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The Saga of Star Citizen and Chris Roberts. Part 1
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/58639571 > One of my favorite hobbies is following a game development project called Star Citizen. > Why would this be interesting, I don't care about some Vidya games you ask? Let me paint the complete picture of this exhilarating decades long saga. > > **You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.** > > To understand the full picture we must go back 30 years ago to the year 1990 when nerds of all continents stared at the little screens of their eye destroying cathode-ray monitors frantically shooting enemy ships in a game called *Wing Commander*. > This was the Mecca of your dads and various weird uncles that turned out to diddle little children in community kindergartens. > > This space flight title released on MS DOS in the good old days before anyone had heard of COVID or Kanye West. It has garnered much praise and attention from the so-called video game critics. Awarded by them titles such as "1991 Game of the Year" "nr 7 best PC game of all time" > In fact it was so good that EA released a port to PSP in 2006 and even to PCs in 2011, 30 years later. > Suffice to say there's probably still a gigantic cult around this game even if half of original players died already from the old age or marriage arguments. > > The maker - Chris Roberts, at the time working for a game company named Origin Systems - creators of *Ultima* series, followed up with *Wing Commander II* and *Strike Commander* in 1993 which were also successful. *Wing Commander III and IV* solidified his position as an immortal God of the space nerds. > > In 1996 he left origin and founded his own studio together with his brother because in short - big publishers were limiting his creative freedom. > > For some reason the first project of a new studio was not a game but a *movie* that took 25 million 1999s dollars of that sweet founding cash and probably loans. Great plan, you can see the first glimpse of cunning genius that is Chris Roberts. > > The 1999 movie turned out to have zero redeeming qualities and was widely considered a 3/10. Main reasons were: bad casting choices, terrible special effects, uninspiring plot and ameteurish, unexperienced direction. In other words pretty good for your first movie ever but maybe start with 20 dollars? > > Desperated to keep things afloat he decided to quickly release a game Starlancer in 2000 with his old and tried formula but it was a new millennium. People, tech moved on and everyone already done better and more interesting things. > It wasn't a commercial success that Digital Anvil badly needed. > > Shrewdly Microsoft said hello and [bought](https://news.microsoft.com/2000/12/05/microsoft-to-acquire-digital-anvil/) the barely surviving studio for some pocket change in 2000. This is very important in the context of the next game from Digital Anvil. > > Chris Roberts had a very ambitious plans. A space trading and combat video game - *Freelancer*. In fact so ambitious that the game wasn't any close to materializing or feasible for year, second one... third... It was considered a vaporware. > At a point Microsoft came to the rescue and booted him out of the project completely. > The game was able to release in 2003 although in very different, limited scope than crazy plans of Chris Roberts. It was a success nevertheless, known for its gorgeous graphics and art style. > > Let me briefly describe the substantially cut version features versus Chris Roberts vision: > > | **Feature** | **Final Freelancer (2003)** | **Chris Roberts’ Original Vision** | > |-----------------------------|----------------------------|------------------------------------| > | **Universe Simulation** | Mostly static, scripted NPC behaviors | Fully dynamic, AI-driven world where factions trade, fight, and evolve | > | **Space-to-Planet Transition** | Pre-rendered cutscenes for docking | Real-time, seamless landings on planets | > | **Flight Controls** | Mouse-based, arcade-style combat | Joystick-based, more realistic space sim | > | **Economy** | Partially dynamic with fixed trade routes | Fully dynamic economy affected by player actions | > | **Ship Customization** | Limited upgrades to a single ship | Deep ship customization and ability to own multiple ships | > | **Multiplayer** | Server-based multiplayer with limited persistence | Large-scale persistent online universe (proto-MMO) | > | **Graphics & Engine** | Good for the time, but somewhat dated due to delays | Cutting-edge visuals with procedural planet generation | > | **Story & Campaign** | Linear single-player story with side activities | More open-ended story with player-driven choices | > | **Faction Interaction** | Reputation system but largely static faction wars | Factions dynamically evolving based on player and AI actions | > | **Player-Owned Assets** | No stations or fleets, just personal ship upgrades | Ability to build and own stations, fleets, and influence the world | > > *As you can see the og scope was several times that of an 2018 X4 Foundations and lovely words 'MMO' also appear.* > > Meanwhile, Chris Roberts dissatisfied, quit the company altogether. In his mind sown the alluring seeds of Freelancer gargantuan full version. > > After leaving he founded another company that aimed to produce films, shows and games. However 0 projects ever came out of it. > Zero. Null. Nada. > > That 'success' somehow prompted him to make another company - Ascendant Pictures this time entirely *MOVIE* publishing. What's going on with this guy and movies? Anyway, It funded 8 Hollywood movies one of them Lord of War. *nice* > But... they were almost entirely financed by a loophole in the German tax laws that was closed in 2006. 💀 > After germans fixed their law Roberts' activities as a film producer ended as the funds raised by his controversial financing scheme depleted. Pay attention to *financing scheme*. > It was even sued by Kevin Costner in 2005. I would very much like for a Kevin Costner to sue me 🥵 > > Anyhow, the business was eventually acquired in 2010 by Bigfoot Entertainment > a small production company from Philippines. > > Roberts getting a taste of tax avoidance and funding schemes hired a world renowned entertainment media attorney and in 2011 founded a company named Cloud Imperium Games together with his wife Sandi Gardiner - an actress (There's a funny side drama to her involving attempt to strangle Chris Roberts and some kids stalking). Nicknamed Strangli. > > In October 2012 Cloud Imperium Games launched a crowdfunding schem... I mean project that was essentially Roberts long unrealized dream of full version of Freelancer that Microsoft cruelly demanded him to release, on time. > > Wing Commander and Freelancer had a cult following and there were tons of sucker... I mean players who wanted to see what happens if you let an ambitious middle aged man that haven't released a single game since 2000 do whatever. > This amounted to 800 million dollars financial schem... Ahem crowdfunding as we speak. > > Roberts discovered a gold mine. > > To be continued...
fedilink

One perceives that which they don’t understand as stupid but they have perfectly good reasons for status quo and none of them involve the benefit of the common folk


Don’t mention it. I am a natural beacon of wholesomeness, always ready to help


No because my wallet hasn’t tasted the sweetness of money in weeks.

I shall make my own sales, in time.

Also I am not a patient gamer because I wait until a price drop. I am a patient gamer because new AAA games are fucking shit.


Gaming never truly recovered after the 2003 late golden age and 2006 fall when the first microtransaction released. Sims 2, kotor, Jedi outcast, fable, dark messiah, command conquer, wh40k dawn of war, battle for middle earth, morrowind, fallout 2, icewind, baldurs, system shock, tw medieval 2, cod 2, neverwinter, half life, gta sa, civ 4, aoe 2- most are still better than modern equivalents except graphics and QoL

The rare brief time when the big money flowed and fuelled innovation instead of playing it safe and stale. Almost everything today is just a rehash of that era with slapped microtransactions on top


Thousands would board the ships again. The stability of steam is a huge reason why I often buy games


It’s pretty fun, interesting times ahead. I wonder what kind of bullshit will take place and can’t wait to see that lol. Between all the climate, ai, warmongering future won’t be boring guys that is certain. Unpack your popcorn


Fuck climate let’s put useless AI everywhere at the small cost of 100 ppm co2

Maybe nowadays we should use ppm co2 equiv instead of money whenever we do some investments



There is some truth to what you say but the game is more than a sum of its parts. Even though individual strokes of game dev brush may be not perfect the whole package as of today creates memorable, even unforgettable experience.



I played it quite recently I think the community has solved that problem, even online iirc it worked. Don’t remember the links though. It’s still fun and a good escape when warhammer gets stale.

I do remember it was bashed for drm on release though. I also remember these things called no-dvd cracks you pulled form the shady websites with disgusting porn ads to not have to have the disc in your drive at all times. Also avast antivirus shenanigans. I wouldn’t say it was good old times but it all had certain flavour though I probably wouldn’t want to go back in time haha.

Gaming is generally in an amazing place now with an exception of few things lost along the way one of which is aaa RTS and another early Bethesda rpg genre, they totally changed their games starting with oblivion.


Battle for Middle Earth was my favourite game ever probably or at least among top 3. Honestly between the 4x warhammer total war and rts bfme I think bfme was slightly more fun.

It’s a real shame the genre is so forgotten.

RTS is more organic genre without incessant thinking about numbers and save scumming while 4x always feels like Math.

Every game session of RTS game is slightly different even with the same map and enemy parameters providing for a way more replayability value and unpredictable chaos that you need to manage in real time. It’s much more engaging this way.

It’s still about numbers under the hood but more organic while 4x feels like an excel spreadsheet sometimes. There are less solutions to victory, sometimes even only one proper, predetermined before playing and that’s boring.

Another gem was Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. They made 2 sequels but none captured the gameplay of the first one. For some unknown reason they scrapped everything what made the original good in the second game, making it completely different. The third one was an attempt to go back to the mechanics of the first one but it was mediocre.


I guess I compare it more with games like Elder Scrolls Online that are so ugly and without physics that they are unplayable to me. Valheim also barely makes it fidelity wise so fo76 looking this good and having physics and stuff and everything from a singleplayer game was a shock.

It is genius level of game dev. You don’t even feel it is online most of the time, no lags and such. There are some bugs it is Bethesda after all but overall wow. Why can’t all online games be like this?

Not to mention it has the best open map since frikin elder scrolls morrowind. It feels like the same person designed the map with ash region and stuff.

Now, if they improved it with some sandbox type economy a la eve online that would be shared between all instances and some kind of control territory map also shared between instances connected to camps… there is huge potential here. I want a fallout game with elements from Star Wars Galaxies while still preserving fidelity on the level of a single player game.

There is another project that tries to achieve something in that direction since 12 years and 700 milion dollars called Star Citizen but it’s been a real mess with few redeeming qualities if any.



Fo76 looks amazing on max settings and nvidia upscaling. It still has ugly elements but overall I made so many screenshots the only other game I made this many screenshots is modded Skyrim.

I will link one later actually to demonstrate it