Star Citizen sells 'Concept Motorcycles' at $36 and $48

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, May 13, 2019.

  1. TheDeeGee

    TheDeeGee Ancient Guru

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    The fact that these are called "micro-transactions" is very disgusting.

    You can buy 3-4 games on sale for that.
     
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  2. Captain_Calamity

    Captain_Calamity Guest

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    Yet they certainly spend a lot of time and effort, and money to get you to spend much more then that starter package.

    Heck, you can't even buy certain ships if you haven't already spent $1000.

    Tell me how many people active on Star Citizen right now do you think are are playing with just the starter package?

    And yeah I'm a backer too, have been since the goal was 6 million.
     
  3. XenthorX

    XenthorX Ancient Guru

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    It's not microtransactions, this game is financed by players, sellings ships, motorcycle etc... is the business model of the project.
     
  4. The Laughing Ma

    The Laughing Ma Ancient Guru

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    Uh 10 years ago as in a measure of time NOT ten light years ago as in a measure of distance.

    Let me clarify by saying I don't think SC is a scam... good. THIS is why I've said this entire thing has some seriously dodgy and almost scam like qualities. IF the developers have raised the money they require as specified by their road map to complete the project plus an entire boat shaped like a massive safe load more then why do they still need to sell stuff? I am not against micro-transactions in a game that has been complete but this thing is still in Alpha. Then they add the seriously slimy aspect, the artificial scarcity, the factor designed to take advantage of the must have it now or I may lose it vrowd. That part is the biggest trigger warning as it is entirely designed to play and take advantage of those that may be subject to impulse control issue and is only a few steps away from being similar to lootboxes.

    Then on top of this you have it well documented that their may well be mis-management issues going on, every man and his dog is of the opinion that the game is going no where slowly yet they have time to design and create this?
     

  5. EspHack

    EspHack Ancient Guru

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    some clever guys found a way to drive sheep into bankruptcy, they should get a nobel prize imo
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    My theory on this is that, CR wants to let the project last for as long as possible, and then sell the company/IP, partially by claiming that the pledges are 'units sold' divisible by aggregate in mean, mode, or median*, whichever looks the best - coupled with whatever data he can gather (if he is smart) from Google Analytics etc.

    He isn't dumb...and if he does the above, it will just be a repeat of Freelancer, with him on the project as a consultant/associate producer and if it all goes Pete Tong, he will blame everyone else - not the lack of a credible business plan....

    *If he counts mean, then he will be counting the mean average of customers by pledge + MT, then divide.
    If he counts mode, then he will be counting the whole units in reversal of spend, probably by time, as a whole integer or by simply changing the subject of the formulae, then divide.
    If he counts median, then he will be counting the mid-point, then divide.

    I suspect the mean will be the highest number, with median then mode from highest to lowest, using that approximate. I do not know the numbers, just how I would probably personally meddle with figures to make something look appealing to a potential investor. Averages are always interesting, as there are 3 types and you use time in a sort of forth dimensionality to the numbers. Good fun.

    Into the figures will be the promotional activity or 'column inches'. Over time is best, and any news articles (regardless of their positive or negative connotation).
    • Of all the companies who would buy it, I think Google would be interested for their upcoming cloud platform. They got the cash and would love nothing more than having a 'killer app' for their marketing, regardless of whether it is any good (not implying anything, just know they are looking for exclusives).
    • Amazon, probably not, although they would like the connection to AWS, amazon prime, twitch etc - so I would not wish to rule them out.
    • Apple, highly unlikely.
    • Facebook...not unless they see some connection to something they already have an interest in...I know they are always looking for new IP...unlikely they would see this as potential IP purchase...
    • Samsung and other tablet producers...very possible, just to publish quickly and cheaply.
    • Valve/Steam. This is a wild card, and really just very unlikely as they like Source.
    • ALL AAA publishers (EA, 2K etc) very very very very unlikely and they would see it as something that has earnt all of its MT already, so nothing left to exploit! They would also have concerns about customer support and generic post-purchase 'hassle' to them. As far as EA are concerned, the best customer is one that buys a game, never refunds it and never complains to customer services!
    So Google to me makes the most sense because they are knee deep now, versus others that have not even dipped a toe in yet.

    So yeah, that is my theory - he will sell the company off and blame everyone for 'not understanding his vision'.

    His eyes are open yet, he is blind.
     
  7. Rags

    Rags Guest

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    It's not a micro transaction. It's a pledge dumb dumb. Time to re enable ad block.
     
  8. The Laughing Ma

    The Laughing Ma Ancient Guru

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    A pledge is a one off payment designed to give the developer cash to get the business off the ground. It is generally a bare minimum investment which depending on the pledged sum may or may not result in a reward at some point down the line usually tiered in line with the amount of the initial pledge. This is a micro transaction as it is a wholly specific item that is purchased via the games store front and requires that you have already bought in to or 'pledged' to get access to the game otherwise it is utterly worthless.

    Taken from the CIG store front.
     
  9. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    you couldn't do it from orbit, you could do it within atmosphere and then die on impact.
     
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  10. Denial

    Denial Ancient Guru

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    At what point does a micro transaction become a macro transaction?
     

  11. The Laughing Ma

    The Laughing Ma Ancient Guru

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    Lol good question I would have to check but the price they are asking for a single in game vehicle to be used in a game that is barely even a game looks around about the same sort of price I paid for BL2s season pass and that gave me well over 400 hours of game play and what can only be called a metric butt load of content.... not some poxy one off super rare bike that's rare because the data base has a 10 in it instead of a 10,000,0000. I mean I played GTAO for 4 years and some of the vehicle MTXs in that were face smackingly stupid but nothing even close to this utter con job.
     
  12. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    [​IMG]
     
  13. XenthorX

    XenthorX Ancient Guru

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    [sarcasm] Clearly they're throwing money out the window. It's a known fact that 3D artist, lightning artist, composers, sound designer, environment artist, gameplay and engine programmer are all working for free[/sarcasm]

    From my tonight 50min game session to get my space exploration/scifi fix:

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  14. Koniakki

    Koniakki Guest

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    "Rumor has it that the true reason why Chris Roberts have not finished SC already, is because he's actually building a Javelin and Bengal IRL and he's waiting for a few further advancements in A.I tech and Tesla's self-driving technology(Intergalactic version), amongst others before he's finally able to get the F outta here!

    Also credible sources revealed that the 22 backers that pledged $1000, along with the 3 with $2500 and the last 2 with $5000 and $10000 respectively, will be invited to take residence in his Javelin, so they can start their intergalactic and space colonization adventures together! How cool is that?

    As for the rest, the 115 people with $500 pledges(along with many others from lower tier pledges) will board the Bengal, with the rest of the backers following in long, long and possibly generational delay intervals."


    That actually kinda make sense in a way. The creation of RSIIL(Roberts Space Industries International Limited) with emphasis on the word "Space", the long delays etc. Not to mention Tesla's recent announcement about mid-2020 possibility of complete self-driving autonomy which only strengthens the above theory.

    CR was never one to dream small in the first place now was he? :p


    *Disclaimer: All the above assumptions are my own and only made purely for my own entertainment purpose and they may or may not happen.
    Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental, Nothing against Star Citizen or Chris Roberts. All was meant and said in good spirit.
    Same goes with all the backers/members here or around the wherever. What you do and how you spent whatever is that you spent, it's your own business and you may do as you please.

    PS: Btw XenthorX above is completely right. All those he mentioned(artists, devs etc) do indeed work without a salary(besides traveling and living expenses ofc) because they were already offered and secured a spot in Bengal carrier ship when it's ready. Can't really put a price on an offer like that now can you. An opportunity like that, some might even say, its priceless.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2019
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  15. Rags

    Rags Guest

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    It's still a pledge for funding the development it says so right over the store, and pledges like these has moved the company from 20m to 200m, from 50 employees to what, 400 now? You don't need to buy this. You can just have the base game. It will be earn-able in game. Pledges and crowd funding can be during any stage of development. There are no rules about it lol! Guess Hilbert no longer needs to have ads on this site because he already has made all the money he needs to right? Epic logic!

    "We offer pledge ships to help fund Star Citizen’s development. The funding received from events such as this allows us to include deeper features in the Star Citizen world. These Ships will be obtainable in the final universe, and they are not required to start the game."
     

  16. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    Wait, the project hasn't had dx12 implemented? They are aware you can use dx11 on dx12, right?

    edit:

    Just read they are spending time to make a switch to Vulkan...ok, so, why is that taking the amount of time it appears to be taking? Unless my info is out of date and they deployed it already...
     
  17. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    They were preparing for vulkan to get feature complete with things like mgpu support before starting work on it.

    If you want a good multi-gpu experience you have to work on it from the base up.


    All recent cntent creation has been done with vulkan in mind, converting the existing stuff is being done over time.
     
    Last edited: May 14, 2019
  18. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    I remember reading about the aim being Vulkan API too I think last year or the year before?.. I guess it would make more sense if they were wanting to release the game on operating system's other than Windows.
     
  19. XenthorX

    XenthorX Ancient Guru

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    They indeed announced aiming for Vulkan, but rendering API is far from being the current most pressing issue as far as performance is concerned, so why even bother yet?
     
  20. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    Just surprised I guess - it's not hard to do.
     

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