I used to love fresh starts for games, especially MMOs. Everybody was poor, everybody was weak and the whole game was a mystery for the player to explore and conquer. There is a reason why classic WoW was so highly anticipated and asked for a long time in advance. Reality looks different and the nostalgic glasses tend to paint stuff prettier then it was. I never forgot the hardship of an unrefined system, the LACK of quality of life changes that we all got used to in a flash because they simply made sense. But I also remember the feeling of excitement, the genuine puzzlement and wonder I had back when I first started playing WoW.....along with thousands of others.
And it was a joy playing back then. People were generally friendly, supportive and helping each other out. Soloing wasnt all that easy if you werent a rogue, mage or warlock. Many people struggled with outdoor questing, full groups wandered the lands to complete fetch quests together and dungeons were looked at in terror and angst. Raids even whispered as myth only. In short....it was tough....and the community made it great. Found a lot of new friends and met people I still game with to this day.
And that "feeling" is gone forever. It wont ever come back. I tried jumping games when WoW started to feel boring but it was already too late. Because I was an experienced MMO player by then expecting and assuming certain standards I knew from WoW. The wonder and excitement was therefore always short-lived. All those WoW-killers were hyped up disappointments. Many of them prevailed and carved out their own spot to this day but the wonder and feeling I got from starting WoW....unnmatched to this day. Remember the hopes of a new and exciting game you are waiting for? Yes, been there, done that. In the end all the great games I was waiting restlessly for and which I thought would make me a small kid again....collecting dust in my library. Great games...no doubt. But you enjoy them for a time and move on to the next big thing. I dont even fool myswelf anymore that it ll be any different. So I wonder about these people who think Star Citizen will replace all other games and will become the only game you ever want and need to play anymore. They will play it....even ejoy it and a year later it ll be a forgotten phenomena, replaced by something new. Seriously...am I just the adult in this scenario or am I a hater because I say it like it is?
So there are a couple of disadvantages to be had for being a veteran along with all the perks. I envy freshlings picking up a game for the very first time and being honestly amazed and awestruck falling in love. For me its more like coming back to a well-known and trusted friend. I know what makes him tick and what to do in order to receive certain reactions but it lacks real excitement.
DLCs were supposed to keep old games fresh by adding new content and changing the foundation. And it worked for a time as well. Burning crusade and Wrath of the Lich King are my all-time favorite expansions reinvoking true amazement but that has changed as well especially as those two were hitting like a bomb. You knew they were coming but they just released without prior insight. Later DLCs were hyped up and reported on by dedicated streamers for months on end as a means to keep old players around for as long as possible. When a new expansion became available to the public there wasnt really anything mysterious left. Streamers and public testers have showcased and investigated everythng possible. Guilds usually recruited these people and started raiding new content the very same day. Everybody who had a passing interest in the game already knew everything there was to know. The best path, the best gear, where to find it. New dungeons and bosses and more importingly......guides on how to beat em.
We were explorers and we have become passengers. Sure doing something yourself provides a feeling of your own but its still only copying stuff you saw or read beforehand. Are games that dont take you on the hand and explain everything really so out of fashion? They used to be celebrated as "real games" a couple decades ago were you had to show dedication and persistence and also be smart about how you do things in order to succeed and when you finally did...you sat there with a feeling of accomplishment and pride. Today...such games are ripped apart and downvoted because they dont provide easy achievements and the average gamer is blipping lazy.
So Star Citizen...lets take a look with what I wrote so far in mind. Like an iceberg a lot of Star Citizen is unseen, hidden away and only a small part of the game can be accessed and played. That part is well known and documented by a throng of backers for years by now. The game has changed, switched its appearance but its been basically the same old same old since 2015. A new ship or a new announcement doesnt change the actual experience. You can be hooked when you log in and immerse yourself in the space legs and thats actually what we read often these days when a new backer gets into the project. They describe true amazement and feeling great but for them its just the first time. I doubt very much that after another 2 years and thousands of identical log-ins they will have the same impression.
Realistically, what new stuff can Star Citizen possibly provide on a release? We all know about the long looong list of things they have to do but we also know that the current PU also is the MVP and could be released as is tomorrow. CIG is working hard on performance optimization so everything you know already just working smoother and more reliable. Thats it? Nothing new? If you consider classes or exploration then we have to add a few more months/years to the possible release date because none of these things is even started or implemented in a basic fashion so far and its hard to see CIG suddenly picking up the pace. Worse....even IF CIG would start working on these things with the way this project is run every new thing will be introduced over the course of months and years.....a timeframe where everything will turn "old" quickly. There are NDAs but they are not honored, backers who keep this project alive also bought the right to get a peek into its development.
And because that development is taking so long this will to support actually robs them of the potential wonder and feeling of excitement they might possibly have on release. When Star Citizen goes gold I imagine Mole logging in for the first time LIVE but its going to be like coming back to a trusted friend. He ll know where to go, what to do, how to act, will have his strategy mapped out. There will be next to zero surprise or unknown for him to experience. And he wont even have to start at the first step because his previous purchases allow him to skip the "tedious" grind and save a few hours.
Other companies offer alpha and beta sessions in order to stress test or judge community reactions. I was particpating in the Division 2 beta and it was like playing a finished game. You had a few placeholders and cutscenes were skipped. Some of the skills didnt work but overall what you were able to access was allowing you to judge the foundation and the gameplay features. And Massive Entertainment actually was asking for your feedback afterwards. Then they went silent for months. Time in which they added all the stuff we didnt know. The map, the side missions, the storyline, the refined skill system and much much more. Even tho I participated in the beta twice starting to play Division 2 was like playing it for the very first time. Everything was different and there was suddenly so much stuff to see and experience compared to the beta. And most companies I know of do it like this. They keep most of the game hidden and only allow you a glimpse whenever they need your help and even then you are usually gagged with an NDA to avoid spoilers and loss or revenue.
Now Star Citizen....how much do you think they hold back? Some make the assumption that CIG works like the other big dogs in the industry so that might explain the fantasies about secret builds and databases bursting with content. But even if thats true that means that CIG has no idea how to access it or put it into the game because from where I m standing it looks like CIG has trouble with basic stuff...in year 8 of its development. Having all the content ready at your fingertips would be a colossal waste if you dont even know yet how to put it in or if its even going to be possible once you find a solution to the blockers because the foundation isnt even done.
Personally...I think that the Star Citizen we can see now....is all they got. Thats everything. Maybe 5% and a few touches or pixels will be different but there wont be any surprises or new things when it goes live. CIG has gone radio silent for months on end in the past and it always created this underlying expectation that somthing was going to happen, something big. Gamechanger. And then they emerge with something trivial or stuff that makes you think they must be joking. ALL THOSE WEEKS AND MONTHS FOR THIS???? You start to wonder what they did in all that time. And your initial impression that Chris Roberts is a genius and knows what hes doing along with all the crack coders starts to change while you observe them having problems with basic stuff (delta patcher etc) and (this might ve been the most damaging thing in SCs history) Chris Roberts playing his own game.
So all the people who are pro-SC....you already have lost half the "battle". Star Citizen might succeed but even that is not guaranteed but even if it does....you ll most likely just play for a few short months then start looking for something new. Because you know it already and worse, you know all its shortcomings so of CIG doesnt pull off a wonder and fixes all the problems you have issues with.....you ll probably stop waiting in the long run.
This might be the reason why the industry at large has pretty much stopped reporting on Star Citizen. Theres nothing new to report. Nothing new coming up that might change the version we all already know. The rest of the world is waiting on CIG to come true on what they sold. And it looks more and more gloomy when you consider the new upcoming titles and advances in gaming in general. Star Citizen is in "early days" right now but it already looks like an old dress. CIG seems to work full tilt in order to keep its visual appeal up-to-snuff so we have 3.0 and now weather tech 4.0 but those are not reviolutionary....they are the companies best effort to try to keep up. CIG has stopped leading the pack a long time ago. Even the temporary fixes like 3.0 (which they failed to utilize) and weather4.0 are at best BASIC ITERATIONS and we are all waiting for them to implement these things as standard across the PU. Already a big "if".
In this regard Star Citizen truly is "transparent" in its development. There really are no surprises left. We know what it is, we know what it can do.....we all wait for CIG to come true on their promises and announcements because what we can see right now isnt it. And when I watch SC devs struggling through interviews and CR losing himself in tantrums over simple questions I wonder if they ever will be able to make the transition. They seem to be busy trying to stay in sight of the rest of the contenders. If you dismiss obvious facts and red flags then yes....its possible to still see Star Citizen as an amazing new game that will change the video game landscape.
Thats actually what we discuss in here. How realistic is SC now after 7 years of observed development. Seeing what the developers can do with the trust and the money given to them. We constantly compare what we learn with new games and also old ones. The thing with Star Citizen is that the more it developed and progressed...the more it showed how lacking the fundamental design is. More questions pop up all the time. New information sheds light on old uncertainties or tell a less then glorious story about management and community treatment.
Oldtimers stay adamant that "so many things have changed" or "you cant deny that Star Citizen is progressing" but truly....its just holding on to the last hope. Star Citizen certainly is not a good example on how to do things or how it should be. At its start it was often used to bash established evil publishers and laugh at them, cheering the new candidate on to show them how its done.
Little did we know back then that "showing them how its done" means keeping the backers waiting and paying through the nose while utilizing marketing tactics that would cripple any of the other "bad" industry giants. Somehow the backers left in this project convinced themselves that its their own free decision to keep tagging along and keep opening their wallet but try to takie a step back and see this through the eyes of somebody who doesnt know what SC is. That doesnt mean a clueless person. He/she could be an expert in gaming and having a deep understanding of project management and actual coding. And we dont consider the "dream" that every backer can relay in glorious detail. The actual results after 7 years of constant development. You think he/she will be impressed? You think that person will expect Star Citzen to go live anytime soon? Or will that neutral distanced evaluation immediately be dismissed as "hate" and the person itself muddied because people dont like what he/she has to say? I remember a few of these situations in the past ^^
Its great that most backers have fooled themselves into "being in for the long ride" and that "CIG can take as long as they need" because frankly....this is going to be a neverending spending spree or at least taking another decade and thinking anything else is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
Now please.....actual players and oldtimers. Am I really wrong? Are you not simply waiting for CIG to finally get done? Your enjoyment apart, is Star Citizen really such a vibrant and fresh take on an old topic? Because that topic is from 2012 you know. Am I missing somwething when I remember the first PU waking up in a bed on a space station and take a look today and see the exact same thing wondering if anything has changed at all? You have planets now you can fly to but all the connecting factors are questionable or ill-thought out (travel time, interdiction, landing sites, commute times, reclaim system etc). To me it looks like the same old thing from years ago only a few new clothes have changed. The technical details are of no real importance to me. Improving server stability or item meshing or whatever doesnt advance the overall state of the game. We are still waiting for a gigantic backlog of things to be implemented. Stuff that were advertised and paid for. These things are expected to be in on release. With the experience and knowledge you have about the project, how do you keep up your optimism? I dont really care about all the new faces declaring their love for SC. They dont know crap. They dont know how it was and they dont know what happened and what the real backers wait for.
Because honestly, without any snark.....to me....Star Citizen pretty much looks the exact same as it did years ago when Yamik was trying it out for the very first time. Details like new ships or mining dont really matter. There has been some polishing and some refinements. But where is the actual PROGRESS. Or do I simply not see it anymore because everything takes so long that changes dont register anymore (like a frog being dropped into heating water or a glacier skidding along)?
When people call me "hater" that really doesnt help me to see their side. It only creates tension and animosity. And when it comes to actually listing all the things....you know....facts that would back up their position I end up listening to all kinds of hyperbole, fantasy and misrepresentation. I ve been called "clueless" often but I like to think that I know pretty well what its all about....I m just not that impressed.
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