Those are politicians
Or maybe those crazy people on those bizarre US TV shows CIG as a faith - now that is a really disturbing mental picture lol
The Star Citizen Thread v5
- Thread starter Brett C
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Those are politicians
Or maybe those crazy people on those bizarre US TV shows CIG as a faith - now that is a really disturbing mental picture lol
Okay, so with a normal game the developer raises capital via investors and creates the game, and then sells it to the masses hoping to recoup their cost and get into the black with the investors. They sometimes use publishers to get their game out. But those investors have contracts that let them see the financials and people on the board to make sure their investment will have a return. Only a fool would sign over a large sum with no guarantees.
Crowd funding is cutting out the investors to sell the idea of the game straight to the masses for a ball park figure they've arbitrary picked. Currently SC is over funded per them, yet we have no financials to tell us if they are on track or have blown the whole load on motion cap and actors. Also we don't have the legal protections that investors would. We have no recourse when crowd funded games stagnate or fail. This is no soup kitchen where you are encouraged to donate, but can still get a meal if you have no money. What we have here is a money making company with no results.
Well you too have issues with the project as you siad in your post opener but they are legitinmate because your an SC fan. Any one outside the community has no right to comment on the state of the game (5 years pre apha, pre pre alpha, 10*exp(50) pre's alpha...etc) and should just obediently stay quiet. Also only insiders can pass judgment on the holy Chris. Sounds worrisome
You know out of all the SC backers I imagine only a small proportion of the them have developed a game or run a business, in any capacity, so if they feel so inclined to bad mouth or criticize the methods of other gaming houses/publishers they should really take heed of the below condescension:
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This is my "crowdfunding" from 2013. I didn't kickstart but it did grant me Alpha and Beta access. The additional purchase was a ship upgrade. You'll note the words "Order placed" there and that being an "order" page, not a donation page.
All of the stuff they said they would do, they have failed on - including delivery times that were in the original ToS which when they decided to change the ToS should have had a whole thing way before the change to the ToS, that notified of the upcoming change in ToS and to allow previous "special snowflakes" (as we are called) that were under the old ToS to not accept the new ToS and receive a refund on their orders - not "donations."
That is just another example of their terrible gross mismanagement and dishonesty as they tried to slip one by users with the new ToS to try out their new and completely groundbreaking/amazing/etc mini-PeeYew.
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So in my mind, if you haven't been a top chef, you can't be a food critic.
So in my mind, if you haven't been a movie director, you can't be a movie critic.
So in my mind, if you haven't been a top artist, you can't be an art critic.
So in my mind, if you haven't been....
Also, exactly why are there these free play times now? It's quite clear - they are running out of money and aren't fully funded to finish the game because they blew it on their offices and non-game making related minutia. The only reason for free play times to try out something is to get more money by bringing in more interested in the game. Although I haven't the foggiest as to why they think the current release is going to bring on new customers, it's quite awful.
The whole thing just screams of a crash and burn.
The whole thing just screams of a crash and burn.
As far as I recall, it was only for AC, but that's because that was all there was at that time. They had announced plans for 5$ passes for all additional modules (Marine Commander, Social etc), but changed it to open before those things came online. But they did sell some passes, yes.
It was their classical bait-and-switch game. Remember the "last opportunity to get LTI - buy now"?
Here's the thing: When I do a Kickstarter for a game, of course I intend to use that money to build the game. And if I sit on my butt and not do that, then yes, people should hold my feet to the fire. And guess what, just saying "The money is gone!" isn't cutting it. Yes there's the risk of that happening, but what you're saying is that someone robbing a store in a bad neighborhood shouldn't be prosecuted because hey, you gotta live with the risk of robberies when you pop up your store in said bad neighborhood.
The risk is one thing. But you're setting it up as if one should EXPECT crowdfunding money to be gone without product, and if there actually is a product then we should all be extra grateful.
That's not how business work, and crowdfunding business is just that: a business.
Good thing I'm a full time software developer and although I don't write games for a living, I have used CE for professional applications. Oh and I am actually working on a multiplayer VR title on the side that's going up on Greenlight soonish. And even if I wasn't a full time software dev, your argument makes no sense. You don't have to be a hen to spot a bad egg.
Plus the "game development takes time" thing has been debunked time and again. It's mostly brought up by the same people who proclaim that Elite Dangerous was in development for 14 years.
Newsflash: It didn't. And if you count the engine, then please kindly count the CryEngine development time too, because that's what SC uses. That would mean SC development started in 2002. Sounds silly? That's because it is. There's a direct quote from David Braben on when ED development began, and in his words he said that "nothing you see in the game was made before the KS".
I remember the barebone video for ED Kickstarter that showed rough graphics no sound and a bit of pewpew. If i look at it to today...wow.
I remember the super epic carrier that flew in a epic soundtrack into the screen for SC Kickstart with super graphics and crazy claims...if i look at it today...wow...
I already knew about Escapist (long-time Yahtzee fan) but I only found out about Herr Smart through the whole Star Citizen thing!
100% correct. KS is >20% of the total money raised, and even there the US FTC are probably going to treat KS as pre-orders as well when it comes to legal arguments.
Anything that you have to pay tax on isn't a donation. Anything that you don't have some agreed financial returns on is not an investment.
What you forget is that the only ESTIMATED release date was Nov '14 and that was only attributed to the kickstarter campaign. So logically only those kickstarter backers are entitled to a full refund of their pledge. As for the whole 18 month clause, I cannot comment because simply don't know and anything I would say would be pure opinion (unlike some here who aren't willing to admit that).
Yup.
This was in November 2012:
[video=youtube;P5JYRyhxYhI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5JYRyhxYhI[/video]
This was SC in October 2012:
[video=youtube;VhsgiliheP0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhsgiliheP0[/video]
So looking at ED and SC now, tell me again how game development just takes time.
That's a bit harsh. It's never bad to let people play your game for free. Gotta stay level headed, point out both the bad and the good. The alpha is a mess, but hey, at least they're not trying to hide it.
What I meant is they could've kept the access paid only. It's difficult to judge how bad it is without playing it yourself, plus most of the content about SC is from dedicated content creators that make it look better than it really is. Letting people in the game is like the biggest anti-ad possible.
I think they genuinely believe what they have is impressive.
So by this logic, the stuff you buy during pledge drives, you know the ones that say, "if you pledge $200, you get this dvd set and commemorative t-shirt" that still isn't a donation? I beg to differ
There is no miracles being performed. CIG got a huge influx of money; they asked the community if they wanted the game they pledged for or if they wanted what CR envisoned (guess which one was chosen); now there is hate levied against them because people don't have patience for a game that will take the same amount of time that most AAA MMOs take (which is up to an average of 5-6 years).
The description of a sub-par product is purely subjective. What you may find sub-par, others may like. The only way to objectively judge if a product is "sub-par" is by taking an aggregate of the overall opinions. If you do this with Star Citizen, you will find that most either like the game or accept that it's not finished and withhold judgement until it's ready to be judged. So trying to say that Star Citizen, AC or the mini-pu is objectively sub-par is pretty damn subjective.
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Show me the laws/legal precedents that dictate this definition. Show me that a crowdfunding pledge is strictly a pre-purchase and not a donation. What you have here is 100% conjecture so unless you can source this, to me, your opinion is irrelevant.
Well the elementary particles that constitute David Braben's very being were formed in the events following the big bang, so in theory Elite Dangerous has been in development for just under 12 billion years.
The fact that you pay VAT means it's considered a taxable sale, not a donation.
There is also the case against the kickstarter project Asylum http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/11/93...orney-general-washington-asylum-playing-cards
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