you might very well be on to something there. Distinguishing yourself from the rest of your peers is a fundamental urge of males through all societies. Its especially bad at a certain age and results in brutal competition or stupid behaviour....anything really to get that advantage and be "above" the rest of the drones. Cheating, lying, fantastical claims....are all valid tools to earn reputation and status. At that point its not important to have the facts right, whats important is to "win" or "dominate" the situation no matter what. Depending on the fervor these people will gladly claim the earth is flat and try to beat their opponents into submission if possible. In older times arguments and disputes were not won by facts and being right....whoever had the bigger stick or was stronger was right, it was that simple.
The behaviour we can observe on a specific faction of people matches the ancient pre-human instinct that humankind has researched so intimatly but not beaten yet.
Competition leads to immense dedication in order to claim the first spot or gold. Often enough silver or bronze is already a disappointment and we can observe everywhere that "second place" is equal to "first loser". In professional sports the best specimen suitable for the task in question are considered but thats only the very first step. Having a perfect physique is kind of a "given" by now and nothing extraordinary like 50 years ago. Technical equipment, training facilities, personel supervision, drugs, cheating.....competition these days is a desperate race to outperform the others....at any prize. Some athletes are known to be reckless or risk their health permanently for that short moment of fame.
CiG has managed to make the backing into a sort of competition as well...through your wallet. The playing field is NOT equal to everybody, how much you invested will determine your place and also your starting point in the game. The open display of status and fame is another trigger in the community to convince people to hand out a few more bucks in order to reach that much sought after entry level to the elite. Only a select few will be so hardcore tho that title and display of status alone is enough to part with thousands of dollars for basically nothing (those few select....get help). The rest of the elite needs indirect material to come to the same conclusion. Shiny pictures, exlusive access to content, membership of an elite club...sounds familiar? These "high-rollers" will eventually compete amongst themselves as the differentiation we see on the "normal" forums (I am concierge and you are a foot soldier, lol) continues in the "elite-only" section only accessible to the high-rollers (we are both concierge but I have 20.000 more invested then you, lol).
This competition can take form in many appearances. Attention, post count, reputation etc. Its nice to be able to start a fire at your whim, gives you a feeling of control, the post count is a secondary statistics and is often displayed like the length of the male sexual organ but REPUTATION...now thats something different alltogether. Having people look to you for your opinion and actively seeking it out or discussions fading whenever you speak....that is a form of POWER that people in history have died for to possess.
CiG has managed to tie reputation very firmly to the amount of money you spend. And regardless how you look THAT will put you above the rest of the drivel fast. Names like Wulf Knight ring a bell? Whoever is into Star Citizen "should" have heard about this guy. The ONE quality that makes him "better" or known compared to the rest of the faceless crowd? Its the money involved. That got him the mentioning out of devs and chris roberts himself. That got him news coverage. It rewarded his one outstanding quality and lures others to do the same in order to get their own share of that fame. Spending more money....
He isnt loved but he gets the attention. Not anymore now that so many have obviously did the same and he isnt as outstanding as he once was. Strengthening his advantage would mean spending money on a scale that a private person is probably unable to raise so hes among the rest of the 30.000 and 40.000 dollar backers now. Other people have shown that the same level of attention can be reached via other means. Trolling is a valid tool for attention under the believe that "every" reputation is good reputation......and much cheaper as well. If you are unable to compete with master trolls on a linguistic level tho and cannot command them to shut up you can at least participate in the "pay race" so theres a spot for everybody.
I would believe CiG doesnt care for the occasional hick-up as long as the meta-game keeps going. At first reaching new people wasnt as important as tying down your existing customers into a spending spiral of epic porportions. We are talking about private persons here tho. Claiming to be rich, the casual use of "disposable income" is a legit tool to cover your desperate addiction for attention because would the truth come out (wife left, cant pay mortgage etc) people would use it as a weapon against him so some sort of cover has to be upheld. There will be a "breaking point" for this kind of people tho. Same as addicts who eventually do nothing else then raise money for the next shot there is only so much they can do in order to keep up in the "spending race". And soon the first few break off, then more, suddenly a whole lot of people cannot afford to put as much into SC as the rest, the small group of "mega-whales" which keep trickling into the fund. And even tho the milking CiG has done in the past is very impressive this small group of carefull nurtured cash cows isnt enough enymore to keep the boat afloat so fresh blood is required and fast.
Without a quality product to back up aquisition levels tho they need to rely on lies and smoke and mirror mostly and thats a losing game. No idea what they spent the money on but it obviously was NOT the company as now that new quality content is required it proves to be wholy unqualified to deliver even JPEGs on the same quality as 3 years ago. Development speed has slowed down even more (talking about a REAL check, not what CiG tries to sell as development) and "gameplay" relies on the old fundament who possess all the old bugs and errors while raising new ones. I believe that Chris Roberts and the rest of his monkeys try their best to keep the ship sailing. I doubt that his intentions match the ones of the backers tho (making a game....CRs priority is to stay alive financially.....delivering the game is just a secondary goal)
The fascade is crumbling for some time now and the surrounding fallout is noticable to more and more people. Wielding less power then before when it comes to backer support (a lot of people have turned their back or are overly sceptical.....compare that to 2014) news sites are suddenly braver to make dubious assumptions and report true numbers so the dissent spreads. As far as I m concerned its the logical conclusion to the scam that SC has turned into (or was designed to be from the start) and saving himself and his reputation would require Chris Roberts to release a working product and FAST or at least make progression that would reistablish backer confidence.
2017 will indeed be a very interesting year.
P.S. this story was brought to you by MTBFritz and none of the above can be proven, I also dont claim to have informations that could proof any of the above. This piece is a little theory put to words and a "possible scenario" at best. If I managed to make some people think about the whole thing tho or entertain you in the process then I consider my time well spent
/cheers
