buhehe:

I think that has more to do with loot boxes which is technically gambling. I don't think microtransactions are always evil and it's unlikely they'll ever be made illegal.

Microtransaction doesn't need bank and user ID, 3 week ago there was people arrested for cleaning dirty money since one year with Fornite's user doesn't knowing that they were helping them. This is the evil point your were talking.

LOL... just... LOL... edit: Just noticed i made 10 year as a guru member two weeks ago, next round is on me!

gx-x:

you are wrong. When you look at something 10 light years away from you, WHEN is that which you are looking at?

10 years ago...? Because it's literally the distance at which that's supposed to happen. It's how we defined it.

I guess that 7 million dollar something house needs some more upgrades?

Hilbert Hagedoorn:

Say what?

pwned

JoeBlobers:

... And the project is not light years to be released.... Squadron 42 (solo) do have a planned Beta end of Q2 2020, in 5 quarters. All SQ42 assets will then be thrown into Star Citizen (MMO) ...

If it took them so much to get to beta, i just hope it will not get them the same amount of time to get to 1.0. Good idee but for the devs. that make the money. For the rest is just like throwing away the money in the fire in a cold winter in the wild, you get something: the heat, but not the room at the hotel.

XenthorX:

The game has never claimed to be free to play, the game wouldn't even exist without player support. Try to understand my point of view: a lot of games from the major studios have highly disappointed me recently, there's been a lot of cash grab on overused franchise, little creativity, poor support over time. It was especially true if you look a couple years back to 2016-2017, as there's been some positive improvement since then: Ubisoft completely turned the table over with R6S and the new AC games, EA Games had their reality check with Battlefront drama and terrible BF5 marketing of micro-transaction/cosmetic in their AAA 60$ games. With Star Citizen you have a studio trying something different, where the money is from the player (and not the publisher) and is going mostly to development instead of 50/50 development/marketing. They have no game release date, but a roadmap of the features and content they're planning for the next year. Funding goes to Star Citizen (MMO space game) and Squadron 42 (solo game with amazing performance capture with amazing cast like Gary Oldman). I have no doubt they've wasted money along the way, and no doubt they have organization issues. They're a large studio that hasn't shipped any games and has everything to prove, and yet is bigger than some other more experienced studios like Massive entertainment (which started working on The Division after SC. original kickstarter and shipped TD1&2 since then), Respawn studio (which were barely 50employee at the time of original SC kickstarter and put out TitanFall 1&2)... I do get your point really, but tbh not all ships/vehicles are obtainable in game, and if you wanna have fun with the game in its current state you have to spend more money.

These are fair and reasoned points - but I will always lean towards objective reviews by accredited journalists (college degrees and ten years in journalism, minimum) and (in principal) people I trust. Hilbert falls into this category, as I shall typically respect the opinion of someone who deeply understands the issue of credibility and respect amongst their flock. Hilbert has made mistakes in the past, but has always corrected them. A sign of character. Now, the above sentences only apply if I am to hand over my money - if it's just background chit-chat and anecdotal internet/social media noise (metacritic), any olde nonsense will be interesting - but I draw the line when it comes to money leaving my wallet. On point: Graphics and story be damned - because 'This War of Mine' is an amazing achievement of story-telling and gameplay, yet looks like an early Amiga game. In addition to this, I have not heard of these writers before and the people 'directing' have not actually directed anything virtually before that has been critically acceptable...so it means nothing to me. re: AAA disappointment...well, again, I just do not give in to marketing and the whole banging of the drums you get with multi-$ marketing. I just don't. I might become very interested in said thing, but again, if something involves me removing notes out of my wallet, wild horses could not drag me to hand over cash without critical and objective multi-variant analysis. I look after my money. I don't just hand it over to someone without good cause, and, SC simply does not have good cause. I have looked and I have not found it...yet...hence I want to read final reviews and see what the lay of the land is, as far as I can humbly tell, it lacks the ability to conduct myself in the game the way I would like to, which is essentially this: I want to role-play as a space pirate and:- permanently deprive other players of their possessions. permanently deprive other players of their ships. make players 'walk the plank' (airlock-death), killing off their characters, permanently. make players band together to try and take me out, aggressively. hold entire solar systems to ransom. manipulate players to their own demise. I really am serious about this. I want to enter a solar system and be genuinely afraid for my gaming experience, because my character is in turn feared by other players, and so could be hunted down. I want to walk around a space station with the ears of my fallen victims hanging around my neck. I want there to be songs sung about my devious acts around fireplaces to scare noobs into eating all their vegetables.* That is MMORPG worth experiencing, because without real loss - the ships in game have no real value to me, and so, I have no intention of handing over money for something that has no value. So yeah - the above is possible, but again, even it is is: I will wait for journalists to critique the final product (and Hilbert!) before money leaves wallet. That, is about as balanced as I can be, fellow Gurus. *Ninja edit: I want to see people on Twitch brought to tears because of me stealing their in-game possessions. That is an emotional experience worth its weight in platinum. No movie can do that to the same degree, yet, we seek out emotional experiences such as that on a weekly basis. Imagine having that available to you with the click of a mouse...that's is something worth paying money for.

You have to laugh, they cant afford cheese to go with their Chardonnay. Whoever buys these need a head check.

nicugoalkeper:

For the rest is just like throwing away the money in the fire in a cold winter in the wild, you get something: the heat, but not the room at the hotel.

Why? There are users that log hundreds to thousands of hours in this game. They could have potentially payed only $40. I paid only $40 and I have over 100 hours played. Don't care much for the direction it's going but I got my money worth out of it. I've paid $60 for games I've played far less.

Mufflore:

Whoever buys these need a head check.

Or maybe they are just wealthy and want to invest in the game? Like @XenthorX posts here a lot - judging by his specs he clearly has money and he invests into the game. What's wrong with that? Hes probably played thousands of hours. What's another $40-50? What's the big deal?

In my opinion another cash grab 😕 , people need to wake up step back and use their brains to see the whole picture on this ponzi scheme game , wake up people this kind of never ending false promises always asking for more money without a release date cannot be good for the gaming community. Ever since i saw this so called company selling a ship for $27,000 US Dollars ( real money for vaporware of only zeros and ones 010011010 ) i knew something was wrong , this is not normal behavior and unacceptable. Still in Alpha state , release date for the game ???

Denial:

Why? There are users that log hundreds to thousands of hours in this game. They could have potentially payed only $40. I paid only $40 and I have over 100 hours played. Don't care much for the direction it's going but I got my money worth out of it. I've paid $60 for games I've played far less. Or maybe they are just wealthy and want to invest in the game? Like @XenthorX posts here a lot - judging by his specs he clearly has money and he invests into the game. What's wrong with that? Hes probably played thousands of hours. What's another $40-50? What's the big deal?

If you unblock me - you would know. There is no value in the items being offered, because you cannot lose them or, sell them to other players for RL cash. Giving CR money is not investment. It's just giving CR money. That's all.

If people enjoy funding this game, it's difficult to see why I should object to what they do with their own money. Talk about "scams"--take a look at some of the utterly ridiculous stuff being Kickstarted these days--or, rather, what they are attempting to kickstart. Some of the "Projects we love" I see in their emails are so stupid, such obvious cons, it's unbelievable, imo! One thing must be considered and that is that if Roberts walks away from this game unfinished--or in a really buggy, unplayable state--then he can kiss his $4.4M digs goodbye, and wherever he's stashed assets purchased with money from SC--they're gone, as well. He will be sued forever--and he will never work in the industry again. Stick a fork in him, etc. All in all I think Roberts has some very powerful incentive to finish this game! Whether or not the game will meet expectations for it--after eight years of development and a movie production budget to match--is another question. If I was Roberts I'd be giving some attention to announcing release dates that go beyond just his "timeline", because those can be changed at will and everyone knows it. I still, after all this time, have absolutely no clue what this game is. I'm scared that the reason I don't know what the game is, is because Roberts himself doesn't yet know....! Really--Roberts needs to get off it and *formally announce* a release date! Extra ships and all that rot they can add after the game hits 1.0 and ships! He'd better start managing expectations right now, and doing a bit better than the often inscrutable "timeline"--which seems to me deliberately obtuse.

Loobyluggs:

If you unblock me - you would know. There is no value in the items being offered, because you cannot lose them or, sell them to other players for RL cash. Giving CR money is not investment. It's just giving CR money. That's all.

I selectively read some of your posts lol - I guess technically it's a donation rather then an investment but the return is essentially the game.. if it gets completed. Look I'm not going to recommend or even support people that spend thousands on the game (those that are should know what they are getting into), but for people that have logged over 250+hours.. I can see them buying little things for $40-60 and I don't really see the issue with it. I compare it to Avengers Endgame, which I saw the the other day and it was ~$16 - for 3 hours of entertainment, that's like $5 an hour. In Star Citizen I'm under 50 cents an hour. If I dropped another $40 on the game I don't feel like I'd be wasting it anymore than I did to see the movie.

Denial:

I selectively read some of your posts lol - I guess technically it's a donation rather then an investment but the return is essentially the game.. if it gets completed. Look I'm not going to recommend or even support people that spend thousands on the game (those that are should know what they are getting into), but for people that have logged over 250+hours.. I can see them buying little things for $40-60 and I don't really see the issue with it. I compare it to Avengers Endgame, which I saw the the other day and it was ~$16 - for 3 hours of entertainment, that's like $5 an hour. In Star Citizen I'm under 50 cents an hour. If I dropped another $40 on the game I don't feel like I'd be wasting it any more than I did to see the movie.

I disagree with arguing by analogy. Full stop. It is fallacious. You actually made your subjective point without using a fallacy - you see it as time investment. OK. I get it, but...if the virtual item cannot be 'lost', then it has no value.

Full disclaimer, I do not personally own the game, though I know a few who kickstarted early and still play. None of them were ever hardcore supporters (spending huge amounts on ships) but even a year ago they would have rushed into an argument to defend their purchases, the timeline for completion, or Roberts / devs. Again, just my observations from the outside looking in, but there seems to be growing skepticism from that group as to whether this game will ever get a full release or not.

Loobyluggs:

... I want to role-play as a space pirate and:- permanently deprive other players of their possessions. permanently deprive other players of their ships. make players 'walk the plank' (airlock-death), killing off their characters, permanently. make players band together to try and take me out, aggressively. hold entire solar systems to ransom. manipulate players to their own demise. ...

Agreed, this would be a game worth paying for.

Mooooooooooooooooooo. < The cash cow has spoken.

Denial:

Or maybe they are just wealthy and want to invest in the game? Like @XenthorX posts here a lot - judging by his specs he clearly has money and he invests into the game. What's wrong with that? Hes probably played thousands of hours. What's another $40-50? What's the big deal?

The writing has been on the wall for so long, anyone would be stupid to put more into this.

Hilbert Hagedoorn:

I am getting more and more fascinated by Star Citizen's money earning tactics of this developer..The progress made by the development of the mammoth project, has now seen more than $225 million..

Actually, the games have currently let them gather ~$300M, as some funding -including 2018's $46M investor- is/was off their pledge counter (other income, subscriptions->). According to CIG's own financial report, dev spending already overtook 'official' pledges in 2014, and they had already spent more than had been pledged by 2017 ($193M spent vs $175M on the pledge counter and ~$206M total income by Dec 2017). Project cost so far is about $250-260M ($193M+$60M over Jan '18 - May '19 estimate, based on $45-50M annual spending since 2015 vs ~$40-45M 'income' not just pledges). At least to me, it seems that without last year's $46M investment (for a 10% stake in CIG) the project would have been dead in the water this month or maybe next month tops, so in effect some single guy (yeah and his son...) bought CIG an extra year, it seems. With currently $30-50M (vague enough?) left to burn, the 2020 S42 open beta date on their roadmap is likely within their reach.

The fact that these are called "micro-transactions" is very disgusting. You can buy 3-4 games on sale for that.

JoeBlobers:

Remember: nothing beside basic starter package is required. Everything can be obtainable in game with Credits.

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.