We have more information now about Roberts’ new game called Star Citizen. Watch the pitch video where at the end of the trailer, Roberts appears and explains the game.
At first, I was very excited about seeing the AMBITION shown. Roberts wants to make a Wing Commander experience (with co-op multiplayer which actually sounds like it would fit well into Wing Commander since every mission had you go out in pairs) along with a multiplayer online Privateer experience. But I became aware of something…
-Only a prototype of the battlecruiser and a ship had been done. This game is in ‘pitch mode’ with zero development done on it so far.
-This video and trailer is not to sell a game, it is for Chris Roberts asking us for money to complete the game. All he is doing is talking about his ‘vision’.
I have zero respect for any game developer who engages in crowd sourcing. Go to a freaking bank and get a loan you loser. If you want to make a huge game, start by making a smaller game first.
For example, a ‘small game’ would be just a Wing Commander type game with the multiplayer co-op (and maybe some mission design user editor like Wing Commander Academy). That would actually take a significant amount of work. The Privateer and online universe stuff is way beyond him at this point. Besides, if Roberts can’t provide a good basic campaign experience, the other stuff isn’t going to matter either. Trust the way how the market works. The reason why you make small games leading up to big games is for the gamers’ protection as well as the game makers. Make a song before you make the opera.
It’s extremely disappointing that this is nothing more than a crowd sourcing pitch. There is no game. Roberts is just asking for money so he can make the ‘perfect’ game. Screw that. You make the game first, then come and ask us for money. It is obscene to ask the market consumers to shoulder risk like this. Go get actual investors.
Another big reason I strongly dislike these crowdsourcing games is that not only is this game at LEAST two years out (2014), it will discourage other games of the same type from being made. If you want to make a space sim, this non-released game will make it much, much harder to get publisher approval even if Roberts game never comes out.
If you need crowd sourcing to make a video game, then you don’t have the money to make that video game. For someone who was so charmed by Hollywood and abandoned gaming to go play in movies, not even Hollywood movie directors would stoop so low as to use crowdsourcing to make their esteemed movies. Maybe crappy indie movies. But not the big stuff.
“I want to do what I want to do,” implies Roberts. Well, Mr. Roberts, if you didn’t abandon PC gaming to go make garbage movies, gamers might be more receptive to you. But no… You decide to come back, and then insist that you use OUR money to make YOUR game when you are unable, or unwilling, to get publishers or investors to fund you? GET THE $#@%$ OUT OF MY SIGHT!
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