Every time I read about this game I wonder who the hell is giving them all this money.
When I was in sales, I was always told "you can't sell it unless you offer it". There exists people who blow $48,000 on stupid stuff daily. What's the harm in offering a product to that very small demographic? Maybe you get lucky and make a $48,000 sale doing literally nothing.
I used to work with a guy who spent several thousand dollars on ships, most of which were scheduled for release 3+ years away from when he gave up the money. I think he still hasn't received some of them yet, but for some reason he keeps preordering even more ships. I would not be surprised if he spent $10k on this game already.
Sounds kind of like gambling to me. Put a lot of money in and maybe get something cool out of it. Thinking of it that way at least makes some sort of sense.
They have a very dedicated flock of whales (the industry term for microtransaction addicts). They know they have them hooked, and they are obviously intent on bleeding those whales dry for everything they own.
I don't care how much I liked a game, if any publisher acted in this way I would never consider touching any of their games. This is absolutely criminal behaviour.
Idiots that will die on a hill defending the game, calling everyone who doubts it a "hater".
Useful idiots to the Star Citizen devs, that's for sure.
I don't think there's many of those people, are you imagining up someone to hate or have genuinely experienced someone like that?
Mandaloregaming did a video on Star Citozen a few years ago that had a lot of discussion on the (bacterial) culture of the community of star citizen at the time. I don't know if it is relevant to the current community, though.
Isn't it time to get some regulations on m(i/a)cro transactions? This seems very illegal to me and it is exploiting people's addictions.
What really is probably illegal at this point is officially calling it all "pledges", i.e. "donations", and calling ships and stuff a "reward for the generous donation".
Dudes, this is literally what a purchase is. If I don't donate, I don't get a ship (or even a base game).
This seems to be a ground to sue the hell out of them.
What's illegal about it? Are they committing some kind of fraud? Is there some threat of harm if people don't buy it (i.e. extortion)? Where exactly is the potential crime?
Yeah, it would be pretty stupid to buy this in general, especially if you can't actually afford it, but being stupid isn't illegal.
Fomo is a form of coercion, and im pretty sure that's a crime in this case. The industry uses underhanded and shady practices to get people to spend money on things that have no intrinsic value.
I can see from your comment that its possible you haven't looked into this very much because you sound like me a few yesrs ago when i didnt see the harm as im not particularly susceptible to the ways they pedal microtransactions/in game purchases.
lol it very obviously is not a crime. It's not even a civil action.
I don't support the whale business model for video games, but the idea that it's somehow a crime is a laughable lack of understanding of the law.
No, fomo is not a form of coercion whatsoever. Here's the legal definition in the federal legal code:
coercion
(2) The term “coercion” means— (A) threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; (B) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or (C) the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process.
So it requires the threat or implied threat of serious harm or abuse of the law against a person.
And no, not looking cool or being at the top of a game isn't "serious harm," you'd be laughed out of the courtroom and perhaps fined for wasting everyone's time if you tried to make that legal argument.
Im not making a legal argument... im making a philosophical one.
The original context of this chain is a legal one:
Isn't it time to get some regulations on m(i/a)cro transactions? This seems very illegal to me and it is exploiting people's addictions.
Yes, you didn't say that, but you responded in that context. I asked "what is illegal about it?" and you directly replied with the note about coercion. To me, that clearly implies you think this is a form of legal coercion, and now you're backpedaling because I showed that's explicitly not true. You're moving the goalposts.
Google tells me "fomo" is probably an acronym for "fear of missing out" (it'd probably help make your points clearer if you didn't obfuscate them behind acronyms the people you're talking might not be familiar with, by the way).
Supposing that's the case... what is there to miss out on in Star Citizen..? Any package above the base ones (which get you the games for about $40) give you absolutely nothing that you can't get in-game (with the arguable exception of a few limited edition ships, which in any case shouldn't offer any in-game advantages and can probably be considered cosmetic)... you're not missing out by not buying them...
What the everloving fuck?
Isn't it what regulations are for?
Plus a lot of micro transactions and all kinds of bullshit like this are targeting the adolescents so at least they should be bound by law that whoever purchases those virtual goods is above 18 at least.
I agree, that part might be illegal because adolescents cannot legally consent (in most cases). So there's a chance there, but my guess is that an adolescent isn't going to be making a $48k MTX purchase (they aren't old enough to legally have debt, and probably not old enough to earn that much).
In general though, I can't think of any law this violates.
Microtransactions in games mainly played by minors should be illegal, yes (and in some countries they are), as they're basically a form of gambling... but people giving CIG money are mostly those who played Wing Commander back in the nineties and want a modern version of that, so there's little risk of kids being involved, at least until the games are properly released (and, even then, they're PC exclusive, and most kids are probably on consoles or mobile devices), at which point as I understand it these ship sales are supposed to stop... and there's nothing micro about them... if I recall correctly the smallest package (which would get you a base ship and the two games) goes for about $40...
I don't think $48k still counts as a "micro" transaction...
Exactly, there's no microtransactions in Star Citizen.
Whatever we call the way it's funded, and regardless of what we think of it, it's not microtransactions.
Lootboxes are gambling.
Buying specific known digital items is a gross business model, but has no resemblance to gambling.
No, but it should still be banned for minors since they're particularly sensitive to peer pressure. They can make decisions for themselves when they're adults.
Exploiting peoples addictions is what literally drives capitalism.
Plus making people pay for essentials by gatekeeping everything behind the owner class
Microtransactions are entering the endgame.
They invented megatransactions.
Macrotransactions
I think the craziest thing for me, if I'm reading this right, is that the pack includes all ships released and concepted. So you're paying for ships that aren't even in the game yet? You just have concept art and the promise that they might be in the game?
Pinky swear bro, we’ll make em
Star Citizen has long history of ship pre-purchases long before release
I didn't even know people still cared about this shit show
Just play Elite Dangerous and be done with this scam already.
Oh yes, Space Truck Simulator 2
I don't get why someone would do that to themselves.
Congratulations you have all the content of an exploration and building game right away. You cannot seek any enjoyment anymore from working towards and achieving anything in the game. You paid for not playing the game.
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