the game, you get spaceships for your money, where you can walk in, walk around, etc. For someone like me ,with not so much time to play, it is an opportunity to get some better ships at start.
The future of this game look great as well.

So in my opinion there is no good argument to back one or the other. I love to see great space games and I would be happy if in a few years there are two of them, each with there own specifications an lore.
 
Undock from the space station. Pick a target from the galaxy map. Go to hyperspace, seamlessly. Arrive at the destination system and supercruise into a planet's ring, and engage a group of pirates that harass a commercial freighter amongst the asteroids. And do all that together with friends on your wing. All without a loading screen or anyone telling you to "return to the mission area". The galaxy is yours to explore, you are not retreading some path carefully laid out by a slew of people, you're genuinely able to explore the vastness itself.

If this thought tickles your fancy and you go "I wanna play this right now", then that's why you should pay 150 now (plus you get the two expansions yadda yadda)

If you think you can wait, then wait.
Either way, the game will be made, and if you like true freedom of movement, there's very few alternatives. And no, while I consider SC to be something that hopefully shapes up to become a great game, it's not offering the same experience. Which is in itself also a good thing!
 
... There is a whole bunch of retro appeal associated with that, however if you grew up in the 80's and had an 8-bit micro or the 90's and had an early PC or 16-bit home computer that's suddenly worth more than a massive collection of current gen console games and the consoles to play them on.

Spot on. Being an 80's star-child myself, it's that retro appeal and open-galaxy sandbox game play which really appeals. So, for me, it was worth the cash. However, the alpha stage was a little too much for my budget, but £100? To me that's the main game and expansion packs, then £30 to play ED throughout each stage (post alpha obviously) of its evolution, and help FD test the thing.
 
I felt the different levels were an attempt to control numbers and be able to phase increasing levels of numbers into the Alpha/Beta/Gamma process.

Most definitely. However, I also think that it benefited both parties, especially for those who didn't have the budget for alpha (like me), but wanted to be part of ED before its final release.
 
Back
Top Bottom