I have an eternal thirst for open-world space games.
In the past, this void was filled by, in chronological order: Battlezone 1998 (not because hovertanks but because other planets), retail FS1, Starlancer, Freelancer, EVE, FSO, X3, KSP, and now Elite Dangerous.
I bought into the Star Citizen kickstarter.... what, was it 2013 still? I haven't been closely following the dev cycle, but what I've been reading and hearing on the "idea" front has not been lining up with where development has actually gone. A couple months ago, I could load up the hangar module and play with my pledge Aurora, but not actually do anything. Not long after that, E:D backers could actually go out and sail the black and do things.
Consider me a fallen Chris Roberts fan. I played the **** out of Freelancer; for all its flaws, I still got a big kick out of just cruising space and causing trouble. Starlancer struck me as markedly flawed even when I was a kid, but I had limited access to new games and it let me explode things in space. Watching SC's development shamble forward against numerous competitors while showing no meaningful milestones of its own has drained any confidence I may have had. (Preemptive: step off, I'm not talking arena commander, I'm talking about the core gameplay experience of going out into open space and, you know, *being* a Citizen of the Stars.)
I know I'm not breaking new ground here, but I wanted to add another perspective to this conversation. A perspective that really tries hard to find the best in things and really tries to have fun in spite of flaws. Christ Roberts' fumbling is making me seriously consider rescinding my backing, if I can. Maybe I can upload a video of me burning my citizen card...
While Christ Roberts blows millions of dollars on deciding how impactful a Player-Character's blinking needs to be on gameplay, I'll be busy Elite-ing it up, hurling Kerbals at distant worlds, or plowing through FSO's endearing bugs and quirks. Thus sprach IronBeer.