I hadn't thought about the adds (although I knew about them), that's true... if you fragment your players into online, offline and inevitable private servers/modded versions you only generate add revenue from the fraction that are online. And since the game, at least right now, doesn't have a whole lot of social interaction, there's no compelling reason for people to play online, tolerate other players messing up the markets, bashing you on outposts while you're trying to land, or gold farming... let alone finding a big Nissan logo next to DeLacey's.
It's not just to fuel the dynamism, or a shortcut to launch, and DRM, as I originally thought.
You know, it's ironic... when both Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous were on KS everyone on the net warned me away from ED, there was no solid info, only empty promises, there was complicated carreer records for some of the involved and previous undelivered promises. SC on the other hand had an abundance of info, demos, better funding... so I backed SC.
Then things changed, SC, as of right now, worries me a lot, there's so much cash rolling and so much investment people on the forums have become cultists (I'm generalizing) and the team has lost a lot of credit, it looks more like they're taking there time and riding the cash wave, living the good life, because they know they'll never make as much money after launch as they're making now... than they are making an effort to get this done anytime soon.
Meanwhile ED was evolving in leaps and bounds, videos with in-game footage, alpha, beta, neat, well developed, objective and visionary design. The art was fantastic, the style spoke to me, and the game was practically launch ready. So I slapped myself for doubting ED and joined beta, paying much more than a pre-order, even though it was just months away. I could have waited for launch, hell, I could have waited for a year and bought it on discount next christmas, like I do with most games, I'm not a hurried person, but I wanted to help the team, they'd done so much with much less than RSI, I knew the team was in debt (normal) and counted on launch to make money. I felt I wanted to help and that the vision deserved a reward.
I work in development too (not games/software) and I understand things change. No one is asking the game to come out exactly like you thought it would. But some things are core.
As others have pointed out, the game was pitched to fans, old-school, whatever that is, older, employed. Who also have lives, kids, jobs beyond gaming. Hobbies are, by definition, something you do at your pace, at your leisure. I play skyrim to this day because I can mod it until it's another game and because I can stop and restart whenever the hell I please. ("Sorry dear, I can't go see what the weird sound our baby made was because a bounty-hunter is trying to blow me to bits... I'll get to it as soon as I frame-shift out of here..." isn't the kind of excuse I'm comfortable giving, my wife already thinks me nerdy enough.)
You funded this game with the money of people like me, we might not be a majority, but in this game, with this pitch I'm willing to bet we're a bloody bigger minority than most other games out there right now.
Online only won't bring big problems after launch, no, because only people who can be online all the time will buy the game, because YOU'LL TELL THEM THAT THAT IS A REQUIREMENT. Kind of a no brainer, all the people who are upset are on this side of the information chasm.
I bought a new joystick for you Elite, even though my old MS Sidewinder (I know! Ironic...) worked fine. Everytime I throttle up and down I'll remember this. The joystick got here just days before NL49 (that's what I'm calling newsletter #49 now, I hope it catches on, I hope you remember it). Luckily for me SC does appear to evolve every now and then, I'll go update the client, which I haven't done in a while.
Oh, and TIE Fighter is on GOG now, offline and DRM free...
Sorry for the melodrama, I did cool my head now, and yeah the angry did go away, but I'm now sad instead. I'll still be playing this, but it won't feel as good. I'm doubly sorry for our fellow commanders who simply can't. Since I'm not a selfish person; I do care that they can't, and I still have an issue with this, even if my crappy connection holds.
