In Star Citizen one faces criticism with total openness.
Chris Roberts has expressed quite a bit in a lengthy blog post. He addressed the criticism that has followed Star Citizen for ages. Fans and critics should read the worthwhile, passionate post here in the original. However, we summarize the most important points here.
How many people are currently working on Star Citizen? 377
The main criticism of Star Citizen, “This thing will never be finished,” particularly resonates with Roberts. He points out how complex and massive Star Citizen has become – thanks to the community’s strong support for the project, allowing ambitions to be raised and some of the best minds in the industry to be hired. The presentation at Gamescom is the best example – that would not have been possible without the community.
There are 377 employees across four internal studios – using technology that had to be developed in-house – and all of this happens under public scrutiny. They publish almost everything – the reports they release are more detailed than those Roberts created for EA or Microsoft.
The Dilemma with Deadlines
There has been one exception so far: the internal deadlines and targets about when they wanted to have which components, which mini-steps of Star Citizen, finished. They have been cautious about this because dates could shift at any time, and they feared negative reactions.
The problem here, the Kobyashi Maru: Target dates remained vague, “We are trying,” “This is the goal” – it looked unprofessional, as if they didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Moreover, these constraints were overlooked, and the dates were perceived as “promises.” But if no dates were released at all, the community was upset because they were left in the dark.
(Kobyashi Maru is a term from Star Trek – it describes a test where the test subject cannot win, regardless of the choices made, because all options lead to doom – a classic dilemma.)
Target Dates are not Release Dates
Therefore, the solution is now: They will simply be totally open and publish the internal scheduling – it is supposed to come out every week. However, Roberts advises caution: These are target dates, not release dates. And target dates can change constantly. They trust the community to not be too harsh if something has to be pushed back.
The blog post serves as an introduction to the celebrations for the fourth anniversary of Star Citizen: a 24-hour livestream and a sale are also planned.
Star Citizen is ambitious, and Roberts drives his employees to achieve peak performance. Some of his employees have accused him of wanting the impossible – Roberts sees it differently: he just wants the best from his employees. More on this in this article:
Star Citizen: Former employees say Roberts demanded the impossible from them
