Having to start from scratch, and with the scope of the project re-adjusted several times, and a project planning that was initially based on guesstimates, its no surprise to see SC in development as long as it is. The fact remains, those minor 'pieces of content' you can play DO contain almost every bit of core mechanics, architecture, infrastructure, and even assets that you will be seeing in the final game.
As a reminder; 4 million for this project was way back when, with a MUCH smaller scope than we have today.
Honestly - in most 'early access' scams I've seen companies started covering their retreat first, by saying 'sorry cant deliver this, sorry cant deliver that'; then they push out a series of completely broken updates, and then they go AWOL. Not one company has merged its funding with its development in the way Star Citizen does it. Yes its novel, and its risky, and above all: it is constantly re-adjusted. Whether or not you find that trustworthy and view this as an artifact of pioneering something, is up to you.
I'll say this: so far I haven't seen a live development process where the backers are actually really taken along for the ride such as this. To call SC a scam is just too easy. For all the work that's being done, this is one pretty damn elaborate scam, a scam that would take more effort to keep up than it would actually making the promised product.
So, conclusion: I think you're wrong, and a little bit uninformed.
So star citizen falling to feature creep is now a good thing?
Roberts was given the money he wanted, but instead of finishing the project, he vastly up-scaled what he wanted to do. Then he was given more money, and up-scaled the project asking for more money. and the cycle repeats itself. Somehow, he always needs more money, even when he has enough to "finish squadron 42", a module that is now 3 years late, a module that was supposedly almost done in 2014, then again almost done in 2016, and then AGAIN was almost done and would be released in 2017, and here we are, with it being late again.
The scope of this project has run away from him, public opinion is beginning to turn on him, and the game is far from done. He has the mechanics done, fantastic, now what about everything else? Mechanics are usually the first part of a game finished, the worlds being built take the longest, and there is little evidence that there is much done outside of what is in the alphas.
There is little novel about star citizen's funding. Selling micro-transactions and DLC for an alpha game was already done, specifically by ark:survival evolved. Continuously raising more crowdfunding was already done, by double-fine. SSC caught the public eye, but as is evidence by the comments, has now worn out it's welcome.
Roberts asked for $4 million, was given over $160 million, delayed the project time and time again, started an entire con, citizen con, for an alpha game, and constantly finds more ways for people to give him money while allowing the scope of the final product to run wildly out of control. He may not be "scamming" people intentionally, or in the traditional sense, but SC is a scam. At this rate, it will never be done, or when it is, it will be a buggy, unfinished mess despite being the most expensive game of all time, and all the effort that money should have bought will be nowhere to be found.
I am hardly "uninformed". I've been watching SC since 2012. It has thrown up huge red flags with it's development, and roberts has shown he has little to no self control with his product (common amongst big name developers, see mighty number 9). The game, frankly, should have been done by now. The feature creep is going to kill it. We've seen other games like this before, games like mighty number 9, that took in massive amounts of funding, vastly increased their scope, got delayed numerous times....and turned out to be complete trash. People come along to defend it and roberts, while conveniently ignoring all the major problems with its development, or as you did, playing them off as good things.
For every DOOM, there are 10 Duke Nukem Forevers. SC is a DNF. Progress has been far too slow for the number of people working on it, funding will be drying up soon (based on the rate roberts was going through money before), and robert only has a basic pre alpha game to show for it. This game has cost more then GTA V or destiny 1 did to develop (GTA V $137 million, Destiny <$140 million), and frankly, nothing shown justifies that kind of expense. I respect the man for trying, but his track record after wing commander was projects that went far over budget and either lost money or broke even while being very disappointing products. SC is following the same path, and I fully expect it to either collapse in pre alpha or take at least another $100 million to finish via additional fundraising.
TL/DR: Chris Roberts is a great example of why publishers still exist. The man can do great things when someone is holding his leash and keeping him in line, but when simply given money and creative freedom, he goes completely off the rails. Anyone expecting game of the decade, game of the year, or even game of the month from star citizen at this point is setting themselves up for disappointment. The project has been completely mismanaged, huge amounts of money have been wasted, and the game is nowhere near finished.
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