I put in >$100 a year and a half back but don't really regret it. I had some fun with arena commander and I still want the project to succeed.
But I'm also getting more and more pessimistic. Hope they can put together some type of final product eventually.
See, I support small and local artists all the time, whether it's music and merchandise from a band or an affordable piece (usually a 8x10 print or something) from a gallery. The thing is though, I know what I'm getting for my money. The product is done and finished, right in front of me so I know the price is fair for the quality of work. I read about situations like these all the time on sites like Kickstarter, where people put money in a project in good faith and then get burned. I never liked the idea of Kickstarter when I first heard about it, as I always thought you're somewhat gambling on the word of others. Each time I hear another story just like this, it just reinforces that opinion. Putting myself in the shoes of these customers, I can see why they would get upset. It's good to hear at least some are getting refunds.
Yeah I was naive and entranced by the idea of a space sim RPG in December 2013. Also still on the rush of Christmas and ready to test the power of my fairly new pc. Now, I do regret it as I got tired of the flight module pretty quickly and the progress has been so slow. I still don't mind services like Kickstarter or Patreon provided the patronage is small and reasonable. The problem with Star Citizen is that a competent ship costs so much it's pretty much not worth it. It's definitely turned me off to the concept, though it's really the only time I've ever acted in such a way. I never pre-order or anything like that. It's a shame.
My friend played KB+M so I had been playing on his rig for awhile until i finally pulled the trigger on the game myself. I had spent a lot of time with KBM, and the stick is honestly really cool. You can pick up something simple for like 40 bucks, and it honestly just adds to the immersion and does help a bit with button placement. I run KB and joystick.
Everything that ThatsAFreeThinker said is true. Honestly, if you are looking for something that is continuously fast-pace I probably wouldn't recommend this to you. With that said this game provides some of the most satisfying gameplay I've ever had the pleasure of playing since Demon's Souls came out all those years ago. Like for example, I got pulled out of something called super cruise because pirates wanted my cargo. I proceeded to defend myself, but realized that I had to escape if I wanted to survive. I managed to get away from that encounter, and it has since then inspired me to be a bounty hunter. The game has some really beautiful vistas that enhances the exploration part of the game by ten-fold. If you want a really cool space sim, with some really intense/beautiful moments this is the game for you. Also, they are expanding the game soon which should bring some really awesome features.
First keep in mind its a space sim so you are not important to the universe. A lot of people get turned off by this. I personally love it, its a game that I can get super involved with for hours or play 45 minutes of and not interrupt any story. A major gripe is a lack of depth and I agree. There are three main ways of gaining credits and that's basically it. However a way to get a ton more enjoyment out of the game is to role-play a bit. Even just reading the news on the elitedangerous subreddit adds a lot of immersion. All that said its a beautiful game (seriously the graphics are top notch) that I've put almost 200 hours into and I'm still enjoying every bit of it.
Ha, maybe. I followed it since I knew this was the competing game. I was already invested in SC so decided to skip out. But maybe it's time to give it a try since SC seems doomed to purgatory.
Yeah. With the exception of an ancient laptop that still runs XP, all of my computers run Linux, so my gaming options are fairly limited. I'm not much of a gamer anymore, but every now and again a game comes along that makes me feel like I'm missing out if I don't try it.
Same here, although 90% of the time, actually playing the game in question quickly reminds me why I am not much of a gamer anymore, either. And I used to be really passionate about gaming... Not sure if it's the games or if I just burned out / got too old for that shit. I've still got a reasonably competent pc right now. Is it worth it to keep the thing up to date for the 10% of games actually still able to keep my interest for a few hours? I don't know. Apart from gaming, a Pentium 4 would probably still do everything I need from a computer right now. As for E:D, I really was intrigued by the concept, but read bad things about the effects of their decision to go with a p2p network architecture. And SC? I'm a backer, but by now it has become obvious that my rig isn't going to handle the game if/when it's released.
This is the reason I don't pay for games before they are released anymore. Especially on a kickstart... Start citizen is one of the few games I probably would have backed if I had been in the loop before an the delays. Kind of glad I didn't but I want the game to succeed as well.
ArcheAge was the nail in the coffin that ensured I would never pay for a video game before release ever again. Elsewise: I really wish there were a website like kickstarter for people trying to get their lives back together. Homeless, psychiatric issues, survivors of abuse, trauma, etc. Yeah, same caveats would exist, how to verify the stories of people appealing for help. It's just frustrating to hear people with jobs giving hundreds and thousands of dollars to reasonably well-off people on Kickstarter when people on the edge of homelessness or trying to get their lives back together, people who have no safety nets, get no help at all. Seriously, try posting online that you need money and support because you can't find a job and are about to become homeless. Then, with an alternate account, post online that you've an idea for a video game, and need financial backers. The results are disheartening.
People don't give a shit about homeless people, but will donate ~$55.5k to some dude making potato salad. Although to be far to Potato Salad Dude, he did the kickstarter as a joke and spend most of the money raised on charity or something.
Star Citizen is going to be a case study in open development for years to come, regardless of the outcome of the project itself. To my knowledge (which may be woefully misinformed), there hasn't really been a game of this scale where almost every facet of the development process has been laid bare for the public to see. What I'll be curious to see when all things are said and done is a timeline of the project, every updated feature, expanded scope, or delayed module, and have actual industry developers weigh in on the outcome. Because again (to my potentially woefully misinformed viewpoint), most of the people talking about this game are not game developers. It's a conversation that's been predominantly held by the people playing the game, and that's hard to quantify. How many people went into the Alpha with the impression that they'd be testing and providing feedback? How many went into Arena Commander hoping to get into the game early and had no intention of giving feedback? How many people pledged once and never checked updates? How many people followed the game on a week-by-week basis. And of all these groups, who was most and least satisfied by the end result? Rather than the thoughts of individuals, I'd love to see a solid data analysis of this entire project once the game finally hits version 1.0. The amount of information and citable instances of consumer satisfaction and frustration could be immensely useful both to developers and projects of this scale, as well as to the public that (for the most part) has little to no understanding of what game development is actually like.
I've put in about $60-$80 into the game and pretty much forgot about it, it's too large for me to keep updating every couple weeks. It'll be done when it's done, the more overfunded a kickstarter project is the longer it's delayed and my god was it over funded.
We keep running into paywalls, to get to the minimum viable product, we were going to run the kickstarter with. Server space, $500 build kits (oops you have to also buy $200, worth of software to use), legal fees, and I don't think we would get much attention without art, even if it works. So I am talking him, into getting a loan from the VA, to get us somewhere. It doesn't help that he has a decade more experience programming, but spends most of his time parenting a special needs child.
See I can understand early backers being pessimistic about the development of the game because it has become much larger in scope than anyone could have imagined which is not necessarily what was promised. The only complaint I have is this seems like a normal development cycle. Most games these days have budgets around what this one has, and remain in development for 3 to 4 years. I think all this pessimism comes from the fact that people are seeing the development of the game from beginning to end which isn't what any game does. In general cases it remains in development behind closed doors until a few years later that it is announced. I am hopeful this game will pull through hahah.