That $15 (which, by the way, if you buy three months at a time comes out closer to $10 even with my funny Beaver decorated dollars) pays for a mature feature list on a stable platform. It pays for something that actually exists. Granted that CCP are a little wibbly-wobbly on some of their commitments but, in the context of MMO development, it makes Eve roughly as dependable as the half-life of Uranium 235.
In my decade plus as a Developer (we'll leave out the time I spent working for a Publisher) I worked on Seven games. Of those Seven games Four actually made it to release. One was canned in pre-production when the Studio was bought by another company, who decided to move us onto console games. One was canned in pre-production because the concept had been done by someone else better. One was canned in production because the studio went bankrupt (thanks Vivendi).
Of course I had many more games canned when I worked as Publisher, because that's actually the main function of Publishers, to make sure that games that are financially doomed don't make it out onto the market. You guys are short-cutting that. You've invested MILLIONS (corporately) with almost no due dilligence. You don't know how development is going. You haven't seen the production schedule. You don't know what state the code is in. You haven't seen how the assets are coming along. You have had no input in setting the development milestones. You don't get to see the deliverables.
In Production I've worked as both poacher and gamekeeper. I know a LOT of the tricks - how to obsfucate missing functionality. How to massage the wording of milestones and how to make your deliverables hint at underlying functionality that doesn't exist. How to cover the exciting stuff in the morning, head out for a subsidised lunch with alcohol in the afternoon (booking at a posh restaurant makes the external producer think you're taking him seriously) where you linger over a few extra beers whilst talking excitedly about all the progress you've made this sprint and then heading back for some sort of abstruse codery meeting in the afternoon which will basically make the man doze off, where you hint vaguely at areas of weakness before demanding the sign off.
I point out that there are lots of tricks in situations where the guy comes to your sanctum sanctorum, pokes around, gets a full demo and, in most cases, leaves with working code, having seen your project plan. In the circumstances you guys find yourselves in you have no written agreements, virtually no hands on the goodies and zero access. It is laughably easy to pull the wool over your eyes, gin up a fancy looking pitch document and produce some bullshots and movies.
That and the high cost of entry BEFORE you actually get anything for your money is what's put me off Star Citizen. I've worked with some of the gurus from Chris Robert's time. Men who were legends in their own lunchtime. It makes me nervous.
Now, I am categorically NOT saying that I think he IS doing these things to you. I'm just saying it happens and it happens more than you think. Even to professionals. And that turns me off of the project. If it turns out to be awesome then I'll probably buy it and be right there with you all. Once I've seen it running and read about five reviews. And heard what you all have to say about it.
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Topic: Hi Rubicon, It's me, Star Citizen (Read 3595 times)