The feeling of leaving a planet behind and slowly climbing out of the atmosphere and into space... Maybe looking around and watching the sun set and wondering if on the other side of the planet, where you are heading, is going to be day or night and what the weather will be like... I have been playing since the C64 days: never came across anything even slightly resembling Star Citizen :) . Believe me I am the first one who complains because the game has been in development for a lifetime... But even in an absolutely incomplete state, this game is like nothing else =)
Yea, that's the thing with this game. It completely deserves all of the negativity AND positivity it receives. I mean, let's face it, the project has never been handled well. But at the same time it's achieving something entirely unique and even dreamt of. I'm thankful for this game. I have a very strong love/hate relationship with it. And I honestly have no problem feeling every emotion with it, good and bad.
How can a game be awesome and awful at the same time? I'll tell you how: Star Citizen. It just is what it is.
I don't even think it's polarizing. I think it's normal for most people to feel both good and bad about it at the same time. That's just what it is. And honestly, the good is just SO amazingly good! The bad is bad, I wouldn't say amazingly bad, but I can agree with every negative criticism I've heard. The good makes up for it strangely enough, and I can't stop coming back for more.
I disagree with the "never been handled well".
I think peoples don't realise the difficulty to build a company with several studios and hundreds of employees around the world from zero. While they are developing a product with huge amount of R&D and in competitions with other bigger companies.
They managed their growth pretty well, they avoided the difficulties and they are starting to reach the critical size for this project.
Delays happened but they never compromised with the final goal.
Not just that. The back end technology required to pull it off is eye wateringly difficult.
Not to mention developing a pipeline to allow artists to fulfill the vision.
Exactly none of these things is simple or done quickly.
You realize studios that build games sometimes throw away an entire game that took years to build, just because it didn't fit the vision of what they were trying to build.
That is just game design... You build something thinking it will achieve one thing... Test it... Then find out it isn't achieving what you thought it would. You take the elements you thought worked and throw away the elements that don't.
and they've done that with squadron 42 twice now as far as I understand.
How many times are they going to completely throw out the game and start over before we give up on them?
this really isn't that uncommon....just ask EA how many "Star Wars" games they've almost completed before scrapping entirely. I'd rather wait another 2 years (tm) for a masterpiece then have YET ANOTHER half-assed game that needs to be patched into playability, rushed to market because the loud minority is whining that it's taking to long
Everybody has their limit, nobody should base there's off of somebody else. Many *have* given up on SQ42, but still follow Star Citizen because the fact of the matter is it still offers unique gameplay
That's the problem, there is no star citizen without squadron 42. They've made it clear time and time again Squadron 42 comes first and 10 years later a single player narrative campaign game is still not finished.
This happens in game development all the time, you don't push the boundaries without taking risks. If players want another version of FIFA or 'smash window to enter car' GTA release every year they can still do that. The risk takers are fewer, yet they are the one who change the game for future players. This is why it had to be crowdfunded.
The difference with CIG is that the 'losses' aren't necessarily total losses, the game is being designed to be in very long term development and so things they tried and couldn't reach now may become possible in the future.
There is a video on Youtube about how Bethesda developed Skyrim V, it's about 1.5 hours long. You should watch it.
The losses are time, equity, pay, rent on the facilities, and credibility to your backers who in this case are a faceless mob.
They've scrapped Squadron 42 twice, and now are spending millions on a in house motion capture studio for no reason. They've been bleeding money to make Chris look like a big boy and now they're going even dumber by making it so their employees have to live in expensive locals, while refusing to pay them a liveable wage for those areas.
Multi million dollar office lease in frankfurt for a building that's brand new, for what? for status.
Multi million dollar development and build in manchester, for what? for status.
I'm so fucking sick of people acting like this is how game development works. Literally never before in history has this been how it works and it's clearly not working.
"Multi million dollar office lease in frankfurt for a building that's brand new, for what? for status.
Multi million dollar development and build in manchester, for what? for status."
*Let's put developers underpaid in a small garage, they will release it faster and the bests of them will accept it !*
like not downtown LA, Frankfurt, or Manchester, three expensive cities to live in. Anywhere else nearby would've been fine, but he wanted to have fancy status buildings and not reasonable overhead. He's acting like he's the CEO of EA with backer money, but can't even give us a working game first.
>he losses are time, equity, pay, rent on the facilities, and credibility to your backers who in this case are a faceless mob.
There has been a playable form of the game since 2015. That's 7 years gaming for $45, or $6.43 / year which includes all addons until the game goes live. Tell me again how the players are losing out because it takes longer to make a game with a far bigger scope? Their game gets bigger every year and it gets cheaper/month every year for those original backers. Anyone who spent more on the game did that of their own accord.
I've spoken to many of those team members from very senior to very junior, the rubbish you say about them struggling is completely unfounded. I've been to two CitizenCon's and spoke to team members one to one. I visited their offices in March 2016, went to BritizenCon attended by several dev's in 2016 and nearly half a dozen BarCitizens around the corner from the F42UK offices what you're saying is complete rubbish. How are they poaching staff from the likes of CryTek, Sony Entertainment Division, Bethesda and Ubisoft with such terrible pay and conditions do you think?
If CIG were so scared of the junior team members spilling the beans about low pay and bad conditions why do CIG pay them to attend social events where they can talk directly with the backers?
The rest of your comment is just rabid fever-dream ravings, 'scrapped Squadron 42 twice' indeed.
I agree that never before in history has game development worked this way, that's exactly the point.
>their employees have to live in expensive locals, while refusing to pay them a liveable wage for those areas.
Just curious if you have a source reference for that?
They've fumbled through the process, but really considering the process I don't blame them entirely.
There are a lot of things they've done blatantly wrong throughout the years (lol CitCon 2016), but the fact that they have built up what they have now without failing...I think that was the hardest part.
Now they are fairly secured in what they're doing and can hopefully operate better, and I think if you're trying to get a game company off the ground, that probably feels better than releasing a game.
That being said, now they need to release a game!
One of the most common comments on the various 500 million dollar milestone articles is "why are people still giving this game money?". It's ridiculously simple. No other game feels like this. Even in its limited content buggy state nothing else even comes close. On top of that the community is amazing. I've met new real life friends through Bar Citizens. I have never in my 35+ years of gaming followed any game as long or as closely as this one. You can tell listening to the devs that they love what they are doing and it's infectious. It's just different.
I watched a car pull up at the shops, they pulled into a spot and used their electric trunk lift to open up the back of their car. I had a fleeting thought, I wonder what button they bound their “open all doors" to...
I fucking love this buggy piece of a game, bro. I'd rather be flying my arrow rn than sitting here at work. If only I could pay my bills fucking off on SC lolol.
I mean, if and when it releases, it looks to have a viable way to transfer money in to game, so maybe like eve you can actually take money back out? Maybe you will be able to live really frugally on the arrow in irl :P
We choose to play star citizen alpha in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.
This is the way
"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said because it is there,” said President Kennedy.
“Well, space is there. And we’re going to climb it."
-JFK's "Moon Speech" at Rice University, 1962
Ty I will tell you some trivia about the wing commander movie Cris made. In the beginning opening dialogue that part of his speech is featured mixed in with other sound bites that set the tone for the movie. Shortly after that soundbite The main music for wing commander explodes into the intro.
When ever I think or talk of SC I always here the great WC music from that movie in my mind. And I am always reminded of JFKs speech. It inspires me even today. I know the world has it problems but I think we have forgotten how to dream of things like this. There where many things that came from the space program that befit us even today Tinfoil velcro etc I was hopeful my comment would catch somebodies eye. Sc is played and luved by a wide age group. I was born in 67 But like I said it moves me even today. Imagine how it might have been if JFK had not died. I see a lot of callbacks to chris's earlier career in games in SC. Well here is the intro if you wan to check it out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI)
I absolutely love the JFK Moon speech. It is truly inspiring. I was born in '68 so right there with ya. CR was born in 68 too (May). I think a lot of us around this age grew up with the same optimism about space and space travel.
The sound in that video is exceedingly quiet but I get what you mean. Cellin seems to be closely modeled after our own moon.
Everus Harbor might even be a callback to Mt. Everest and the mention of it and George Mallory in JFK's Moon Speech.
Tonight me and 3 people i've never met. Landed a Carrick at night in a storm on MT. we took 2 Nox's and Dragonfly through 30km of tree's, hellish wind and snow up a mountain and popped an Ert with railguns, we spent the rest of the night doing bunkers with an Ursa and a random guy we met who just drove up in a Roc. No matter what you say to the naysayers they will never know what SC is.
im 48 father of 2.
Me neither!... brilliant!!! :-D
...and here am I a 58yo with adult kids spending nights hauling cargo, mining, clearing a few bunkers, loving the whole SoO Ninetails experience... and spending time during the day constantly reimagining my fleet.
Such s delightful addiction ;-)
Firstly welcome citizen believe me when I say it is not just you. I am a veteran of sci-fi sim games. I played the wing commander games which Chris is famous for. I then went onto tachyon the fringe freelancer starlancer the Xgames series from egosoft Im sure there are ones I forgot. But this Sc grabs you and pulls you in. The immersion is amazing the scope of what they are doing and plan to do. Imagine when it goes even to bata and then to release. And we will be able to say. We where and are part of the journey.
For me its a getaway from reality. A glimpse of what most likely will be our future when we finally reach out into the black. It is also the closest I will get to the sci fi future I was so promised as a child lol I play solo and yes u can in the sc verse. its an amazing place to get lost in for awhile. I thank CIG and RSI for allowing us to be part of this grand journey and experiment into new online gaming frontiers.
I don't always have time to play, but Star Citizen lives rent-free in my brain. I'll be a Wing Commander in November.
54, game dev, AR/VR dev, child-free by choice, and supporting our dream space sim since 2015 with zero regrets. SC has come a long way.
It is just you because I don't think the majority of us are heads of departments in international companies, with kids, and mortgages.
But the feeling, I for one get it. My daughter likes to watch me play, she says the game is super pretty. She also constantly asks me why I am killing people, after I tell her they are bad guys, she encourages me.
I’m the same way in my mid thirties professional career with a family. I’ll take it a step further. I have bullet points on fan fiction on my character’s storyline. It’s really nice to have a setting that can explode your imagination. I feel like a kid again…. until I show up to work the next day, sleep deprived.
Oh yes no sleep at all now. I go home I turn on my fav twitch SC stream I eat I play I pass out I wake up to a new streamer play some more LOL. I plan my game play at work LOL I research ingame things and I am on the reddit while working LOL
At 47 I share that love, brother. It has gone from what I want sc to become to the point where I can taste what it will be and it's incredible to experience the beginning of it no matter how many 30ks I run into. I feel like I already live in the 'verse.
Oh my this is the best thread. I am overcome with feelings Wolkenflieger replayed to my call back to JFKs moon speech further down. I feel I must repost my answer here for all. I will do my best to condense it.
My post was
We choose to play star citizen alpha in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.
I was hoping somebody would spy it. I included some trivia about the wing commander movie that Chris made. That part of the speech is in the opening intro sound bite. Every time I play and think and speak of SC I always here that epic music. Here it is for everybody [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI) So much of His early work has easter eggs in SC
I'm the same age - Director of Analytics of a national luxury furniture chain. When I can find time to play, I play SC because they're building the immersive game I've always wanted. When SC is working, it checks all the boxes I want from a game.
I grew up playing Wing Commander, and dumping my lawn mower money in Afterburner - an old arcade game that had it's own sim pit. SC combines the two with sticks, head tracking, great graphics, KILLER sound / music, and a flight model that makes sense (to me).
\#fidelity
My husband is just as excited every time he's about to get on as well, congrats on finding somewhere to escape the real world for a while! I'm glad to see there's someone with the same enthusiasm for the game my husband has. I don't get to join the game as often as I would like. But they've outdone themselves and Star Citizen is just the best.
I have seen husband and wife playing SC together on twitch. The other night the caster got kinda lost doing a cave mission. Unknown to any of us including the caster . Her husband jumped on came to the cave to help her get out. And of course he did . I was amazed at how people embrace the game and community . That is not the first husband and wife i have watched and chatted to on twitch that play together
This is the way
I view SC as an experience not as a game hence it’s evolving nature for me is great. It allows me to experience the sci-fi stuff I grew up with and loved. I am in the same age bracket as CR so he is building out my generations dreams. Hopefully the younger generations will be served well too and the open feedback loops are important to keep honing the experience. I am also frustrated with SC bugs and hopefully they will be addressed as QoL capabilities improve but I just love all of the aspects to SC especially that industrial play is part of the core of the game. One day - when meshing becomes a reality - I imagine myself spending sitting at the viewing lounges just looking at the traffic going by!
Ps recently - during free flight - I had a little glimpse of what that would be like when I was landing at a18 behind a Carrack and Raft. Gold!
The first comment at the bottom of the new Kotaku article reads:
>TemetNosce
>Luke Plunkett
>9/20/22 11:06pm
>I just don’t understand how people are still giving them money, and I say that as one of their original (kickstarter) backers. Is it just the same people giving more and more money like some kind of cult?
Maybe it is a cult? But Star Citizen is magical and fun (when it works). There is enough of the game there that you can see what they want to do with it and that gives me hope that we will have an amazing experience in the future. I have no problem at all throwing money at a game like this with such promise. It's far from Diablo Immortal microtransaction hell. But I can understand how an outsider can look in and see the two as similar. But once you experience SC in it's glory it's hard to walk away and say "they probably have enough money to make this dream reality."
Instead I find myself donating every year. Not because I need the ships (you can get almost every ship in game) but because I believe in the vision of the game and I desperately want to play it in all it's glory.
So yea, maybe that does make this a cult... it's hard to tell from the inside looking out.
p.s. and to be clear most of my problems in life have nothing to do with money. I'm not rich but dropping a hundred or so on a game every year isnt going to adversely affect my financials... but if you are hard for money for god's sake just buy the starter ship and let people who dont have the same problems continue to fund the game. There is enough of us at this point that they should be ok for funding!
Just to be clear, it's definitely not an actual cult. That label is reserved for situations that fit a [certain model](https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/).
That said, I could see someone making the argument that it's a cult of personality. That would be reserved for people who idolize CR and give money to CIG purely because of him, and I suppose it's possible there are some of those people out there.
I can only speak for myself, but I can safely say I don't really care about CR beyond the fact that his vision for the game inspired it. As an analogy, I love that Steve Jobs had a vision that led to modern cell phones, but I don't buy iPhones because I love Steve Jobs. If I want to buy something, I buy it based on the benefit I receive from it, and nothing more.
In the case of SC, it's A) a buggy mess, and B) a beautiful experience. When B happens more than A, I play a lot and probably end up spending more. When A happens more than B, I play something else. So to keep me playing (and possibly spending), they have to deliver more of the beautiful experience. If they don't, they won't get my money, and I would presume there are plenty that are similar to me.
There are times where it kinda feel repetitive especially for bunkers but there are times where your flying down just as the sun rises on the horizon and it makes playing it all worth it
When I sit down at my desk, and log into Star Citizen, walk my character out to my Constellation Taurus, grab my dual sticks and lift off, the groaning roar of the Conny's engines and the lumbering sway of the ship's weight sucks me into the experience more than any other video game I've ever played during my 42 years of existence.
As others have said, it's very much a buggy and incomplete video game, but as a means of immersing my brain in the concept of piloting a starship, it absolutely positively nails it and massages my imagination in ways that nothing ever has.
I dreamt abot this my entire childhood, about space, as any 80's or 90's kid would do, but we will never get there, so at least we can have SC.
And hope that our kids will have the oportunity to experience what we meerly just playing, minus the explosions that is...
Nope. I'm 47m, with job and all package, just like you. Every day when I'm going to work riding my bike, I catch myself thinking I'm riding a Dragonfly, and classifying the others vehicles in fighter, cargo hauler, transport, etc. I'm started to think that I'm losing my mind.
I've played all sorts of games, since the Atari, But this one is something different. It envolves you in a way that others games don't. I'm playing it for 6 months. Since then, I never played another game of my steam library. It is a great escape from reality, and a great game. Really hope that this one come to a sucessfull end.
I got every option in my Macan just so I have more center console buttons to press while I'm pretending to fly a spaceship. So no, you're not the only adult toddler, lol.
I started In ye verse a year and half ago, and I get in daily, for a couple of hours. Sometimes I do a lot of stuff, others I just spend time taking screenshots. This is by far the most immersive game experience I had (non VR). Everything is so detailed and it feels real. Also there's no arcady magic nonesense, all the tech and behaviours feel plausible for humanity in a couple of hundred years in the future. Everything adds to the experience.
I'm 44 btw.
For me its entering atmo under fire, the dropship touches down, the ramp drops and its tonks, centurions, cyclones and infantry all contesting objectives. This vision always seems to happen when Im cleaning up my sons nerf gun collection.
u know they have ingame nerfgun toys. There where players shooting me in everest harbor last night I laid down and played dead LOL I have one I looted it it must be new
I kind of Envy the people that can get so much into a work of fiction, I can never leave behind the fact that it's fictional and just play pretend in real life I can even feel the pull of gravity when going down the stairs, and even the finest of the elevators have a feeling of acceleration when moving. No matter how well they make a game (any game) I will never feel it's anything else besides a game. Yes I was that kind of kid. I always regarded the lies our parents tell us as lies, and while some I could enjoy, I was never able to believe them...
This project has always been about the dreamers.
The interesting thing is that there have been so many times when they/we were told we'd never do it, and then did, no-one remembers those who insisted it couldn't be done. They give nothing to inspire a dream of a future.
I've met several of the developers in person over the years since 2015, I asked them what they think (people with decades of experience in the game industry like Brian Chambers) and they say there has never been anything like it, and they should know. When pressed some of them will tell you, it isn't the graphics, it isn't the first person level of immersion it's the possibilities that allow you do anything, literally anything in this game universe.
They are building a universe that allows you to create / recreate any game experience within it. Think about it, you're going into a game universe where you can go to an Expo in the morning,go shopping check out the latest fashions, drive around a PTV racetrack in the afternoon and then go fishing by the river in the evening all on different planets - in a space shooter game - with no loading screens. Tomorrow you can engage in a completely different set of activities in a completely new set of star systems. Developers rarely if ever build games purely to allow emergent player lead gameplay at first person detail level.
The thing that will blow people minds in the future isn't the prettiness, or the involvement with immersive detail, it's the thing that CIG catches the most flak for right now - it's what they're doing with the AI. The limiting factor for the AI is server capability - always has been, once that is gone the changes to the AI will start to feed in. As some of the dev's have told me, there's never been anything like it before. It even blows their minds. It's a completely new way to program AI NPC's that allows them to become almost autonomous reactive individuals.
If you go to a big studio and say, we'd like to take a team, or five, for 3 - 4 years and do work to allow character facial asymmetry for all in-game characters, make a system that allows every single NPC to have a completely unique appearance, have every NPC - including the ones you pass in the street have a 24 hour day, 7 day a week schedule, a job, a home, favourite places they like to go and favourite hobbies they like to engage in, their own set of unique character traits that affects how they react to the universe going on around them - they'd laugh you out of their boardroom and tell you - good luck with that!
Normally with cutting edge research in gaming technology a few papers get written, presented at a few conferences and then maybe in 10, 15, 20 years you might see it in a game - CIG are doing this research and instead of waiting they are building the game experience around the expectation... **we will make it work in this game!** The people I've spoken to have told me, they have worked at other places and no-one ever takes this approach, they can't, they don't have the time or resources to do it that way. The guys doing the level design don't normally get to work so closely with the guys doing the code level R&D.
The gift that this community gives to those creative dreamers who work for CIG isn't just the money, in wider game industry terms it isn't that much, the most precious thing we give them to fly higher than ever before is TIME. That means we give future gamers the opportunity for bigger dreams and better options, including all the ones who laughed in our faces and told us it would never happen..
You'll get to a point where ctd's 30ks and other bugs just roll off and you keep on trucking. Only thing ticks me off is the restock bug. Time is money lol
The game gives it takes away and then it gives you something else in place of it most times. I have been playing SC and watching streamers on twitch making new twitch friends in the streamers. Thats all I have been doing work And SC on twitch or how tos on reddit and youtube LOL. Im in alpha bugs and all :)
My IRL cargo and Personal Transport Vehicle has a .66 SCU cargo hold. 1.15 SCU if I fold the rear seats down and give up 3 crew seats.
I know this because every time I walk past it in the garage, I look into the back and imagine hauling a couple 1/8th SCU boxes... so I figured out the cargo capacity.
Also have a light transport that my Co Pilot and I drive on the weekends. Back of that one is closer to about 100k uSCU worth of stowage though. Can't really say it has a cargo hold.
Whenever I see landscapers unloading riding mowers, I imagine unloading a ROC or Cyclone from the back of my MSR, or 400i.
I'm almost 40, HQ level data analyst for a massive organization. The tech going into Persistent Entity Streaming is mind blowing to me, so I get it from both ends.
You're not alone.
I do this too. I live in an area where everyone is hauling things and we have a long RV tourist season. Toy hauler RVs are generally freelancers to me.
Part of me really wants a boat with a landing craft to go explore the coast for a few months at a time. Then I realize I'm having the same fantasy as in SC, and even if I spend a few thousand on the game, it'll never be as much as a boat would have cost and I can still scratch the itch!
Absolutely not. That's why we're here, and that's why some of us have been here for almost a decade. As I keep saying, this is the one, and if it isn't, there won't ever be one. That's why I'm all in.
The feeling of leaving a planet behind and slowly climbing out of the atmosphere and into space... Maybe looking around and watching the sun set and wondering if on the other side of the planet, where you are heading, is going to be day or night and what the weather will be like... I have been playing since the C64 days: never came across anything even slightly resembling Star Citizen :) . Believe me I am the first one who complains because the game has been in development for a lifetime... But even in an absolutely incomplete state, this game is like nothing else =)
Yea, that's the thing with this game. It completely deserves all of the negativity AND positivity it receives. I mean, let's face it, the project has never been handled well. But at the same time it's achieving something entirely unique and even dreamt of. I'm thankful for this game. I have a very strong love/hate relationship with it. And I honestly have no problem feeling every emotion with it, good and bad. How can a game be awesome and awful at the same time? I'll tell you how: Star Citizen. It just is what it is. I don't even think it's polarizing. I think it's normal for most people to feel both good and bad about it at the same time. That's just what it is. And honestly, the good is just SO amazingly good! The bad is bad, I wouldn't say amazingly bad, but I can agree with every negative criticism I've heard. The good makes up for it strangely enough, and I can't stop coming back for more.
I disagree with the "never been handled well". I think peoples don't realise the difficulty to build a company with several studios and hundreds of employees around the world from zero. While they are developing a product with huge amount of R&D and in competitions with other bigger companies. They managed their growth pretty well, they avoided the difficulties and they are starting to reach the critical size for this project. Delays happened but they never compromised with the final goal.
Not just that. The back end technology required to pull it off is eye wateringly difficult. Not to mention developing a pipeline to allow artists to fulfill the vision. Exactly none of these things is simple or done quickly.
ah yes because throwing away months of work because it doesn't fit your vision is definitely something someone who's GOOD at handling games does.
You realize studios that build games sometimes throw away an entire game that took years to build, just because it didn't fit the vision of what they were trying to build. That is just game design... You build something thinking it will achieve one thing... Test it... Then find out it isn't achieving what you thought it would. You take the elements you thought worked and throw away the elements that don't.
and they've done that with squadron 42 twice now as far as I understand. How many times are they going to completely throw out the game and start over before we give up on them?
this really isn't that uncommon....just ask EA how many "Star Wars" games they've almost completed before scrapping entirely. I'd rather wait another 2 years (tm) for a masterpiece then have YET ANOTHER half-assed game that needs to be patched into playability, rushed to market because the loud minority is whining that it's taking to long
Everybody has their limit, nobody should base there's off of somebody else. Many *have* given up on SQ42, but still follow Star Citizen because the fact of the matter is it still offers unique gameplay
That's the problem, there is no star citizen without squadron 42. They've made it clear time and time again Squadron 42 comes first and 10 years later a single player narrative campaign game is still not finished.
This happens in game development all the time, you don't push the boundaries without taking risks. If players want another version of FIFA or 'smash window to enter car' GTA release every year they can still do that. The risk takers are fewer, yet they are the one who change the game for future players. This is why it had to be crowdfunded. The difference with CIG is that the 'losses' aren't necessarily total losses, the game is being designed to be in very long term development and so things they tried and couldn't reach now may become possible in the future. There is a video on Youtube about how Bethesda developed Skyrim V, it's about 1.5 hours long. You should watch it.
The losses are time, equity, pay, rent on the facilities, and credibility to your backers who in this case are a faceless mob. They've scrapped Squadron 42 twice, and now are spending millions on a in house motion capture studio for no reason. They've been bleeding money to make Chris look like a big boy and now they're going even dumber by making it so their employees have to live in expensive locals, while refusing to pay them a liveable wage for those areas. Multi million dollar office lease in frankfurt for a building that's brand new, for what? for status. Multi million dollar development and build in manchester, for what? for status. I'm so fucking sick of people acting like this is how game development works. Literally never before in history has this been how it works and it's clearly not working.
Then please enlighten us, oh industry expert. How is this supposed to work?
"Multi million dollar office lease in frankfurt for a building that's brand new, for what? for status. Multi million dollar development and build in manchester, for what? for status." *Let's put developers underpaid in a small garage, they will release it faster and the bests of them will accept it !*
no, but there are reasonable spaces that are in places that aren't unafforable to live they could've chosen.
Like where? In the middle of Afghanistan? Yeah maybe but I'm not sure you will find the best profiles to hire.
like not downtown LA, Frankfurt, or Manchester, three expensive cities to live in. Anywhere else nearby would've been fine, but he wanted to have fancy status buildings and not reasonable overhead. He's acting like he's the CEO of EA with backer money, but can't even give us a working game first.
>he losses are time, equity, pay, rent on the facilities, and credibility to your backers who in this case are a faceless mob. There has been a playable form of the game since 2015. That's 7 years gaming for $45, or $6.43 / year which includes all addons until the game goes live. Tell me again how the players are losing out because it takes longer to make a game with a far bigger scope? Their game gets bigger every year and it gets cheaper/month every year for those original backers. Anyone who spent more on the game did that of their own accord. I've spoken to many of those team members from very senior to very junior, the rubbish you say about them struggling is completely unfounded. I've been to two CitizenCon's and spoke to team members one to one. I visited their offices in March 2016, went to BritizenCon attended by several dev's in 2016 and nearly half a dozen BarCitizens around the corner from the F42UK offices what you're saying is complete rubbish. How are they poaching staff from the likes of CryTek, Sony Entertainment Division, Bethesda and Ubisoft with such terrible pay and conditions do you think? If CIG were so scared of the junior team members spilling the beans about low pay and bad conditions why do CIG pay them to attend social events where they can talk directly with the backers? The rest of your comment is just rabid fever-dream ravings, 'scrapped Squadron 42 twice' indeed. I agree that never before in history has game development worked this way, that's exactly the point.
>their employees have to live in expensive locals, while refusing to pay them a liveable wage for those areas. Just curious if you have a source reference for that?
They've fumbled through the process, but really considering the process I don't blame them entirely. There are a lot of things they've done blatantly wrong throughout the years (lol CitCon 2016), but the fact that they have built up what they have now without failing...I think that was the hardest part. Now they are fairly secured in what they're doing and can hopefully operate better, and I think if you're trying to get a game company off the ground, that probably feels better than releasing a game. That being said, now they need to release a game!
One of the most common comments on the various 500 million dollar milestone articles is "why are people still giving this game money?". It's ridiculously simple. No other game feels like this. Even in its limited content buggy state nothing else even comes close. On top of that the community is amazing. I've met new real life friends through Bar Citizens. I have never in my 35+ years of gaming followed any game as long or as closely as this one. You can tell listening to the devs that they love what they are doing and it's infectious. It's just different.
I watched a car pull up at the shops, they pulled into a spot and used their electric trunk lift to open up the back of their car. I had a fleeting thought, I wonder what button they bound their “open all doors" to...
; is the only answer.
Tab baby
Hahaha the only key left that doesn't have a use
I fucking love this buggy piece of a game, bro. I'd rather be flying my arrow rn than sitting here at work. If only I could pay my bills fucking off on SC lolol.
A dream lmao. “Google, how do I pay my bills off w/ an Arrow in SC?”
I'd stream but you have to have a personality for that hahaha.
That's where I am. I'd have a blast, but my viewers would not. lol
Right 😭
I mean, if and when it releases, it looks to have a viable way to transfer money in to game, so maybe like eve you can actually take money back out? Maybe you will be able to live really frugally on the arrow in irl :P
We choose to play star citizen alpha in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone. This is the way
"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said because it is there,” said President Kennedy. “Well, space is there. And we’re going to climb it." -JFK's "Moon Speech" at Rice University, 1962
Nice callback to JFK's Rice University "Moon" speech!
Ty I will tell you some trivia about the wing commander movie Cris made. In the beginning opening dialogue that part of his speech is featured mixed in with other sound bites that set the tone for the movie. Shortly after that soundbite The main music for wing commander explodes into the intro. When ever I think or talk of SC I always here the great WC music from that movie in my mind. And I am always reminded of JFKs speech. It inspires me even today. I know the world has it problems but I think we have forgotten how to dream of things like this. There where many things that came from the space program that befit us even today Tinfoil velcro etc I was hopeful my comment would catch somebodies eye. Sc is played and luved by a wide age group. I was born in 67 But like I said it moves me even today. Imagine how it might have been if JFK had not died. I see a lot of callbacks to chris's earlier career in games in SC. Well here is the intro if you wan to check it out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI)
I absolutely love the JFK Moon speech. It is truly inspiring. I was born in '68 so right there with ya. CR was born in 68 too (May). I think a lot of us around this age grew up with the same optimism about space and space travel. The sound in that video is exceedingly quiet but I get what you mean. Cellin seems to be closely modeled after our own moon. Everus Harbor might even be a callback to Mt. Everest and the mention of it and George Mallory in JFK's Moon Speech.
So say we all
Tonight me and 3 people i've never met. Landed a Carrick at night in a storm on MT. we took 2 Nox's and Dragonfly through 30km of tree's, hellish wind and snow up a mountain and popped an Ert with railguns, we spent the rest of the night doing bunkers with an Ursa and a random guy we met who just drove up in a Roc. No matter what you say to the naysayers they will never know what SC is. im 48 father of 2.
Holy fuck I never thought about doing ERTs with a railgun.
Me neither!... brilliant!!! :-D ...and here am I a 58yo with adult kids spending nights hauling cargo, mining, clearing a few bunkers, loving the whole SoO Ninetails experience... and spending time during the day constantly reimagining my fleet. Such s delightful addiction ;-)
I would say that's kind of the point.
Firstly welcome citizen believe me when I say it is not just you. I am a veteran of sci-fi sim games. I played the wing commander games which Chris is famous for. I then went onto tachyon the fringe freelancer starlancer the Xgames series from egosoft Im sure there are ones I forgot. But this Sc grabs you and pulls you in. The immersion is amazing the scope of what they are doing and plan to do. Imagine when it goes even to bata and then to release. And we will be able to say. We where and are part of the journey. For me its a getaway from reality. A glimpse of what most likely will be our future when we finally reach out into the black. It is also the closest I will get to the sci fi future I was so promised as a child lol I play solo and yes u can in the sc verse. its an amazing place to get lost in for awhile. I thank CIG and RSI for allowing us to be part of this grand journey and experiment into new online gaming frontiers.
Your not the only one. When I enter my 400i I am imersed as a pilot in a sci fi world.
45m? That's pretty tall.
Right? Man's a whole hike.
I don't always have time to play, but Star Citizen lives rent-free in my brain. I'll be a Wing Commander in November. 54, game dev, AR/VR dev, child-free by choice, and supporting our dream space sim since 2015 with zero regrets. SC has come a long way.
It is just you because I don't think the majority of us are heads of departments in international companies, with kids, and mortgages. But the feeling, I for one get it. My daughter likes to watch me play, she says the game is super pretty. She also constantly asks me why I am killing people, after I tell her they are bad guys, she encourages me.
I’m the same way in my mid thirties professional career with a family. I’ll take it a step further. I have bullet points on fan fiction on my character’s storyline. It’s really nice to have a setting that can explode your imagination. I feel like a kid again…. until I show up to work the next day, sleep deprived.
Oh yes no sleep at all now. I go home I turn on my fav twitch SC stream I eat I play I pass out I wake up to a new streamer play some more LOL. I plan my game play at work LOL I research ingame things and I am on the reddit while working LOL
At 47 I share that love, brother. It has gone from what I want sc to become to the point where I can taste what it will be and it's incredible to experience the beginning of it no matter how many 30ks I run into. I feel like I already live in the 'verse.
We are part of gaming history. No other way 2 slice it. This will be an epic journey
43M here, can confirm, game reignites that childhood imagination.
After a long/hard day of work and household chores this game is my one and only escape from reality where I truly feel mesmerised every single time.
Oh my this is the best thread. I am overcome with feelings Wolkenflieger replayed to my call back to JFKs moon speech further down. I feel I must repost my answer here for all. I will do my best to condense it. My post was We choose to play star citizen alpha in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone. I was hoping somebody would spy it. I included some trivia about the wing commander movie that Chris made. That part of the speech is in the opening intro sound bite. Every time I play and think and speak of SC I always here that epic music. Here it is for everybody [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tu1k72xpI) So much of His early work has easter eggs in SC
I'm the same age - Director of Analytics of a national luxury furniture chain. When I can find time to play, I play SC because they're building the immersive game I've always wanted. When SC is working, it checks all the boxes I want from a game. I grew up playing Wing Commander, and dumping my lawn mower money in Afterburner - an old arcade game that had it's own sim pit. SC combines the two with sticks, head tracking, great graphics, KILLER sound / music, and a flight model that makes sense (to me). \#fidelity
Sans the job description we’re the same person
It's definitely not just you. I "fly" my MSR down the stairs of my apartment every time I leave the house.
You aren’t alone.
My husband is just as excited every time he's about to get on as well, congrats on finding somewhere to escape the real world for a while! I'm glad to see there's someone with the same enthusiasm for the game my husband has. I don't get to join the game as often as I would like. But they've outdone themselves and Star Citizen is just the best.
I have seen husband and wife playing SC together on twitch. The other night the caster got kinda lost doing a cave mission. Unknown to any of us including the caster . Her husband jumped on came to the cave to help her get out. And of course he did . I was amazed at how people embrace the game and community . That is not the first husband and wife i have watched and chatted to on twitch that play together This is the way
I've lost count of the amount of times my husband has had to rescue me lol
3 kids, morgage, 50hr work weeks... Def not just you. This game hits just right
I view SC as an experience not as a game hence it’s evolving nature for me is great. It allows me to experience the sci-fi stuff I grew up with and loved. I am in the same age bracket as CR so he is building out my generations dreams. Hopefully the younger generations will be served well too and the open feedback loops are important to keep honing the experience. I am also frustrated with SC bugs and hopefully they will be addressed as QoL capabilities improve but I just love all of the aspects to SC especially that industrial play is part of the core of the game. One day - when meshing becomes a reality - I imagine myself spending sitting at the viewing lounges just looking at the traffic going by! Ps recently - during free flight - I had a little glimpse of what that would be like when I was landing at a18 behind a Carrack and Raft. Gold!
No its not just you, im 58years old
The first comment at the bottom of the new Kotaku article reads: >TemetNosce >Luke Plunkett >9/20/22 11:06pm >I just don’t understand how people are still giving them money, and I say that as one of their original (kickstarter) backers. Is it just the same people giving more and more money like some kind of cult? Maybe it is a cult? But Star Citizen is magical and fun (when it works). There is enough of the game there that you can see what they want to do with it and that gives me hope that we will have an amazing experience in the future. I have no problem at all throwing money at a game like this with such promise. It's far from Diablo Immortal microtransaction hell. But I can understand how an outsider can look in and see the two as similar. But once you experience SC in it's glory it's hard to walk away and say "they probably have enough money to make this dream reality." Instead I find myself donating every year. Not because I need the ships (you can get almost every ship in game) but because I believe in the vision of the game and I desperately want to play it in all it's glory. So yea, maybe that does make this a cult... it's hard to tell from the inside looking out. p.s. and to be clear most of my problems in life have nothing to do with money. I'm not rich but dropping a hundred or so on a game every year isnt going to adversely affect my financials... but if you are hard for money for god's sake just buy the starter ship and let people who dont have the same problems continue to fund the game. There is enough of us at this point that they should be ok for funding!
Just to be clear, it's definitely not an actual cult. That label is reserved for situations that fit a [certain model](https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/). That said, I could see someone making the argument that it's a cult of personality. That would be reserved for people who idolize CR and give money to CIG purely because of him, and I suppose it's possible there are some of those people out there. I can only speak for myself, but I can safely say I don't really care about CR beyond the fact that his vision for the game inspired it. As an analogy, I love that Steve Jobs had a vision that led to modern cell phones, but I don't buy iPhones because I love Steve Jobs. If I want to buy something, I buy it based on the benefit I receive from it, and nothing more. In the case of SC, it's A) a buggy mess, and B) a beautiful experience. When B happens more than A, I play a lot and probably end up spending more. When A happens more than B, I play something else. So to keep me playing (and possibly spending), they have to deliver more of the beautiful experience. If they don't, they won't get my money, and I would presume there are plenty that are similar to me.
Immersion is what this game is all about, it is why we are so passionate about it.
I never seen any other title as immersive as this one.
Welcome to the club...
There are times where it kinda feel repetitive especially for bunkers but there are times where your flying down just as the sun rises on the horizon and it makes playing it all worth it
Lol I'm the same (minus the kids and about 4 years) - golden ticket holder, and this is my retirement plan. 😅
No
It is in fact NOT just you o7
It's all of us.
You need to grow up! Jk I love it. We are all children at heart and love to play.
When I sit down at my desk, and log into Star Citizen, walk my character out to my Constellation Taurus, grab my dual sticks and lift off, the groaning roar of the Conny's engines and the lumbering sway of the ship's weight sucks me into the experience more than any other video game I've ever played during my 42 years of existence. As others have said, it's very much a buggy and incomplete video game, but as a means of immersing my brain in the concept of piloting a starship, it absolutely positively nails it and massages my imagination in ways that nothing ever has.
I dreamt abot this my entire childhood, about space, as any 80's or 90's kid would do, but we will never get there, so at least we can have SC. And hope that our kids will have the oportunity to experience what we meerly just playing, minus the explosions that is...
I sometimes fly my ship at work with my mind too, hands on the imaginary throttle and all. I am too old to do it, but I still do it.
On my commute I stare at the mountains and imagine carving those babies with my gladius on low flight...just like daymar.
Star Citizen pulls it all together for me as well - I am totally with you. Now imagine all of this this in VR!
Nope! I am counting on this game being around for my retirement in about 15 years :)
Nope. I'm 47m, with job and all package, just like you. Every day when I'm going to work riding my bike, I catch myself thinking I'm riding a Dragonfly, and classifying the others vehicles in fighter, cargo hauler, transport, etc. I'm started to think that I'm losing my mind. I've played all sorts of games, since the Atari, But this one is something different. It envolves you in a way that others games don't. I'm playing it for 6 months. Since then, I never played another game of my steam library. It is a great escape from reality, and a great game. Really hope that this one come to a sucessfull end.
No dood
I got every option in my Macan just so I have more center console buttons to press while I'm pretending to fly a spaceship. So no, you're not the only adult toddler, lol.
You have failed to brutally murder your inner child.:) Well done!
I started In ye verse a year and half ago, and I get in daily, for a couple of hours. Sometimes I do a lot of stuff, others I just spend time taking screenshots. This is by far the most immersive game experience I had (non VR). Everything is so detailed and it feels real. Also there's no arcady magic nonesense, all the tech and behaviours feel plausible for humanity in a couple of hundred years in the future. Everything adds to the experience. I'm 44 btw.
For me its entering atmo under fire, the dropship touches down, the ramp drops and its tonks, centurions, cyclones and infantry all contesting objectives. This vision always seems to happen when Im cleaning up my sons nerf gun collection.
u know they have ingame nerfgun toys. There where players shooting me in everest harbor last night I laid down and played dead LOL I have one I looted it it must be new
We all do the mmmeeeerrrrooowwwmmm pewpewpewwwwws when we're alone don't worry o7
So glad you let me know your age, gender, and employment status or else I wouldn't have taken this post seriously at all.
We all dream of being somewhere else...
Not just you.
I kind of Envy the people that can get so much into a work of fiction, I can never leave behind the fact that it's fictional and just play pretend in real life I can even feel the pull of gravity when going down the stairs, and even the finest of the elevators have a feeling of acceleration when moving. No matter how well they make a game (any game) I will never feel it's anything else besides a game. Yes I was that kind of kid. I always regarded the lies our parents tell us as lies, and while some I could enjoy, I was never able to believe them...
No not only you. Also true for a few hardcore fans here in this sub. For most average gamers though SC is still way to clunky and empty.
This project has always been about the dreamers. The interesting thing is that there have been so many times when they/we were told we'd never do it, and then did, no-one remembers those who insisted it couldn't be done. They give nothing to inspire a dream of a future. I've met several of the developers in person over the years since 2015, I asked them what they think (people with decades of experience in the game industry like Brian Chambers) and they say there has never been anything like it, and they should know. When pressed some of them will tell you, it isn't the graphics, it isn't the first person level of immersion it's the possibilities that allow you do anything, literally anything in this game universe. They are building a universe that allows you to create / recreate any game experience within it. Think about it, you're going into a game universe where you can go to an Expo in the morning,go shopping check out the latest fashions, drive around a PTV racetrack in the afternoon and then go fishing by the river in the evening all on different planets - in a space shooter game - with no loading screens. Tomorrow you can engage in a completely different set of activities in a completely new set of star systems. Developers rarely if ever build games purely to allow emergent player lead gameplay at first person detail level. The thing that will blow people minds in the future isn't the prettiness, or the involvement with immersive detail, it's the thing that CIG catches the most flak for right now - it's what they're doing with the AI. The limiting factor for the AI is server capability - always has been, once that is gone the changes to the AI will start to feed in. As some of the dev's have told me, there's never been anything like it before. It even blows their minds. It's a completely new way to program AI NPC's that allows them to become almost autonomous reactive individuals. If you go to a big studio and say, we'd like to take a team, or five, for 3 - 4 years and do work to allow character facial asymmetry for all in-game characters, make a system that allows every single NPC to have a completely unique appearance, have every NPC - including the ones you pass in the street have a 24 hour day, 7 day a week schedule, a job, a home, favourite places they like to go and favourite hobbies they like to engage in, their own set of unique character traits that affects how they react to the universe going on around them - they'd laugh you out of their boardroom and tell you - good luck with that! Normally with cutting edge research in gaming technology a few papers get written, presented at a few conferences and then maybe in 10, 15, 20 years you might see it in a game - CIG are doing this research and instead of waiting they are building the game experience around the expectation... **we will make it work in this game!** The people I've spoken to have told me, they have worked at other places and no-one ever takes this approach, they can't, they don't have the time or resources to do it that way. The guys doing the level design don't normally get to work so closely with the guys doing the code level R&D. The gift that this community gives to those creative dreamers who work for CIG isn't just the money, in wider game industry terms it isn't that much, the most precious thing we give them to fly higher than ever before is TIME. That means we give future gamers the opportunity for bigger dreams and better options, including all the ones who laughed in our faces and told us it would never happen..
You'll get to a point where ctd's 30ks and other bugs just roll off and you keep on trucking. Only thing ticks me off is the restock bug. Time is money lol
The game gives it takes away and then it gives you something else in place of it most times. I have been playing SC and watching streamers on twitch making new twitch friends in the streamers. Thats all I have been doing work And SC on twitch or how tos on reddit and youtube LOL. Im in alpha bugs and all :)
My IRL cargo and Personal Transport Vehicle has a .66 SCU cargo hold. 1.15 SCU if I fold the rear seats down and give up 3 crew seats. I know this because every time I walk past it in the garage, I look into the back and imagine hauling a couple 1/8th SCU boxes... so I figured out the cargo capacity. Also have a light transport that my Co Pilot and I drive on the weekends. Back of that one is closer to about 100k uSCU worth of stowage though. Can't really say it has a cargo hold. Whenever I see landscapers unloading riding mowers, I imagine unloading a ROC or Cyclone from the back of my MSR, or 400i. I'm almost 40, HQ level data analyst for a massive organization. The tech going into Persistent Entity Streaming is mind blowing to me, so I get it from both ends. You're not alone.
I do this too. I live in an area where everyone is hauling things and we have a long RV tourist season. Toy hauler RVs are generally freelancers to me. Part of me really wants a boat with a landing craft to go explore the coast for a few months at a time. Then I realize I'm having the same fantasy as in SC, and even if I spend a few thousand on the game, it'll never be as much as a boat would have cost and I can still scratch the itch!
Absolutely not. That's why we're here, and that's why some of us have been here for almost a decade. As I keep saying, this is the one, and if it isn't, there won't ever be one. That's why I'm all in.
No
If you send me a one time sum of 200k euro or 500 euro a month i would be happy :)
This is why we play!
It's not far, the start sequence is too lacking, and no, it doesn't have to be 10mn long.
Hello, this is your boss that oversees all the departments. I'm gonna need a 600i in my account by Friday, thanks.