IceTruckKilla posted an interesting rant on Reddit earlier. The full thread is available at https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/50vurw/we_cant_all_be_pirates/, but to whet your appetite here is the initial article:
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We can't all be Pirates
Submitted by IceTrucKilla
This is a rant. Fasten your seatbelts.
My biggest fears about this game are starting to come true. They're not the fears Polygon, or my skeptical friend Matt, would have you believe; that this game is some big cash grab scam.
My fear is that this game is going to get popular. Too popular.
The problem is that this game is starting to come together. The problem is that it's starting to look REALLY good. The problem is the realization that Star Citizen isn't going anywhere is finally dawning upon all those who were desperately hoping to watch the largest crowd-funded project in history crash and burn. The problem is the more it grows the more people come out of the woodwork to "see what the fuss is about". And there in lies my fear.
Call them Griefers. Call them Trolls. Call them casuals. Call them whatever you like. The masses are coming. And when they get here it's going to get ugly. The people who made the The Division's Dark Zone unplayable. The ones who flew around in Hydras blowing up anyone that moved in GTA Online. We all know who I'm talking about.
This guy.
I'll give you a perfect example from a personal encounter which occurred just this past evening. After the 3.0 demo video I, like I'm sure many of you, finally convinced and enlisted my aforementioned skeptical friend Matt. He in turn enlisted his friend Brian to join the 'Verse. Brian was immediately completely on board with Star Citizen. After only two days of playing he'd liked it so much he decided to invest in a Cutlass Black. After one more day he decided to go all in and purchase a Connie A. Last night Brian and Matt were on board his Cutlass and while they were leaving from a Comm array an outlaw jumped in the airlock. A gunfight ensued and Brian dispatched his stowaway, causing him to become an outlaw. I have no problem with any of this. Zero. People can board your ship without your consent and your actions have consequences. This is the game.
Brian and Matt attempted to remove Brian's outlaw status by visiting Kareah to use the computer. They were met with resistance and their ship was blown up. Again, I have no problem with any of this. They added this dynamic between outlaws and bounty hunters to promote unscripted dogfights and a sense of realism and consequence.
My issue lies in what happened next. After spawning alone at Grim Hex, Brian spent the next hour and a half watching every ship he attempted to spawn get immediately destroyed by a cadre a ships hovering over the landing pads. The chat window let me know there was, literally, no reason for this behavior other than people thinking it was funny to blow up ships. This is a big problem for me.
This game is in rare territory due to the crowd-funded nature and the cost of some of the in game content. I'm not in any way railing against the costs of ships. I've explained to more people than I can count that a ship in this game is the equivalent of getting a tote bag when you donate to NPR. However, the bottom line is that some people have spent A LOT of money to use those ships. Those people spent A LOT of money so the rest of only had to spend $45. Let's let them at least get their ship off the launch platform before opening fire.
I'm an adult. I've grown up playing video games. I played Batman on my Commodore 64. I flew as Star Fox on my N64. I've watched as the industry went from pixel count to polygon count to server count. To me, the most exciting part of video games has always been the advancements in scale and fidelity. I know there are those who feel story and feeling are most important and for them the pinnacle of video games was The Legend of Zelda. Which is fine. To each their own. However for me, games like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim show how far the technology, and the industry for that matter, has come.
So here I am, an adult who now has access to the most highly detailed, expertly crafted space adventure game ever made and I'm going to be griefed out by some nitwit who thinks it's funny to be annoying? I don't think so.
The Universe Chris Roberts envisions is a self-sustaining world where all types of people can do all types of jobs and pave their own path through the stars. A Universe where a player can be either a trader or a smuggler, a racer or a hauler, a bounty hunter or a pirate. The dream is to have all types or people which creates a rich and nuanced universe. When everyone is a pirate, this is destroyed. When everyone is a pirate, no one wants to take a chance being a trader for fear of knowing, not there being a chance of but knowing, they will get robbed. When everyone is a pirate, no one is.
If you've stuck with me through this ridiculous, endless rant then you see what I see. You feel as I feel. You seek as I seek. Let's not let our Universe get lost to the pirates. Let's grief the griefers. This is a call to arms. If you see someone call out for help because they are being pinned down by a group of trolls, help. Let's make it so bad for the trolls they have no other choice but to crawl back to the Dark Zone.
See you around the 'Verse.
End of rant.
tl;dr: When everyone is a pirate, no one is.
Edit: Jesus Christ! This has now become the most productive thing I've ever done at work. I'll be honest, I don't know what to do with the Gold, but thank you. I made it to my own front page! That's pretty awesome!
Clearly, I've struck a nerve so let me please clarify a few things. First off, Brian WAS clever enough to spawn a smaller ship out of sight of the campers and get out of the situation. So can it with all the GiT GuD or GTFO nonsense. You're most likely the assholes to which I'm referring.
Secondly, as I mentioned in my OP (as clear as a punch in the fucking face). You know what?...let me stop here for a second. I went out of my way to over-explain the fact that I had no problem with the game itself rather, the players and STILL some of you gave me shit for whining to Chris to fix it...waah... Fuck you. I have NO problem with any of the game mechanics that put my friend in the situation he was in! My issue is that of gaming culture. I think this schadenfreude bullshit is the worst part of gaming. It's bullshit and it shouldn't be tolerated BY THE COMMUNITY in any game! Trolling is society's problem, not CIG's.
Edit 2: I didn't mean to give Pirates a bad name. Some of them are lovely people. I suppose outlaw would have been more apt? What I really meant was if everyone's an asshole, no one has fun.
---
We can't all be Pirates
Submitted by IceTrucKilla
This is a rant. Fasten your seatbelts.
My biggest fears about this game are starting to come true. They're not the fears Polygon, or my skeptical friend Matt, would have you believe; that this game is some big cash grab scam.
My fear is that this game is going to get popular. Too popular.
The problem is that this game is starting to come together. The problem is that it's starting to look REALLY good. The problem is the realization that Star Citizen isn't going anywhere is finally dawning upon all those who were desperately hoping to watch the largest crowd-funded project in history crash and burn. The problem is the more it grows the more people come out of the woodwork to "see what the fuss is about". And there in lies my fear.
Call them Griefers. Call them Trolls. Call them casuals. Call them whatever you like. The masses are coming. And when they get here it's going to get ugly. The people who made the The Division's Dark Zone unplayable. The ones who flew around in Hydras blowing up anyone that moved in GTA Online. We all know who I'm talking about.
This guy.
I'll give you a perfect example from a personal encounter which occurred just this past evening. After the 3.0 demo video I, like I'm sure many of you, finally convinced and enlisted my aforementioned skeptical friend Matt. He in turn enlisted his friend Brian to join the 'Verse. Brian was immediately completely on board with Star Citizen. After only two days of playing he'd liked it so much he decided to invest in a Cutlass Black. After one more day he decided to go all in and purchase a Connie A. Last night Brian and Matt were on board his Cutlass and while they were leaving from a Comm array an outlaw jumped in the airlock. A gunfight ensued and Brian dispatched his stowaway, causing him to become an outlaw. I have no problem with any of this. Zero. People can board your ship without your consent and your actions have consequences. This is the game.
Brian and Matt attempted to remove Brian's outlaw status by visiting Kareah to use the computer. They were met with resistance and their ship was blown up. Again, I have no problem with any of this. They added this dynamic between outlaws and bounty hunters to promote unscripted dogfights and a sense of realism and consequence.
My issue lies in what happened next. After spawning alone at Grim Hex, Brian spent the next hour and a half watching every ship he attempted to spawn get immediately destroyed by a cadre a ships hovering over the landing pads. The chat window let me know there was, literally, no reason for this behavior other than people thinking it was funny to blow up ships. This is a big problem for me.
This game is in rare territory due to the crowd-funded nature and the cost of some of the in game content. I'm not in any way railing against the costs of ships. I've explained to more people than I can count that a ship in this game is the equivalent of getting a tote bag when you donate to NPR. However, the bottom line is that some people have spent A LOT of money to use those ships. Those people spent A LOT of money so the rest of only had to spend $45. Let's let them at least get their ship off the launch platform before opening fire.
I'm an adult. I've grown up playing video games. I played Batman on my Commodore 64. I flew as Star Fox on my N64. I've watched as the industry went from pixel count to polygon count to server count. To me, the most exciting part of video games has always been the advancements in scale and fidelity. I know there are those who feel story and feeling are most important and for them the pinnacle of video games was The Legend of Zelda. Which is fine. To each their own. However for me, games like The Witcher 3 or Skyrim show how far the technology, and the industry for that matter, has come.
So here I am, an adult who now has access to the most highly detailed, expertly crafted space adventure game ever made and I'm going to be griefed out by some nitwit who thinks it's funny to be annoying? I don't think so.
The Universe Chris Roberts envisions is a self-sustaining world where all types of people can do all types of jobs and pave their own path through the stars. A Universe where a player can be either a trader or a smuggler, a racer or a hauler, a bounty hunter or a pirate. The dream is to have all types or people which creates a rich and nuanced universe. When everyone is a pirate, this is destroyed. When everyone is a pirate, no one wants to take a chance being a trader for fear of knowing, not there being a chance of but knowing, they will get robbed. When everyone is a pirate, no one is.
If you've stuck with me through this ridiculous, endless rant then you see what I see. You feel as I feel. You seek as I seek. Let's not let our Universe get lost to the pirates. Let's grief the griefers. This is a call to arms. If you see someone call out for help because they are being pinned down by a group of trolls, help. Let's make it so bad for the trolls they have no other choice but to crawl back to the Dark Zone.
See you around the 'Verse.
End of rant.
tl;dr: When everyone is a pirate, no one is.
Edit: Jesus Christ! This has now become the most productive thing I've ever done at work. I'll be honest, I don't know what to do with the Gold, but thank you. I made it to my own front page! That's pretty awesome!
Clearly, I've struck a nerve so let me please clarify a few things. First off, Brian WAS clever enough to spawn a smaller ship out of sight of the campers and get out of the situation. So can it with all the GiT GuD or GTFO nonsense. You're most likely the assholes to which I'm referring.
Secondly, as I mentioned in my OP (as clear as a punch in the fucking face). You know what?...let me stop here for a second. I went out of my way to over-explain the fact that I had no problem with the game itself rather, the players and STILL some of you gave me shit for whining to Chris to fix it...waah... Fuck you. I have NO problem with any of the game mechanics that put my friend in the situation he was in! My issue is that of gaming culture. I think this schadenfreude bullshit is the worst part of gaming. It's bullshit and it shouldn't be tolerated BY THE COMMUNITY in any game! Trolling is society's problem, not CIG's.
Edit 2: I didn't mean to give Pirates a bad name. Some of them are lovely people. I suppose outlaw would have been more apt? What I really meant was if everyone's an asshole, no one has fun.
