Star Citizen reminds me very much of that story about the Danish artist who was commissioned by a museum to produce a new piece for $84k and gave them two empty canvases entitled "Take the Money and Run".[0]
Cloud Imperium is, at this point, a modern art studio that is constantly trying to see just how overtly they can make fun of their patrons while still receiving big checks.
At the end of the day Star Citizen isn't a blank canvas. There is a real playable game, not tech demo, right now. Sq42 is a bloody circus, but this pervasive belief that the project is a scam is trivial for anyone to prove false without spending a dime: just wait for the next free fly weekend.
I wouldn't call it playable. It can be played, but the experience is very unstable with game breaking bugs everywhere.
The joke among my friends is never put on a suit you like, because the game is going to crash and you'll lose it.
And 400+ Millon to get to where we are?
I think it's disengenuous to ignore the chronic, glaring deficiencies in planning and execution while pointing to a streaming pile of shit and saying "look, it works".
The biggest point of comparison that I'm making isn't the blank canvas per se, and I'm not calling the project a scam. I'm calling it modern art. I'm saying both types of artists share the constant boundary pushing: how much can we taunt our patrons before they'll give up and leave?
I don't believe that anyone at Cloud Imperium actually cares about bedheets. They simply recognize that Star Citizen is now a work of performance art, and this is the next stage of the performance.
Though many of the patrons still enjoy the various demos, tech reels, and developer videos coming out (ex. the comment below me), so it feels like these are the actual product rather than the game itself.
It’s weird, how you can get so attached to something that you start to forget what really attracted you in the first place.
That's a great point. I hadn't thought of it that way before.
There is a huge audience for gaming videos on YouTube and twitch, and a lot of people in the audience aren't also playing those games. Their enjoyment is just in the story, and the visuals, and the commentary. I always wondered why the money keeps rolling in -- maybe because the anticipation and the imagination are already giving them enjoyment of a not-yet-fully-playable game.
I bought a $45 ship probably 5 years ago, and I just bought another one about a month ago. I've never even downloaded the game, I just love checking in every few months to see the game, and I'm happy to support its development. Seeing Morphologis' architecture reviews of the ships alone has been worth my [what has amounted to] $1.50 per month.
Classical art was sold on the perceived quality of the art. Contemporary art is sold on the notoriety of the artist. A framed copy of what was originally a stencil graffiti was sold for > $1 million because it was Banksy. After being shredded as part of a prank, the then shredded work was resold for > $25 million.
The value of those empty canvases are now likely worth well north of the $84k paid, because wow what art. And yes, /s.
It was a commission. I would expect there would be some form of request or discussion on what was being commissioned. What did they write on the invoice?
I've got to say, I'm a complete outsider when it comes to Star Citizen. In fact, this thread is the very first time I have heard of it. The combative tone of your post made me curious, so I just spent the past few minutes reading through the Wiki page on it [0].
By virtue of my ignorance, I am not "butthurt about it". The Wiki piece doesn't dive too far into the weeds, but how the game's development seems to have been progressing is enough to give any reasonable person a lot of skepticism, so I don't know that the "butthurt" comment is very warranted.
I can’t help but wonder if reducing the possibility space of opinions one might have about Star Citizen’s development process to “sweaty misogynist nerd (the bad kind of nerd)” and “magnanimous rich nerd (the good kind of nerd)” is maybe showing your hand a bit here. This isn’t to say I don’t believe you with respect to the employee death threats, nor do I think they’re a good thing — internet hate machines formed out of the froth of fermented gamer rage are unambiguously bad and steps should always be taken to reduce or eliminate the damage they cause. I also think there’s a pretty wide array of acceptably minimal and non-bigoted ways to express curiosity, scrutiny, or even displeasure with Star Citizen’s development process. Your lumping of that spectrum of thought into a single uncharitable bucket is probably why you’re being read as combative here.
I think you already have made that wager. My downside is $0 and my upside is $0.
Your downside is how much you’ve backed and your upside is the joy you’ll get when released.
But it seems like you’re now just emotionally dug in based on your sunk costs. And you seem like someone who is extolling the praises of a particular horse that hasn’t even started the race.
I’ve bought the most basic package. I think it was $40 or $45
I most definitely got my moneys worth out of that over the course of a few weekends playing the first dogfighting module nearly a decade ago with friends. Arguably within a night, I’ve spent much more just on drinks at a bar in a night.
Also, if it flops - as I’ve stated, oh well.
Still glad to make the wager as you seem to be intent you’ll be winning it.
If you’re talking to me - thank you, that’s definitely what the internet is for sometimes.
Would you like to live in a world without some extremely unhinged people? Sounds like it would become boring quite quickly.
Perhaps you should direct your inferences to those who send death threats to & stalk game developers. You can find their names & contact easily enough by putting “star citizen death threats” into your search engine of choice - & these type of people tend to be the ones unaware that they’re completely unhinged, could perhaps use a reminder unlike myself.
I can also look thru just a small bit of your comment history on here & make somewhat of the same conclusion about you, not that that (especially my opinion) matters in the slightest.
Hmm… I don’t exactly see how but maybe I should specify.
I very much keep up on the development of the game, & I think it’s going great. I think we have another 3-4 years to go before what I’d imagined when I first heard of the game (a few weeks after it’s public announcement) is possible. Server issues are likely to be a bulk of what needs ironed out.
Unfortunately, as for me not personally touching the game - severe physical illness that makes it very hard to be at a computer. I would definitely be playing every major release if I could comfortably do so.
If that still makes your comment correct - in what I’m saying makes the GP seem more valid - I guess I have a misunderstanding.
If SC ends up being a complete flop - it will be unfortunate, but I truly believe a great amount of tech will come out of the disbanding teams. If you think all of their hundreds to thousands of something employees are all in on a grand conman scheme & they’re doing literally nothing but sinking their collective reputations - I’ve got some… lemme see… maybe horse dewormer to sell you, perhaps other things…
The cherry on top for me is the longer it takes to ship (heh) the more likely it is I’ll actually be able to comfortably play the game I’ve dreamt about for some time, definitely before SC was ever announced. Some of my friends who’ve backed are literally going to have become doctors or with kids approaching middle school before 1.0 :)
Cloud Imperium is, at this point, a modern art studio that is constantly trying to see just how overtly they can make fun of their patrons while still receiving big checks.
[0] https://www.npr.org/2021/09/29/1041492941/jens-haaning-kunst...