As a very early backer of S42 way back in apparently 2012: It never ceases to annoy me that The Wing Commander Guy has once again managed to do everything possible to NOT make a fucking Wing Commander. This is, what, the third big clusterfuck and the first one where there was nobody to take it away from him and just finish it themselves? But, whatever.
As a big fan of elite games: I am really glad star citizen “exists” to contrast Elite Dangerous and has led to some truly amazing games in the genre. Some of which actually ARE more Wing Commander than not (Everspace 2 is basically the Freelancer that was promised). Now we just need some studio to make a proper Freespace game.
All that said: I don’t like it but I weirdly keep coming back to the thought process that Star Citizen actually IS delivering on its “promise” to the backers… of the past decade or so. Not the OGs. Fuck us.
Because they were never sold on actually playing a game. They were sold on a dream. It is the same logic by which you watch Aisha Tyler do VO for a Tom Clancy game and think that you and your friends are also going to be super sweaty tier seven operators. Or how you watch your favorite group of online youtubers read off their pre-written jokes and pretend to be shocked while playing “friendslop” games. Or… you are a non-sicko who read too many AARs of Dwarf Fortress and thought you would boatmurder too.
Its the idea of spending money to Dream. You know you’ll never actually do what you saw the pretty people do. But you THINK you will and, by owning a copy of Garry’s Mod that you will never boot up, you think you will too.
Obviously the star citizen heads are spending WAY more than 20 bucks a pop and some are buying multiple megaships they’ll never use meaningfully. But it is hard to not see parallels to the people who buy a DCS plane because they want to pretend that one day they will learn how to fly that jet.
And… truth be told, I think I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of the annual charity streams where Drew Scanlon (The Blinking White Guy) and Vinny Caravella attempt to play Star Citizen and spend an hour or two crashing to desktop, getting confused, and accomplishing absolutely nothing. Hell, I think there were a few years where they never even found each other in the space station?
Also, as much as Freelancer hurt, I’ll never stop laughing/being annoyed that he managed to take a sci-fi movie starring Freddie Prinze Jr AND Baby Busey AND Matthew Lillard and turn it into a charisma-free void with no redeeming qualities. Like, you gotta put some fricking effort into that. Those guys could make reading the dictionary be entertaining.
All I really wanted was SQ42 back when I supported it on Kickstarter. With my 20 bucks there’s no regret, but it’s quite funny where things have gone since then.
I install the latest alpha once every year and am both amazed and disappointed.
I don’t expect SQ42 to be released before 2030 and I do expect it to be a buggy, unoptimized mess when it finally arrives.
I’ve been thoroughly entertained all those years, though.
I think the people claiming this game is a scam, don’t know what scam means. I paid for this game years ago and sometimes I go online and have fun with friends or just drink beer and do cargo hauling to relax. Like any other game really. Early access or not, people are having fun.
Sunk cost fallacy? What cost am I putting in, and what am I expecting in return? This game cost me a night on the town years ago that would’ve been forgotten at this point, and gained me a fun space game.
Last time I hate the patience to soldier through a sad attempt at playing this game felt more like buying some next gen bike, but getting the chassis that looks like the bike I ordered, but had tech from 10 years ago and every time you try to park it in your garage, both wheels fall off.
Horribly mismanaged? Incompetent project management? Horrifyingly bad predictions, even lying? Big mess of a project? Sure.
Scam? No. They really are trying to do the thing they said they are.
And as you say, even though they’re never, ever going to deliver what they promised because they can’t, they have delivered a thing that a lot of people like
But god DAMN. They said most of the PU features would be done in 2016/17. 9 years later 80% of what they promised still isn’t there. Multi crew has been walked back. Etc etc.
Umm, I bought it because Gary Oldman said squadron 42 was coming out next year. I want a modern freelancer. That was over a decade ago. That really seems like a scam…
A scam would be that Chris Robert just took the kickstarter money and ran away. They are actually trying to make the game… Poorly.
Having said that, It amazes me that they get away with selling ships for 1000s of dollars. That feels somewhat scam-ish
I got no sympathy for anyone that is disappointed and continues to "pledge" to this "game". I mean hell a few years ago they got me and I "pledged" $200 for a ship that I may or may not still have. but then afterwards I felt like a rube.
So I get it, I fell for it once, but still no sympathy for anyone that continues to do so.
I’m in a similar boat. Pledged but it’s been years since I gave them money and I’m not really following it closely anymore. Can’t say I ever felt like a rube though, backing a crowdfunded project is always a gamble to some degree, and that money was so long ago that any impact on my situation from having it or not has long since faded.
I’m a little disappointed in the date potentially being pushed back, but it’s not like I marked it on my calendar or anything. If they had said nothing and the date just slipped by I probably wouldn’t even notice if no one else brought it up.
I’ll play S42 if/when it comes out, and probably even enjoy it, but I’m not chomping at the bit.
People continuing to give them additional money now are simply deranged though.
If you look into the history of Chris Roberts you’ll know it’s not a scam. Roberts is one of the few creatives I’d say actually needs an executive board to hold him back, because he’ll never stop and actually finish something.
I don’t think there’s a single project Roberts has finished on his own accord. He has always been made to finish.
You are a kind soul. Your grand grand grand kids (assuming you have them) will be very greatful for your sacrifice (when they get their hands on the production alpha release candidate 2 build).
Since i saw that gameplay footage which was released like somewhere in the last 5 years its all i can think about when Sq42 is in the news again. Until that point i just hoped that maybe somehow someday an unpolished but interesting game will come out. But that footage looked so unfun and ass after ~10 years of development i lost all hope.
I remember them announcing that SQ404 was entering a “polishing” phase in late 2023.
At that point and to this day, they failed to finalise a flight model, develop an armour/shield system and implement engineering gameplay.
Arguably these are critical elements for a release with space sim gameplay. Although if SQ404 does release, I think it will be 30 hours of Wing Commander The Movie level cut scenes (space bulldozer) and script, with bored sounding Hollywood actors counting the seconds till they can leave Chris Roberts’ mocap studio.
Inside Chris Roberts’ Mocap Studio:
Roberts: Hehehe. Hey, Mark! You know how I came up with the Vanduul? Hehe.
Hamil: No, how?
Roberts: Ehehe. Vandals to Vanduul! Get it? Hehehe. Pretty smart, right? Hehehe.
Hamil: Very original.
Roberts: Did you know the Vandals were a Germanic tribal grouping that raided the Roman Empire? Bet you didn’t know that! Hehehe.
Hamil: I am in awe of your creativy!
Roberts: I know, right! Hehehe.
Ok Mark, enough farting around. Pretend you are riding a space bulldozer!
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