The Star Citizen Thread v8

[DLewth]

It's on topic. Direct quote from the linked article: "However, Mollick’s research was conducted before such high-profile fraud cases as the $179 million campaign by Star Citizen, $35 million scam by Lily Drone, $17 million by Elio Motors Scooter, and Coolest Cooler’s $13 million fiasco." End quote.

Shots fired.

Ouch. That's going to leave a mark...

Incidentally, am I the only person who desperately wants an ostrich pillow? [cool]

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

Indeed. You couldn't sell many jpeg spaceships if Star Citizen alpha three-point-whatever looked like this:

Isn't that excatly how it should be? I'll guess that was an Alpha build? Overwatch is not really my cup ot tea, but even in that stage is ran pretty smooth.

 

[MTBFritz]

I can already hear the cries of 'half an inch deep and one metre wide'. As for "develop the game at their own pace", well I think the heat-death of the universe may come sooner.

To be honest CIG have firmly painted themselves into a corner where whatever they deliver, and no matter how 'good', it will never match their fans' expectations. It simply cannot.

#BuyAnIdris

...aint that the truth. And ongoing arguments discuss if thats CiGs fault or people simply feel "entitled"

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

It's on topic. Direct quote from the linked article: "However, Mollick’s research was conducted before such high-profile fraud cases as the $179 million campaign by Star Citizen, $35 million scam by Lily Drone, $17 million by Elio Motors Scooter, and Coolest Cooler’s $13 million fiasco." End quote.

Shots fired.

I THOUGHT YOU MADE THIS UP. Then I read the article. That is some sick burn right there.

Tbh, I had a "Holy mackerel, Batman" moment while reading that line.
I'm also pretty sure that the press is just waiting for the moment of truth and when the whole bubble bursts they will have a field day, literally beating the living snot out of Chris Roberts and CIG.

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

He could have come to that same conclusion 3 or 4 years ago. He could have come to the same conclusion when Lando confirmed that ship theft was still on the 'long term' agenda.

There really is no mystery - there is no game coming out of this, at all, ever. The acceptance of that is taking hold at higher and higher levels of the pyramid.

These are the same guys who spite pledged (and said so, and posted screenshots of their purchases) at every single red flag that was publicised.

And these weak and pitiful excuses for finally wanting to pull their money out don't wash with me. I've been watching it and documenting it for too damn long.

Looks almost like the rats start to leave the sinking ships, lets wait and see who's next.
I'm already curious what the excuses will be, from the major CIG shills like Montoya and all the others, when the dream has ended in the not so far away future.
The salinity of their tears will be tremendous, that's for sure.

 

[MTBFritz]

Tbh, I had a "Holy mackerel, Batman" moment while reading that line.
I'm also pretty sure that the press is just waiting for the moment of truth and when the whole bubble bursts they will have a field day, literally beating the living snot out of Chris Roberts and CIG.

Thats probably the case but I ll be there to tell them that they are too late, it would have been THEIR job to question the game and put on the hard questions. Not run in once everything is over in order to beat on the lifeless corpse. I mean seriously....what are magazines like IGN going to tell me that I dont already know? And whatever they tell the rest of the world is of no importance whatsoever....basically the same as filler material. I still dont know why nobody had the clout to go full bore when it comes to CiG and how they developed the project. Its like the Escapist was the only one and the level of hate it received for it set an example for everybody else and nobody wanted to receive that amount of hate over some innocent comments.

I still just think....thats why they charge money for their magazines or online articles. Maybe I m a little blue-eyed but I think its their JOB to make the hard questions and be a little more then "just neutral". I realized years ago that todays game magazines are nothing more then advertisement platforms, you dont get quality evaluations, you get mainstream opinion, vague forecasts and IF one of these sites bashes a game its about dead projects that everybody already knows has failed. Apart from confirming what I already know....what exactly do I need game magazines for?

 

[Asp Explorer]

I'm also pretty sure that the press is just waiting for the moment of truth and when the whole bubble bursts they will have a field day, literally beating the living snot out of Chris Roberts and CIG.

Naaah - the truth itself is the worst thing one could offer to an egotist like Genuine Roberts. All the claims, inventions, waffle, handwaving, script, mocap, movie, Hollywood hobnobbing and cash spent - what in truth is there to show for it?

A complete lack of any game, and the repeatedly demonstrated inability to produce one.

I just wish he'd wake up one day, discover that the Vision is fuzzy and he can't quite remember if he wanted green or blue pixels, and ask his dev team "Where do we go from here? Please lads and ladettes, help me make a game?" and the devs simply tell him "We have this framework and these assets and this budget and this skillset. We can do A,B and C in 6, 12 and 24 months if the pixels stay green". Genuine Roberts grits his teeth, sighs a little in resignation and gives the go-ahead for B in 12 months, and leaves the devs well alone to simply get on with their job.

11 months later, Genuine Roberts is testing the latest pre-release of the actual deliverable product. It's great! It's got dozens of ships and a rudimentary trading system for five memorably different star ports in two different systems just a loading screen away - such containment is explained by alien attacks preventing further travel until HeroWins=1 or somesuch and can be expanded upon with further DLC content. Solid 32 player networking. 60 FPS. Ramps have been tamed. It plays great and can be released next day.

Genuine Roberts smiles - he finally has his Space Game - and turning to the devs one again "Good! BUT - that ship with the spike thingies needs to be bigger, and see those pixels there? It needs to be blue, not green"

 

[MTBFritz]

Naaah - the truth itself is the worst thing one could offer to an egotist like Genuine Roberts. All the claims, inventions, waffle, handwaving, script, mocap, movie, Hollywood hobnobbing and cash spent - what in truth is there to show for it?

A complete lack of any game, and the repeatedly demonstrated inability to produce one.

I just wish he'd wake up one day, discover that the Vision is fuzzy and he can't quite remember if he wanted green or blue pixels, and ask his dev team "Where do we go from here? Please lads and ladettes, help me make a game?" and the devs simply tell him "We have this framework and these assets and this budget and this skillset. We can do A,B and C in 6, 12 and 24 months if the pixels stay green". Genuine Roberts grits his teeth, sighs a little in resignation and gives the go-ahead for B in 12 months, and leaves the devs well alone to simply get on with their job.

11 months later, Genuine Roberts is testing the latest pre-release of the actual deliverable product. It's great! It's got dozens of ships and a rudimentary trading system for five memorably different star ports in two different systems just a loading screen away - such containment is explained by alien attacks preventing further travel until HeroWins=1 or somesuch and can be expanded upon with further DLC content. Solid 32 player networking. 60 FPS. Ramps have been tamed. It plays great and can be released next day.

Genuine Roberts smiles - he finally has his Space Game - and turning to the devs one again "Good! BUT - that ship with the spike thingies needs to be bigger, and see those pixels there? It needs to be blue, not green"

+1 virtual rep for putting a smile on my face

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

Thats probably the case but I ll be there to tell them that they are too late, it would have been THEIR job to question the game and put on the hard questions. Not run in once everything is over in order to beat on the lifeless corpse. I mean seriously....what are magazines like IGN going to tell me that I dont already know? And whatever they tell the rest of the world is of no importance whatsoever....basically the same as filler material. I still dont know why nobody had the clout to go full bore when it comes to CiG and how they developed the project. Its like the Escapist was the only one and the level of hate it received for it set an example for everybody else and nobody wanted to receive that amount of hate over some innocent comments.

I still just think....thats why they charge money for their magazines or online articles. Maybe I m a little blue-eyed but I think its their JOB to make the hard questions and be a little more then "just neutral". I realized years ago that todays game magazines are nothing more then advertisement platforms, you dont get quality evaluations, you get mainstream opinion, vague forecasts and IF one of these sites bashes a game its about dead projects that everybody already knows has failed. Apart from confirming what I already know....what exactly do I need game magazines for?

I wasn't talking about the "gaming press", I don't even consider them anykind of serious press to begin with.
I was thinking more of media outlets like the Washington Post or the New York Times. When there is a story like "CIG files for chapter 11" they will react to it and most possibly they will ask the questions the "gaming press" had not.
Right now the press (not the gaming jornos) isn't covering CR and CIG just because there's not enough meat on the bone, right now as they are still developing something of a game, there is no story. But that can change pretty fast.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I've been watching it and documenting it for too damn long.

That is one way to spend your life...

I wasn't talking about the "gaming press", I don't even consider them anykind of serious press to begin with.
I was thinking more of media outlets like the Washington Post or the New York Times. When there is a story like "CIG files for chapter 11" they will react to it and most possibly they will ask the questions the "gaming press" had not.
Right now the press (not the gaming jornos) isn't covering CR and CIG just because there's not enough meat on the bone, right now as they are still developing something of a game, there is no story. But that can change pretty fast.

Exactly. Gaming press isnt real journalism at all. A +-100m game being doubted isnt mainstream news yet, but when if it actually fails it'll be the flavor of the day. For all the wrong reasons, but still.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Naaah - the truth itself is the worst thing one could offer to an egotist like Genuine Roberts. All the claims, inventions, waffle, handwaving, script, mocap, movie, Hollywood hobnobbing and cash spent - what in truth is there to show for it?

A complete lack of any game, and the repeatedly demonstrated inability to produce one.

I just wish he'd wake up one day, discover that the Vision is fuzzy and he can't quite remember if he wanted green or blue pixels, and ask his dev team "Where do we go from here? Please lads and ladettes, help me make a game?" and the devs simply tell him "We have this framework and these assets and this budget and this skillset. We can do A,B and C in 6, 12 and 24 months if the pixels stay green". Genuine Roberts grits his teeth, sighs a little in resignation and gives the go-ahead for B in 12 months, and leaves the devs well alone to simply get on with their job.

11 months later, Genuine Roberts is testing the latest pre-release of the actual deliverable product. It's great! It's got dozens of ships and a rudimentary trading system for five memorably different star ports in two different systems just a loading screen away - such containment is explained by alien attacks preventing further travel until HeroWins=1 or somesuch and can be expanded upon with further DLC content. Solid 32 player networking. 60 FPS. Ramps have been tamed. It plays great and can be released next day.

Genuine Roberts smiles - he finally has his Space Game - and turning to the devs one again "Good! BUT - that ship with the spike thingies needs to be bigger, and see those pixels there? It needs to be blue, not green"

+1 virtual rep for putting a smile on my face

Strangely enough, to me it was actually a depressing post...

 

[Asp Explorer]

Is any of that in the game as it stands?

Nope.

According to their recent dev video they haven't even begun to "imagine" trading. There is no framework for "possession" exchange between entities.

 

[Memnoch]

That's pitiful, frankly. All this time and money and exchange money for goods or services isn't even there. I seem to remember watching an exciting video a year or two back where a small team of crack soldiers raided a base, stole a crate and promptly exploded on a ramp. But they took that create, damn it, and I bet if they hadn't beaten whipped by the ramp that crate might have been worth something.

Anyone willing to bet that one of their developers has a secret list of blockers and pretty high up on that list is the name "Chris Roberts"?

 

[Han Zulu]

Nope.

According to their recent dev video they haven't even begun to "imagine" trading. There is no framework for "possession" exchange between entities.

Seriously? Not even that? :/ They're really falling behind.

 

[DLewth]

... exploration (that will be a tough one!)

"I'm heading out to discover every planet in the 'verse!"
...30 seconds later...
"Found it."

 

[sovapid]

A / B trading (buying from one location and selling at another) has been in SC since 3.0

[video=youtube;B9R4O_wydwU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9R4O_wydwU[/video]

 

[Asp Explorer]

"I'm heading out to discover every planet in the 'verse!"
...30 seconds later...
"Found it."

Ahhh - but you must deliver that data for it to be accepted!! First you must wake up Miles Eckhart from his inebriation induced coma and guide him back to his bar stool. Then you must mix him another drink.

Only then Commando, will you be allowed to climb the Tower Of Ramps, beyond which lies the Tomb of XML, in which dwell the Devourers of Collision.

And they hunger.....

 

[knowles2]

Nope.

According to their recent dev video they haven't even begun to "imagine" trading. There is no framework for "possession" exchange between entities.

They really are stuck in 90s game development style aren't they.

Someone should teach them that it best to produce a game design document because a single line of code, a single polygon is use to actually produce a game.

It doesn't and perhaps shouldn't cover everything but at least the basics should be in there!!!

 

[Asp Explorer]

They really are stuck in 90s game development style aren't they.

Someone should teach them that it best to produce a game design document because a single line of code, a single polygon is use to actually produce a game.

It doesn't and perhaps shouldn't cover everything but at least the basics should be in there!!!

Nope - Genuine Roberts is stuck way prior to that. Remember the 16 bit days? Have a look at the documentation for this project here - http://birdsanctuary.co.uk/ept/

Dear Deity - if the Rainbird guys had CIG's money I can't even begin to imagine what we could have had by now.

 

[Cobra1984]

That is one way to spend your life...

Oh come on now, you can do better than that!

Exactly. Gaming press isnt real journalism at all. A +-100m game being doubted isnt mainstream news yet, but when if it actually fails it'll be the flavor of the day. For all the wrong reasons, but still.

The Escapist was nominated for a Kunkel award for excellence in journalism in 2015 for their two exposé pieces on Star Citizen, and a narrative of lies and nonsense was quickly constructed by the SC community so that they didn't have to contend or deal with what came out of that.

The only coverage that SC has had from the mainstream gaming press in the last 6 months has been primarily around the $27k Legatus pack, with a couple of sites also carrying the 3.0 trailer press release. Kotaku commented on the latter by saying it showed "nothing much".

You can also track the annual "we're still doing VR, honest guv" Chris Roberts Xmas Message that appears in the VR press every January or thereabouts going back to 2015.

The gaming press coverage of Star Citizen was steady during 2016, dropped sharply during 2017 with the majority of sites not publishing the press releases, and has practically stopped during 2018 with only controversial aspects of the project getting attention from the press.

I have screencaps and links for most (but not all) of the SC press for 2016 and part of 2017 and boy oh boy does it tell a story - Squadron 42 is cancelled, no it isn't, yes it is, here's a dev roadmap, no that's all changed here's a new one, nope that's all delayed too... and on and on it goes. Their PR is layed out as a complete disaster for anyone with the patience to look at it, month after month, year after year.

Two things of note have happened this year as regards the gaming press:

1. Charlie Hall (Polygon), a cheerleader for the project, often publishing obvious damage control editorial during times of bad press, has stopped writing about Star Citizen.

2. Future Publishing (parent of PC Gamer etc) applied for a copy of the CIG/Crytek court transcript in March this year.

So the gaming press have *stopped* carrying CIG's trailers, dev schedules and press releases and have started digging for something substantive to write about it.

That sounds like journalism to me.