Personally...whether streamers get paid, get gifted ships or get handed nice PC's to shill or not doesn't fuss me much since no amount of shilling will save Star Citizen from itself at the end of the day
Aint that the truth?
Gaming history of released games show that it does help with initial sales but doesnt change the verdict. A whole lot of crappy games have been promoted that way, become a commercial success due to heavy advertising and yeah...lets call it what it is...shilling and a whole lot of streamers have traded reputation when they stood behind a subpar product. People will remember if they feel they got misdirected.
The sudden increase and effort going into advertising makes me think that a release is even possible this year (aka CIG
wants to push SC out and be done with it) .....scary as the thought is. And as you say, CIG cannot change its product regardless how beautiful their tunes and sermons because we can see live how streamers struggle and in the process show all the ugly along with the beauty.
And I personally dont care about streamers but if certain people use the twitch numbers to point out how Star Citizen
obviously has become better or is better then X then it needs to be adressed. This thread is as ongoing as it is specifically because CIG elements dont stop using deceptive stategies and lies to ensnare people. I mean IMO rexilas year long contract has at best demonstrated how much SC depends on make-belief gameplay because the game itself doesnt support the type of gameplay he favors. And even tho ToW is currently "in the pipeline" I dont think we ll see any progress on it in 2020 so its going to be added to the loooooooooooong list of stuff that needs to be added
after release.....
If some CIG sprokesperson claims that no payments were done for SC streaming it could very well be technically true....with all the shell companies surrounding this project it could be any one of them which means CIG is in the clear. Of course if that was the case it would be a strong argument AGAINST transperacy (as if that wasnt a joke before) hinting heavily at deceptive intent.
Its just important to remember that you cannot blame anybody outside the project management for what is currently going down. No doubt people will call anybody who is not impressed or even disappointed "haters" and those ranks will swell certainly in the near future. But opinions never changed or affected Star Citizens development. They didnt slow it down or are responsible for so many things missing or ending differently. If Star Citizen ends up being a bad game then it always was a bad game due to design and focus. No doubt the projects situation was very good initially. It received monetary and empathic support, more leeway then any other game I can remember and it was granted a lot of time to do its thing.
People will want to know
what exactly happened along the journey to turn a sure bet into a failure. Who is responsible? What were the critical decisions? And maybe the most important question "Is Star Citizen a scam?" will be coming under scrutiny. Its a pretty simple train of thought for me and the reason why I call it a failure.
1. Star Citizen is close to release. Theres a ton of stuff missing so regardless how certain people will accept that and grant CIG more time the game
will be judged on its state on release which means unfinished, unoptimized and lacking most gameloops. Without additional mind-gymnastics and justifications thats pretty much failure in everybodies book.
2. Star Citizen will continue to go through development (the question then is of course WHY does CIG suddenly pump so much effort and focus into promotion?) and could very well continue for years to come...depending on the few who keep throwing money at it. But in the process CIG will add more and more layers of content and functionality (as they already did) in order to justify the increased development time which means they are getting farther and farther away from completion. It could very well be the case that CR is committed to squeeze this little milk cow dry to a husk until catastrophic collapse at which point he ll simply walk away....failing but stinking rich which is a pretty nice consolation prize.
These scenarios are not certain and no guarantee either. But they are
very real risks and deserve attention and acknowledgment. Betting all your money on the end result is irresponsible and naive (even tho a positive outcome would of course put you in the right). As far as backers go betting on the end result is all they can possibly do seeing as CIG stripped them of any power regarding influence or decision making but we know about a list of investors by now and they wont be placated by promises and powerpoint presentations. I think that if any of these worries and accusations were wrong and just the product of hate or envy, it should be easy to counter or neutralize them on the spot without ridicule, personal attacks or becoming aggrevated. The generally known response routine to any kind of criticism or doubt directed against SC is toxic in nature tho. Toxcicity is part of every game community but the amount of it in SC has been skyhigh from the start and only has become worse over time.
I tend to focus on the negative because positive results are a (welcoming) surprise and I like being proven wrong if it means I end up with something good. Every game I think about I check the negative reviews first because i want to know about possible risks and issues that might affect my enjoyment. negative review isnt an automatic "no purchase" but it might adress things that are important to me and thats what I d like to know. Its nice to confirm good reviews but relying on those is a sure path to disappointment because you simply hype yourself up with expectations. I do know how crushing unexpected bad news can be. Its always better to adjust to possible bad results beforehand. It helps cushion the blow. Thats a healthy attitude in my eyes. Somehow that approach is called "hate" and ridiculed in Star Citizen. Well the end result will confirm either one side and if its the wrong 50% it ll be a very bad day for many.