Judicat0r: I clearly stated that the whole thing is dragging on for so much time now, but that aside, the MMO is playable right now and from years and is being constantly updated.
It's not a generic multiplayer title: is an MMO which have longer development cycles, he is (they are) doing what other MMOs have done before nothing more, nothing less.
Squadron 42 development is as well dragging itself from years now and there are not many excuses for that but people often (like to) forget that, like the MMO part, started with a level of complexity unseen before.
Is it right? Is it wrong?
Is it fair? Is it not?
To each their own,
I am an original backer one of the first 2000 backers in the world (I would have been even an earlier one but americans always do stuff in their timezone and not the global one) and golden ticket holder, am I happy with the whole status of the game(s)? Not really, I've grown miildly indifferent from years mostly because of some of their choices along the years that I don't support.
Do I find it a scam? No, at least unless it can be legally called that.
Ah, and 250$ for a ship is really not much if you consider the most expensive ones can go for 2500$ and 1250$ even more if you try to shop in the grey market.
midrand: I think you are being too kind on this whole affair. Star Citizen is not a traditional MMO gaming business model - it is a business model centered around a game in eternal development. It has to remain in development indefinitely and its scope has to increase indefinitely so as to get new players in. It does not have enough substance to migrate to a subscription model as it is not a game - it's a collection of tech demos - a space dog combat demo, a FPS demo and a hangar demo. There is very little to no gameplay as such behind it - just endless talk of complex systems, interactions and always focus on how wonderful it will be in the future.
The level of complexity is just promises - have you actually seen this complexity in action? Is it present in any part of this game today - or is it just paper promises? He did have some pretty clear timeline / release date promises that he certainly blew out the window.
I honestly think that after a few years Chris Roberts realised that this perpetual development model is providing him much greater revenues and he must simply keep on growing the scope and promises. It's a game that will just never be finished.
With all due respect, majority of MMOs are either sold as finished products or come out of "early access" within reasonable time frames. Yes, they are continuously improved, but there is a finished baseline product to begin with.
Do you think it is ok to sell a virtual non-existent ship for $2500 in a game that has not even been finished? Morally I don't believe this is ethical in any way - this is a scam of note. Yes, to each one his own.
I'm replying to you only because it looks like you know stuff that you caught here and there.
An example: when I was actively into the community there were a lot af articles coming out (especially when SC was the new big thing) let's say, not exactly accurate, usually someone used to to start a thread in order to let the community know about and discuss them.
One day after another article from a rather known gaming reviews site/news outlet came out, we started a topic in order to debate the stuff they got wrong and, when you know, the author popped in, when we brought to his/her attention the errors, his/her motivation was something along the lines of: I had an hour to gather info and then write the article.
That is most of the gaming journalism in a nutshell: people that write articles without knowing exactly their subject for clicks and by extension many gamers around the world clicking who take that crap for reliable information.
The Persistent universe is there for you to play in with many promised mechanics ready and working, millions of people actually play it, hundreds of thousands daily, it's right there, no vapor, no paper, the roadmap has been discussed to death, rewritten and publicly available, same goes for the single player.
MMOs are rarely sold as finshed products, that would in the worst case kill them in the span of few years, for example, EVE started in 2003, still played and worked on, there are plans for the next ten years, WoW, started in 2004, still being updated.
What do you find SC lacking of in your experience? What aspects of the game?
The existence of every MMO is tied to how many users it has and what people pay for it: if what they earn doesn't cover the cost then it's impossible to keep it going financially, simple as that.
The PU starter pack sets you back 45USD, The Single player one 55USD the combo 80USD, you don't need to buy any of those expensive ships which you can earn in the PU through gameplay and you don't have to subscribe for a monthly fee.
Morally? What kind of morality?
Who am I to judge the others and who are the others to judge me?
If people want to buy that stuff then they can suit themselves: personally back then I've bought two game boxes and a stand alone ship to support the development, I'm not sure I would do it today in hindsight albeit for different reasons.
I'm definitely not happy with their development model and they can be criticized for many, many reasons but to be honest could be worse.