Sounds like you have the makings of a very interesting book and/or dissertation there. I've long thought there is a good degree in comparing Elite, NMS and SC, covering aspect of technical, management, publicity and the dynamics of crowds.
I look forward to reading it one day. Have some vrep as I can't rep you again.
Thanks! I think it's given me an amazing insight into the community stuff. It's territorial, it's filled with war/battle references, hierarchies, leaders, followers - but the really interesting part to me is how beautifully and candidly CIG have exploited this monetarily. My hunch is that basing the marketing out of LA, or perhaps their relationship with Ortwin has enabled them to pull on and learn from some serious sharks.
CIG were the first to exploit fundraising in this market in this way. It says something about the psychology of gamers too and one surprising thing I learnt is that it's the older guys who tend toward confrontation. This is a generalization but it's accurate and I've been thinking about it a lot.
All of this is interesting by itself, but set against a backdrop of serious technical failures and project mismanagement, it's absolutely fascinating to me.
I had attempted to steer discussion in the thread in this direction because it's the part of the project that interests me the most and I would love feedback - but it's off topic and I agree it doesn't belong here.
However I'd love this post to stay as it kinda shows where I'm coming from and why I'm a little obsessed with documenting it. It's a genuinely fascinating phenomenon happening in the middle of my favorite hobby.