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Stick and Rudder: Why all the love for Roberts and Star Citizen?
I was talking with a gaming buddy recently who missed the whole space sim experience in the 1990s. He's a Star Wars fan and a real-life pilot pushing 40, so it surprised me to learn that he'd never heard of Wing Commander, Freespace, X-Wing, and the like. My jaw really hit the floor as our conversation turned to current games and I began to evangelize about Star Citizen and Chris Roberts. "Who's Chris Roberts?" he asked, with a straight face.
The Daily Grind: Do you support Kickstarter projects you don't plan to play?
Yesterday's news of Chris Roberts stumping for rival Kickstarter projects was interesting both for its subject matter and for some of the responses it provoked. It also got me to thinking about crowdfunding in general and its long-term future from a gamer's perspective. For every runaway success like Star Citizen, it seems there are a dozen projects that fail to meet their fundraising goals (and even more that offer up half-baked ideas, poorly communicated). The service does give passionate gamers a way to speak directly with their wallets, and it can neatly bypass the red tape inherent in game publishing as Roberts explained. It can also be a money pit, though, and I suspect that folks like Roberts who support multiple projects for the good of the industry are a rarity. What do you think, Massively readers? Assuming you pledge to Kickstarter projects, do you support only those you plan to play or are you backing multiple games in order to change the way games are made? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Citizen's Roberts supports Elite, Project GODUS, says you should too
Star Citizen head honcho Chris Roberts may be busy heading up the revival of the space sim genre, but he's not too busy to make a case for a couple of high profile Kickstarter projects. In a lengthy post on SC's official site, Roberts shows his support for Elite: Dangerous and Peter Molyneux's Project GODUS and urges backers of Star Citizen to do the same. Roberts outlines a number of reasons why SC's overwhelming Kickstarter success has invigorated the dev team, chief among them the sense of satisfaction stemming from the ability to send a message "to the business and marketing machines that normally decide which games are made. You said they are not the taste makers for you, that you want your voice heard on what kind of game you play and you want to have a greater involvement and connection to the development of that game." Both Elite and GODUS are well short of their Kickstarter goals and nearing the end of their fundraising window. Roberts outlines what each game brings to the table and even touches on Molyneux's tendency to over-promise and under-deliver before ultimately concluding that Elite and GODUS are worthy of support for both gameplay reasons and the opportunity they're affording gamers to continue changing the industry. With crowdfunding you cut the middle man out. No retailer. No publisher driven by the demands of its shareholders for quarterly profits. Instead you build the game directly for the audience that wants the game for the right reasons -- because they want to play it. This is an exciting shift in the dynamic and something gaming needs unless everyone wants no other choice other than to buy yearly sequels to one of a limited number of gaming brands that the big publishers focus on. [Thanks to Ken for the tip!]
Roberts shows off Star Citizen's Freelancer ship
Even though Star Citizen's official fundraising drive ended a while back, the title continues to rake in donations from interested space sim fans (over 100,000 of them in fact). Chris Roberts' sandbox multiplayer title has topped $7 million in pledges and to help celebrate, the devs have released a brief clip starring Roberts and concept artist Jim Martin. The pair spend a couple of minutes chatting up the prototype MISC Freelancer ship, which is a community-approved design that is currently transitioning to the 3-D modeling stage. Check out the clip in its entirety after the cut.
Star Citizen's ship insurance explained
If you've been wondering how ship insurance works in Star Citizen, the game's latest comm link update is for you. Cloud Imperium says that SC's insurance system will ensure that your ship will be replaced "and/or its modifications and cargo will be subsidized should you be destroyed in a fight or accident." The costs will be "a relatively small part of your regular in-game expenses" (think landing fees, trade tariffs, fuel costs, etc.). Insurance policy upgrades based on risk levels will also be available. Players who pledged to support Star Citizen prior to November 26th will have lifetime insurance on their pledge ships, though it's worth noting that the lifetime coverage does not extend to mods or cargo. There's much more to read about SC's insurance system, so head to the game's official website for that as well as an update on customer service and stretch goals.
Star Citizen finishes gaming's biggest crowd-funding drive ever
"The traditional publishers don't believe in PC or space sims. Venture capitalists only want to back mobile or social gaming startups," wrote Chris Roberts back during Star Citizen's October reveal. "I say they're wrong. "I say that there is a large audience of PC gamers who want sophisticated games built for their platform." Boy, was he right. As of 2:00 p.m. EST, the game has secured over $6.2 million and over 89,000 pledges. Star Citizen is now the highest-grossing crowd-funded gaming project ever, and more importantly it has met a laundry list of stretch goals over and above its initial $2 million target and unlocked a slew of additional features (including more ships, star systems, mod tools, base types, and voice-acting). Roberts' Cloud Imperium firm has also released a new video that shows off some very early spaceport test footage. Click past the cut to get a look at the work-in-progress environment inspired by the concept art above.
The Firing Line: Star Citizen shouldn't be EVE with joysticks
I've been spending a lot of time on Star Citizen's forums of late. And when I'm not doing that, I'm replaying Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, and Privateer (thanks GoG) and generally wetting myself with excitement for Chris Roberts' newest space sim. The one thing that gives me pause, though, is the unsavory player type that SC is already attracting. You know the guys I mean. They're PvPers, which is great, but they can't type a sentence on a message board without using the word carebear a minimum of three times while making sweeping generalizations about the playstyles, sexual orientation, and parentage of any and all who dare to disagree with them about what makes gaming fun. That said, I like PvP and plan to engage in Star Citizen's version of it. I'm not naive enough to think that the no-holds barred nonsense being advocated by some in the game's pre-release community will result in anything other than a niche title, though.
Star Citizen cargo ship boasts functioning interior, detachable fighter
Remember those old ship blueprints that came folded in your Wing Commander box circa 1991? No? Well, get off our lawn. Assuming you do remember them, or assuming you're as excited as we are about Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen space sim, you'll probably get a kick out of some images just released on the official site. The site has a preview interview and accompanying concept gallery that features a player ship called the Constellation Mark III. There are plenty of schematic views, lore-appropriate statistics, and of course renders of both the interior and exterior of the craft. Yep, apparently that answers the question as to whether or not we'll be able to walk around inside some of Star Citizen's ships, as many of the renders show off everything from the cockpit to living quarters to various observation decks and stations. Oh, did we mention that the Constellation boasts its own detachable star fighter? Roberts also puts to rest any notions of Star Citizen being a typical combat-only shooter. One of his goals is to let you actually look at the cargo in your ship's hold while you're in space. "There's a big focus on simulating and showing everything that you would imagine to be inside and functioning on a spaceship in Star Citizen," he explains. "So if you're hauling it you should see it in your hold (if you can walk back into your hold), if you activate a system, you should see your pilot avatar lean over and switch it on, and so on." The images come courtesy of Ryan Church, a familiar name to sci-fi geeks thanks to his concept art work on the Star Wars prequels. [Thanks to Eric for the tip!]%Gallery-171150%
Star Citizen crowd-funding tops $3 million with 10 days to go
The news keeps getting better and better for fans of Chris Roberts' new Star Citizen space sim. Cloud Imperium just issued a press release trumpeting the fact that SC's crowd-funding initiatives have surpassed $3 million with 10 days to go. The company initially launched a self-managed fundraiser on its own website that has generated over $2 million in pledges to date. This was supplemented by a Kickstarter drive that has taken in over $1 million. Roberts' pre-alpha demo reel has attracted nearly 45,000 backers as of press time, and the Wing Commander creator says that the crowd-funding success will allow the dev team to work on additional features. "This is extremely exciting for me and our team because it will enable us to create the game we've been talking about to our fans over the past month," Roberts explained. "But we can do even more. I'm still hoping that we'll reach four million dollars before we close. This will allow us to do more sooner, especially on things like our modder tools." Cloud Imperium has also announced a pledge referral program to help reach its new $4 million goal. [Source: Cloud Imperium press release]
Star Citizen well ahead of crowd-funding schedule, stretch goals added
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen is one of the more successful gaming-related crowd-funding projects to date, and even though there's still two weeks left until the Kickstarter drive closes, the title has already exceeded its $2 million goal by almost $800,000. What's going to happen to that extra money, then? It's partly up to the game's community. The Star Citizen site boasts a new poll with additional stretch goals. Choices include more ships, star systems, NPCs, an enhanced FPS mode, Linux and Mac clients, and some sort of tactical command mode for capital ships. As of press time, new flyable ships and additional star systems were leading the vote.
Star Citizen achieves Kickstarter goal with 26 days to spare
Chris Roberts' Star Citizen title is well on its way if the project's Kickstarter performance is any indication. Wait, Kickstarter? Didn't Roberts set up a crowd-funding initiative directly on the game's official website earlier this month? Why, yes, yes he did, but due to the overwhelming demand generated by thousands of starving space sim fans, the site had trouble handling all the traffic. Roberts Space Industries thus opened an ancillary Kickstarter project with a $500,000 target. When coupled with the $1.3 million raised so far on the main site, Star Citizen is within striking distance of its original $2 million goal with a lot of time left on the clock. Check out yesterday's Massively Speaking podcast for an interview with Chris Roberts himself.
