Don’t. a few years ago I made that mistake and bought 2 ships including the starter to just access the game. How much was that total? over $300. Initially it was alright but after awhile you quickly discover there’s just simply nothing to do. Also keep in mind when you “pledge” for these ships you can lose them when they finally decide to pull the trigger and roll that out. People will tell you “well you’re not buying the ships, you’re pledging to the game and the ship is just the reward” cause it gives you 6 months insurance with the ship. They haven’t turned on that “feature” yet and I dont’ know if they ever will.
Hell at this point if someone wants my account i’ll just give it to them, i’m never going back to that scam of a “game”. I’ll switch the email and pw over to whatever you want. Then you can really get a “free trial”.
I’ve spent a total of $5 on the game and FWIW, I think I got my money’s worth. The game’s development is severely mismanaged and I don’t think it’ll ever realize its vision, but I think it’s worth checking it out even if it’s just for looking at some of its technological achievements.
Im spent a good bit of money in the game for better or for worse I think this is the way it should be tried Dont spend the money on the ships. Buy a basic package and purchase ships with in game money.
I’m confused how you think the insurance will work, as it seems you believe the 6 months in your example couldn’t be extended or renewed?
I doubt players following the ToS will ever lose ships bought with real money permanently as it would generate extremely negative press.
Though EVE online allows essentially the same thing and you can absolutely lose those ships and equipment.
oh I do believe it can be extened or renewed for real world cash. I don’t doubt they won’t pull that trick at all.
Also, if you pay attention to SC, you don’t buy the ships. you’re not buying ships when you throw down 200 to 1000 dollars, you’re pledging to the game. they outright tell you that. the ships you get are simply a “gift” for pledging like you would if you got an elmo doll when you pledged to PBS. so you could absolutely lose those ships for good if you don’t renew insurance. There wouldn’t be any negative press because SC would just say “yeah, you don’t pay for the ships, they’re gifts from pledging to the game”
In EVE though (20 year player here) you’re not spending real world money unless you’re buying PLEX. and EVE insurance doesn’t pay out anywhere near the value of the ship or mods, it doesn’t even cover mods. You’re also not paying money to directly buy ships or pledge to the game. you can buy PLEX to pay for skill boosting, omega time, or whatever else. And even after all that CCP doesn’t force you to pay to simply play the game or pay further to get more out of it. you can play the game just fine on an Alpha account.
Every time I see some SC news I look up to see if there’s any release date announced for SQ42 yet.
It was originally supposed to release in 2014 and it still doesn’t have a release date!
Their business model is developing a game. Not completing a game and releasing it, just eternal development. And honestly it’s working really well for them. Why change when people keep handing them money?
Well many live service games are just that, but actually don’t feel like a scam. Warframe for instance, still considers itself in beta if you ask the devs. Their reasoning is that when the game releases, the development stops, in the old fashion game development point of view.
Sounds more like warframe is using the early access model to me. I think that’s fine. Many great games are in early access that are worth their price even in their unfinished state.
Star Citizen feels different, even though it’s also early access. In part because of the weirdly priced ships. There are ships that cost thousands dollars. Like, what’s the justification for that? Most people spend way less on games for a year, but this game asks this price just to gain access to one asset?
Another part is the ever expanding scope. It feels like they don’t really want to release the game. They’ve found there’s no point in actually finishing the game when they can just keep selling the promise of the definitive space sim game. Keep giving them more money and they will promise more.
I would say Warframe has been release-ready and effectively released since The Second Dream in 2015. It’s been a complete game that you can play for a long time and have lots of fun for about that long. The Second Dream is the first really big and meaningful main quest that definitively ended a chapter of the game’s story. You can finish The Second Dream and say “That’s it, I’ve experienced Warframe’s story, and I’m satisfied. That was cool and interesting.” Everything from that up until The New War would have been Warframe 2 under a traditional release model. And we’d currently be playing Warframe 3. Warframe just happens to be an MMO using the live service model, so we get 3 full games’ worth of story for free instead. Because Warframe is awesome.
Most pyramid schemes are free to enter into too.
We used to have to pay… They must have ran out of gamers who pay now.
As someone that has played a fuck ton of Star Citizen and bought a few ships… Don’t. It used to be a game. Now it’s a marketplace without the game. Every time they update it they make things worse and break everything else. Nowadays I can’t even get into it for more than an hour before I realize it’s the same game as it’s ever been or worse. I’d rather just go play something else. But don’t worry, they’re more than happy to sell you a ship for $2,000 that’s been “in development” since you were in highschool.
Screw that ship. The worse part is the two hidden shops you see only after spending a certain, high amount of cash on the game. So “regular players” don’t see it and “whales” do
Yo wtf? Please elaborate!
There is something called “concierge.” It is a tier of player that has spent 1000 usd or more on the game. They get access to extended ship sales, exclusive skins, etc. I will not confirm nor deny that I am concierge, although I love the game. I tell all my friends who want to get into the game to not buy anything more than the base 45 dollar starter package. Do they listen, no.
Ah yes, let’s enable the whales even more in throwing away money to fuel their addiction! I feel like this is something for the EU to look at, after loot boxes and other gacha mechanics. In my country they tried to ban them but failed.
I get it, but its not really gambling like gacha and loot boxes. You are buying something, the gamble is whether or not the project actually gets finished. What’ll make you real mad is the different levels of concierge and the fact they sell a 3500 usd packagae. Although thats not really meant to be bought with new money and anyone who does buy that with new money has a problem.
If this isn’t proof that it’s made to extract as much money from you as possible then I don’t know what is.
Bt this point, it is reasonable to assume that Star Citizen is a self-enrichment scheme for the founder’s, Chris Roberts, family.
Explain to me the difference between Star Citizen and a scam at this point.
They have a very impressive tech demo. Sadly it’s about as wide as an ocean and shallow as a puddle because they keep expanding the scope but not fleshing anything out, all the while releasing “pledge” shit for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
A scheme designed to milk players for as much as possible? Sure. Outright scam? No. For as negative as I am on the subject, the “game” does exist and there are in fact people who enjoy it while understanding what it truly is.
It’s always felt like the world’s fanciest microtransaction fueled cell phone app to me but just on a PC. There is something there, but it’s not what the ads make it look like and you’ll have to pay a lot to even get close.
Idk, i bought a ship for 45 dollars like 8 years ago and so far i played probably around 400 or so hours. I played it more than most 60 dollar games i own. I get why people hate it, but no one forces anyone to buy thousands of dollars worth of ships. I don’t think the game will ever be done, but they do put some work in, every time i play it again there is new and different stuff. And so far i have never played a prettier space game. I guess i got scammed.
Last time I tried it, I wasn’t impressed by what I saw. Besides the ridiculous system requirements, it just felt so weird. They spent all this money on this game and the NPC’s just stood there, on chairs, on tables etc. not doing anything.
Nice tech demo tho.
Nahh
Free, sure, as long as you don’t want a ship
bu-but it’s only something like $45 (apparently they’ve upped the price, used to be 30 or 35) for the most basic ship so you can play the game and then promptly get your teeth kicked in an-and then you can rent the other ships in game!
Last time I played in the free week, they gave you a light combat ship, The Arrow.
Or you know you could join a crew and man a turret until you can afford your own ship bought with in game credits.
Ah great, space labor for when my earth labor day is over and I really need to unwind.
Check out hardspace shipbreaker for that but good
I believe it’s called playing the game.
When you start a racing game, do you start with the best cars unlocked or do you play the game to earn them? This is the same, you can do bounties by yourself with the arrow but it’s going to take much longer than doing high level bounties or other missions as part of a crew.
Or you could play a game that’s not exclusively built around currently OP cash shop items (that get nerfed after the refund period is over).
I guess I played it differently than you.
I played with a friend until I could afford my own ship with in game currency. Did whatever missions I enjoyed playing to the point they started paying out pretty good. Bought more ships with in game currency.
I never cared about what is OP, but I also don’t care about pvp so there’s that.
If you want to try any ship, either rent them, wait for ies or whatever its called, or ask random strangers.
No one is stoping you though? This whole thread of argument is so damn weird.
When you start a racing game, do you start with the best cars unlocked or do you play the game to earn them?
Yes. Most racing games have an arcade/zero stakes mode were you can race with almost any game. The gated progression has been on a separate story/career mode since the early 2000s. Except, you know, on the scam live service AAA mtx whale hunting games.
Last nfs game I played, I started with a clunker and did missions to earn money to buy better cars.
You know what, I’d prefer if they took the playing part out and just gave me everything so I can stare at my cars and be bored because there’s no progression.
Dude literally mentioned that racing games offer arcade (a number of things unlocked) and career (progression) as separate modes, dunno why you ignored it
Sure, but racing games simply gate your progression for gameplay purposes. Here I’m just working at a job to eventually be able to afford my own ship, and I already do that for a house in real life. The progression isn’t gated by game mechanics, it’s gated by landlordism and capitalism. If I wanted to work a space job I’d just go played eve.
You get ten ships to fly for the free fly event.
It’s a cool tech demo, it does things the other space sims do not. But be aware during the free periods the game tends to run worse, it depends on servers a lot.
Is it still free if I wouldn’t like to try it?
Nah
Meh. Wake me up when Squadron 42 is released… And actually reviews well.
Once upon a time I was so excited for this game. Amazing how little fucks I give now.
I would not take the game if they have me every ship for free now.
Around when I first heard of Star Citizen, I remember writing a paper on the Mt. Gox data breach and the bitcoin crash. A bitcoin was around $250.
