[Lorric]

Nonsense. Balance? There has never been balance. If anything we shall remove all balance!
-Ulyaoth, CIG game design consultant

In all seriousness, this is just a continuation of a pay-to-win scheme that started the moment buyable ships became a thing. The hardcore fans want this sort of thing - to be on the top floor of the next big thing, among the chosen to be rewarded for their devotion. To be among those who get all the cool toys like starting out with superheavy fighers or access to capital ships that can only be reasonably countered by torpedoes - which, of ocurse, are also a premium user privilege. It is, of course, unfair if you consider it from an angle of "Who would win - one highly skilled but poor user vs. one mediocore pay-to-win whale", but in the minds of those who believe they deserve good things for sticking to their subculture when its future is uncertain, it is only just that they get to lord over the Johnny-Come-Lately peasants and bandwagoners.

If this game ever comes out, this is going to be hilarious.  Either ships will take so long to earn you'll have to buy credits with real money to pay for them, or they'll take a sensible amount of time to earn and the people who paid 600$ for their ship will be pissed that the people who didn't back (or, god forbid, refunded) can earn it without paying real money.  Those tears will be delicious.

Do you really think there will be tears if people can earn what others have paid for in a reasonable timeframe? I would have thought the default assumption for a ship buyer would be that it wouldn't be too long before other people who didn't pay for it would be flying something in your weight class.

If such a thing would bother someone, it doesn't make sense for them to buy if they don't know.

[Mikes]

Nonsense. Balance? There has never been balance. If anything we shall remove all balance!
-Ulyaoth, CIG game design consultant

In all seriousness, this is just a continuation of a pay-to-win scheme that started the moment buyable ships became a thing. The hardcore fans want this sort of thing - to be on the top floor of the next big thing, among the chosen to be rewarded for their devotion. To be among those who get all the cool toys like starting out with superheavy fighers or access to capital ships that can only be reasonably countered by torpedoes - which, of ocurse, are also a premium user privilege. It is, of course, unfair if you consider it from an angle of "Who would win - one highly skilled but poor user vs. one mediocore pay-to-win whale", but in the minds of those who believe they deserve good things for sticking to their subculture when its future is uncertain, it is only just that they get to lord over the Johnny-Come-Lately peasants and bandwagoners.

If this game ever comes out, this is going to be hilarious.  Either ships will take so long to earn you'll have to buy credits with real money to pay for them, or they'll take a sensible amount of time to earn and the people who paid 600$ for their ship will be pissed that the people who didn't back (or, god forbid, refunded) can earn it without paying real money.  Those tears will be delicious.

Do you really think there will be tears if people can earn what others have paid for in a reasonable timeframe? I would have thought the default assumption for a ship buyer would be that it wouldn't be too long before other people who didn't pay for it would be flying something in your weight class.

If such a thing would bother someone, it doesn't make sense for them to buy if they don't know.

60 gameplay hours to earn a Constellation has been thrown around ages ago. No idea how accurate that still is or ever was. (Probably like everything else: "Pffffffffft did we really say that a year ago? Who cares, here's another ship sale!")

[Grizzly]

If such a thing would bother someone, it doesn't make sense for them to buy if they don't know.

Right, but then you are assuming that common sense enters the equation of people buying into hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars of pre-order bonuses for a game that is still very far away from release. If so-called whales were rational there wouldn't be entire business models banking on exploiting them, yet here we are.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Exactly. Why expect a reasonable reaction from someone who spends thousands on jpegs, for a game that doesn't exist? The whales will become pissed off no matter what the progression system is. It'll be glorious to watch.

[Blue Lion]

Leonard French seems to think this lawsuit is over and Crytek really doesn't have a leg to stand on but Derek Smart things this is a slam dunk for Crytek. I guess we will see but French is (copyright) lawyer and well, Derek Smart.

[The E]

I think the main issue at play here is how to interpret that exclusivity deal. It makes no sense to me that anyone reasonable would interpret the exclusivity agreement to be binding on Crytek.

[Aesaar]

Probably why Crytek/Skadden requested a jury trial.  Easier to argue the spirit of a clause to a jury.

[Torchwood]

But it's equally easy to argue that Crytek is trying to use copyright to squeeze money out of CIG. This could go either way.

[Grizzly]

Exactly. Why expect a reasonable reaction from someone who spends thousands on jpegs, for a game that doesn't exist? The whales will become pissed off no matter what the progression system is. It'll be glorious to watch.

I doubt that it will be glorious though. If anything, I feel like you're getting overhyped about the implosion of the hype.
I've seen to much sad overentitled men yelling about immaterial things on the internet to know it tends to be devoid of any entertainment value.

[Lorric]

Exactly. Why expect a reasonable reaction from someone who spends thousands on jpegs, for a game that doesn't exist? The whales will become pissed off no matter what the progression system is. It'll be glorious to watch.

I suppose I'm thinking the whales must be doing something right to have that money in the first place. There are way too many for it to be just people who had the silver spoon in their mouths.

Also, they know Star Citizen has been having tons of trouble and they're not getting emotional about it.

But I will freely admit I don't understand how their minds work. It's one thing if you're just loaded and it's next to nothing to you, but the people who've spent a big chunk of their total worldly possessions on it...

It can't really be just because they want to bully people who start with a basic package. Surely. There are far cheaper ways to do that, that can be done right now instead of maybe, sometime in the future.

[IronBeer]

It can't really be just because they want to bully people who start with a basic package. Surely.

Oh sweet summer child...

[Grizzly]

Exactly. Why expect a reasonable reaction from someone who spends thousands on jpegs, for a game that doesn't exist? The whales will become pissed off no matter what the progression system is. It'll be glorious to watch.

I suppose I'm thinking the whales must be doing something right to have that money in the first place. There are way too many for it to be just people who had the silver spoon in their mouths.

Going by the estimate of one million offered by the BBC, the 1 percent of Star Citizens still number 10,000. There's definitely people among them for whom this is going to be small change, there is people for whom this is a significant amount of money.

But I can safely say that none of those 10,000 have been in a position where they had to count every penny.

[Blue Lion]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7q9zvs/pay_to_win/

Just gonna leave this here

[Scourge of Ages]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/7q9zvs/pay_to_win/

Just gonna leave this here

[deleted]

[IronBeer]

It still boggles my mind to see people using the future tense to talk about this project.

[Mikes]

Has it been mentioned yet that, according to reddit and mmorpg.com they are refusing refunds now?

Looks like the end is coming finally.

[wookieejedi]

Has it been mentioned yet that, according to reddit and mmorpg.com they are refusing refunds now?

Looks like the end is coming finally.

Start of the Star Citizen-pocolypse. It's really turned into a meta game at this point. Ie everyone invests then its a race to see who can figure out it won't succeed that fastest.

[Colonol Dekker]

I need a list of people still supporting this so I can sell them-
Oxygen
Empire state building
Etc
Etc
Etx

[Luis Dias]

Open bets. What is going to die first:

 - Star Citizen

 - Bitcoin

[Aesaar]

The Falcon Heavy is nothing compared to Star Citizen.  You're hearing this straight from CIG's public Twitter feed.