The SF MMORPG Star Citizen was first unveiled to the public in 2012. At that time, the project by gaming pioneer Chris Roberts raised $2.1 million in a Kickstarter campaign. Ten years later, it stands at $500,110,097, contributed by over 4 million people. At MeinMMO, we look at why the game is so extremely controversial and examine a typical discussion about Star Citizen on the German PC gaming site GameStar.
This is the situation:
- Star Citizen is funded via crowdfunding: The money is used not only to create 2 games: the MMO Star Citizen and a single-player game Squadron 42. A massive infrastructure is also being built. Several studios across different continents and the technology to make all this possible.
- The bulk of the money comes from the sale of virtual spaceships – individual collections of ships are worth several tens of thousands of US dollars.
- There is no release date or fixed schedule after many delays.
A more in-depth analysis of Star Citizen can be found on GameStar Plus, the paid model of our sister site.
This we will now look at: On the occasion of the milestone of 500 million US dollars (via GameStar.de), we want to today look at a typical discussion about Star Citizen, as Star Citizen has become known for such discussions.
On the German PC gaming site “GameStar”, articles about Star Citizen received the most comments years ago: However, the atmosphere was often hostile. Comments under the articles no longer exist on Gamestar. They are relocated to a forum.
11 Hours of Discussion at GameStar about Star Citizen
How the discussion is at GameStar: In the GameStar forum, you can see how the lines clash again (via gamestar):
- The article was published at 1:30 PM
- 2 minutes earlier, at 1:28 PM, the forum post was already online
- it took only 4 minutes before the discussion started
The comments were opened by a user without a profile picture, sharply at 1:32 PM with: “I have so much respect for this century fraud.”
Shortly after, at 1:40 PM, veteran MrNobdody82 joined him: “For me, it’s only vaporware now. I believed in it back in 2013, but not at all now. Shame about the 230 euros back then.”
At 1:44 PM, the first supporter, Masterflo3004, speaks up: He is looking forward to ‘Entity streaming’ and says: The financial milestone is already big, but he finds the ‘technical milestones’ more important.
At 1:57 PM, pragmatic user BSchäfer chimes in: “I check in every 6-8 weeks, play 15-20 hours and then leave it again. I like it.”
The first argument arises around 2:14 PM: HorstHermann asks: “Where the money flows everywhere” – the current state of development does not match the funds used.
7 minutes later, chuech contradicts: “Look at the business figures. It states where every dollar flows, currently all into development.”
“More fun with Star Citizen than with any other game”
Around 2:39 PM, ATix says that for him Star Citizen is still a dream. But he is also willing to invest in this dream. So far, it has been worth every cent to him – he enjoys the community and the hype that Star Citizen brings him.
At 3:28 PM, user johnnyD gripes: That’s a “sunk cost fallacy” – He means: Whoever invested in Star Citizen has already lost so much money that he now has to hope that it turns out well. No one wants to justify to themselves how much money they have wasted.
