Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
TiberiusDuval said:
My five cents to that MVP discussion: What exactly would prevent CIG "publishing" SC now? In the state it is. Then keep servers running say something like for the year, and pull the plug. Technically in its current state it IS a game, but not very good one. No fraud after all, it just became evident that developer could not implement all promised stuff, but that happens in software industry all the time. :D And Chris can laugh whole time while going to the bank :D
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Strictly speaking, nothing. CR could release today what we have in the PU. There are multiple reasons though why he is probably not considering it yet:
  • Formal critiques and reviews: A formal release will attract the full weight of the game review and critique machinery to bear on Star Citizen. Given CR documented ego and thin skin, plus all the constant assurances for SC to be equal or better than main stream AAA games I suspect the man cant bring himself to release as is just yet.
  • Reputational risk: A high caliber failure here will probably limit some of CR opportunities to continue his career in the gaming industry.
  • Cash: Given the above, and if the funds tracker is accurate, CR may rather stay in the funding stage for as long as humanly possible to milk the backer cow as much as possible. I suspect CR, and his family involved in the project are getting very healthy returns just with their nominal salary, nevermind any additional bonuses or other SC director reward or compensation elements that they may benefit from directly or indirectly.
  • Risk of lawsuits / regulator penalties: As low as this risk may be, a release that happens to be demonstrably short of documented promises and intents can be eventually subject to a lawsuit from unhappy customers, investors or to an investigation by authorities.
  • Any risks or control loss related to their agreements with the Calders: No idea what these could be but something to also keep in mind.
etc

My guess is CR and his director team must be currently working hard to find the right balance for a decent release/exit strategy that allows them all to save face and minimize the above risks. An Early Access scheme of some kind or equivalent is probably a good candidate eventhough it would be a slap in the face of the backers that contributed on the basis of the original intent of releasing a polished and complete product.
 
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Factabulous

Factabulous
Viajero said:
Strictly speaking, nothing. CR could release today what we have in the PU. There are multiple reasons though why he is probably not considering it yet:
  • Formal critics and reviews: A formal release will attract the full weight of the game review and critique machinery to bear on Star Citizen. Given CR documented ego and thin skin, plus all the constant assurances for SC to be equal or better than main stream AAA games I suspect the man cant bring himself to release as is just yet.
  • Reputational risk: A high caliber failure here will probably limit some of CR opportunities to continue his career in the gaming industry.
  • Cash: Given the above, and if the funds tracker is accurate, CR may rather stay in the funding stage for as long as humanly possible to milk the backer cow as much as possible. I suspect CR, and his family involved in the project are getting very healthy returns just with their nominal salary, nevermind any additional bonuses or other SC director reward or compensation elements that they may benefit from directly or indirectly.
  • Risk of lawsuits / regulator penalties: As low as this risk may be, a release that happens to be demonstrably short of documented promises and intents can be eventually subject to a lawsuit from unhappy customers, investors or to an investigation by authorities.
  • Any risks or control loss related to their agreements with the Calders: No idea what these could be but something to also keep in mind.
etc

My guess is CR and his director team must be currently working hard to find the right balance for a decent release/exit strategy that allows them all to save face and minimize the above risks. An Early Access scheme of some kind or equivalent is probably a good candidate eventhough it would be a slap in the face of the backers that contributed on the basis of the original intent of releasing a polished and complete product.
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Alternately : Chris is not self-aware enough to worry about any of that - he still thinks he's going to ship SC when it is ready, and he's working on that. He's no evil genius - he's just trying to bluff his way to Hollywood.

Probably right now he's probably busy checking everything is lined up for the SQ42 beta any day now :D
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Viajero said:
Given CR documented ego and thin skin,
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But Chris recently assured everyone that he has thick skin, unlike the poor devs who work for him, who somehow get upset when people criticize CR.

Wouldn't surprise me if the rank and file at CIG don't take the mickey out of CR as well. Think of all the PHBs you've worked for over the years, and then imagine having to work for a giant thumb like CR.

His cult of personality probably doesn't stretch far below upper management. At the level where he will dismiss people who try and tell him no, so all that is left there are people who are drinking the kool aid.
 

MTBFritz

MTBFritz
TiberiusDuval said:
Would it be a problem? You know there have been published games that were pure rubbish. Like certain mr. Smarts Battlecruiser 3000 AD when it was published. :D Mr Smart certainly was not humble about hyping his game before it came out.
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Is that the benchmark we are aiming for? Isnrt that a bit....underhwhelming to say the least? Also a win for DS I would assume considering teamsize and funding for each project. Lets not drag DS into ithis else we ll summon some hate boys ^^

Also SC right now would not be just "rubbish" it would be horrendous broken and hardly working. I guess a lot of review sites would call it a "glorified tech demo" because it simply doesnt qualify for a game title. Theres a list of underwhelming game releases over the last few years but even tho most of them were released too early, buggy and raw they all were 10x the game that SC is today. I would assume SC would simply not survive a release but maybe they ll prove me wrong. I m certainly not an expert about these things and have had quite a few expectations over the years where CIG proved me wrong all starting with the thought that this game would be different.
 

Tippis

Tippis
Viajero said:
  • Cash: Given the above, and if the funds tracker is accurate, CR may rather stay in the funding stage for as long as humanly possible to milk the backer cow as much as possible. I suspect CR, and his family involved in the project are getting very healthy returns just with their nominal salary, nevermind any additional bonuses or other SC director reward or compensation elements that they may benefit from directly or indirectly.
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There's a second side to that particular coin too:

Cash, in the sense that there is no business model for a released game that would keep the servers going. And the server costs would have to go up massively to start generating an actual cashflow that resulted in profits that would keep the investors around. They're already operating on borrowed money, and give what is happening at the moment, they stand no chance of generating the required interest and returns without massively increasing the number of paying customers, which would in turn require a significant publicity campaign that they'd also have to find the money for somewhere.

The strategy of passing change from one hand to the other, dropping a few coins every time you do it, stops being a viable illusion of cashflow the instant you actually go to market.
 

LittleAnt

L
Star trails from inside buildings. I love it !
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