TheAgent posted:

their YOY graphs for investors are going to look loving INSANE

Agony Aunt posted:

Yes.

Agony Aunt posted:

Near my home we have what is locally termed "the street of wedding shops". Literally a dozen wedding shops all within a hundred meters of each other.

You see the odd person going in to look around. Rarely see anyone buying anything.

Its quite clear they exist mainly for money laundering. Rich man needs to launder his money. Wife wants to play businesswoman. They love the idea of running a wedding shop (beauty salons are also popular for this as well, know of a few). Business makes no real money, but wife doesn't understand any of it anyway or doesn't care, she gets to play businesswoman and drive around in a big SUV. Husband is happy. And customers who do go in, well, they get what they want.

Sarsapariller posted:

fraud

TheAgent posted:

yeah about that oil...

Colostomy Bag posted:

lmao.

My wife loves "Expedition Unknown" with Josh Gates. A show I'm ehh about so it is basically background noise and sometimes I'll watch parts. His latest episodes due do the pandemic take place from his house and he "zooms" guests to talk to.

So last night she plays the latest episode and one of the guests is Richard Garriott. I started laughing after a minute of being incredulous and I tell her "This is quite a sleazy game developer, yada yada with the blood thing."

Her response was "Yeah, I could tell he was sketchy by the fact his shirt was unbuttoned exposing his chest." I mean hell, it looked like an interview for a porn gig.

It is amazing how one can't escape crap like this and how it spills over.

Agony Aunt posted:

Watching Yamiks stream SC right now.

He couldn't get out of bed on his ship. He couldn't commit suicide. Someone came to kill him in his bed.

As he died, they respawned at the station and his body fell through the ship the moment he died, so you saw his body floating out into space (through the ship) after he died.

Quavers posted:

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

You know, I'm a gamer and I don't passionately want SC to fail. Its not like I don't want a great game to play. I don't like CR - I find him to be a liar, wholly dishonest, having narcissistic tendencies, an incompetent micromanager manger, a prolific excuse maker, a predatory money grubber. CIG I find is a broad reflection of all these traits, so I don't like them either. But when I or others criticize CR and CIG it doesn't mean I want a game to fail. If anything, its because I want the game to succeed - "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy."

However, there is some part of our psyche wherein the concept of justice dwells, and that concept longs for what we consider to be morally right to prosper and what is morally wrong to fail. In that case, it would be easy to understand why people with CR/CIG/SC to fail - it is because they got to where they got through what we can consider to be lies, deception, manipulation, double talk, and predatory practices - and since we all have the concept of right/wrong within us, and CR/CIG has done what is "wrong" by many of us, it is easy to understand why many would want it to "fail."

There you go, random game article writer for a random website, the thesis for your next article. I'll take my commission now, thanks.

Hav posted:

I think I wandered into one of those in Germany once. Worst pizza ever.

OTOH; https://insidetonight.com/mafia-ran-pizza-shop-ends-up-making-as-much-money-as-their-drug-selling/

Why Do So Many Gamers Passionalety Want Star Citizen To Fail author posted:

"Why do gamers want Epic Games Store to fail? Or EA? Or Activision Blizzard?"

That's an interesting comparison. I did a search and found an anti-Electronic Arts subreddit. It has... all of 16 subscribers. Even though EA has customers in the tens of millions.

One of Star Citizen's hate subreddits has... nearly 6,000 subscribers. Even though Star Citizen has customers in the low-mid six figures.

Agony Aunt posted:

Yes, i'd like a speedball pizza. Go easy on the mushrooms.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

To add my chip to the "who could the potential identify of the money launderers be?" table, I'll place my bets on terrorists. They have used video games for a number of purposes in the best, and the scale seems about right. Hezbollah in particular has been known to get up to these sort of things.

quote:

quote:

For one, in software development, big scopes sometimes means nothing comes of the project at all, ever. Thus, fear of failure is different from impatience.

Yeah, fear of failure is different from impatience. Both are the problem of the observer NOT the developer! The observer needs to fix themselves, NOT the developer fix something to suit the fearful/impatient observer!

quote:

Also CIGs focus on making money shows in priorities such as promising grand things while severely underestimating the work it takes to get there, as shown with promises and dates that were unrealistic.

So because CIG promises grand things, shoots for the moon so to speak, you've connected the dots and concluded that means they're focused on making money?

Promise big deliver small, rake in cash in the meantime. I mean, sure that's one possible explanation. But you're telling a narrative the way you want to paint the story. You're not telling the reality. The reality is very simple: they are aiming very high and naturally that makes it EXTREMELY CHALLENGING to succeed! And what is worse, the way you're looking at it is greed, but the reality is they need funding to build their game. You know what they're doing with those millions they've been making in years past? They hired TONS of new employees and expanded into multiple studios around the world!

Greed would be staying small and promising ever bigger things and delivering very, very little of it. As little as possible. That's not what is happening here. The game is being built. We see it. We can play a lot of it. The patches come out periodically and while some content gets pushed back they still continue to deliver it at an accelerating pace.

You're telling a story and the reality is not the same.

quote:

Backers invest money and time in this project. If it fails, it'll be years of your life "wasted" when it could have gone into some other project that succeeded. It literally affects you, simple as that.

What JP_HACK was trying to say (I believe) is that you won't affect CIG's process by sticking around and being stressed out over things that you can't do anything about. CIG is going to push forward making their game, and they're doing it the best way they can, and sitting here being impatient/fearful is only causing you distress.

I'll add that in my opinion the negativity that is ever present as part of this community is not entirely the fault of trolls and haters. It is also those who fear failure and who are impatient who stick around instead of taking a break and coming back with fresh eyes and excitement for what CIG has been up to in their absence.

Of course if the project fails it will hit many of us hard. But being afraid of something happening to a project you support is not a good excuse for harming the community that also supports it. Worse, its focusing on and being overwhelmed by your fears or impatience is not healthy.

Especially when that fear is unfounded.

TheAgent posted:

like this year they are now projected to hit $100+ million in revenue, according to the tracker

that's more than double any other funding year, ever

this month will be there best month of funding ever, more than any citizen con or anniversary sale or aerospace expo month

in fact, at their current projected trajectory, they will hit last years funding ($48m~ or so) by July this year

and last years funding was a record setting increase of nearly 25% from the previous year

their YOY graphs for investors are going to look loving INSANE

sebmojo posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFw5gamFRKI

r/starcitizen: Matt Coleville has a pretty refreshing take about online culture and the perception of Star Citizen posted:

https://clips.twitch.tv/SpookyAttractiveKimchiYee

quote:

quote:

Thanks for succinctly expressing something that has been bothering me about nerd culture for a very long time, let alone the Star Citizen community.

Somehow this sub is toxic because some people here had the audacity to disagree with the same toxic whinging that has been repeated ad nauseam. There's this double standard here where it's okay to act toxic and irrational and angry if you're criticising, but it's not okay to disagree with that criticism. Often those who disagree are accused of "shutting down my criticism" and dismissed as a white knight/cultist/zealot/shill/etc. But criticism is not immune to counter-criticism.

It frustrates me when people call this sub one of the most toxic subs on Reddit because of that; how somehow not being constantly negative about something as subjective as entertainment is a bad thing. Meanwhile there are subs like r/destinythegame that are constantly negative and toxic to the point where some thought it would be best to just abandon it sub and spin off r/lowsodiumdestiny so people could talk about the game that they like playing.

It's surprising to me how many people thought the point made in this comic was one sided.

And the admins support the view that "We don't want an echo chamber".

Its not an excuse to try and balance the perspectives. It just leads to the loud hateful few having more of a platform than they should, in a fan subreddit no less. It sickens me. There's a reason I unsubbed here a while back and only drop in when I am consciously thinking about it.

quote:

The wise players will use that time to network and set up future missions, to read system or even galaxy wide news reports, or for those more entertainment minded watch racing events, or observe some matches of Star Marine or Theaters of War.

In theory if you manage an org or are part of one, the downtime will be negligible anyway as there will be things you can participate in remotely.

And I mean, tabbing out to read reddit is a thing in the real world, the hell wouldn't it be in this virtual one as well?

quote:

People see what they want. They'll find a way to support their arguments rather than see things from the perspective of others, even if its easily done. Changing opinion? Who has ever heard of such a thing!

As a fan of the project I see a lot of successes. I can't ignore those. But am I ignoring some of their failures? Certainly. Thing is, though, if I stop and take a hard look, in the end CIG is still pushing forward and its not stopping. So to take a negative view of it is just harmful, its silly. Even if there are problems, they're being overcome.

Its like if you look at Tesla haters these days, and they think Elon Musk is borderline a criminal and his company is doomed to fail and so on... but they're ignoring SO MUCH to arrive there, its absurd. Yes, there are problems. Yes, its not flawless. But how on Earth are they able to justify such an extreme in the opposite direction?

Lately both CIG and Tesla have been gaining more support and losing more haters and naysayers, because its impossible to deny the progress. They're turning people. And that's fantastic, and vindicating for us fans and supporters who are dismissive of the negative arguments.

TheBombPhilosopher posted:

You know, I'm a gamer and I don't passionately want SC to fail. Its not like I don't want a great game to play. I don't like CR - I find him to be a liar, wholly dishonest, having narcissistic tendencies, an incompetent micromanager manger, a prolific excuse maker, a predatory money grubber. CIG I find is a broad reflection of all these traits, so I don't like them either. But when I or others criticize CR and CIG it doesn't mean I want a game to fail. If anything, its because I want the game to succeed - "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy."

However, there is some part of our psyche wherein the concept of justice dwells, and that concept longs for what we consider to be morally right to prosper and what is morally wrong to fail. In that case, it would be easy to understand why people with CR/CIG/SC to fail - it is because they got to where they got through what we can consider to be lies, deception, manipulation, double talk, and predatory practices - and since we all have the concept of right/wrong within us, and CR/CIG has done what is "wrong" by many of us, it is easy to understand why many would want it to "fail."

There you go, random game article writer for a random website, the thesis for your next article. I'll take my commission now, thanks.

Quavers posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xe74XKwrM

Quavers posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xe74XKwrM

Quavers posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xe74XKwrM

sebmojo posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFw5gamFRKI

Bootcha posted:

While I have no doubt someone or someones are taking advantage of the grey liquidity of Star Citizen's ship pricing, I don't think it covers any more than 20% of monthly funding.

I think CIG itself is doing something to slush other funding through the tracker. They don't have to report earnings and whatnot the same strict-ish way a publicly traded company has to.

Credit, debt, assets. All those things could be cited as "incoming capital".

But it begs the reason why the gently caress would they do that, when they haven't needed to do it to such an extent before?

There's smoke.

TheAgent posted:

*plays ten minutes of 3.9*

Quavers posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xe74XKwrM

Quavers posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xe74XKwrM

reddit posted:

TLDR:
Salvage isn't coming anytime soon.

quote:

Makes you wonder how they kept putting it in the roadmap when they didn't even have the base design docs for one of the several prerequisite systems that is required for work to even start on salvage.

Bootcha posted:

There's smoke.

Bootcha posted:

While I have no doubt someone or someones are taking advantage of the grey liquidity of Star Citizen's ship pricing, I don't think it covers any more than 20% of monthly funding.

I think CIG itself is doing something to slush other funding through the tracker. They don't have to report earnings and whatnot the same strict-ish way a publicly traded company has to.

Credit, debt, assets. All those things could be cited as "incoming capital".

But it begs the reason why the gently caress would they do that, when they haven't needed to do it to such an extent before?

There's smoke.

quote:

What are the prerequisites for salvage? (3:45)

Hull Scraping - Damage Tech and some persistence

Component Retrieval - Physicialised ship systems and items

Maw - How ships will be broken down and crunched

Siphoning - Room system needs to be working correctly, so things can be pulled in/out of rooms (e.g. Oxygen), life support needs to be working the way they want to.

quote:

How far along are physicalized vehicle components? (7:54)

Props team has already been working on the models for the vehicle components (you can already see them in some shops)

Hav posted:

Worse, artichokes.

Seriously, whoever thought that was a good idea was on dr....

ooohhhhhhhhh


A bunch of people started freelancing in 2015 or so because a bunch of the mediterranean states started shopping around discrete banking and financial services. There's a point where state/private industry merge, and it usually starts with organized crime.

Bootcha posted:

But it begs the reason why the gently caress would they do that, when they haven't needed to do it to such an extent before?

There's smoke.

colonelwest posted:

Yeah, that’s my take as well. There’s something going on behind the scenes, the ever more pathetic pace of development and the breakdown of what little communication they still had with the backers are red flags.

Mr. Sunshine posted:

That sounds hilarious. Do we have a thread about it?

Bofast posted:

Fun sidenote: artichokes seem to contain a compound called cynarin that blocks the taste receptors for sweetness. The lack of stimuli means that once they get unblocked the brain is more sensitive to sweetness for a moment, so if you eat something with a lot of artichokes and then wash the cynarin away by drinking plain water the water will seem sweet to you

I guess it's similar to how some Citizens have had their brains bereft of videogame stimuli for so many years, they mistakenly think Star Citizen is actually a game.

Bootcha posted:

While I have no doubt someone or someones are taking advantage of the grey liquidity of Star Citizen's ship pricing, I don't think it covers any more than 20% of monthly funding.

I think CIG itself is doing something to slush other funding through the tracker. They don't have to report earnings and whatnot the same strict-ish way a publicly traded company has to.

Credit, debt, assets. All those things could be cited as "incoming capital".

But it begs the reason why the gently caress would they do that, when they haven't needed to do it to such an extent before?

There's smoke.

quote:

All the answers given up to now suggesting S42 is a slightly branching mission based single player game like other AAA games not connected to the multi-player part are completely wrong.

In the Star Citizen universe (the PU) your progress depends upon your reputation and your status. Squadron 42 takes place in the same game universe as Star Citizen only roughly 100 years earlier (people live to an average age of 150yrs in Star Citizen). The plan is for you to have a military career then retire to the PU.

There are 4 types of individuals in the PU:

1. Citizens
   
2. Civilians
   
3. Criminals
   
4. Military/Ex-military

If you enter the PU and create a character that has not come from S42 you will enter as a Civilian. Civilians cannot vote. There will be places, equipment and databases that Civilians cannot access and because of this there are types of work that Civilians can't undertake - won't be offered.

You can either work for Citizenship, buy Citizenship or get Citizenship granted by joining the military - Service Guarantees Citizenship. The ONLY way to join the military is to start S42 and take that character into the PU.

You can become a Citizen in the PU without starting Squadron 42 but you can never become Ex-military without starting S42. There are also social classes within the PU. The super rich, the workers and the poor. Chairmans Club members are the top 1% elite they are comprised of industrialists, millionaires, the famous - for example Jax McCleary there will be other famous characters in the PU - some you will recognize. There are the politicians, diplomats, the Advocacy (police / justice system), the senior military .

When you start Squadron 42 you 'join up'. You will have basic training, you will get your pilots license. As you progress through Squadron 42 you will receive more training and have access to more sophisticated equipment and secret databases. You will gain security clearances to access areas that are restricted. This is how you gain the right to own and operate the F8C Lightning for example, which non-ex-military will not be able to do unless they are of the elite class.

Squadron 42 cannot be multi-player because you will have to make choices during your time in service, these choices will be recorded on your military service log - they have to be your choice alone. You will be able to replay the combat sections of Squadron 42 in the in-game simulator Arena Commander, and that can be multi-player because it does not affect your military service log. There are no 'jump back in time' replays in Squadron 42.

The choices you have to make will not be easy choices. Once you have made a choice you CANNOT go back and try a different choice with that same character. If you wish to make a different choice you will have to start Squadron 42 all over again with a new character. You are not buying a game.. you are buying the right to create a unique character, with it's own personality and history in the Star Citizen universe.

At the end of your military service you will retire to the PU, (if you choose to take your character to the PU) you take everything with that character - your accrued military pay for example, service medals or any objects, nik-naks, mementos and confiscated equipment you managed to bag during your service. Some things you will ONLY be able to get in Squadron 42. NPC's and other players will have access to parts of your military log since it forms part of your reputation in the PU. You ARE the famous war hero after all.

Some factions in the PU do not like the UEE and consider the UEE military the jackboot of the oppressors - Remember Anthony Tanaka! They will hate you. There may even be NPC's who come to hunt you down because of what you did in the military. Watch the Squadron 42 vertical slice, those NPC slavers and mercenaries have families an friends in the PU. The OMC will exist in the PU, or ex-members of the OMC will know it was you who destroyed their livelihoods.

Let's take an example, I don't know it will be this way for this particular part, I'm making an example. During the vertical slice mission you see that our character walks past slaves in cryostasis pods, he goes to rescue Advocate Trejo. Suppose the game now gives him a choice. The slavers sabotage the power supply to the cryopods and try to escape. What will you do? Stay and save the slaves letting the criminals escape, or let the slaves die and chase after the bad guys as you were ordered? It doesn't matter to the main campaign if they escape, these criminals are a side mission.

Some time in the future in the PU you are sent on a secret mission by the UEE because you have security clearances and they need a 'quiet job doing' by an ex-military type. You get discovered by a guard. That guard had a daughter, she was a slave in one of the cryopods. He knows who you are. Will he help the guy that saved his little girl, or will he turn in the glory hunter who didn't care about innocent lives?

Anyone who doesn't play Squadron 42 will have a very different experience of the Star Citizen universe compared to those that do join up. Each play-through of Squadron 42 is a unique character with their own choices, from day one until you die. Squadron 42 and Star Citizen are nothing like any game that has come before, the single player and multi-player take place in the SAME living breathing universe. It is not cut-scene to mission to cut-scene experience. You will live aboard your ship in real game time the universe will go on around you - You will be able to watch it on the Spectrum. You will have time off, you will have shore leave to go visit places and do shopping. You will have your own home in Squadron 42. You will have relationships with NPC's.

Chris Roberts is planning to give you the 'Feels' big time. This is NOT Call of Duty in space. This is his magnum opus, his last swan song the thing he will forever be remembered for and he has no excuses this time. No corporate types are leaning on him, he has a completely free hand and virtually unlimited funds.

Mirificus posted:

No corporate types are leaning on him, he has a completely free hand and virtually unlimited funds.