Wing Commander Creator Unveils Star Citizen

[Scars Unseen]

This really sounds crazy ambitious. A little too ambitious but then again, it is the guy that gave me the Wing Commander series, which was one of my favorite game series, growing up. I'll be keeping my eye out for that one. I'm gonna hope he can deliver.

But for those that like to take a diss at EVE, remember that it's a 10 year old game that's run by an independent corporation that have more or less always focused on respecting their players. Their original dream was to create a tactical space simulator that snowballed from there; first person perspective was never how they originally visioned their game.

Yes, this game promises to have allot of very cool features that would make it far more exciting to play than EVE, PROVIDED that it can deliver on those promises, but you have to be blind to not see that Chris Roberts isn't borrowing allot of concept from what made EVE successful.

I mean, come on! A player driven universe with an open, manipulatable market? High security space where the law is the law vs low security space where you'll have better business opportunities but have to watch out for players that have decided to become pirates? You can become a trader, a miner or an industrial magnate? This is how Chris describes his game on his main site. It's like reading through a bullet points for why EVE is the game for you.

No, Star Citizen is a game that promises to be allot more than EVE is but don't be disrespectful towards games that are clearly inspired by it.

EVE Online is World of Warcraft in space. Space populated by thousands of Randian assholes.

Oh sure and I'm certain you won't have to deal with anyone that you wouldn't like in this game. I mean, a game that offers the very same amount of player freedom that EVE promises? Yeah, I'm sure no assholes will ever think about trying to screw you over.

Actually this game is borrowing quite heavily from Privateer and Freelancer, both games that Chris Roberts made before EVE existed. The reason they sound similar is that all of those games are basically descended from Elite. If you read up on what the original intention for Freelancer was, it ends up sounding almost exactly like Star Citizen.

Still not going to say anything against EVE though. I'd just prefer a persistent space sim to a massive tactical 4X game.

 

[Tar Palantir]

"Massively-Multiplayer persistant universe servers" SHIT, There goes long-term library title like my Wing commander and x-wing/tie-fighter games.

It's not free-to-play model is it? Oh god, I hope not.

Wait, what was the golden ticket and "special package" for people who signed up on the first site for if we can't log in?

From the site's FAQ:

What's Your Online Revenue Model?

Not a subscription but not free-to-play; rather a hybrid of these two business models. Much like ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2, you will purchase the PC game and pay no recurring subscription charges. Your purchase of the game will allow you to play in the universe for free, forever! The game will offer a variety of virtual items for purchase with in-game credits allowing you to spend money on items that offer more ways to express yourself, provide convenience, and customize your experience. But the cardinal rule regarding "in-game purchases" is: Players who spend money purchasing in-game credits will have no advantage over players who spend time!
Everything is bought with in-game credits. These purchases won't offer any advantage over someone who puts in the "game-time" to earn the same amount of credits. You might ask, why have "in-game" purchases at all? This allows us the resources to support the game on an ongoing basis as well as continually add content.

 

[Kahani]

So do you want my money, or shall I just post you my credit card?

This game doesn't have to sacrifice a thing because it isn't trying to be WoW or any other MMO. It's just taking the idea of a space sim sandbox to a logical evolution.

Indeed. Just look at Freelancer. One of the last great space sims, and it did exactly this with multiplayer servers hosting persistent worlds. Obviously not on the same scale given the limits of private servers and the game itself, but exactly the same in principle. I really don't see why anyone would complain about it. The one thing space sims have always tried to do is give the feel of an actual living world where you're just one among many pilots all doing the same sort of thing to try to get ahead. The obvious answer is to stop just trying to give the impression of that and actually do it.

The only real problem I see is PvP. I love Eve, but there's no doubt that kind of unfettered PvP is not for everyone. It will be interesting to see how they plan on limiting that end of things while not making it feel too forced when you're allowed to shoot some things and not others.

 

[draythefingerless]

OHSMHOAUSDHGAG SOMEBODY GET ME A MOTHERFUCKING TABLE TO FLIP! this is awesome. i hope they manage to pull it off.

 

[Frostbyte666]

I was interested until I got to the words "massively multiplayer".

Then I quit reading

Pretty much what I thought. There is a mention of single player missions that will be "integrated into the online game upon completion", but that doesn't sound all that promising. Depends how it's handled I suppose.

Colour me interested - but not optimistic.

Agreed plus with the words massively multiplayer that means that is the focus. So the interest died before it could be born. Now I'll go back to playing X3 for my space sim fix.

 

[penguindude42]

Yes. All my money. All of it.

 

[Klaflefalumpf]

We can only assume all the good generic names were taken.

 

[Old Father Eternity]

Damn I wish I had the funds to support this.
I do believe that a eventual comparison is to made between this and Infinity not with EVE.

 

[Product Placement]

A pity they are not on Kickstarter. Backing a large number of projects, I do NOT want yet another site/forum to keep track of. With Kickstarter at least all the updates come from a single source.

I'll let Chris, himself, handle explaining why he's not using Kickstarter:

Why Not Kickstarter?

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believe
everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.

In order to donate on Kickstarter, you need an Amazon account (and a Credit Card, obviously). Apparently Chris finds that too limiting and allows you to make a direct donation to him, with a Credit Card or Paypal.

At any rate, I personally don't think it's a good idea to ignore the reputation that Kickstarter has developed over the time. His funding campaign is now dependent on people making the trek to his website, meaning that they are already aware of his project. With Kickstarter, you're gonna get far more exposure to people that aren't connected to the Game Development grapevine, that feeds us this type of information. In the long run, I don't think he's gonna get as many donations from his personal campaign, as he would have on Kickstarter. For a project of this magnitude, he's gonna need every single dime he can get his hands on.

 

[Tar Palantir]

A pity they are not on Kickstarter. Backing a large number of projects, I do NOT want yet another site/forum to keep track of. With Kickstarter at least all the updates come from a single source.

I'll let Chris, himself, handle explaining why he's not using Kickstarter:

Why Not Kickstarter?

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believe
everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.

In order to donate on Kickstarter, you need an Amazon account (and a Credit Card, obviously). Apparently Chris finds that too limiting and allows you to make a direct donation to him, with a Credit Card or Paypal.

At any rate, I personally don't think it's a good idea to ignore the reputation that Kickstarter has developed over the time. His funding campaign is now dependent on people making the trek to his website, meaning that they are already aware of his project. With Kickstarter, you're gonna get far more exposure to people that aren't connected to the Game Development grapevine, that feeds us this type of information. In the long run, I don't think he's gonna get as many donations from his personal campaign, as he would have on Kickstarter. For a project of this magnitude, he's gonna need every single dime he can get his hands on.

On the other hand, they won't have to give a share of the donations to Kickstarter...

 

[Product Placement]

On the other hand, they won't have to give a share of the donations to Kickstarter...

I was thinking about pre-addressing this point but then thought that people would surely figure out that I'm saying that the amount of money Chris stands to lose, by not being discovered by potential backer, is higher than the 5% cut that Kickstarter takes (plus the 3-5% Amazon+Credit card company cut (depending on what kind of Credit cut you're using)). If his project would get only one extra dollar, for every 10 dollars that he's gonna get, by only running the campaign on his site, he would offset that amount. I believe he's gonna lose out on more money than that. Kickstarter gets a huge amount of traffic, nowadays, by people looking at sponsoring projects that they're interested in and anyone who concerns himself over such a small cut is being ridiculously shortsighted. Are you saying that Chris is that short sighted?

I also didn't want people to think I was insinuating that Chris was being greedy, for concerning himself over such a small cut.

I've seen a lot of Kickstarters offer a Paypal option on the side, particularly after X successful Kickstarter times out so late comers can also join in.

Which renders Chris' concern about people's choices for funding his project even more moot. There's nothing preventing him from running it on a popular crowd funding site, where people expect to find projects like these, while maintaining a paypal donation on his own site and advertising it over there.

 

[dryg]

On the other hand, they won't have to give a share of the donations to Kickstarter...

I was thinking about pre-addressing this point but then thought that people would surely figure out that I'm saying that the amount of money Chris stands to lose, by not being discovered by potential backer, is higher than the 5% cut that Kickstarter takes (plus the 3-5% Amazon+Credit card company cut (depending on what kind of Credit cut you're using)). If his project would get only one extra dollar, for every 10 dollars that he's gonna get, by only running the campaign on his site, he would offset that amount. I believe he's gonna lose out on more money than that. Kickstarter gets a huge amount of traffic, nowadays, by people looking at sponsoring projects that they're interested in and anyone who concerns himself over such a small cut is being ridiculously shortsighted. Are you saying that Chris is that short sighted?

I also didn't want people to think I was insinuating that Chris was being greedy, for concerning himself over such a small cut.

I've seen a lot of Kickstarters offer a Paypal option on the side, particularly after X successful Kickstarter times out so late comers can also join in.

Which renders Chris' concern about people's choices for funding his project even more moot. There's nothing preventing him from running it on a popular crowd funding site, where people expect to find projects like these, while maintaining a paypal donation on his own site and advertising it over there.

I've never discovered a kickstarter worth funding via the kickstarter site as everything is clogged down under a pile of shit that will never be realized.

This is all over the internet and I have a hard time believing that someone willing to donate to a game would be able to miss it.

Now their site is overloaded but that's a different problem.

 

[karamazovnew]

I guess we all miss a good Space sim, of the likes of IWar2. I know that we have the X series, but they're just not the same thing. I really hope that Star Citizen will be a success. As a fan of Wing Commander, 2 years seems like a long long time

 

[Stella Hayes]

Almost half way there now! It will probably hit the 1 Million pledges mark by tomorrow night.

Already a big fan site for it here as well http://forums.starcitizenbase.com/