However within that group of gamers there are some individuals whose behaviour concerns me.
Some are just capable of levels of self-deception the likes of which I can't really get a handle on and are therefore able to convince
themselves that everything looks perfectly normal. I still have sympathy for those people because I totally understand
wanting to believe; hell, I've said enough times that if the game ever appears and actually includes
all of the content that has been promised I'll be buying it, in fact I don't know many gamers who wouldn't want to buy it. I don't believe though and it's not because I'm naturally a cynic (I am) but because when Chris says that a game like this has never been made before he's right and there are so many entirely valid technical reasons for that, it's clear that he's having the same conversation that I used to have with my mates when I was twelve or so about the bestest game in the world, only I didn't charge people $140m to listen to me. That group of people need protecting from themselves really.
Some are shilling for CIG in the most classical sense though. Endless posts on forums and reddit that say things like
'the game will feature...' or
'we're going to have...' followed by either repeating the official theorycrafting or often injecting their own. Endless posts on forums and reddit from them attacking people who are not just blindly lashing out at CIG and Roberts but have tried to explain sensibly, calmly and with no shortage of technical detail exactly why and how many aspects of what CIG come out with is literally selling myths as reality.
They're probably the same people who would think asking players to provide photo ID to get a refund is sensible, or who don't see anything even slightly off-kilter about a company who lie repeatedly and obviously about numerous aspects of the game's open (lol) development. For example announcing a meeting to start planning the content for the update that four months earlier they had said would be released about two weeks before that meeting took place, the S42 demo that was
allegedly only two days away from being ready but was then
allegedly dropped for hilariously bull reasons and hasn't been seen since despite the growing scepticism around the project etc. I mean really, even if you accept the reason for dropping it two days away from completion can anybody seriously believe that they wouldn't have done two days work on it since then to finish it off and put it out there?
They are a cohort of people who genuinely fit all of the main criteria to be considered a cult and like most cults you can't argue with them because they don't hold opinions which have any basis in logic to begin with, it's all blind faith, circular enabling and creating a bunker mentality where critics or the sceptical are all out to get them for no discernible reason other than the fact they are evil people. They're also very vocal in encouraging people to spend more money on the game or to make an initial purchase and that is breathtakingly irresponsible considering the overall situation with the game's development and the fact that people just coming across it for the first time are unlikely to have a full understanding of the position in the round as far as the game's chances of actually getting a release in a way that even vaguely resembles Roberts' fantasies is concerned.
Honestly, I will laugh and laugh and laugh if some of those people are into SC for five grand and lose it because I absolutely despise people like that and I make no apologies whatsoever for it. Those people losing a large amount of money is in fact the only good that could possibly come out of the game folding.
I've come across a group of very similar people before you see. I've been a fan of cycling (road and track) for over 30 years and like most clued up cycling fans, I used to watch Lance Armstrong riding up Alps, away from world class fields that were themselves full of dopers, like he was on a motorbike and knew that I was watching someone who was so doped up it was a miracle he didn't glow in the dark. Yet for years, as he lied, lied and lied again ('
What am I on? I'm on my bike, seven hours a day' and all that crap) there was a bunch of Armstrong fanboys who would descend on anyone commenting that he might just
possibly have taken a little bit of the bad stuff and hound people both on web forums and in some cases in real life for it.
I have no time for people so desperate to believe something that was clearly a fantasy that they were willing to attack perfectly decent people because of it. I could understand anyone who needed some education to explain why what old Lance was saying was so patently a crock of crap, but I can't excuse supposedly intelligent adults who put their own refusal to challege what was bordering on a religious belief structure for them ahead of common sense and measurable data.
The reason Lance popped into my mind was that one of the most hilariously hubris-filled things he ever came out with (after
winning LOL his seventh Tour de France) was this:
I'll say to the people who don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics, I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry that you can't dream big. I'm sorry that you don't believe in miracles.'
Replace the word 'cycling' with 'Chris Roberts' or 'Star Citizen' and I bet you could find a post which basically paraphrased that statement on the game forum or reddit inside 30 seconds. It's only a shame Lance didn't say
'You just don't understand professional cycling' to complete the bingo card.
I was walking around with a smile on my face for weeks when he finally got popped. I read the full USADA report and giggled all the way through it and when he went on Oprah I downloaded it and sat here with a bottle of Bollinger laughing like a toddler all the way through it, not least because I was thinking about all of those people who believed in miracles and spent well over ten years slaughtering people online, in the print and visual media on the back of their crank delusions.
So yeah. If you're reading this, have a lot of money in Star Citizen and are spending your time shilling for it in the face of all logic and sense I truly hope that you get the game you're anticipating and if you do, I will welcome you with open arms when you come to rub my face in it.
But if you don't, make sure you remember that I'm laughing at you. Probably with a nice bottle of Bolly.
