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I mean, I've seen all these ships on sale for $, at the end what's the real point of playing the game, collecting cool ships if this is how it chooses to monetize? Obviously a big part of the game revolves around riding amazing/cool ships, but since the even cooler and more amazing thing for this company is our $ over delivering an amazing game, one has to question why us the gamers should participate in it?
So, poll follows...Would've the game been far more successful if it had a different monetizing system like a monthly sub or B2P for box/expansion? Anything that simply did not involve a big shipyard sale that we can shop with our "in real life wallet/currency". Shipmart at it's finest. I mean, I would've gladly pay a premium price for a premium game experience. It doesn't have to involve sacrificing gameplay features...I think this is one of the big reasons why the hype of this game has quickly vaporized.
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At this point that is what the game is about.
The cash shop works like a charm.
There is just no game built around it yet.
PR wise, yes it is backfiring. That being said if ship are like guns, tanks, and planes in planetside 2, more flavor that power, I could see things working in the end.
I don't care HOW they collect the money to create this game if they DO deliver the "best space sim ever" in the usual amount of time for a AAA game (which is 4-5 years), starting with the "Kickstarter successful" date November 19, 2012. I pledged for one ship (Constellation + Jumppoint magazine subscription) and will get the rest of the ships in-game once it launches. As a subscriber you can try out other ships during pre-Alpha/Alpha/Beta-phase, so i have a nice way to test out the other ships too until release.
Have fun
PS:
IMHO... "the hype is (still) strong in this one ...." The German gaming press is featuring Star Citizen articles and news in almost every magazine issue. The international gaming websites also run articles on SC very often in the last months (just google it). At the time of writing there are 663.946 backers .. thats some 35000 more backers per month since summer .... 5000 more packages for 20 bucks each were sold today in the last 100 minutes alone .... seems like the hype is actually (still !) working.
Precisely... If a guy is driving around in an 15' AMG Mercedez and you're driving around in a 95' Toyota Corolla, despite whether ot not you can afford to drive the higher priced car you choose to spend your money differently.
We clearly live in a class bases society predicated on wealth. This concept seems to be thrown out the door whenever gaming is brought into the discussion in which case everyone wants it to be communist Russia.
Blame capitalism, there are people with far more money than you or I that (as DMK said) can spend thousands++ on gaming and not even blink (whether they can or can't afford to no less)
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
The point of playing a game, for me, is to eliminate the financial disparity between everyone and play in a world without money ruling everything. I play a game to get away from that real life nonsense.
People can spend their money however they damn well choose. No qualms with that at all. I can also choose not to play a game where this type of behavior is not only allowed but encouraged.
I understand this is how they're getting their game funded, but it's gone way too far now.
First off, you can pay a premium price to play this game, buy one of the huge ship packages.
Second, the whole point of making this game is the owners frustration with not being able to make the games he's always wanted, which is why he started his own company.
Hype? You apparently don't follow games in development. The initial announcement stirs hype since it's new. Then they raised insane amounts of money, so people talked about it. Then he kept running out of stretch goals, so they kept adding new ones (really sounds like they are "sacrificing gameplay features") as opposed to most games which drop features they go along.
Or in other words, playing games since you were 6 (doesn't matter if you are now 16, 26 or 56) doesn't teach you squat about how the real world of finance, marketing, programming, project development etc.
So maybe you need to learn before you try to teach.
TL:DR People who won't read have no advantage over those who can't. Knowledge. Get some.
This is a Chris Roberts game. With instances of no more than 100 ships (approximately) in one instance. Its a multiplayer game, but not a massively multiplayer game like EVE Online.
Which means that those 100 small ships will smear any large ship (up to and including a Bengal carrier) all over the system, if the large ship does not have a combat air patrol of its own smaller ships. Torpedo bombers are small ships too, and they are designed to kill capital ships.
The biggest Earth battleship (Yamato) was sunk after 13 torpedo and 8 bomb hits. I suspect that is what CIG has in mind for capital ships in Star Citizen too (and carriers are less sturdy than battleships).
Have fun
You live in a fairytale world.
Someone who earned their fortune the good ole hard way wouldn't drop 1% of that kind of money unless it was a real world investment.
Most of this cash shop pixel crap is bought with borrowed money by people having a hard time paying their own bills.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/even-millennials-raking-in-75000-take-money-from-parents-2014-11-20
http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-card-data/average-credit-card-debt-household/
Edit: OP it's way too early for any kind of conclusions. Lets wait until after the games releases or folds before release.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
How can you even consider it backfired? People have donated about $64 million for a virtual collection, and yet you say it failed? If anything, it's the smartest company in the industry - they're getting people to pay for a promise. Also, 650.000 backers is more than what WildStar sold, a subscription-based game that's already released. This game isn't even a game, and it has more "players".
No, it didn't backfire at all.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Should drop the terms backers and investors.
Backers and investors expect a return on their investment.
There will be no return here other than the ability to pay a sub to play the game.
And use the cash shop.
Amazing how many have bought into the buzz words.
Its going to be interesting when the game launches and its nothing like everything that has been promised.
The only people who feel this is a scam are the people who have not researched it and the one's who feel out priced by what CIG is doing. The fact of the matter all this moaning is pointless if it's not for you then don't spend any coin quite simple as for the OP total pointless survey pal. If you just going to bitch about someone else's success they don't give a shit as they are employing over 300 hundred staff who would not have a job for 3 to 4 years and in my book it's one company growing when all the traditional companies are laying off now if you want to call that a scam then we need more scams like this.
Keep seeing post like this all the time it's getting really boring you people got nothing else to do but complain you need to get out more or go play Wow this is clearly not for you. Oh and I bet that 90% of the people complaining don't play flight or space sims ever too, so that would of been a better survey to find who does.
Asbo
For investors you are correct.
For backers in a crowdfunding video game project IMHO this is not true. They expect a game in return, not money !
Thats also why SC is not a Ponzi-scheme. No one gets anything for bringing in new people, least of all money.
Have fun
+1
I like ;-)
Have fun
I personally agree here, which is why I always favored a sub model...
However the origins of F2P are in Asia where it is actually a display of prestige and wealth to spend a fortune on all the cash shop mechanics (raising pets, crafting consumables, etc)
The "western" F2P model is completely half baked by comparison because now every western gamer EXPECTS games to be free, but then bitch about paywalls, "p2w", content restrictions, gear limitations, currency limitations, bag space, and all the other convenience and power that comes along with the payment model.
So you can bet your sweet ass when a developer can capitalize on monetizing any aspect of the game they can they absolutely will. In this case it is selling ships, or in SoTA it's selling castles and hamlets. selling housing really doesn't effect another persons gameplay however selling ships could give those players a significant advantage.
You want a level playing field? You better start getting on the sub bandwagon... and shit even that has changed where there are still cash shops involved thanks to the muddy water created by the f2p cesspool.
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
I don't get how they can have a cash shop in a crowd funded game.
Do people that bought it get those items for free? I don't know much about the game but it seems really greedy to me, they got the game fully funded so laid nothing out to make it and now they are overcharging for ships and getting rich off it?
correct! backing = donation NOT investment...
I doubt anyone here is an actual investor in the project and if they are they wouldn't be able to say so due to restrictions in the business plan and or investor NDA to do so.
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Two my knowledge there are only two investors:
"Cloud Imperium Games Corporation was founded in April 2012 by renowned game developer Chris Roberts (Wing Commander, Freelancer, Privateer) and his business partner and long-time international media attorney Ortwin Freyermuth."
https://www.cloudimperiumgames.com/about
Have fun
What you say is true, however there was a day when gaming had managed to keep the influence of wealth out and people were more or less on a level playing field.
Those days are clearly long gone, and money is increasingly becoming a defining factor on what you are able to access in a game which while sad, is just a reality of life.
Fortunately, there are still games you can play where money doesn't have much of an influence, SC just isn't one of them.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
And it's this kind of attitude that is the doom of our society.
People believed that Rome was too large and powerful to ever fall.
Sorry for getting too philosophical
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Backing = pre-purchase NOT donation.
Backing can also be an investment for a person who pre-purchases products in hopes that he could re-sell them. It doesn't grant any official investor status, but there seem to be some people here who genuinely believe that buying those limited ships could be an investment that pays off. Personally I think that throwing money into a well would be better investment, but even the most stupid investments are investments.