Star Citizen is an insane phenomenon to me. It’s a good game and a massive fraud at the same time, and one fuels the other.
Let’s give credit where credit is due - the game is incredibly immersive. The massive social element, ability to walk and explore things outside your ships and rovers, to customize them, to create all the inventive ways to make money and to prevent hostiles from doing the same is fascinating. It’s…believable, immersive, real. No other game has nailed it just so accurately, and I would invite you to experience it by yourself, but…
But once the player’s attention is caught, they become a milking cow. You want to develop in game? You have to pay up big time, lest you want all your ships and money go away with an update. They don’t go loud about their wipes, and most players face them when they’ve reached a certain point in the game - at which point they either lose all progress, or start to buy their ships for cash. For, like, hundreds or thousands of dollars per ship.
While this may sound bollocks to someone who haven’t played it, but the way it is normalized in the community combined with the element of frustration of losing everything in a universe player now cares about really drives folks to spend massive sums on the game.
Back in the pre-war era, I remember a person from Ukraine (a country with per capita GDP of ~$5000, or 1/16th that of the US) secretly stashing over $1000 to buy a new ship, adding to his ship park of $4000. His family (wife and two kids) haven’t been on a good vacation for years, and this amount of money would allow them to do so several times over in the southern Ukraine, but he bought some virtual ships. No, really. He was a clan leader, so he felt like he had to have all the nicest ships at his disposal, and his only grief was that he couldn’t afford the $8000 and $21000 ship packs.
The way community psychology works in the game is insane, and I believe a study could be made on how exactly was this all pulled off. Catch with a good premise, and make sure to never let the player go. I’mma be clear - what made me leave the game is not the sudden realization of its predatory practices, but simply the fact my computer started lagging heavily in the new areas, and me not having money to upgrade at the moment. I did consider buying a $400 ship just to have a decent hauler after wipes though, despite myself living in a not-so-rich of a country. Looking back at my Star Citizen experience though, I see how crazy it would be.
Wow yeah, I just looked into the Wikipedia entry for this game. It looks like they make a lot more money as an unreleased project than they would ever make as a fully realized game.
Squadron 42 is the single-player counterpart to Star Citizen. It’s supposed to release next year. Star Citizen, however, is far too complex to self-host. The server technology they’ve shown off is incredible, but it’s not a “single server” thing.
I’m hoping that many of these departures are simply because the underlying technology is finally mature and those people want to move on to new challenges, but I don’t really believe that’s true. It’s clear that Chris Roberts own shortcomings as a boss are poisoning the company and it’s once-passionate workers.
Star Citizen is an insane phenomenon to me. It’s a good game and a massive fraud at the same time, and one fuels the other.
Let’s give credit where credit is due - the game is incredibly immersive. The massive social element, ability to walk and explore things outside your ships and rovers, to customize them, to create all the inventive ways to make money and to prevent hostiles from doing the same is fascinating. It’s…believable, immersive, real. No other game has nailed it just so accurately, and I would invite you to experience it by yourself, but…
But once the player’s attention is caught, they become a milking cow. You want to develop in game? You have to pay up big time, lest you want all your ships and money go away with an update. They don’t go loud about their wipes, and most players face them when they’ve reached a certain point in the game - at which point they either lose all progress, or start to buy their ships for cash. For, like, hundreds or thousands of dollars per ship.
While this may sound bollocks to someone who haven’t played it, but the way it is normalized in the community combined with the element of frustration of losing everything in a universe player now cares about really drives folks to spend massive sums on the game.
Back in the pre-war era, I remember a person from Ukraine (a country with per capita GDP of ~$5000, or 1/16th that of the US) secretly stashing over $1000 to buy a new ship, adding to his ship park of $4000. His family (wife and two kids) haven’t been on a good vacation for years, and this amount of money would allow them to do so several times over in the southern Ukraine, but he bought some virtual ships. No, really. He was a clan leader, so he felt like he had to have all the nicest ships at his disposal, and his only grief was that he couldn’t afford the $8000 and $21000 ship packs.
The way community psychology works in the game is insane, and I believe a study could be made on how exactly was this all pulled off. Catch with a good premise, and make sure to never let the player go. I’mma be clear - what made me leave the game is not the sudden realization of its predatory practices, but simply the fact my computer started lagging heavily in the new areas, and me not having money to upgrade at the moment. I did consider buying a $400 ship just to have a decent hauler after wipes though, despite myself living in a not-so-rich of a country. Looking back at my Star Citizen experience though, I see how crazy it would be.
Wow yeah, I just looked into the Wikipedia entry for this game. It looks like they make a lot more money as an unreleased project than they would ever make as a fully realized game.
So, I’m guessing there is no way to play offline, or any private servers floating around
Its an MMO, so no
Squadron 42 is the single-player counterpart to Star Citizen. It’s supposed to release next year. Star Citizen, however, is far too complex to self-host. The server technology they’ve shown off is incredible, but it’s not a “single server” thing.
I’m hoping that many of these departures are simply because the underlying technology is finally mature and those people want to move on to new challenges, but I don’t really believe that’s true. It’s clear that Chris Roberts own shortcomings as a boss are poisoning the company and it’s once-passionate workers.
None that I know of.
It was a planned official feature, but I think it rather touched small battlegrounds and not the main universe.
Unofficially, I haven’t seen any in the wild. Besides, the game’s economy and mechanics rely on rather very massive multiplayer.