10 Times Video Games Didn't Care What You Think

3: Star Citizen Still Isn’t Out Of Alpha & Sparked Pay-To-Win Controversy

You wouldn’t expect we’d be talking about controversy over pay-to-win mechanics regarding a game that has raised no less than $400 million in crowdfunding over the last nine years. This began with a Kickstarter in 2012 wherein director Chris Roberts outlined his vision for a multiplayer space trading and combat sim. Said vision continued to expand and it had the money to do so but plenty now worry the game has become so ambitious, we may still be half a decade off seeing the final product.

Star Citizen is currently in Alpha so it is technically playable, though as you’d expect that comes with significant technical and balancing issues, and the game is clearly unfinished.

Plenty of players are hanging onto hope and enjoying the Alpha for what it is, but it seems more are realising the game they were promised simply isn’t going to come to fruition. Though there are hundreds of features being added, most aren’t helping flesh out the multiplayer core space combat loop which many bought in for. If this all sounds very No Man’s Sky to you, you’re right on the money as that’s commonly what Star Citizen has been compared to.

To add insult to injury and despite the general unhappiness of current players, developer Cloud Imperium are still selling ships and trying to implement pay-to-win systems.

Two controversial moves involved removing the in-game currency cap and letting players purchase virtual land claims for real world dollars, a feature that had no been implemented in the game yet. This is especially problematic as the initial Kickstarter promised there would be no pay-to-win mechanics included in the game.

In essence, this one is a bit of a mess, and has left plenty of players unhappy and feeling like their gripes are going unheard.