[Megathread] Star Citizen

[MrAnderson]

*doublepost

[1001]

Actually for any company developing 2 games as ambitious as Squadron and Star Citizen what matters the most is funding. How many streamers or viewers on Twitch can indicate an overall mainstream interest in the product or not but in the end it's up to the gamers to decide they want to back a game or not. With the addition of new features and improvement of performance and as the game becomes more and more fleshed out it's only natural that it will attract more players and consequently more funding.

Only a company man would say that They have received almost $400 million to date so funding should not be an issue.

That people like it enough to the point of paying to be QA testers, enduring game-breaking bugs, bad performance and wipes is already a testament that the game they are developing is special enough to warrant their preference to stream it / watch instead of fully released and polished games of similar genre.

Some of that is true but you have to also consider that people have paid their money upfront and to feel they have got something for their money means they have to play. It's that or carry on waiting for 10 more years...

I would be far more interesed in seeing play time and concurrency stats, seeing whales buy the latest overpriced jpeg doesn't tell you much nore does Twitch tell you much but for some reason play time and concurrency aren't published....

[Gaidax]

This game is going to be legendary, but for the wrong reasons.

[MrAnderson]

Only a company man would say that They have received almost $400 million to date so funding should not be an issue.

Some of that is true but you have to also consider that people have paid their money upfront and to feel they have got something for their money means they have to play. It's that or carry on waiting for 10 more years...

I would be far more interesed in seeing play time and concurrency stats, seeing whales buy the latest overpriced jpeg doesn't tell you much nore does Twitch tell you much but for some reason play time and concurrency aren't published....

And they will receive much more as they develop their games and improve the game experience. The early money allowed them to up the scale and ambition of the game and they invested in the games development by opening more studios and hiring accordingly. More funding allowed for a better product and a better product generates more player interest and consequently more funding.

Any game ever released there will be people who keep playing because they enjoy it or leaving it because they don't independently of how much money they've put into it.

Off course that a game that gets constantly updated with things that actually improve the game will have a better chance to see it's community grow than one that doesn't. That's why Star Citizen twitch stats increased greatly as they improved performance, added atmospheric planets, more missions, professions, gear, ships, weapons etc.

Twitch stats also show the nº of streamers playing the game and the amount of hours they play. So you have detailed number of players and playtime in that platform thought several periods of time.

[Shakzor]

Agreed. All Twitch stats shows is that people watch the game and is popular on a specific platform. It doesn't say anything about playing.

This. If we go by twitch stats, Pokemon is anything but the most successful franchise on the planet. 15+ million games sold, barely 10k viewers on twitch and only very, very rarely even goes much higher.

Considering the game is nowhere near completion, it's about to be expected a lot of people look it up when there's an event or something, because... they're curious what it even is, whereas with other games, they can just... buy and play them and refund if they don't like them. With SC, you have to invest more to get less overall (at the time) and whatever you do or like might be completely scrapped in half a year for all we know, since it's in active development.

All in all, twitch metrics are absolutely terrible to compare games. Many games have barely any viewers because people either don't like to watch it, but play, or there simply aren't (interesting) people streaming these games.
3k watch Madden, but i highly doubt the concurrent players go anywhere below 30k, PUBG Mobile barely 1,4k and i highly doubt that is anywhere near the actual playerbase or Monster Hunter has barely 1k people watching but has 16k playing as the time of this comment. With Pokemon, those are just a few examples of VERY successful games that have barely anyone watching in comparison

[Kyanion]

Regarding Val, they are the kind of player that posts long stories of their experiences with the game. They can't attack Val because all they usually have is ad hominems and Val clearly plays the game.

Or because he is honest and is open about the pros AND cons of the game. Val will point out when shit is not doing well such as the game being a buggy unplayable mess right now. It is funny how they never say anything to Val about his negative views on the game. They do seem to chime in on the positive ones of course.

[MrAnderson]

This. If we go by twitch stats, Pokemon is anything but the most successful franchise on the planet. 15+ million games sold, barely 10k viewers on twitch and only very, very rarely even goes much higher.

Considering the game is nowhere near completion, it's about to be expected a lot of people look it up when there's an event or something, because... they're curious what it even is, whereas with other games, they can just... buy and play them and refund if they don't like them. With SC, you have to invest more to get less overall (at the time) and whatever you do or like might be completely scrapped in half a year for all we know, since it's in active development.

All in all, twitch metrics are absolutely terrible to compare games. Many games have barely any viewers because people either don't like to watch it, but play, or there simply aren't (interesting) people streaming these games.
3k watch Madden, but i highly doubt the concurrent players go anywhere below 30k, PUBG Mobile barely 1,4k and i highly doubt that is anywhere near the actual playerbase or Monster Hunter has barely 1k people watching but has 16k playing as the time of this comment. With Pokemon, those are just a few examples of VERY successful games that have barely anyone watching in comparison

Those are good numbers for pokemon and puts it in the top 50 rank which is very good considering streaming/watching games is not yet as mainstream as just playing games. Just like forum posting about games is niche.

Still, Twitch is the biggest streaming service in the world besides ASIA. It caters mostly to online PC games with a lot of social interaction/unpredictability but you can draw parallels from a games popularity or gamers interest by observing it's stats along a set period of time and specially when comparing it with games of similar genre.

It's not by chance that the regular Twitch top games are all very popular and making bucks or why companies from Big AAA studios to indies invest in streamers to play in that platform or use it's data as a popularity/success indication.

Star Citizen has a alpha playable build since 2014, has multiple Free-Fly events where anyone can try the game for free for weeks, has a better refund policy than Steam or Epic Store with their play what you want for 14 days and refund no questions asked. Yes it's buggy and has higher requirement specs than probably 99% of other games.

You can absolutely compare the samples of data from twitch metrics for games of the similar genre and observe a tendency in the market from it. You can watch all that player engagement in FPS games which have overlapping styles of play. Apex Legends arrival changed things for fortnite for a while just like vallorant changed for CS and mostly Overwatch and then COD changed for PUBG and so on.

Player engagement is very important for the companies with Games As Service or crowdfunded games module that rely on constant interaction and micro-transaction sales and when you have games with similar styles of gameplay there will always be one cannibalizing audience from the other even if that doesn't necessarily means the doom or gloom of any of them. The bigger audience the product is exposed the more potential new costumers it can reach and a GaS game that maintains a steady or growing twitch community

Or because he is honest and is open about the pros AND cons of the game. Val will point out when shit is not doing well such as the game being a buggy unplayable mess right now. It is funny how they never say anything to Val about his negative views on the game. They do seem to chime in on the positive ones of course.

Saying that an alpha build has bugs is not being negative is being redundant, using it to attack the game or the company making it shows ignorance towards game development as explained before:

"GAMES ARE VERY UGLY, FOR A LONG TIME, UNTIL THEY ARE NOT. Traditionally, that is right near the end. This is due to the absolutely f–king bananas level of complexity and moving pieces required to make really any game today. We are, more often than not, going on passion and belief that the vision of this buggy + duct-taped together ‘thing’ is going to come together in the end.

To me there is NOTHING shameful or nefarious about the game not running well in development. We ALL obviously want to release the smoothest/most bug-free experience humanly possible. Sometimes we (mostly) succeed. Sometimes we don’t. But it is NEVER because we did not try.”

[Cyclone Jack]

Only a company man would say that They have received almost $400 million to date so funding should not be an issue.

What'll really get you is, they're $400 million in, and not even halfway done.

[MrAnderson]

What'll really get you is, they're $400 million in, and not even halfway done.

Can be said the way around too.

The game is not even halfway done and it has already generated $400 millions.

Considering the huge increase in funding in the last 2 years when it received it's juiciest updates, attracted more players along with a billionaire investor, Id say It's way more accurate assessment of reality.

PS- I don't agree with the "400$millions in and not even halfway done" rhetoric as it's too simplistic and ignorant to take seriously.

[Majestic12]

A gentle, kind soul tipped me off about the following video. It's an infographics episode about Star Citizen and highlights the issues with Chris Roberts and the project itself.

Basically supports a ton of things I've said about Chris in this thread.

The video is pretty well edited and easy to follow too. A very recommended watch regardless of which camp you're in.

[MrAnderson]

Nothing like starting with 2 lies in the tittle to set the tone and attract some flies, I mean clicks.

Free publicity is still free publicity. If you ever wonder why Star Citizen keeps getting new players and funding keeps growing this is one of the reasons.

[Kyanion]

Nothing like starting with 2 lies in the tittle to set the tone and attract some flies, I mean clicks.

Free publicity is still free publicity. If you ever wonder why Star Citizen keeps getting new players and funding keeps growing this is one of the reasons.

Yeah only 8.4 million subs on that channel, they totally need to make clickbaity lies. Hey if you need to rely on videos like that to get bad publicity to squeeze out a few more dollars so they can keep kicking the can down the road, more power to them. Eventually the funding will dry up.

[Shakzor]

Yeah only 8.4 million subs on that channel, they totally need to make clickbaity lies. Hey if you need to rely on videos like that to get bad publicity to squeeze out a few more dollars so they can keep kicking the can down the road, more power to them. Eventually the funding will dry up.

well... having high sub count doesn't mean they can't do clickbait shit. They can do the same clickbait as anything, just because a channel doesn't "need" to, doesn't mean they don't do it. I would've linked one, but i couldn't think of a clickbait channel i could quickly look up, since i... completely ignore these and don't know any (in general, not just high sub number).

[Kyanion]

well... having high sub count doesn't mean they can't do clickbait shit. They can do the same clickbait as anything, just because a channel doesn't "need" to, doesn't mean they don't do it. I would've linked one, but i couldn't think of a clickbait channel i could quickly look up, since i... completely ignore these and don't know any (in general, not just high sub number).

I'm just saying clickbait shit works better when you have fewer viewers. I'm not saying high subcount people don't use clickbait. Clickbait is used because it usually does what it needs to, get clicks and have people watch whatever subject it is.

I don't tend to watch much on youtube anyways, so the clickbaity stuff I avoid just by not being there.

[MrAnderson]

Yeah only 8.4 million subs on that channel, they totally need to make clickbaity lies. Hey if you need to rely on videos like that to get bad publicity to squeeze out a few more dollars so they can keep kicking the can down the road, more power to them. Eventually the funding will dry up.

It's exactly because of clickbait lies and simplistic rhetoric that they have that many subs. Again free press is free press. As for the funding drying up:



Keep on wishing.

[Kyanion]

It's exactly because of clickbait lies and simplistic rhetoric that they have that many subs. A

5 bucks says you didn't even glance at the video other than the title.

- - - Updated - - -

Keep on wishing.

Yup keep on thinking that the money will be endless the further this project drags along. Don't worry we'll be here in a few years to laugh at this graphic. Also is this funding supposed to mean something? It doesn't mean a game will ever release you know.

[MrAnderson]

5 bucks says you didn't even glance at the video other than the title.

- - - Updated - - -

Yup keep on thinking that the money will be endless the further this project drags along. Don't worry we'll be here in a few years to laugh at this graphic. Also is this funding supposed to mean something? It doesn't mean a game will ever release you know.

I've had my share of 90 days top bullshit rhetoric for 5 life times thank you.

[Kyanion]

I've had my share of 90 days top bullshit rhetoric for 5 life times thank you.

Hey you've had your share of SC coming out during your lifetime too.

[MrAnderson]

Hey you've had your share of SC coming out during your lifetime too.

I've been playing it since 2014. Hardly a lifetime though.

*New PTU build is up. So Long...

[Kyanion]

I've been playing it since 2014. Hardly a lifetime though.

Still isn't out yet. Maybe by 2024.