Last I checked they had an ecosystem that any developer would kill to have. A closed off pool of players who are all loyal. Everyone I’ve talked to that has gotten to play it has defended it. So it obviously has something going. I think most people just expected a normal release and it seems to have morphed into a different business model?
As an Early Access, it has a LOT of jank; but it’s unlike anything else that has ever existed. It really is a no-compromises, persistent, open, seamless sci-fi universe. It gets massive updates every 3 months, and those updates have been getting gradually bigger and more meaningful over the last 2 years. We’ve seen huge amounts of progress, so the developers are actually delivering. And regardless of how you feel about their business model as an outsider, it’s successfully ensuring that progress can continue in perpetuity, which is exactly what all of us regular players want.
I skipped the original Kickstarter because even the smaller scope of that pitch seemed impossible on the budget they were asking. Then I watched the project for years as it seemed like it was falling apart. I didn’t actually buy in until they showed off planet tech, and it was obvious that (1) they had finally gotten their development problems fixed and (2) their business model was capable of funding the project indefinitely (no matter how long it took to realize the vision). As of now, I have well over 1,000 hours in the game… probably more than anything else I’ve ever played.
They aren’t fooled though. Its a real game that offers what it says it does, hand crafted solar systems. Its just fucken nuts seeing whale catching tactics outside of mobile games.
Followed by the call from the bank “What the fuck is Cloud Imperium?” before your accountant files it under “bitcoin” because they stopped understanding and zoned out after “digital content”
Only about half of those vehicles are actually in the game right now, too.
The thing is, with only one exception that I can think of, everything can be acquired in-game. The only reason you’d buy one of these ship packages is to have immediate access to those specific types of gameplay and, eventually, free in-game insurance (which otherwise also uses in-game currency). Sometimes these things make sense for player Orgs, but I can’t imagine any Org needing all vehicles at all times… especially at that price.
As someone who is in no way invested, has only seen this as some kind of vapor product but still mildly interested, what does it say about the in-game economy and required level of grind if 50k real world money is the fast track to owning all in-game ships? It’s got to be ludicrous, right?
That’s the weird thing about this, nobody would ever NEED to own all the vehicles at once… not even the biggest Org. The game just doesn’t work like that.
You’d need all the vehicles in Star Citizen like you’d need all the vehicles on earth. You just buy or rent what you need when you need it.
Thanks for the insight. There are a lot of zealots in the community who are happy to downvote or sometimes throw around terms like “strawman” but rarely are questions answered
Thats how they have to work. If you run into a player with a ship you don’t have it still needs the asset to display it on your client. It just makes it seem a little silly is all. You are paying for access, and thats true for all of these game cosmetics.
Yep, art and asset takes up the most space. It also has the most space reserved for data transfer in disc readers. Its definitely the reason the new CoDs are so huge, along with their techniques of massive redundancy (if that ol’ article about the way they load maps is true).
It sounds laughable, but then I realise that anyone that can afford dropping 50k on just a video game are doing way better than me and most other people. I’m not sure who’s getting the biggest laugh here.
Its just the same thing as mobile game profits. They target the wealthiest players. They probably only need to sell this pack a few times to be satisfied with it. This game just has a lot more to offer than say, LOTR: Rise to War.
Well, it’s not like the Norwegian wealth gap is actually growing faster than America’s, or your government was caught falsifying data on the taxes and wealth of the billionaire class.
And, of course, everyone knows you only need to care about things that directly impact your comfort level.
Imagine buying 50k worth of digital assets in one go. They’re already downloaded on your computer anyway. You just can’t use them in game lmao
Pretty sure it’s simply there to make headlines, outrage people and get some people who don’t care to see what the game is about
Last I checked they had an ecosystem that any developer would kill to have. A closed off pool of players who are all loyal. Everyone I’ve talked to that has gotten to play it has defended it. So it obviously has something going. I think most people just expected a normal release and it seems to have morphed into a different business model?
As an Early Access, it has a LOT of jank; but it’s unlike anything else that has ever existed. It really is a no-compromises, persistent, open, seamless sci-fi universe. It gets massive updates every 3 months, and those updates have been getting gradually bigger and more meaningful over the last 2 years. We’ve seen huge amounts of progress, so the developers are actually delivering. And regardless of how you feel about their business model as an outsider, it’s successfully ensuring that progress can continue in perpetuity, which is exactly what all of us regular players want.
I skipped the original Kickstarter because even the smaller scope of that pitch seemed impossible on the budget they were asking. Then I watched the project for years as it seemed like it was falling apart. I didn’t actually buy in until they showed off planet tech, and it was obvious that (1) they had finally gotten their development problems fixed and (2) their business model was capable of funding the project indefinitely (no matter how long it took to realize the vision). As of now, I have well over 1,000 hours in the game… probably more than anything else I’ve ever played.
It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.
They aren’t fooled though. Its a real game that offers what it says it does, hand crafted solar systems. Its just fucken nuts seeing whale catching tactics outside of mobile games.
Not to mention heavy ingestion of copium or the gambler’s fallacy
I mean, it’s better than some mobile games that have cost people even more than 50 grand through incremental purchases. Here you get every ship.
…everyship… so far
Yeah and this isn’t for the average player. But still could you imagine being like “Add to Cart > Checkout” on 50k for a game?
No, but I won’t be in that situation anyways.
Followed by the call from the bank “What the fuck is Cloud Imperium?” before your accountant files it under “bitcoin” because they stopped understanding and zoned out after “digital content”
Only about half of those vehicles are actually in the game right now, too.
The thing is, with only one exception that I can think of, everything can be acquired in-game. The only reason you’d buy one of these ship packages is to have immediate access to those specific types of gameplay and, eventually, free in-game insurance (which otherwise also uses in-game currency). Sometimes these things make sense for player Orgs, but I can’t imagine any Org needing all vehicles at all times… especially at that price.
As someone who is in no way invested, has only seen this as some kind of vapor product but still mildly interested, what does it say about the in-game economy and required level of grind if 50k real world money is the fast track to owning all in-game ships? It’s got to be ludicrous, right?
That’s the weird thing about this, nobody would ever NEED to own all the vehicles at once… not even the biggest Org. The game just doesn’t work like that.
You’d need all the vehicles in Star Citizen like you’d need all the vehicles on earth. You just buy or rent what you need when you need it.
Thanks for the insight. There are a lot of zealots in the community who are happy to downvote or sometimes throw around terms like “strawman” but rarely are questions answered
In that case ypu are quite litterarly paying for a bunch of boolean variables being changed from a 0 to a 1.
If this was done in powershell:
Get-Ship -identity * | Set-Ship -AvaliableToPlayer 1
Thats how they have to work. If you run into a player with a ship you don’t have it still needs the asset to display it on your client. It just makes it seem a little silly is all. You are paying for access, and thats true for all of these game cosmetics.
Those extra assets are also one of the reasons why some games take like 500Gb of
memorystorage to install.Yep, art and asset takes up the most space. It also has the most space reserved for data transfer in disc readers. Its definitely the reason the new CoDs are so huge, along with their techniques of massive redundancy (if that ol’ article about the way they load maps is true).
500gb of ‘memory’? Get off the internet grandpa.
Yep, it is the same in Forza Horizon, you can buy cars through DLC, and they basically just change the 0 to a 1.
The cars still exist in the world…
It sounds laughable, but then I realise that anyone that can afford dropping 50k on just a video game are doing way better than me and most other people. I’m not sure who’s getting the biggest laugh here.
Its just the same thing as mobile game profits. They target the wealthiest players. They probably only need to sell this pack a few times to be satisfied with it. This game just has a lot more to offer than say, LOTR: Rise to War.
Them, because you’re not smart enough to join a radical militia instead of thinking “maybe they’re just winning at life”
Why would I want to join a “radical militia” when life in Norway is pretty great?
I was mostly making a joke out of the fact that people are getting riled up about rich people spending tons of money on silly game bundles.
Well, it’s not like the Norwegian wealth gap is actually growing faster than America’s, or your government was caught falsifying data on the taxes and wealth of the billionaire class.
And, of course, everyone knows you only need to care about things that directly impact your comfort level.
You do you.