But that's not even worth discussing at this point.
Today, I want to highlight the key point of The July Blog which I wrote in July 2015, claiming they were never - ever - going to build the game promised; let alone anything resembling it.
That's 106 (!!) star systems promised between 2012-2014, even as the game's scope continue to balloon once Chris figured out a way to monetize scope creep.
And FIVE (5) years later, they wouldn't have finished building a SINGLE one.
Right now, 3.3.5 which has Lorville is in the Public Test Universe. But backers can't access it unless they have a PAID ($10|$20) monthly subscription.
So in addition to buying the game for $45, and then spending hundreds and in some cases thousands of Dollars on ships, vehicles etc - you have to pay for a monthly sub in order to gain access to the game you already paid for.
Over 2 years ago when I started writing that what they were trying to do with this engine was doomed to fail, some backers looked at me funny - then felt that throwing money at the problem was somehow going to solve everything.
They still have a "game" - of ANY kinds.
This much-touted "planetary tech" is still the same old legacy "level" based tech that is not only well beyond the capabilities of the engine they're building - but they STILL haven't figured it out yet.
But hey, don't take my word for it, here, let the devs working on it tell you. FF to @ 8:16
That was LAST week.
Meanwhile, back at Lorville, after backers found a way to breach the no fly zones around the city, they've found all kinds of other ways to see through the emperor's clothes with stuff like this.
In case you were wondering about the single player companion game, Squadron 42, that's been coming since 2014.
At 2017 Gamecom, Chris blatantly LIED that all the missions were finished. That was back when the schedule was also coming end of that year. It's still not released.
They have since pulled that video, but we're anal retentive autistic FUDsters. So we transcribed every damn thing because they have a history of scrubbing history at will.
That's where we are today, even as we are about to enter YEAR 8 of this farce.
While it's clearly obvious that the artists (who apparently outnumber devs by 4:1) and devs are earning their paycheck, there's no ignoring the fact that this whole thing is one big SCAM. All of it.
Since Q4/15 when they ran out of money to build the game for which they had raised almost $100M, they've been engaged in a protracted Ponzi scheme whereby they sell new shiny things, to pay for the previously sold shiny things they had YET to deliver on.
And while we don't have public insight into the financials of the US ops, sources continue to claim that, like the EU studios, they too are in debt and basically funding ops on a M2M basis with ZERO reserves.
And that's precisely why they have to keep increasing scope by selling new things in order to generate funds to continue funding their Ponzi scheme of a dev.
The inevitable collapse is going to be absolutely amazing.
Anyone who thinks they have another 8 yrs + $200M to build everything they promised, is delusional.
Again: Year 8. Not a SINGLE star system built; and over 80% of the features still NYI. That's the reality today.
ps: As of today, the entire game is a 50-client session based crash-fest and a performance nightmare.
It will never - EVER- become an MMO.
But that's what they claim to be building. So there's that.
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I am back to writing aggregated blogs again because I have found a new worthy cause that's filled with intrigue, corruption, abuse, racism, and plundering of a Web3 DAO that went from a $1b cap to $300M in less than 1yr amid a cratered token.
Once again, I have the receipts.
As with the Star Citizen (that's still not a finished game btw - 11 yrs + $600M later) blog series that hit all the headlines and which sparked a media frenzy, including from Forbes and others, my series on @apecoin DAO will take the same periodic format.
@apecoin This time around, instead of starting from the beginning and rolling down to the last blog where I was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the project was FUBAR, I am going to start from present, roll through the history, identify all the players involved, and connect all dots.
Days ago, the Special Council decided to - against procedures and in a blatant conflict of interest, decided to create an interdependent set of AIPS involving the creation of ApeChain via Polygon.
1/
The Special Council is never allowed to do this. Ever. Instead, not only did they author a bidzdev AIP to fund the Polygon AIP, but they're literally pretending that they aren't connected - despite irrefutable evidence.
Here is the first AIP, the Polygon one authored by @sandeepnailwal
Always amuses me that, almost 30 yrs since my first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD (aka BC3K), was released by Take Two, that it's still the go-to comparison for any team making an all-encompassing massive scope space game. Graphics aside, they ALL hit the same wall that I did.
When you build a massive space game, your #2 problem (with #1 being the tech to power it) is going to be how to populate it; and not just because you can, but because of what the game requires. And content repetition is the primary problem.
Every single massive scope space game that has attempted anything of the sort, has run into the same problem with content creation. No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, X series etc. all ran into the same thing because procgen can only go so far.
Well don't look now, but SQ42 no longer has a release date. Wait till you see Chris's response in an AMA on the game's 8th (it's actually 9, but whose counting?) anniversary.
So there's a new Star Citizen controversy brewing and which various parties are diving into. I haven't done much digging, so I will just provide some of my own thoughts.
First of all, I want to make this clear - again...
Star Citizen devolved into an absolute scam years ago. The basis for the scam is that the creators and primaries were busy focused on unjust enrichment by taking money out of the project, rather than putting money into it. This has gone on for years now.
To the extent that not only have they done shady financial things like building a corp with backer money, then selling back that corp to themselves, but also taking out large sums from the venture, even as they run out of money year after year.
For context, you'd have to do some catching up on my tweets since this fiasco started. To be clear, as a veteran game dev for 30+ yrs, as I see it, this battle was a long-time in the making, and needed to be waged.
Though some of my peers & colleagues in the biz are hesitant to publicly opine given the parties involved, my view is that with all the confusion as to the merits of the matter and what it means to gamers and game devs, this discussion is worth having cuz feelz aren't relevant.
To get started, this is what I said on 08/13 when news of the lawsuit went public, and which goes back to what I just stated in the first tweet of this thread.