# Star Citizen is the Future of PC Gaming, and it \[was\] Free to Play this week (Edit: No Longer Free) **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528 "2015-10-13T06:29:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/301 "2018-05-17T16:42:20Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Two million [del]suckers[/del] backers](https://screenrant.com/star-citizen-update-2-million-backers/) and still no end in sight. Wow, that article needs kneepads for how much time it spends fellating Roberts. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/302 "2018-05-17T16:52:39Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Dan “Kamikaze” Adams, former lead technical designer, has announced his own space combat sim.](https://www.dsogaming.com/news/former-lead-technical-designer-on-star-citizen-reveals-new-six-degrees-of-freedom-space-combat-game/) Have the rats started jumping ship? Good timing on the bump - this guy’s kickstarter ends in five days. He’s got 27k out of the 40k he was hoping to raise. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2018, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/303 "2018-05-17T17:41:18Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Good timing on the bump - this guy’s kickstarter ends in five days. He’s got 27k out of the 40k he was hoping to raise. So many Kickstarter games have been underwhelming. Mix that with the association with a company that takes money without delivering anything and it doesn’t really surprise me that it would fail to raise the money. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/304 "2018-05-18T00:45:03Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When you stick that much time and money into a project it becomes next to impossible to back out of the deal without looking the fool. The fallacy of sunk costs. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/305 "2018-05-18T01:37:15Z")
You know how when you’re a kid, looking forward to Christmas is better than the actual day? That’s what these guys (Star Citizen investors) are getting. They get that perpetual feeling of Christmas being just around the corner. Even better, they know what they are getting and they know just how awesome it’s going to be! Eventually. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/306 "2018-05-18T13:45:58Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The fallacy of sunk costs. And it’s a fallacy con artists have been using forever. One of the odd things about cons is that the more money you get from the mark, the more you can get. When you hear about some sucker being conned by a Nigerian email scam, for instance, and the news story says they’ve sunk $17,000 into it before their relatives called the cops, you find yourself thinking “Jesus… okay, maybe the first $3,000 payment is honest stupidity, but by the fifth time they coughed up money why weren’t they wise to what was going on?” It’s a valid question but getting wise to what’s going on isn’t the dominant emotion. What takes over a really juicy mark is the emotion of investment. After sinking a lot of money and hope into the con, the mark is so deeply emotionally committed that it’s easier to keep paying and fool themselves into thinking it’s legit than it is to make the decision to admit it was all a terrible mistake and that there is no hope in the enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/307 "2018-05-18T14:51:25Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The fallacy of sunk costs. [Here is an older article about the Sunk Cost Fallacy](https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/) that uses _Farmville_ as a good example…which I can relate to because someone I am close to was a _Farmville_ zombie for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/308 "2018-05-28T15:15:52Z")
[Anyone got thirty grand laying around?](https://www.pcgamer.com/new-star-citizen-ship-pack-unlocks-nearly-every-vessel-in-the-game-for-dollar27000/) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/309 "2018-05-28T15:32:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > [Anyone got thirty grand laying around?](https://www.pcgamer.com/new-star-citizen-ship-pack-unlocks-nearly-every-vessel-in-the-game-for-dollar27000/) Can’t access that site from work-What’s the skinny? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/310 "2018-05-28T15:36:00Z")
It’s a 27k package that gets you most of the ships previously released. But you can’t even look at the store page if you haven’t already spent a grand. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/311 "2018-05-28T15:54:28Z")
Do the True Believers that acquired all those ships the hard way get a refund on the price difference? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/312 "2018-05-28T16:04:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Can’t access that site from work-What’s the skinny? 27000 dollar ship pack that unlocks nearly every ship in the game, you need to have already spent 1000 to even view the purchase page. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/313 "2018-05-28T16:08:52Z")
Do you know how many different new cars are available for $27,000 or less? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/314 "2018-05-28T18:30:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you know how many different new cars are available for $27,000 or less? Yeah but you can’t fly them around in space unless you’re Elon Musk so clearly Star Citizen is a better investment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/315 "2018-05-28T19:36:54Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Do you know how many different new cars are available for $27,000 or less? 27k is gonna get you, what, maybe ten cars if you’re willing to go used and put up with repairs? Chris Roberts will sell you like a hundred **brand new** spaceships for that money. And spaceships are objectively better than cars, so checkmate. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/316 "2018-05-28T19:40:39Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > 27k is gonna get you, what, maybe ten cars if you’re willing to go used and put up with repairs? Chris Roberts will sell you like a hundred **brand new** spaceships for that money. And spaceships are objectively better than cars, so checkmate. My car is fully playable and interactive with hundreds of thousands of other vehicles _now_. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/317 "2018-05-28T20:06:58Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Chris Roberts will sell you like a hundred **brand new** spaceships for that money. Yeah. Some of them so brand new they only exist as concept drawings. I’ve got to admit, there are a few that would make a really neat poster, but my thinking is that there’s more like $2.70 value there. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/318 "2018-05-28T22:16:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > My car is fully playable and interactive with hundreds of thousands of other vehicles _now_. Yeah, but that “real life” game sucks. For one thing, it’s perma-death, which seems extreme for something so expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/319 "2018-05-28T23:06:17Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > Yeah. Some of them so brand new they only exist as concept drawings. I’ve got to admit, there are a few that would make a really neat poster, but my thinking is that there’s more like $2.70 value there. So… pre-new? That’s even better! You can’t afford _not_ to buy them! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528/320 "2018-05-29T00:43:59Z")
You know… Me in 2015: > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Me, I’m happy spending 60 bucks on _No Man’s Sky_, which will likely also be a letdown in comparison to its hype. Me in 2016: > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Well I was right about the letdown bit, but wrong about being happy to spend the money. I haven’t bought the game yet and probably won’t until I can get it for cheaper (or the devs put out some major content updates). Me in 2017: > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > But, unlike how some folks (here and elsewhere) were gleefully cheering on the crash’n’burn of _No Man’s Sky_, I’m not actively hoping for failure. More like I’m expecting it based on what I read. Funnily enough, NMS just announced that fully functional multiplayer is incoming next month. Two years after its staggeringly disastrous launch, they’re still pushing free gameplay/content updates. I never did end up buying it (its core gameplay isn’t my style), but credit to the devs where it’s due. All within the lifespan of a thread about a game that has yet to be released. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-citizen-is-the-future-of-pc-gaming-and-it-was-free-to-play-this-week-edit-no-longer-free/734528.md?page=17)