quote:

simple-minded goons

Pixelate posted:

The Strange Phenomenon of Star Citizen Haters posted:

Star Citizen Haters, Trolls and Drama Llamas are Plentiful

Previous articles have mentioned the very high amounts of hate towards Star Citizen since the beginning of this website. One of the reasons this site was created was to help dismiss some of the lies that circulated in the community at the time about Star Citizen, many of which have since been fully debunked (see Star Citizen Myths article).

In the past decade, Star Citizen has gone from a myth about a game that could not be developed to what it is today: a high-fidelity, real-time combat, MMORPG with space sim elements and no loading screens besides initial load. Games that have released since Star Citizen's inception continue to prove that this is the right way as recent releases have shown that what CIG is trying to do with Star Citizen really is cutting edge.

Star Citizen's accomplishments have not only not silenced the haters but the whining, trolling and hating of the game and company senselessly continue. It is as though people have become addicted to a Star Citizen hate fetish. The community has been successfully tricked by trolls, whiners and haters to gather their pitchforks and bash the game incessantly.

Bizzare levels of bashing CIG from within and without the community

It is not enough that the Star Citizen community is flooded with external trolls trying to derail the game's development, much of the community seems to be dedicated to the same cause. With this in mind, let's review the current state of affairs and try to determine where the problem is. Here is a rough list of the people trying to damage Star Citizen's development and perhaps why:

• Competitors hiring trolls to destroy the project (competition)
  
• Envious gamers
  
• Hardened embittered backers
  
• Content creators making money on hate and drama
  
• Regular old internet trolls

The Core Problem? - Lack of Understanding

"Star Citizen Intel Since 2015" has been the slogan of SCFOCUS.ORG since inception. That is what this org does, we gather intel on the game, gameplay and strategy (and we have been doing this a long time). Long enough to notice a clear trend in Star Citizen Hating. At the core of the issue lies people's inability to put things into perspective combined with the mass formation phenomenon. This is basically a way of being where people like to gather behind a cause whether it is right, in their own interest or even logical.

This problem will be broken down into the main misconceptions (lies) that are misleading backers and non-backers alike.

The two main problems confusing the community are:

• Lack of understanding of video game development cycles
  
• The false assumption that CIG is mismanaged

Understanding Game Development

As a Star Citizen backer (or potential backer), knowing how long Star Citizen and Squadron 42 will take to develop and release is an important concept to have a good understanding of. One of the main objectives with this website was to attempt to collate information and views on the development of both games. Resources to help our own org try to determine the progress of the games can be found here:

• Star Citizen Release Date Estimates - Game development logs about past and upcoming patches and estimates (guesses) about release dates
  
• Star Citizen & Squadron 42 Completion Estimates - Based on the original funding goals(Official) before this website was started.

In the last 12 months of Star Citizen some of the released features that have made it into backers hands include:

• Persistent Entity Streaming
  
• Inventory and loot
  
• Medical and healing gameplay
  
• Arena Commander Rework
  
• Misc Hull C
  
• Tractor Beam (Traversal, items, cargo...)
  
• Selling
  
• Crash recovery
  
• Multi crew mining and salvaging

And yet the community (ourselves included) have said that very little progress has been made when compared with the main features we are expecting.

So what is going on with development? It has been over 10 years of development yet the games have no release dates.

Progress and Development

What is going on with development is that CIG is trying to make three games at the same time with a new gaming studio they have had to grow and build. We have watched as the game has grown from nothing but hype all the way to Alpha 3.20. Without Star Citizen, the other games in this genre would be your only options. We backed Star Citizen because CIG was attempting something massive and different - not because we wanted just one more space game on the market.

Recent releases have shown that CIG is on the right path. Recent Star Citizen updates have shown that the original vision is finished and playable. Congratulations CIG and well done. It has been a long road but savvy Star Citizen followers already noticed this year that the original concept is finished.

Star Citizen is Finished

Our org quietly celebrated this year the completion of Star Citizen's core mechanics during glorious Jumptown combined arms events and during other moments. While the community was busy crying about delays and mostly insignificant issues, they missed the main thing that occurred this year - The game became playable.

The thing is that even looking at our own Playability reports it would not be possible to determine that Star Citizen core features finished this year. Yet this is precisely what happened as other knowledgeable content creators who play the game have noticed as well.
What changed this year? Why do you claim Star Citizen's original vision is complete?

It was not one particular thing that made Star Citizen a fully playable experience. It was a combination of released features that made it and some stability improvements along with optimizations that led to better frame rates. Player counts went from 50 to somewhere under 200 (usually 100+) depending on server loads. The gameplay loops were finished so that players can now:

• Mine
  
• Cargo trade
  
• Salvage
  
• Quest
  
• Pirate other players
  
• Bounty Hunt
  
• Race

The basics of combat are also in where players can:

• First Person Shooter combat
  
• Flight-sim combat
  
• Combined arms combat (mixed ground & air)
  
• Man turrets (multicrew)
  
• Large battles

There is now a large variety of weapon & component choices where combat is truly exhilarating. A lot of fun can be had with movie-like moments that have had our org members sometimes proclaiming:

quote:

"The crazy bastard did it."

While we expect it will be many months before the community and general gaming public even realize this has happened, what is on display is that there is a disconnect between what is currently playable and the assumption spread throughout that Star Citizen has nothing playable or competitive. In game events like Jumptown and community events held by groups like XGR Racing (applause) prove that there is a lot in the game already and that people claiming there's no game to be played are clueless pitchfork agitators rallying behind the wrong cause.

Summarizing Progress

In summary: Progress is slow but fast progress was never promised. What was promised (and what we backed) was quality over time. Time during this development has shown that the progress is real and the quality also. While whiners will continue to proclaim that there's very little progress and focus on the small issues before their eyes, the rest of us will observe Star Citizen's development reaching the end of Alpha with Early Beta closing in.

Content is a lot easier to add to the game than core mechanics. Star Citizen has been content starved for along time and probably explains why a lot of content creators focus on the drama instead of the game. While we do not expect these content creators to change their formed ways, we do expect game-related content will start to grow in comparison.

The CIG is Mismanaged Myth

The CIG is Badly Managed Myth is something we have been reporting about since 2019. Even though far inferior AAA games have continued to release over the last years (including 2023), the community still clings onto this myth.

Let's quickly review without going into too much detail why bad management is a myth. CIG has already achieved:

• Grown from a dozen to a studio of a doze hundred (circa 1200 employees)
  
• Development from nothing to play to a game with competitions with the British Army and machinima creation
  
• CIG really did make a high fidelity, fps, flight-sim, MMORPG that you can playtest today
  
• CIG is developing 3 games at once (Star Citizen, Squadron 42 and Arena Commander)
  
• Over $600M (Star Citizen) + unknown millions with Squadron 42 of funding
  
• Over 10 years of growth and still going

Yet people within the community still claim (constantly) that CIG is mismanaged. Do people know what mismanaged companies actually look like?

I suppose if you totally ignore reality, other games that have failed to release or released but failed to impress, only then you could get away with spreading such myths.

The Moral of the Story

The strange phenomenon of bashing a game you want developed is real and permeates the community to some extent. Players will ask for the game's development to speed up or complain about how long it is taking (which is the same thing). Understanding how long it takes to build things is difficult. Ignoring the real world examples of things taking longer than people expected is not difficult, it is lazy.

Additionally, spending resources and time hating a game you want to see finished, or bringing out pitchforks when there are unforeseen delays is counterproductive as well as annoying.

Final Words

This is probably not the last time we will visit the strange phenomenon of Star Citizen Hate. Scam! cries have been getting louder as the game approaches completion and people try even harder than in the past to kill this project. There was another game that released this year that had record numbers of posts and comments about how it was going to kill Star Citizen and finally prove how misguided and mismanaged this project is. - It didn't happen. Instead, a few more people realized what is actually going on.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

Lol we’re quickly approaching the ELEVENTH anniversary of the Kickstarter.

Mirificus posted:

trucutru posted:

This is a very verbose way to say "I'm not owned, I'm not owned! " as you slowly transform into a $2,500 corncob

Decon posted:

A $2,500 jpeg of a corncob

quote:

"SCFOCUS.ORG"

trucutru posted:

I just assume it's a repost of stimpire.txt and that all you guys are just trying to trick me into reading it.

It won't work. I don't even believe the pisscat is real.

trucutru posted:

I don't even believe the pisscat is real.

Only Kindness posted:

Did you notice?

...

...is now pretending he's bound by an NDA.

Only Kindness posted:

Of course he's real

LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH

Star Citizen Myths – Biggest Myths About Star Citizen posted:

Chris Roberts Should Be Replaced As CEO / Star Citizen is Badly Managed - Myth

This myth is that CIG is badly managed and / or would be better off if Chris Roberts was replaced.

Reality - The Achievements And Continued Support Show Good Management And Vision

People backed Star Citizen in the early days because of the dream of Chris Roberts. People have continued funding development and showing support for years because the project has been shaping up to backer's liking. Many backers even going as far as supporting the community content separately to the development.

Star Citizen is achieving features only dreamed of before and the game is shaping up. The universe is being created and growing.

By definition, bad management would be incapable of achieving what has already been reached by the project.

Result: Star Citizen continues to be one of the most successful crowd funded projects of all time and is still growing. Additionally, people continue to fund development because results are tangible. Is the game coming as quickly as people want? No. But then again what project of this scale does move fast?

Star Citizen Myths – Biggest Myths About Star Citizen posted:

Star Citizen Is Pay 2 Win - Myth - Confirmed

This myth states that Star Citizen is Pay To Win. Buying more expensive ships than your opponents will lead you to victory.

Reality - Star Citizen Is Not Pay To Win

Update April 2023: This myth has been marked as confirmed. As Star Citizen continues to get closer to completion, the features of the game are becoming more final. Events in Star Citizen both in-game and community driven have shown that skill (and often luck) is what determines who wins. Events in Star Citizen include:

• Jumptown
  
• Siege of Orison
  
• Racing
  
• PVP Events
  
• Dogfighting Tournaments
  
• and much more...

There are several reasons why Star Citizen does not fit with the traditional label of Pay 2 Win. Paying for a better ship does not automatically make one player beat another player. There is a variety of jobs and professions planned and simply paying more does not equal winning in this MMO.

Player skill matters. Star Citizen is a skill based game. Players consistently outfly, outplay and outgun other players independent of spend. Also being able to group with other players can quickly turn a scenario.

In Star Citizen, paying grants you an advantage in that players can accelerate progress by owning certain ships or items first.

Result: Star Citizen is not Pay to Win but it is Pay for some Advancement.

Star Citizen Myths – Biggest Myths About Star Citizen posted:

Star Citizen Lied About Release Dates - Myth

One of the oldest and most spread myths about Star Citizen is that the company lied about release dates. The claim is that since dates were mentioned or teased for the release of Squadron 42 and were missed that the creators of Star Citizen purposely lied about about release dates.

Reality - Star Citizen & Squadron 42 Will Release When Ready, Not Before

The reality is that the biggest stated objective of the project is to release a good game that will not compromise quality over release dates.

The industry standard is to release unfinished games. Projects since Star Citizen's announcement have continued to launch in poor states throughout the industry.

Star Citizen backers have chosen to back Star Citizen (and Squadron 42) specifically for this very reason. Quality first, release dates second. Failing to meet arbitrary dates is not just an outcome, it is a stated objective.

Refusing to cave in to release date pressure syndrome is one of the keys to success of the project. Trolls and detractors frequently bring up this myth to attempt to spread dissent and cause chaos. The project has a quality-first approach and it should be an easy way to recognize trolls and Star Citizen haters whenever this myth is resurfaced periodically.

Update: 6th January 2020

Due to the continued records being set by the Star Citizen project (2019 being the biggest funding year to date), the haters and fudsters have stepped up their efforts to derail the project with the "lied" myth.

The most important feature of Star Citizen and Squardon 42 development is the ultimate promise to not compromise over release dates. The transparent development process has yielded that Roberts Space Industries frequently comment on the goals of progress. Goals which include optimistic release dates for features such as the recently released Serverside Object Container Streaming.

Detractors continuously troll the project by screaming LIE! every time a release date for a feature is missed, completely ignoring the superseding objective of quality and ignoring the massive scale and scope of the project.

Star Citizen is a project that will take the time necessary to build a universe and backers and nonbackers who do not have the patience for this massive endeavor should look elsewhere for a complete game if they want something to play now without issues.

Once again it is worth mentioning that the primary objective is to build a massive and high fidelity universe - a new feat in video gaming. The simple thing to understand is that the biggest project in video gaming history will also (and should also) take the longest time.

Estimated dates are just that - estimates. Until the features are ready, tested and polished funding will continue. Luckily for the project most backers are mature enough to realize that missed dates are fine as long as the end goal is being worked towards and progress is real.

On another note, it is a bit sad that gamers are dedicating so much time to hate the game, often spending years in the same forums commenting with their hater friends about how much they hate this project. All the while obsessing over more details than the average Star Citizen backer cares to know about.

People tend to fear change and Star Citizen aims to create perhaps the biggest change in video games the world has ever seen. After all, it aims to be the first 21st century video game - combining massively multiplayer, real-time FPS, 64bit precision, server meshing, high fidelity, FOIP and the list goes on and on.

Randalor posted:

What are the chances Squadron 42 ends up coming out as a "movie" instead a game (with "in-game" flying segments breaking up the mocapped scenez)? And if it does, how many paragraphs will pisscat spend singing its praises and hailing Croberts as a visionary filmmaker?

Blue On Blue posted:

the entire basis of this whole shitshow is that they imagine SQ42 will sell as many copies in the first week as GTA5 when it was released

we all know it wont do this in its life time, but still

once the billions start rolling in, Chris will pivot to movie making 24/7

which many suspect is the only reason he is involved at all

Blue On Blue posted:

the entire basis of this whole shitshow is that they imagine SQ42 will sell as many copies in the first week as GTA5 when it was released

we all know it wont do this in its life time, but still

once the billions start rolling in, Chris will pivot to movie making 24/7

which many suspect is the only reason he is involved at all

Eric the Mauve posted:

Isn't CRobber already blackballed from Hollywood

Randalor posted:

What are the chances Squadron 42 ends up coming out as a "movie" instead a game (with "in-game" flying segments breaking up the mocapped scenez)? And if it does, how many paragraphs will pisscat spend singing its praises and hailing Croberts as a visionary filmmaker?

Randalor posted:

What are the chances Squadron 42 ends up coming out as a "movie" instead a game (with "in-game" flying segments breaking up the mocapped scenez)? And if it does, how many paragraphs will pisscat spend singing its praises and hailing Croberts as a visionary filmmaker?

trucutru posted:

I mean, maybe their stories are really loving good

Randalor posted:

What are the chances Squadron 42 ends up coming out as a "movie" instead a game (with "in-game" flying segments breaking up the mocapped scenez)? And if it does, how many paragraphs will pisscat spend singing its praises and hailing Croberts as a visionary filmmaker?

Blue On Blue posted:

i can see it now , in 2056 when they release

the internet will be flooded with ALL TIME RECORD HIGH numbers of sales, by CIG the true herald of gaming success stories

can we see any proof of the numbers though?

no, ignore that the first 100,000 copies sold were all to one Len Besnick though that's just a mistake in the system

Sandweed posted:

One of the main features of the game is that you can just walk away from any conversation and the Npcs will react dynamically to it. So there has to be some mess hall scenes where you chat with sandys character.

Trilobite posted:

They're already doing a revolutionary "anti-marketing" marketing strategy for Squadron 42 where they don't advertise it, don't say anything about it, don't show any part of it, don't do anything to get anyone anywhere interested in it, and don't even let you buy it from them anymore. The obvious post-release step if the game comes out in 2056 (seems optimistic, but okay) would be to not report any sales figures, and maybe not even admit that Squadron 42 ever existed at all.


It's a shame Ortwin retired, but maybe this is a chance for the Clown Imperium to find a new scam guru. Perhaps someone with experience in time-share contracts; imagine how long development could go if citizens were only allowed to play the game two weeks a year, booked in advance, and if their heirs were legally obligated to keep paying for it in perpetuity!

Sandweed posted:

One of the main features of the game is that you can just walk away from any conversation and the Npcs will react dynamically to it. So there has to be some mess hall scenes where you chat with sandys character.

Ursine Catastrophe posted:

Bethesda games have unkillable quest-necessary NPCs, so in a similar vein, walking away from a plot-critical dialogue in SQ42 will just make this pop up before the game ends