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This is a question for someone that has been playing star citizen for a long time. How close are we to an actually playable game? How good is what they have bui

This is a question for someone that has been playing star citizen for a long time. How close are we to an actually playable game? How good is what they have built so far?

aeonik 2y ago
It's in a quantum superposition of being really good and unplayable, and releasable soon and infinite scope creep.
- NelsonMinar 2y ago
  Also not releasing is a highly profitable strategy for them.
  - aeonik 2y ago
    I disagree, they'd make way more money releasing the game to a wider audience and continuing the strategy with a larger pool of customers. Though the incentive to release is definitely weaker due to them making so much money prior to official release.
    - mh- 2y ago
      That supposes there is a larger pool of customers to be had. Putting this in B2B terms: what % of their TAM is already "in"?
    - imtringued 2y ago
      Releasing the game costs money and their money making strategy remains the same after release There is no incentive to deliver anything other than digital collectibles.
    - dpig_ 2y ago
      Who will play this game that isn't already playing it?
      - Iulioh 2y ago
        Me? I'm watching from a distance.
    - NelsonMinar 2y ago
      There's a good chance they sell more collectibles on the idea of the game than the dismal reality of whatever they finally release, assuming they do ever make a real release. Right now the game could still be anything. (Even though in reality, it's nothing but a buggy alpha.)
- adastra22 2y ago
  So, Daikatana?
  - moomin 2y ago
    I feel like this is the right comparison, except that the gap between ambition and reality is even larger but it hasn't made anything like the cultural impact.
  - NikkiA 2y ago
    Daikatana on the gameboy was a really nice little 2D RPG
CoastalCoder 2y ago
> This is a question for someone that has been playing star citizen for a long time. How close are we to an actually playable game? I'm probably missing your point, but it sounds like you've answered your own question.
aucisson_masque 2y ago
Take my answer for what it’s worth, never played the game although I am curious because of all the people calling it a scam and take a look on YouTube once every few month. It looks like a game in alpha, very very buggy, very little content. I am amazed at the time it takes them to add stuff, with a budget of 65 million things should have been going steadily but every time there is an update they promise not much to start with and even then always cancel things. Personally I am absolutely convinced it’s a scam, they have to improve the game for legal reason but do the bare minimum and focus more on adding new ship they can sell than actual gameplay feature.
- aeonik 2y ago
  It's definitely not a scam, just a highly ambitious project that spends more time on mechanics and infrastructure than content. The ships by themselves are works of art. And their main funding apparatus, so of course the put an inordinate amount of effort towards this. The bugs are definitely a problem, though they are migrating the entire infrastructure at the moment into a highly available cluster that is intended to keep all players on a single persistent universe like Eve online. The combat is pretty good, but much of the game breaks down because of poorly performing code/servers. I think their current clusters accumulate a lot leaks that eventually degrade the experience. I'd honestly be very curious what their internal architecture looks like in more detail.
  - aucisson_masque 2y ago
    Cmon, I sure hope with 750 millions they managed to hire artist to make ships. That’s maybe a few dozen or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 10 years with that amount of money surely they could hire very talented people to manage development of server backend. The state in which the game is currently is a disgrace. It should be done or close to the end, not still at the beginning where you’re trying to make everything persistent. The infrastructure is what takes the most time and what you build first, like a house foundation. Instead they made the roof and the wall, sold them with lots of promise and now are working on foundations. I sure wouldn’t trust or buy from a such a contractor.
t-writescode 2y ago
I expect Star Citizen is going to be one of those games that won't get tons and tons of new players (maybe double its total count right now? Is that a lot?) But the people that play it are dedicated and very, very interested in the experience that it brings. So, perhaps you (for example) will never, ever be interested in playing the game for anywhere near the amount of time that would justify the cost of entry, but for the specific space exploration / worldbuilding experience that Star Citizen provides, and for the people that want exactly that, it was and is a fantastic game.
- zamadatix 2y ago
  Agree on the take except replace "space exploration/worldbuilding experience" with "ship model buying experience". The former is a very common desire and what one might take away from reading about the game, the latter is more akin to what has been delivered so far and what people still spending money on the game seem to care a lot about.
stubish 2y ago
Pretty much at any point in their development they have had amazing visuals and disappointing game play compared to other games already on the market. As a concrete example, game play wise it has been chasing Elite Dangerous since it was released 10 years ago. I believe Eve Online too (but you can't get out of the cockpit there?). Even single player Starfield. I think the project has been taking so long because, when they release something, it needs not be a disappointment. Supposedly, the single player Squadron 42 part of Star Citizen is feature complete, and if they can get that out of the door will be telling on what the MMO release would be like. Personally, I'm expecting Squadron 42 to be comparable to other releases that year, but better voice acting, more jank, PC only, and poor controller support. And given the focus on 'players making their own story', I'm expecting the MMO to suffer the same reception as Elite Dangerous with a shiny engine trying to hide tedious and repetitive game play (but many people like that, and it might remain a profitable niche game).
tarcon 2y ago
Youtube has a video of a frustrated Chris Roberts struggling to play from 8 years ago, which basically shows the same game we have today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq8ynUq7wM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq8ynUq7wM
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  That is absolute gold.
CaptainFever 2y ago
I play it sometimes. It feels truly "next gen", in that it feels like a very buggy, early-access version of Elite Dangerous 2.0. Overambitious, for good (it does things no other game does), or for worse (the time and budget required). Definitely mismanaged though, in the amount of repeated effort required (e.g. AAA-quality assets that would be replaced anyway, which should have been prototype-quality instead).

This is a question for someone that has been playing star citizen for a long time. How close are we to an actually playable game? How good is what they have built so far?

aeonik 2y ago

It's in a quantum superposition of being really good and unplayable, and releasable soon and infinite scope creep.

NelsonMinar 2y ago
Also not releasing is a highly profitable strategy for them.
- aeonik 2y ago
  I disagree, they'd make way more money releasing the game to a wider audience and continuing the strategy with a larger pool of customers. Though the incentive to release is definitely weaker due to them making so much money prior to official release.
  - mh- 2y ago
    That supposes there is a larger pool of customers to be had. Putting this in B2B terms: what % of their TAM is already "in"?
  - imtringued 2y ago
    Releasing the game costs money and their money making strategy remains the same after release There is no incentive to deliver anything other than digital collectibles.
  - dpig_ 2y ago
    Who will play this game that isn't already playing it?
    - Iulioh 2y ago
      Me? I'm watching from a distance.
  - NelsonMinar 2y ago
    There's a good chance they sell more collectibles on the idea of the game than the dismal reality of whatever they finally release, assuming they do ever make a real release. Right now the game could still be anything. (Even though in reality, it's nothing but a buggy alpha.)
adastra22 2y ago
So, Daikatana?
- moomin 2y ago
  I feel like this is the right comparison, except that the gap between ambition and reality is even larger but it hasn't made anything like the cultural impact.
- NikkiA 2y ago
  Daikatana on the gameboy was a really nice little 2D RPG

CoastalCoder 2y ago

> This is a question for someone that has been playing star citizen for a long time. How close are we to an actually playable game? I'm probably missing your point, but it sounds like you've answered your own question.

aucisson_masque 2y ago

Take my answer for what it’s worth, never played the game although I am curious because of all the people calling it a scam and take a look on YouTube once every few month. It looks like a game in alpha, very very buggy, very little content. I am amazed at the time it takes them to add stuff, with a budget of 65 million things should have been going steadily but every time there is an update they promise not much to start with and even then always cancel things. Personally I am absolutely convinced it’s a scam, they have to improve the game for legal reason but do the bare minimum and focus more on adding new ship they can sell than actual gameplay feature.

aeonik 2y ago
It's definitely not a scam, just a highly ambitious project that spends more time on mechanics and infrastructure than content. The ships by themselves are works of art. And their main funding apparatus, so of course the put an inordinate amount of effort towards this. The bugs are definitely a problem, though they are migrating the entire infrastructure at the moment into a highly available cluster that is intended to keep all players on a single persistent universe like Eve online. The combat is pretty good, but much of the game breaks down because of poorly performing code/servers. I think their current clusters accumulate a lot leaks that eventually degrade the experience. I'd honestly be very curious what their internal architecture looks like in more detail.
- aucisson_masque 2y ago
  Cmon, I sure hope with 750 millions they managed to hire artist to make ships. That’s maybe a few dozen or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 10 years with that amount of money surely they could hire very talented people to manage development of server backend. The state in which the game is currently is a disgrace. It should be done or close to the end, not still at the beginning where you’re trying to make everything persistent. The infrastructure is what takes the most time and what you build first, like a house foundation. Instead they made the roof and the wall, sold them with lots of promise and now are working on foundations. I sure wouldn’t trust or buy from a such a contractor.

t-writescode 2y ago

I expect Star Citizen is going to be one of those games that won't get tons and tons of new players (maybe double its total count right now? Is that a lot?) But the people that play it are dedicated and very, very interested in the experience that it brings. So, perhaps you (for example) will never, ever be interested in playing the game for anywhere near the amount of time that would justify the cost of entry, but for the specific space exploration / worldbuilding experience that Star Citizen provides, and for the people that want exactly that, it was and is a fantastic game.

zamadatix 2y ago
Agree on the take except replace "space exploration/worldbuilding experience" with "ship model buying experience". The former is a very common desire and what one might take away from reading about the game, the latter is more akin to what has been delivered so far and what people still spending money on the game seem to care a lot about.

stubish 2y ago

Pretty much at any point in their development they have had amazing visuals and disappointing game play compared to other games already on the market. As a concrete example, game play wise it has been chasing Elite Dangerous since it was released 10 years ago. I believe Eve Online too (but you can't get out of the cockpit there?). Even single player Starfield. I think the project has been taking so long because, when they release something, it needs not be a disappointment. Supposedly, the single player Squadron 42 part of Star Citizen is feature complete, and if they can get that out of the door will be telling on what the MMO release would be like. Personally, I'm expecting Squadron 42 to be comparable to other releases that year, but better voice acting, more jank, PC only, and poor controller support. And given the focus on 'players making their own story', I'm expecting the MMO to suffer the same reception as Elite Dangerous with a shiny engine trying to hide tedious and repetitive game play (but many people like that, and it might remain a profitable niche game).

tarcon 2y ago

Youtube has a video of a frustrated Chris Roberts struggling to play from 8 years ago, which basically shows the same game we have today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq8ynUq7wM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq8ynUq7wM

robertlagrant 2y ago
That is absolute gold.

CaptainFever 2y ago

I play it sometimes. It feels truly "next gen", in that it feels like a very buggy, early-access version of Elite Dangerous 2.0. Overambitious, for good (it does things no other game does), or for worse (the time and budget required). Definitely mismanaged though, in the amount of repeated effort required (e.g. AAA-quality assets that would be replaced anyway, which should have been prototype-quality instead).