A quick web search gave me the result I was looking for: informal obtain a great deal of money from (someone), typically by overcharging or swindling them. and a deeper one on Swindle: verb gerund or present participle: swindling use deception to deprive (someone) of money or possessions. Are they overcharging? yes - considering this is a computer game which hasn't been released and the amount of money they are charging for virtual items. Are they swindling? using deception to deprive? yes they are. They said they would release a game and they haven't. Compartmentalising 'bits' of your game and re-packing them into something else is exactly what they used to do with peoples mortgages. Remember? You will not find the word 'blackmail' in any dictionary related to the word 'fleece'. But you will find words like 'con' 'de*****' 'trick' 'ruse' etc. As mentioned above, I am passing judgement on them, NOT the game - this I will leave alone until it is finished and available to buy in stores with a DVD copy I can take home. I will not pass any judgement on any aspect of the game until every single aspect of it has been released and there are no elements left to be released or that are still in development. So you got my silence on the game, your pound of flesh, so to speak - but the company and how they are conducting business and developing their game; that is open hunting season as far as I am concerned. And I'm locked and loaded.
What? You basically explain there what Star Citizen is all about and then reach into conclusion that NMS and Freelancer is more similar. Also trading was something you couldn't really do properly in Freelancer since you couldn't pilot big ass cargo haulers like you can in Star Citizen. I don't even... Freelancer was single player game with optional multiplayer which was basically the single player experience with friends minus the story. Star Citizen has option for private servers (with mod support) if you don't want to play on the mega server. In terms of gameplay (sim part) SC is closer to Starlancer since Freelancer was really dumbed down arcade game. Squadron 42 is Wing Commander's spiritual successor with FPS. Currently the Squadron 42 + Star Citizen pre-order package costs 44,64 € (inc. 24% VAT) which is extremely reasonable price and you do not have to spend a single € more than that.
This is fking nonsense. I've been with the development since the start, and everything that is currently "available", is completely barebones and barely functioning, heck with the last "social module" update, hardly anyone could actually get in because there were "limited spots". So you had 40gb of data on your HDD and you couldn't even use it. Heck the ship I bought to pledge my support didn't become properly flyable until a year ago; many months after the arena commander release. There is not "more available" than the original kickstarter, because the original kickstarter was still a fully featured and functional game. Just because there is now an FPS module (that got delayed countless times because CR is only good for pulling dates out of his ass) and other things like racing, doesn't mean there is actually more game, because there isn't. All of it are a bunch of disjointed, extremely restricted mini demos, while the original kickstarter being pretty much a slighty more feature rich Elite Dangerous. Elite Dangerous is 1000% more game than any of the stuff us backers have now, heck you could pick up Freelancer and have something that's very close to the original kickstarter right now. The upcoming mini PTU update is finally a move into having an actual game, but even that is still just a tiny demo.
So, the efforts have been more to pacify the player-base without the need to pay Cryengine any money as they do not have a produced and released game? Sounds about right. To think, if CR had a credible game design document, banks would have given him the money and publishers would have ensured it was delivered on time and on budget. Imagine that...
Good thing they're working on a "proper" DX12 path, taking full advantage of increased draw calls and multithreading, then [] Believe it was said to be aimed for the first half of 2016. Bet your ass it'll be in before SQ42 goes live as they'll want it stress tested and driver optimised before the first reviewable release hits. Knives are sharpened, they're not stupid. Only something that makes the current consoles look like the restrictive insipid retroboxes they are will do the job. DX12 + 14/16nm HBM GPUs = generational leap. CDJay
Taking a loan from a bank is stupid when you can kickstarter it, risk and interest free. Forgoing a publisher is hardly rare, it gives the developer freedom from the strings required. Publishers are kinda like you; just generally annoying and concerned only with release dates.
Yes, but if you do not have a credible game design document and schedule, then a bank and publisher will say 'no'. That's what happened here. And you are right about kick starter, for unknown start-ups it is absolutely a great way to get the first basic game developed and delivered. For someone like CR, though, he just used it as a way of mitigating risk, when in all honesty, if he really believed in the game he would have sank his entire personal finances into it and gotten a business loan from a bank for any shortfall. Why didn't he sell his house? Why was he not sleeping in the offices? (rhetorical) But no, he didn't risk any of his own personal money, he let other people do that. And, publishers do offer a lot to development studios, you don't need me to educate you on this area; there is plenty information out there with regards to what they offer, but there is one which stands out here which this game obviously needs and needed from the beginning: Project management. So, the statement about not using a publisher and therefore giving freedom is the kind of rubbish that has been sprouted on the internet for years and I think is a hold-over from annual franchises like EA's catalogue. In this regard, I strongly suspect CR used this inaccurate perception to further the implication he is 'a man of the people' and that by NOT using a publisher, they will have creative freedom to 'create something amazing'. In actuality, all this has done is lengthen development time and allow CR to keep developing and feature-creep a 'game' and keep the project alive by pacification. As mentioned, a real publisher would have the game on the shelves by now, with all the extra fluff like prancing about in discos on stations and racing a racing pod, would have been PEER REVIEWED instead of someone hitting the 'dogmatic belief is over-powered' button.
All anyone needs to read is this paragraph to see just how full of nonsense you are. People like you should have to pass some test before spouting nonsense on these forums. May be your opinion, but all it shows is that you have little to no knowledge whatsoever about game development and what it takes to make a game of this scope on a MODDED Cryengine which they are pushing way farther than its intended usage. At least your comments make it clear to see you're talking squarely out of your rear-end.
His point doesn't even make sense. There are plenty of developers and game companies that push games without publishers. Valve for example doesn't even set timelines, schedules or even have oversight. This isn't even to mention that Squad 42, the single player component of the game, has only been in development for ~3-4 years which is typical for a AAA game studio to develop and release a game. In this case there was no studio previous to development, they had to build the studio first then ramp production on the game. But again, just like in other threads -- he constantly changes his argument and repeats the same stuff over and over, he basically just goes for the last word. I think he's mentioned in a post before that he's in advertising industry, so his behavior kind of makes sense. I would just ignore him.
This is also non-sense, the "oh look at the scope" bs argument just doesn't fly, because I'm pretty sure none of the original backers asked for any of this **** that CR keeps putting in, it's blatant, and constant feature creep and at least having someone to tell him to knock this **** off and reign his ass in (like a publisher), would've resulted in, at the very least, having the original kickstarter already being released, or at least very far in development. Star citizen is literally nowhere at the moment, and it's literally all because CR wants to add more and more, because people keep giving him money with those ridiculously overpriced "pledge" ships. I would be very surprised if the PTU aspect of the game gets released before 2018.
Sigh. If you're gonna go to the trouble to post, at least use words correctly. Star Citizen is literally nowhere? Actually, that would suggest to me that they haven't even started development on the game. That would be nowhere, which is far from where they are. So, actually, you literally could not have used the word "literally" any less correctly. I'm gonna take Denial's advice and save my time and brainpower by not responding any further since some of you simply dislike the game and how they are funding its development and are impervious to reason. Maybe when you can string together a coherent post we can discuss further.
darkshadow5k5 posted legitimate criticism of this game and the best you can do is attack darkshadow5k5 use of the word "nowhere" while having the audacity to call out others as being impervious to reason. That response sums up the general attitude of the communities of these kick starter projects. Its the blind fanbase that is simply impervious to reason, any form of criticism is labeled as hate or some such nonsense. We get you want the game to be successful, but so do those who've criticized the project and if anything, those criticizing it want it more, hence their disappointment so far. After spending 20+ hours over the last few days looking into both SC and ED, the complaints of feature creep, poor dlc/season pass decisions, ignoring of legitimate complaints and shallow core content far out ways the amount of positive (whether blatant fanboy or genuine) feedback for it to be considered "hate" or simply wrong and unfounded. Theses games have alooooooong way to go before singing of praises at any level should even begin. Ed is only $18 right now, but after all the reading/reviewing/viewing, its clear that both of these games are simply fetch quest in space full of yet to be delivered content. All of these massive KS projects are littered with this same pattern of poor management, dev process, fanboi community, feature creep of so many added features yet so incomplete they basically exist in name only and of course, shady business practices and disgruntled employees.
There we go.. see, Darkshadow, take note please. This is how you formulate and post a response to someone. Many are impervious to reason. They criticise and judge the game without a modicum of research into it themselves, and do so when the game has a long ways to go yet. Tough to sort out legitimate and illegitimate claims in criticisms like that.. honestly, many of them simply don't even need to be made. Yknow what? I completely agree with you. I find that there is a stark divide. Either you're with the team to the death, or you're against it to the death is the overall sense of it. And honestly, though you may find it hard to believe, I am neither of these. I think that indeed the game has plently of issues where it stands right now, but I also think its scored a ton of wins. Its simply too early still to talk with certainty how it will all turn out.. What I have trouble staying quiet over are the ludicris comments like "This game is nothing".. or ".. IF it ever gets released". Its $hitposting, is all it is. I see what you're getting at here, but after all the crap I read from people about this project, I simply can't agree that more people who complain want it more. Depends where you look. The community that actually supports the game seem to be pretty pleased from what I gather. Other ares of the net, not so much. What funny is that the people who haven't backed this project appear to be the most critical of the game.. those who have the least idea about it, seem to call it out and talk all sorsta stuff about a game they haven't invested nearly any time into, and know little about it. Much of the stuff I read absolutely is unfounded since I can call people out on it, and all they can do is insult my intelligence or call me a fanboy, blatantly ignoring the fact that my only interest is to be impartial.. something that seems to elude most gamers these days. Couldn't agree more. Definitely right, with one caveat.. SC IMO does not need to amount to more than this since its in development. Frontier on the other hand, released ED as a full game.. which anyone who has played it (I got in for ED in early Beta) realizes quickly that its not. Not sure if you're aware of this, but take a look at any dev studio's track record and you will find much of this, whether it was a kickstarter or not. I work in a game dev studio.. fortunatlely, in my studio our designers, programmers, engineers, artists, producers and operations people are all fairly happy and not too overworked.. the same cannot be said for even the likes of a studio like CDPR. Sure they may win a ton of GOTY awards for W3, but beyond that, its known that many of their employees are disgruntled. So that argument being attached to a dev studio that so happens to be a KS project simply doesn't fly. Shady business practices? Also doesn't fly if you're trying to connect it to simply KS projects.. these are things that touch many studios honestly. So does fanboy community (Fallout4 hello?).. you literally could take your last paragraph and apply it to most areas of video game development. All that said, I appreciate that you would actually try with your response and respect your opinions just the same.
Srsly? You going to use Valve as an example of not using timelines and schedules? Two things: Firstly, Valve is most certainly peer reviewed regarding its products, internally and externally. Secondly, the big whopping huge difference between Valve and CR is that Valve never said they are going to release Half-Life 2, Episode 3 - they just left us hanging on the edge of the cliff. CR, on the other hand, said a lot and has not published a game yet. Demos do not count - especially if you are charging for them, even more so if it cost $12,000. Gimme a break and stop defending something which is emotionally hurting you. I've said it before and it's blinding you, as indicated by other here: cognitive dissonance. Look it up, get the epiphany moment and all will be forgiven.
For the last time; personal insults do not work on me. I'm sorry you feel that peer review is flawed, I really do - and yes, publishers do offer a great deal and I'm not going to list or link examples because you know better and you know you know better, and you know that I know you know better - so stop the BS on this and fall back to a more easily defensible position of argumentative reasoning and perhaps we can move forward. Just as an FYI: peer review is the cornerstone of science, and without it, we would not have walked on the moon, meaning the 'moonwalk' would not be a thing and certainly The Police would not have a hit single. It makes sense. 'MODDING' Cryengine is not that hard to be honest - 16 yr old whizz kid or a fully vetted college graduate would be able to do the same, and one call to a recruitment agency would yield a hundred candidates in the time it takes to say 'pwnage'. Nothing against Cryengine, as they do have some nifty tech in their engine, but then again, what engine doesn't? You want me to give credit to a game engine? One that is free to use? Why? I can download and use Unreal Engine and use a one of their flight blueprints and have a X, Y, and Z axis game running in 8K in the time it takes to alter the gameengine.ini file...so your point? And let's be fair and subjective here: what do you mean by 'modded' exactly? That's such a broad term and could mean anything, but extending a development time to market by feature creeping, it most certainly does not - so any brownie points you think this gives CR, it doesn't. Wait a sec, 'pushed farther'...I think you mean 'further' as in, more detail, not farther as in; distance. They might have physically pushed the code across the floor, out of the building and across some fields, but I doubt it Unless of course you were speaking figuratively and not literally
That's all you got from my post? My usage of the word nowhere? What a pathetic and ridiculous response. For all intents and purposes SC is "nowhere", especially when compared to the original kickstarter which was promised to be released nov 2014, that is what the backers bought into and not some tiny map you could fly around in (that is even if the ship you bought was flyable at that point); selling a bunch of disjointed, bug ridden, barely functioning demos for 40+, in nov 2015, does not a game make. Instead, all it does is provide CR with an endless well of money so he can keep on feature creeping with the promise of: "oh but it will so good when it's done.". Great, but that's not why I gave you my money.
^ I can't help but laugh out loud at these responses. Now a 16yr old whizz kid can modify an engine in order to scale it up large enough for thousands of players to connect to a online persistent universe.. TIL! Oh, and a reitteration that this game is nowhere even though its getting more content to it pretty much monthly for ever and a day now. Keep up on the butthurt guys.. looks great on you.
Corrected the spelling for you... Anyway, the only losers in this are gamers, as they are the ones being fleeced on this - no amount of defensive posturing is going to make you CR's best bud, or curry favour with other forums dwellers. If you want to preach to the choir, pick another forum, because on these forums we analyse facts. Again, with regards to the engine...you're fighting a losing battle on that front. Frontier developments created their own engine from scratch. So a direct question to you, what is your point on this? What is it that I/we are supposed to be giving CR credit for? How does this make a reverse on feature creep more palatable? How does this alter the FACT this game should have been released a long time ago? It doesn't on every count. I'll say it again: this collection of demo's will only be released 'magically' when the money runs out. If that date was initially anticipated to be two years ago, but got extended because more people thought to give it more money, then so be it. As it stands now, the money is due to run out on the release date of...when exactly? And how many more years will that be from the initial anticipated release date? And, why are they still taking in money for the game when they have a release date planned? Surely they have got enough money by now? Or maybe, just maybe, they will continually add and feature creep this until the end of time. Give a girl 10 minutes to get ready and that's how long she will take, give a girl all day, and that's how long she will take. Give CR $1 million and that is the exact amount of money it will take to release a game, but give him $1 billion...
So is this the new line of talking points the haters are going to be peddling after just about everything Derek "Dumbass" Smart said has pretty much been torn apart as lies, slander, and is likely landing him in court since he started posting photos of Chris Roberts children on the internet, among other things? If we used this methodology for what is applicable to be posted here, then 95% or more of all gaming news wouldn't pass muster. If you wanted people to ignore the article and disregard any news about Star Citizen, you probably did the absolute worst thing you could have done... tell people to disregard everything we've seen regarding this game and believe that it's nothing but a scam and Roberts is laughing all the way to the bank. Why do you care what others spend their money on? Is easy to see that your intent has nothing to do with "helping" others. Rather you're the type who sits around and wallows in other peoples misery. You see how hugely popular Star Citizen is becoming and it disgusts you. And it because of this you've jumped on the the Derek Smart bandwagon who wants the same thing because his game BattleCruiser 3000AD was an absolute BOMB and Chris Roberts's Wing Commander was GOTY, and it's clear that he thinks Chris Roberst stole his fame/fortune. Pathetic. Go jump off a bridge and stop trying to ruin everyone elses day. edit\ I should add that I have not spent a single dime on backing Star Citizen. My account on RSI is to use "fly free week" coupons to test it out.
