WEBVTT

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slow down lightest light slice pull up pull up pull up pull up dude

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pull up we're gonna die this is the end this is your intentional

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one

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star citizen the massively multiplayer space sim game

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from industry legend chris roberts that launched as a crowdfunding campaign way

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back in 2012. nearly nine years and 350

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million dollars later star citizen still has not been released

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sure there's a playable alpha that now has over a hundred beautifully detailed

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ships a solar system with massive fully explorable planets and moons and sci-fi

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cities with top-tier public transit whoa

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but it's still an alpha largely

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unpolished where you're just as likely to successfully land on a planet as you

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are to clip right through it and predicting when or if the full game will

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ever launch is impossible because cloud imperium games the company developing

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star citizen seems to have announced and missed more release dates than techlink

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has had cringy intros which is not much of an accomplishment because all of our

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intros are good they're all they're all pretty good but here's the thing i've

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discovered about star citizen after months of research the question of when

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the game will release might be the least interesting one you

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could ask because as hilariously disappointing as it is that cig thought

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they could have the game out by november 2014

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if things keep on rolling like they have been recently when star citizen actually

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does come out it might be

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the best game ever

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even when we get a full release we're gonna keep improving things keep adding

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things it's all been built on such a foundation of lies that why would i why

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would i believe the new road map or whatever right you know what i mean

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welcome to a new series on TechLinked we're calling tech longer where we take

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a deep dive into the tech and gaming stories that get us thinking and loving

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and hating because if you've heard of star citizen before you're probably one

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of three types of people you're either one a star citizen hater someone who not

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only thinks the game is going to fail but that it deserves to fail if there's

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any justice in this cruel cruel world

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you might be a star citizen lover like yeah cig has made mistakes but if they

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succeed well we got the best game ever on our hands and surely that's worth a

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few thousand dollars and potentially decades of patience

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or three you might be like me someone who remembers star citizen as oh that

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was a kickstarter that sold video game ships for hundreds of dollars right

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did that ever come out i heard it was a scam

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are you buying a ship come on no come on don't buy a ship come on now if you're

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none of those three things that's fine i'm not trying to put you in a box

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i only ask that you don't try to put this game in a box either you see the

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one thing that the haters and super fans can agree on is that there is no other

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game like star citizen and that's true not only because of its uniquely

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convoluted and controversial history but also because of the sheer scale of its

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ambition chris robert's vision for star citizen was initially to build the best

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damn space sim ever but as he told gamers nexus back in 2016 as fans

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continued to back the project and cig grew robert's vision

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expanded instead of using existing tech cig would build new fundamental systems

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from scratch planets ships and other objects would be made of components that

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interact with each other and the game world in a physically consistent way

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creating a super high fidelity simulation of reality itself star

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citizen wouldn't just be the best space sim

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it would be the best everything sim okay chris

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you're telling me you're trying to build a matrix

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yes i asked cig's director of community

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tyler witkin to define this game as cig sees it the official answer i got back

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was star citizen is the most ambitious

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immersive uncompromising universe sim ever it is our attempt at a living

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universe that will ultimately become the metaverse for tens if not hundreds of

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millions of people around the world we want people to be able to escape into

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the verse and never have to come out except for the essentials smiley face

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emoji okay uh so two things people are going

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to find a way to go to the bathroom without leaving their gaming chair and i'm not sure that's healthy uh two a

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universe simulator certainly does sound ambitious

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it also sounds awesome at this point i had no choice to even attempt to grasp

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the scale of this project i had to dive head first into the waters of the buggy

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alpha and experience it for myself i had

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to get my star citizenship

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or at least a travel visa cig regularly holds what they call free fly events

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where star foreigners get to try out a few ships in the game world which is

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known as the persistent universe so i made an account installed the game

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created my character and entered the matrix

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over the course of the next hour i left my character's apartment found a train

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to the spaceport found out the space board hadn't rendered in properly

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restarted the game made it to the spaceport passed through a security

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checkpoint that will in the future send you to prison for carrying contraband

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spawned my fighter almost crashed into some buildings then left the planet's

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atmosphere shot down some pirates attacking a space yacht boarded the

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space yacht and got one shotted by an npc however

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i wasn't even mad enough to blame it on the lag because the scale and complexity

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on display here really hit me the city that i had just left had felt

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massive but it was only one tiny section of an entire planet about half the size

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of earth's real-life moon and i hadn't even jumped to one of the three other

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planets in the alpha or their multiple moons and dozens of space stations

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throughout the system all fully explorable on foot but wait a second

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there's another space game with massive scale and realistic immersive gameplay

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elite dangerous made by frontier it's like the dark mirror image of star

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citizen it also had a kickstarter campaign in 2012 with a full release in

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2014 the same year star citizen was

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supposed to launch oh and it also contains a one-to-one scale simulation

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of the entire milky way galaxy based on real scientific principles and data

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that's 400 billion star systems star citizen has over 120 planned star

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systems but the alpha currently has

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one frontier accomplished this by using the

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opposite strategy as cig release a playable somewhat polished space flight

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sim with pretty basic procedurally generated planets and then add planetary

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landings rovers and more complex gameplay frontier's latest expansion

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odyssey finally lets players head out on foot outside of a ship or rover

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but wait a second that erases one of the main advantages

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that star citizen had overly dangerous

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sort of remember cig isn't trying to create a fun space sim they're building

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the matrix ships and star citizen are built from the ground up with functional

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interiors complete with ship component access panels cargo bays air locks

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elevators turret gunner seats and control stations if your ship has the

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space you can personally place cargo weapons land vehicles even other

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spaceships inside it and have a judo fight in the med bay about who gets to

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keep it all sure elite dangerous may be a fully released game but even in

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odyssey there aren't true ship interiors at all to board your ship you walk onto

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a blue marker pass out and wake up in

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the pilot seat what that's like yeah i know

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now according to cig the reason all that stuff is possible in star citizen and a

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big reason development is taking so long is because of all the proprietary

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technology they've built from scratch the game's built on a version of

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cryengine but it's been modified so heavily if it was a person it would be

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nebula from the marvel movies

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chris roberts thought he could accomplish a very narrow goal but once

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the stretch goals were met they very quickly realized that the stuff that

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they wanted to do actually required technology that didn't exist and would

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require incredible time and investment to get done there's some really good

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coverage from gamer's nexus and digital foundry that gets super technical on

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this but here's just some of the custom tech cig told me that they're working on

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moving from a 32-bit to 64-bit coordinate system to allow solar system

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level scale combined with micro details at ground level planet building that

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combines procedural generation with manual artistry and custom

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particle-based weather dynamic persistence so any changes to the world

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will persist between game sessions meaning you could hide a gun under a

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rock quantum jump to another planet log out and the gun would still be there if

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you came back to get it later they even built a face over ip system that lets

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you use a webcam to control your player's facial expressions did i tell

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you to get up and an entirely new first-person shooter system which was

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definitely necessary even though cryengine was built specifically for FPS

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games you need that

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and that's like maybe a quarter of the custom features that cig even told me

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about the way they tell it all of this work is necessary to create the ultimate

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best damn space metaverse thing ever

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but why are they even trying to do that and more importantly why are they doing

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it this way selling thousand dollar virtual ships to fly in an alpha that

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will crash if you look at it the wrong way instead of shipping something basic

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but polished and adding to it later everyone i asked this question had

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slightly different answers but to me it seems like it all comes back to chris

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roberts i didn't want to focus on roberts in this video and i still don't but i can't

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avoid bringing him up now because so much of what makes star citizen

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whatever star citizen is comes from him but there's already been

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so much published about the man he's the visionary behind wing commander star

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lancer and freelancer he's the game studio executive running the most

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crowd-funded project of all time he's the filmmaker who produced a few okay

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movies with money from an investment fund that exploited a german tax

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loophole before the government closed it in 2006.

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roberts may not be a hollywood prodigy

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but he is a visionary he can make you

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believe in his ambitious ideas and he'll fight to see them through a skill that

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helped him lead developers to create new game engines for multiple titles in

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order to make the experience roberts wanted and the subject of his vision has

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for most of his career centered around a single type of game space-based flight

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combat sims he made a bunch and they were all pretty great clearly crafted by

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a man who loves the idea of pilots crossing the galaxy fighting alien

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empires and hauling cargo but robert's vision was

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limited by two things the graphics power of hardware in the 90s and studio

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investors making unreasonable demands like stick to a budget and release the

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game at some point unbelievable well graphics technology

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advanced and crowdfunding got popular enabling roberts to leave the film

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industry and raise over 6 million dollars from the initial kickstarter

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campaign for star citizen and its single player story mode squadron 42 but turns

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out to everyone's surprise good vibes alone won't build a universe simulator

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star citizen missed virtually every launch date cig set while the studio

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continued to crowdfund designing and selling new virtual ships for tens and

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hundreds and thousands of dollars meanwhile it was expanding hiring

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hundreds of developers opening new studios and paying a-list celebrities to

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do full motion capture for the squadron 42 campaign cig did release the pvp

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arena commander and star marine modules as well as slowly build out the pu alpha

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over the next few years backers were finally getting a little taste of the

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game they had supported but it was all happening at a snail's pace compared to

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the original timeline cig had set and as it tends to do cynicism started to set

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in around 2015 when gaming sites like kotaku polygon and the escapist wrote

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hit pieces roberts weathered attacks over his dictatorial leadership style

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his inefficient use of funds and even nepotism concerning his wife's position

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as vp is marketing from a growing faction of heretics who didn't just want

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their money refunded they wanted star citizen to fall

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like the vanduul seek the destruction of the empire

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the the ali they're the aliens in the game it's bad guys see some of robert's

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greatest successes in game development had come from projects where he pushed

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gaming technology forward now gaming pcs

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had the horsepower to enable a realistic high fidelity space sim so with a

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massive vision and no external pressures from parent companies or publishers why

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wouldn't you shoot for the moon pun intended even if it takes you a

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little longer one star skeptic i talked to a youtuber who goes by binky atx aka

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bucha says that in 2015 he pulled the

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more than ten thousand dollars that he had invested in the game he'd had

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relationships with roberts and cig staff in the early days and he didn't like the

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direction things were heading in his mind in the minds of many others star

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citizen was becoming less of a game in development and more of a money raising

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machine perpetuated by faith in chris roberts and a fan base that didn't want

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to give up on something into which they had already poured so much time and

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money sunk cost fallacy more like sun

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cost galaxy

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that's the title of the youtube series butcha made about star citizen i used it

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here for a cheap laugh i'm sorry now to their credit cig has released company

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financials which show that in 2017 annual income dropped for the first time

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but in 2018 the launch of alpha version 3.0 brought a ton of new features and

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secured more backer support cig also sold a 10 stake in the company to

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billionaire clive calder for 46 million

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keeping the development car running and despite the scathing assaults on star

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citizen over the past few years a sizable portion of the fandom held on

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and actually grew that is one of the most

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confusing aspects about this whole thing especially to me someone who doesn't

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play mmos and has never backed a crowdfunding project in my life cig

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missed deadline after deadline but even

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among those critical of the game i detected at times a faint sense of hope

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that despite its drawn-out over-complicated development star

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citizen will be released star citizen is

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exceedingly unique it was built to be unique we have never seen anything like

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this before i've perhaps describing the inhabitants of

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star citizen's world as either lovers or haters is too simplistic if my twitter

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poll is any indication there may be a good amount of people who either think

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that cig sucks but the game is good or

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that cig is okay but the game sucks though some people also apparently

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thought the game is great and at times cig can be bad at times it wasn't a very

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good poll but for some the whole thing isn't that

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complicated many have held on to their hope since day one that this game would

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be the best thing to happen since the discovery of fire which is kind of wild

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because fire was pretty sick i think this could be the greatest video game

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ever made not necessarily the most fun but in terms of greatness yeah like how

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expansive it is how many systems there are how deep it goes how rich it is all

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that kind of stuff it might just by incredible amounts trump everything

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that came before it to understand this hopeful perspective i talked to

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morphologists a youtuber who covers star citizen and some other space sim games

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play with friends because there there's so many it's kind of a sandbox in some

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ways where you can create so many scenarios independently that cig just

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isn't giving you yet it can make it really really fun like any mmo the true

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value of star citizen is in its community i'd seen videos of players

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manning turrets with their friends to defend their larger ship against

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multiple fighters i'd seen the damar rally an entirely player-driven

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multi-stage day-long race over a planetoid where drivers have to navigate

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desert terrain while avoiding ambush by rogue ships and i'd watched bed banana's

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amazing video where he hatches a daring prison escape by hijacking a rover and

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being dramatically saved by his friend under heavy fire

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i needed the group experience so luke Linus and i hopped aboard morphs

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multi-crew ship and prepared to have our eyes opened i have a cyclone and

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glitched in a chair oh my god i am glitched into the ship

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right now we're about to die yeah why

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because i got caught in the doors oh my god i'm glitched in this chair

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again how do i go fast i can't kill him my

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eyes were opened alright to the fact that this game truly is an alpha after

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trying to meet up in-game for more than an hour a feat that was made even more

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difficult by Linus repeatedly killing himself for giggles i made the mistake

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of logging out in the bed of my ship that apparently triggers a bug that

00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:37.760
prevents you from logging back in until you've reset your character which involves making a request to cig and

00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:42.320
then waiting at least 15 minutes two hours into the stream i was able to join

00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:47.440
the squad let's go do some star wars baby why are

00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:52.480
you setting your icu i got to fly this puppy

00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.480
here i go no don't jump off

00:17:55.120 --> 00:18:02.160
backspace or killing oh i think someone else hit the button as much are you

00:17:59.280 --> 00:18:02.160
messing with the buttons

00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:08.400
Linux we gotta let riley record something more

00:18:06.080 --> 00:18:12.480
than running around a space station wait wait wait wait we need to get the

00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:17.200
ship wow that's way too much work and you killed yourself

00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:21.960
you're happy i'm having much fun have fun grab me your 310 dollars

00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:46.320
on second thought bringing Linus along was a mistake i thought he would have

00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:50.000
some interest in earnestly checking out the game since he and luke actually had

00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:54.679
started a Linus tech tips organization in star citizen and had promised to

00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:58.320
pledge one dollar per member which was

00:18:54.679 --> 00:19:00.559
3061 at the time of writing

00:18:58.320 --> 00:19:05.120
but Linus he's more troll now than man

00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:09.039
but despite Linus's best efforts we got to experience some epic moments that

00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:13.600
could only happen at this level of immersion in star citizen driving a

00:19:11.760 --> 00:19:17.440
rover into the cargo bay of morph ships and taking an elevator up to the bridge

00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:21.200
leaving a space station to discover we were being attacked by an interest-class

00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:25.600
frigate with other players in the server coming to our aid being forced to shoot

00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:29.440
Linus when he got a hold of a gun having impressed charges against me for his

00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:36.680
murder thus giving me criminal status and then dying and waking up in prison

00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:39.200
just like how that happens in real life

00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:44.160
oh my gosh while i was doing time and

00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:48.480
the slammer i got to thinking about everything i had learned about star

00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:54.720
citizen and what a video game even is star citizen it is game development as a

00:19:51.280 --> 00:19:55.760
service this software is in very early

00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:01.760
alpha but the product itself is a full release

00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:07.039
it's not so much about the game as it is about being a part of something great

00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:11.840
for hardcore star citizen fans the game isn't the literal software you run on

00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:16.240
your pc it's the meta game of being involved in development because star

00:20:13.919 --> 00:20:20.400
citizen isn't technically released the game's true fans think of themselves as

00:20:18.159 --> 00:20:24.240
being a part of the development process not consumers of a product there are

00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:28.720
youtube channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers who make weekly

00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:32.559
update videos about nerfs buffs game mechanics and features who talk

00:20:30.320 --> 00:20:36.480
excitedly about underlying server technology for their part cig makes a

00:20:35.120 --> 00:20:41.679
lot of this information available through super in-depth developer interviews on their own youtube channel

00:20:39.760 --> 00:20:45.280
and there's a progress tracker charting what's being worked on at any one time

00:20:43.840 --> 00:20:50.400
as long as they continue with that transparency the true believers could

00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:53.039
keep on believing indefinitely but

00:20:51.360 --> 00:20:57.200
will the rest of us should we believe this game will come

00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:01.200
out because that's really what it comes down to at this point

00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:05.840
belief i mean squadron 42's latest window to release the beta was q3 2020

00:21:03.840 --> 00:21:09.440
and when that came in went chris roberts released a statement saying the game

00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:13.840
will be done when it's done and will not be released by a certain date just to

00:21:11.360 --> 00:21:18.799
make you happy james james isn't here

00:21:15.679 --> 00:21:20.720
andy now this attitude can be seen as an

00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:25.760
uncompromising commitment to one's vision and it is that but it can also be

00:21:23.840 --> 00:21:29.840
seen as disdain for deadlines and honestly a sort of disrespect for the

00:21:27.840 --> 00:21:34.320
people who backed this project thinking they would have something more than an

00:21:31.679 --> 00:21:42.640
alpha nine years in cig still needs after eight nearly nine

00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:45.520
years of development it still needs its

00:21:42.640 --> 00:21:50.720
backers is that right and it brings up the question how long can a crowdfunded

00:21:48.080 --> 00:21:54.320
project ride on its backers goodwill we don't know we're seeing that

00:21:52.320 --> 00:22:00.000
experiment play out right here in real time star citizen is still raising funds

00:21:57.520 --> 00:22:06.559
2020 was their highest funded year somehow in early 2021 they passed 350

00:22:03.919 --> 00:22:12.400
million dollars in funding now a cynical person would see that and say look

00:22:09.760 --> 00:22:17.600
they just want the money but a hopeful person sees that as dedicated fans

00:22:15.600 --> 00:22:21.520
with a lot of expendable income continuing to support a project that

00:22:19.520 --> 00:22:26.159
they really believe in and the thing is no one can really say

00:22:23.360 --> 00:22:29.360
whether their faith is misplaced cig has developed some groundbreaking technology

00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:33.440
so who's to say that they couldn't continue doing that

00:22:31.360 --> 00:22:36.720
the only people who could say are the people making the game but what

00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:41.200
about the people who have been burned along the way their current monetization

00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:46.159
is incredibly predatory that to me immediately sets off alarm bells when

00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:48.080
you can buy 25 000 packages that you can

00:22:46.159 --> 00:22:52.159
only see if you've already spent a thousand dollars that to me immediately

00:22:50.320 --> 00:22:55.919
screams these people are not on the level some people call star citizen a

00:22:53.919 --> 00:23:00.960
scam and i don't think that's accurate even butcher said it's not a scam but

00:22:58.080 --> 00:23:03.360
the fact is people have been scammed by it

00:23:01.679 --> 00:23:07.120
the way that star citizen was originally presented was not as a perpetual alpha

00:23:05.280 --> 00:23:10.720
project with a far off release date more than a decade away

00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:15.200
if there's one thing that i do blame robertson cig for it's giving the

00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:19.679
impression in the past that the full game was going to be released in the

00:23:17.679 --> 00:23:23.039
next couple years it's always the next couple years

00:23:21.760 --> 00:23:28.240
although now people are talking about five to ten years it just what's going

00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:30.559
on i mean hey i get it i started working

00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:34.400
on this video at the start of february the way that star citizen is presented

00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:39.280
now makes it pretty clear that it's a game in active development and there is

00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:42.960
a 30-day refund window so i don't think many people who choose to buy a game

00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:46.720
package today are being misled into thinking they'll definitely get to be

00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:51.039
mark hamill's wingman next year by christmas mark hamill

00:23:49.120 --> 00:23:56.159
he'll be your friend he'll be your buddy yeah dude you can be friends with you

00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:58.159
could fly with mark hamill wow although

00:23:56.159 --> 00:24:01.919
lest you do think that being attacked by frigates is a super common occurrence

00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:06.320
the interest that they spawned when you were on stream has no interior yeah no

00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:10.880
they they spawn they spawn that in for you when we were on a stream the idris

00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:20.880
and then there's the fact that this week cig released a video called what is star

00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:24.480
citizen that definitely makes the game look more polished than it is and and

00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:29.120
hey you know yeah that's exactly what i'm talking about cig that's the

00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:32.559
stop that now if you the viewer are thinking about buying into star citizen

00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:36.880
first off maybe just wait until the first free fly event because they have

00:24:34.080 --> 00:24:40.960
them pretty regularly but if you know what you're getting into and you know

00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:44.559
that it's quite possible this janky alpha experience might be all you ever

00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:48.640
get out of this project 45 bucks for a starter ship

00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:52.559
isn't a horrible price for a pretty cool early access game that could turn into

00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:55.840
something amazing but could also

00:24:54.880 --> 00:25:01.760
not at the end of the day for a backer every

00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:03.520
crowdfunding project is built on hope

00:25:01.760 --> 00:25:07.279
if it wasn't people would wait until the game is finished and released and

00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:10.400
critics give it a score out of 10 and the customer decides to buy the game for

00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:15.360
a reasonable price star citizen is not that it might be the

00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:18.799
longest con in the history of the gaming industry or

00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:23.919
it might be the greatest game ever

00:25:21.679 --> 00:25:27.760
and the greatest compact tool kits ever are made by ifixit that's right we have

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techlinked guys this was a crazy video to make whose idea was this

00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:10.400
but it was super fun and i learned a lot so big thanks to all the people who i

00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:14.159
talked to and were able to give me a big window into this crazy crazy world if

00:26:12.799 --> 00:26:18.400
you want to see more tech longers like this on this channel leave a comment below and if you thought it was dumb and

00:26:17.120 --> 00:26:25.080
you never want to see anything like this ever again also leave a comment i love

00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:25.080
you and all of your thoughts