So I do wonder, sincerely, how many people jaded over Star Citizen are early adopters? In other words, are there any in this thread who love to hate SC who only recently tried the game for themselves for the first time? It just seems to me that people new to SC are much more positive about it, but I think they are buying into what SC is, not what SC was promised to be 10 years ago when it was first pitched.
I'm not saying that early adopters have no right to be salty. I'm salty that Elite Dangerous is nowhere near what Braben "promised" (and even demonstrated) during his Kickstarter videos (though not enough to complain about 100 times a day for all eternity, LOL). I also see many of the flaws in the way SC is being developed, and there's definitely some mockery-worthy decisions (swirling coffee in your virtual cup is my gold standard).
Anyway, just curious.
I'm not so much jaded by the game
itself. Sure, I'm disappointed that it still isn't in a playable state, but if there was a sale of the base game for around $20, I'd be willing to pick it up. I'm not a fan of some of the game mechanisms added to the game over the years, but there's still enough of a game there that I would, in theory at least, like. At least that now that I have a high-end machine, I'm willing to give the Free Fly weeks a try.
As I've seen in NMS, sometimes livestreams and lets plays aren't reflective of how
I'd play and enjoy the game. At least with the next Free Fly, I'm familiar enough with the game to know that the starting areas are
not starting player friendly.

And won't get distracted by all the unnecessary (IMO) details.
What has me jaded about
CIG is the
obvious plundering of this crowd funded project by Chris Roberts, his brother Erin, his (once secret) wife Sandi Gardiner, and his long-time friend and business partner Freyermuth Ortwin. One only has to dive into published (by law) financials of its UK shell company to see that the Roberts Clan has squirreled away nearly 10% of the funding directed into that
single shell company alone. It wasn't always that way, but over the years, the plundering has gotten extremely blatant, which culminated last year into paying millions in
dividends to "shareholders" (90% of which is held by the individuals listed above).
What keeps me interested in this thread is the alternate-reality game that has formed around this game, in both senses of the word. First there is the ARG which appeals to my love of things like DVD film maker commentaries and glimpses into the game development process. Trying to figure out where exactly this project has gone so wrong, and where the money has disappeared to, is fascinating. And then, of course, there's the alternate reality that the fanatics of the game seem to live in. Though that's more of a bile fascination than an intellectual exercise one.
