Yeah so surprised with that vaporware scam pinata...

To its credit, Star Citizen is neither vaporware nor a scam.

You can buy access to the game for just $45 USD, and the game is playable to you right now. It regularly receives updates, some minor and some major.

Vaporware is something that never gets released to the public. Like the Coleco Chameleon. Obviously, Star Citizen is playable right now by anyone that buys access to it.

A scam is when someone takes your money under fraudulent pretenses. Star Citizen takes your money for access to a space sim game, which is exactly what you get. Its not a scam, just terribly mismanaged with a very slow development pace.

Star Citizen is a piñata though. Both from games "journalism" (lol) and from Redditors, primarily.

Bro, just 9 more years of development, come on bro, it's just 9 more years, we lost developers but I swear we'll be done soon, it's only 9 more years, bro.

(This comment is gonna age poorly when it's nowhere close to releasing in 9 years and I should've picked a larger number)

Vaporware is something that never gets released to the public.

A scam is when someone takes your money under fraudulent pretenses.

What about this thread of ships that people paid for that still aren't available in game?

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/3/thread/big-issue-ships-bought-12-years-ago-still-not-laun

Some of them have been waiting for TWELVE YEARS

That's fucking vaporware, and a fucking scam.

Honestly I don't think It will take that long. It seems like, based on previously released data and their more recent moves, that they are hemorrhaging a lot of money.

I do not think they have 9 years. They will go out of business long before then. Most likely they will have some kind of product as the "completed 1.0" within the next few years.

that is specific to certain ships, not the game.

I had a friend try to sales pitch me on pre-ordering it back in 2012. I said "I'll just wait for it to release". Still waiting.

Maybe try the playable part out first before you post parroted information as shallow as a puddle after drizzle?

It's real issues are a dumb overdone marketing setup and digital item paywalls that keep getting ridiculously stupid.

It's a race between Star Citizen and Elder Scrolls 6 at this point to see which drops first.

That's the nail in the coffin then. I'm pretty happy that I didn't spend a single cent on this now. And I thought about it a lot

Elder Scrolls 6

Star Citizen is an insane phenomenon to me. It's a good game and a massive fraud at the same time, and one fuels the other.

Let's give credit where credit is due - the game is incredibly immersive. The massive social element, ability to walk and explore things outside your ships and rovers, to customize them, to create all the inventive ways to make money and to prevent hostiles from doing the same is fascinating. It's...believable, immersive, real. No other game has nailed it just so accurately, and I would invite you to experience it by yourself, but...

But once the player's attention is caught, they become a milking cow. You want to develop in game? You have to pay up big time, lest you want all your ships and money go away with an update. They don't go loud about their wipes, and most players face them when they've reached a certain point in the game - at which point they either lose all progress, or start to buy their ships for cash. For, like, hundreds or thousands of dollars per ship.

While this may sound bollocks to someone who haven't played it, but the way it is normalized in the community combined with the element of frustration of losing everything in a universe player now cares about really drives folks to spend massive sums on the game.

Back in the pre-war era, I remember a person from Ukraine (a country with per capita GDP of ~$5000, or 1/16th that of the US) secretly stashing over $1000 to buy a new ship, adding to his ship park of $4000. His family (wife and two kids) haven't been on a good vacation for years, and this amount of money would allow them to do so several times over in the southern Ukraine, but he bought some virtual ships. No, really. He was a clan leader, so he felt like he had to have all the nicest ships at his disposal, and his only grief was that he couldn't afford the $8000 and $21000 ship packs.

The way community psychology works in the game is insane, and I believe a study could be made on how exactly was this all pulled off. Catch with a good premise, and make sure to never let the player go. I'mma be clear - what made me leave the game is not the sudden realization of its predatory practices, but simply the fact my computer started lagging heavily in the new areas, and me not having money to upgrade at the moment. I did consider buying a $400 ship just to have a decent hauler after wipes though, despite myself living in a not-so-rich of a country. Looking back at my Star Citizen experience though, I see how crazy it would be.

So, I'm guessing there is no way to play offline, or any private servers floating around

None that I know of.

It was a planned official feature, but I think it rather touched small battlegrounds and not the main universe.

Unofficially, I haven't seen any in the wild. Besides, the game's economy and mechanics rely on rather very massive multiplayer.

I don't think finishing the game is part of the plan.

Squadron 42 is the single-player counterpart to Star Citizen. It’s supposed to release next year. Star Citizen, however, is far too complex to self-host. The server technology they’ve shown off is incredible, but it’s not a “single server” thing.

I’m hoping that many of these departures are simply because the underlying technology is finally mature and those people want to move on to new challenges, but I don’t really believe that’s true. It’s clear that Chris Roberts own shortcomings as a boss are poisoning the company and it’s once-passionate workers.

Based on the numbers they have released, their expenses are increasing a lot. They could legitimately run out of money.

Haters going to hate and there is a lot to hate about SC. Dont waste your time arguing with a wall that's made up its mind without ever even playing the game.

Not that it will change anyone's view...