Star Citizen: No more refunds

I actually think people fell for the hype. This also happens in the startup (business) culture. If something sounds to good to be true, it probably is. There's a reason why developers have en estimated timeframe to make games, some things are just too ambitious and aren't possible at least with current technology.

That's why I admire CD Project. They are building a truly unique game with Cyberpunk which is taking them years, but they aren't promising groundbreaking features. Just a truly unique experience. Because that's realistic.

By the time the game is out it will be last gen lol

That's a bit dramatic isn't it. I reckon I've got my money's worth already given the time I've been playing it.

Err, you dont' have to do that with Star Citizen? You can buy it for like $45. It used to be cheaper.

What he means to say, is you can only mine in the alpha with one of these ships. Which you can purchase for $155 or whatever. In game ship purchasing is slated for Alpha 3.4 I think. Or yeah, just borrow someone's in game, there are about a billion of them floating around at the moment.

And those "billion" are ships that have been bought by players. As long as people keep buying this shit you'll never see the game. There's no reason for them to finish and release it because it's a gold mine to them. Idiots keep buying.

It's a game that desperately needs a publisher who keeps on them on time and on budget.

Yeah I disagree, lawsuits are a really good reason to finish the game. That and immeasurable reputational damage for all those involved.

By all means don't purchase anything from them if you don't want to. But if you are, remember you are funding the development of a game, if you are spending hundreds or thousands just to fly a spaceship in an unfinished game then you are a bit of an idiot.

Nah, they don't need a publisher, they are doing fine on there own in my opinion.

Exactly. A standard refund policy is still in place, but this is just for those stupid one from backers who have probably played for a year or two, then decide they want a refund.

Why are they charging such high prices when they have already greatly exceeded their funding goal? Also, the point of early access is to get lots of people testing newly implemented features to test them and give the developers feedback. Why would they put a new feature behind a such a hefty price tag? I've seen footage of mining gameplay in SC and it's honestly just laughable that people would pay that kind of money to do it.

The way they are monetizing an unfinished product is so dodgy. At this rate, why would they even want to finish it? They can keep it in an unfinished state forever and perpetually add new features and charge stupid amount of money for them.

I thought the funding was waaaaaay over though? Are they just going to let the money keep rolling in and just expand the scope of the game? Have they even implemented multiplayer yet? All the gameplay I can find online is people flying in around in (very pretty) ships doing a whole lot of **** all...

They aren't "charging" you anything, you are investing in the games development. You can do what I assume plenty of people are doing and wait for the game to finish and pay nothing for the ship. What they are doing is adding an incentive to the investing like most other kickstarter's or early investors in stocks. I know I wouldn't pay $155 to use a feature in a game that will be free later, but some will (are).

Obviously finishing the game is the goal, otherwise you watch the sh*t storm of legal action against them.

I imagine they would let people continue to fund the game yeah, why wouldn't they? Would you expect otherwise?

Multiplayer has been in the game since dog fighting module circa 2014 I'm pretty sure.

Comparing this to investing in stocks is a bad idea because they are fundamentally different. Most kickstarters for games aren't like this, SC is a bit of an anomaly. Your comparison to investing in stocks does underline my point about how the developers have no real incentive to finish the game any time soon, and when they eventually do, I bet it will be in a mess, but if the developers say it's "finished" what can we do about it? Any legal action would be unlikely to succeed in such a scenario in my opinion.

Why is it a bad comparison? Why is SC an anomaly? How does it underline your point about developers having no incentive? And why would it be difficult to pursue legal action?

Before I go defending Star Citizen and Chris Roberts, I definitely find this to be a bit shady. Maybe they spent the money already? If so, where is our end product?

I have and continue enjoy watching the development of Star Citizen, but it's time for some solid progress. I'm getting tired of unstable build after unstable build. Stop adding more flyable ships, finish what you got, and let's go already.

I still think Star Citizen is going to redefine gaming as we know it, but...damn.

Chris Roberts has an excellent track record. Nothing is a sure bet, but he is better and safer than most.

No, and you don't for Star Citizen. They have a few packages for the cost of a standard game.

Again, people seem to not comprehend how crowdfunding works. Expecting a finished product from crowdfunding is like investing in stocks and expecting to gain and not lose. You can diminish this by investing smartly, but never totally eliminate it.

I feel comfortable investing in Star Citizen but, as I said, nothing is 100% guaranteed.

Have you played it? The game is so far ahead of the curve, it's ridiculous. Anything on console is easily two generations behind as far as scope goes, and one generation behind on simple visual fidelity.

And you make it sound like the game is stagnant; it's not, they are constantly adding to it, tweaking, improving.

I would argue that with every month that goes by, Star Citizen pulls farther and farther ahead of the group. I mean, what's its competition? Elite: Dangerous? While E:D is an incredible game, the buggy alpha known as Star Citizen is still amazing and shows the potential to wipe the floor with that game.

This is how I feel. I think they've reached the point of no return; if it were a scam, they would have shut down a while ago. Right now they've established numerous studios at locations all over the planet, hired celebrity voice actors of incredible talent, and done a lot of high-publicity things that will get their asses canned if they go back on their word. When you scam, you keep a low profile.

Because he is a hater and a cynic, probably, and doesn't know what's up.

Star Citizen is both "like all the other scammers" out there, except for when it's not and then "it's an anomaly". That's their logic.

As for the incentive part, the guy probably lives in a world where if people already have your money, they don't bother doing work. Sorry call me naive but I can't be that cynical; people care about their work, for the most part, especially creative types.

It's similar, not identical, to investing: you're giving money to a company and they use it for something, and you expect an un-guaranteed return from it.