[Aesaar]

"Star Citizen is, and always will be, more than a AAA game. So much more. Star Citizen speaks to the pure essence of humanity and the purpose of human beings and I firmly believe this is why there are so many passionate people on both sides of the fence."

notacult

The number 2016 was seen, may indicate years until release(?????)

[Spoon]

Watching and breaking down that stream was the most fun I've had so far from my 24 euro pledge.

[Col. Fishguts]

Thanks for the recap

Just watched Gary Oldman's speech... that cringe-worthy writing... yup, it's definitely going to be a Chris Roberts game :/

[Mongoose]

and other subtle features needed for a space sim

Baron Harkonnen says wut

[newman]

Worry not, Spoon, Hades and I, some foul and skeptic minded people, managed to watch the whole thing and kept our wits about by mocking everything (cause its fun!). Here's a brief rundown from what I gathered in the chat log.

• Flowers for Sandi
• Millions of kilometers of space
• Immersive
• Mostly rehashed Crusader v0 gameplay demo
• Immersive star map where Alpha Centauri is not the closest star to Sol
• "Private" "lounge" for your friends to hang out and drink immersive alcoholic beverages (and fishtanks)
• Saitek getting on the money train with custom branded joysticks
• Trapezoidal marketing referral bonus program (get 5 referrals and get a bigger fish tank, get 10 and get a gold skin for a ship!)
• Actually not bad looking fighter (SabrePotato)
• Immersive
• Squadron 42, wwwhaaat???
• Independence day and/or 9/11 style speech intro cutscene by Gary Oldman set in a Space Parliament
• Gary Oldman still talking
• Gary Oldman barely blinking
• Gary Oldman still talking raspily
• A-List Hollywood actor list
• And Sandi
• Amazing facial feature technology including blood flow, wrinkle maps, pupil dilation and other subtle features needed for a space sim
• Immersive
• Tactical combat everywhere! Even on the ground!
• Ships on SALE!!!!
• 90 million page script (Still not as long as BP aaaaayyyyy)
• 120 hours of mo cap recorded, 10 hours kept for the game
• Actors being paid to praise the mo cap
• 66 day shooting schedule
• Immersive
• Huge 250m Frigate
• Starlancer opening recreation with an amazing array of UK accents
• Corridor walking simulator
• Sitting in a briefing room and hearing the history of your ship simulator
• The number 2016 was seen, may indicate years until release(?????)
• Immersive birthday cake for SC brought out, happy birthday is cringly sung
• Chris Roberts can't cut a cake
• Immersion

Shout out to Hades for those image links (that first one was an actual image from the stream)

Oh Axem, I missed your posts man But do you think it will be immersive? I don't think they mentioned this point enough.

Immersion. Immersive. Immersion.

I'm sure any minor flaws in gameplay (not really a necessary feature for a game) could easily be rectified by hiring Bono to do a concert when SC launches. Provided Bono will still be alive by then. I'm also glad they're spending all that time and money on making all those hours of cutscenes for Squadron 42. Because in 2015 everyone is still totally impressed by full motion video cutscenes (it's like a movie but in a game - what magic is this? I'm sure glad I bought all 4MB of RAM and a color monitor now..) and nobody will ever skip them.

[Axem]

If they mo cap the Bono concert, they won't need to worry about needing him alive when the game comes out. First ever immersive concert done in CryEngine 3!

[newman]

If they mo cap the Bono concert, they won't need to worry about needing him alive when the game comes out. First ever immersive concert done in CryEngine 18!

Fixed that for you, for realism's sake

[GhylTarvoke]

On a related note, apparently Wingman, the Descent: Underground project head, was banned from the official Star Citizen chat the other day for daring to answer people's questions about his own project.  Keep in mind that Wingman was originally an integral part of the CIG team and played a major role in the campaign's initial success; as far as I can tell he is still very well-liked amongst the SC community, many of whom signed on to support his own Kickstarter.  The ban was rescinded not too long after, but it really makes you question how the hell things are run in that community.

It's life right now! Oh look it starts with his wife giving this speech on how she worked her ass off in this, bla bla bla.

"This is much more than a triple A game." Then she goes on on saying how it's about meaning and friendships and so on. ****ing hell, it's a cult.

"... if you really believe you're part of something bigger ..."

Space Ship One's development cost 25 million dollars before it flew for the first time back in 2004. Cost of Star Citizen so far, 90 million $. So it takes 65 million less to actually go to space than to have a delayed, questionable-if-ever-playable space sim.

The fact the CIG are putting their military ships on sale say a lot about their financial situation. Those have always been their most popular ones.

Especially the Idris, which isn't even being sold in limited quantities like it was all the previous times it was available (well, except for the 5000$ pack).

They NEED money right now. If this sale goes badly (which it probably won't), they're done. They may be done anyway. There's only so much you can milk your cult for, probably why they also added a referral program at the same time. They need new money.

I say on sale, but really it's 2500USD. It only qualifies as a sale because it's cheaper than the individual packages.  Also, packages that were originally offered as "limited time only will never be sold again".

"Star Citizen is, and always will be, more than a AAA game. So much more. Star Citizen speaks to the pure essence of humanity and the purpose of human beings and I firmly believe this is why there are so many passionate people on both sides of the fence."

I'm finally convinced. This whole thing reeks of dishonesty, which is quite sad.

[Akalabeth Angel]

"Star Citizen is, and always will be, more than a AAA game. So much more. Star Citizen speaks to the pure essence of humanity and the purpose of human beings and I firmly believe this is why there are so many passionate people on both sides of the fence."

Holy **** do they know they're making a video game? Not curing cancer, helping refugees or colonizing mars.   

[newman]

"Star Citizen is, and always will be, more than a AAA game. So much more. Star Citizen speaks to the pure essence of humanity and the purpose of human beings and I firmly believe this is why there are so many passionate people on both sides of the fence."

Holy **** do they know they're making a video game? Not curing cancer, helping refugees or colonizing mars.   

I know, right? The funny thing is that their rhetoric was a bit like that from day 1, before crowd funding even began, back when they were handing out those "gold plates" or whatever they were called. I found the whole phrasing a bit creepy and cult like back then, but then at that time there was nothing on the radar when it came to space sims, a then-dead (or more accurately, dormant) genre, so I was willing to write this off to a new project run by people who may not understand marketing very well, but who knows if they do well on crowd funding..

But I see my initial instincts were right. The whole rhetoric is similar to those pyramid scheme salesmen being all suspiciously enthusiastic about the product they're selling without ever getting too specific about anything. Much like CR keeps being religiously enthusiastic about SC, selling ships, talking about how great it's going to be for years without ever showing a decent bit of gameplay, the only thing that matters in the end.

[Luis Dias]

I could (and I will) join the fray in mocking these cultist statements (and btw, thank you Axem, that was a neat proper summary ), but there's something else here at play.

This was not "just a game", but the ultimate promise of the most ultimate, amazing "Star Wariesque" escapist fantasy one could ever buy. Think on it. Some people who are just going through their motions, bored as **** about their lifes, stressed as hell with their day to day shenanigans, knowing fully well they'll never experience a truly "space-esque" adventure in their life-times (and still yearning for it), suddenly got promised the most "IMMERSIVE" Star Wars-esque experience evah.

The game was boring as **** as presented. You have to go through boring hallways, boring elevators, get to your "posts" and basically see walls and corridors and small windows with terrible line of sight towards what you're supposed to "shoot" (holy **** isn't Freespace 2's lack of "cockpit visuals" just an amazing feature?!?), you have to go through repair stations and land on them and do all sorts of "truck simulator" ****. The boringness of the game is not a "bug", it's a feature. It adds to its own "believability".

But that's the point. The point is not to create a "fun game", the game is not fun at all. The point is to create this fantasy on these people's heads that they can actually live some sort of alternative "redshirt" life on their PC. With their Occulus. The promise is to create Star Second Life Citizen.

So they are indeed trying to build a dream of their own. They will probably fail spectacularly, and with a lot of people's savings going down the well.

[GhylTarvoke]

How on earth was Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign so record-breaking? I can't wrap my mind around it.

[Grizzly]

How on earth was Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign so record-breaking? I can't wrap my mind around it.

It was from before we had space sims.
Or, more specifically, space sims with tech from this decade.

[666maslo666]

How on earth was Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign so record-breaking? I can't wrap my mind around it.

People who like space sims were starved for new content for a decade. Meanwhile this demographic cohort grew up and acquired fat disposable income. Then Chris(t) of WC fame comes along and promises salvation in the form of not just any space sim, but the "best damn space sim ever". The result? $92 million and counting..

[headdie]

How on earth was Star Citizen's crowdfunding campaign so record-breaking? I can't wrap my mind around it.

People who like space sims were starved for new content for a decade. Meanwhile this demographic cohort grew up and acquired fat disposable income. Then Chris(t) of WC fame comes along and promises salvation in the form of not just any space sim, but the "best damn space sim ever". The result? $92 million and counting..

Also he put on a massive media Blitzkrieg and capitalised on the novelty of crowdfunding becoming mainstream at the time he launched the bid.

[Aesaar]

He also sold people their dreams.  He gave people enough information to provide a framework, then let them fill in the blanks themselves, asked them what they wanted to do in the game and said "you'll be able to do that".  It doesn't matter what "that" is, you'll be able to do it.

It's why there's absolutely no way SC can measure up to expectations even if it gets released.  He's not selling a game, he's selling a dream.

[Luis Dias]

Yeah but in that regard, that is unmistakable from the very best marketing. It kinda is like Steve Jobs. Here's what Bloomberg had to blurb about the subject:

Sell Dreams, Not Products
Steve Jobs doesn’t sell computers. He sells the promise of a better world. True evangelists are driven by a messianic zeal to create new experiences. When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said, "In our own small way, we’re going to make the world a better place." Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs presents it as tool to enrich people’s lives. Of course, it’s important to have great products. But passion, enthusiasm, and a sense of purpose beyond the actual product will set you and your company apart.

But he was also fond of saying "Real artists ship". And that's the part that is failing. Dreams can carry many mistakes and deadline delays, but for how long?

[newman]

He also sold people their dreams.  He gave people enough information to provide a framework, then let them fill in the blanks themselves, asked them what they wanted to do in the game and said "you'll be able to do that".  It doesn't matter what "that" is, you'll be able to do it.

It's why there's absolutely no way SC can measure up to expectations even if it gets released.  He's not selling a game, he's selling a dream.

I agree. I also think it goes further than that; I'm not sure SC can even muster a playable release that comes close to the scope of what they promised. You see, when you go to kickstarter and come up with an amount you need, you're basically telling the world "I need this much, minimum, to make this - if I don't hit that goal it's not getting made, if I go over it it's getting made with these extra bells and whistles".

Star Citizen's original KS goal was 500,000$. This was to make the basic game without too many bells and whistles; however, the amount raised on KS was over 4 times that, forcing them to literally make up new stretch goals. At this point they basically made a promise to make the game of every scifi fan's dreams for 2 million $. Whether or not that was realistic, this is what they promised.

Years later, their online store has made their total profits 184 times that of the original KS goal. Game is overdue, and there is nothing even remotely resembling a game that's shaping up towards something playable. It's the finest grade smoke combined with diamond cut deluxe mirrors; but it's still smoke and mirrors.

At this point I doubt this thing can even release as something that's not a horrible mess with Chris Roberts at the helm. Either he steps down to some honorary title that removes him from a position where he can make decisions, or I doubt this thing will even release as anything resembling what they described when they begun crowdfunding.

I don't think this was a con job, at least not an intentional one; however the end result, I suspect, will be the same as it was. It's not even a matter of time and money anymore - they need someone in charge who will put gameplay back to priority one and stop wasting money on actors, CGI cutscenes, and hiring linguists to invent new languages for Star Citizen. I think somewhere down the line Chris Roberts forgot he's making a game and not an actual new universe; now completely untethered from reality I don't see how he can realistically remain in charge of a project of SC's magnitude and produce results that are measured in fun gameplay.

[headdie]

So in other words the project needs a Publisher to fund it and reign in CR & co

[Luis Dias]

Yeah, it needs someone with a pragmatic eye and a look towards shipping an actual product. Someone with sufficient power to kick CR's in the butt and make him go away.

And that can only happen when CIG gets a finantial bailout. But by then, it might just be too late.