RSI Continues Outreach (October 17, 2012)

[ChrisReid]

Roberts Space Industries has a few miscellaneous updates today. They report that a "fan site kit" is under development, but in the mean time, several high res game logos have been put together. They also now have an official YouTube channel for easier viewing and embedding of videos. Finally, there's a new poll that asks about people's actions/intentions regarding the pledge drive. The funding campaign is now up past $940,000 - closing in on a million dollars!

Have you pledged to support Star Citizen?

• Yes
• Yes, but I want to pledge more!
• I'm having technical difficulties
• I would prefer Kickstarter
• I want to hear more about the ships first
• I want to hear more about the single player first
• I don't think you can deliver the features I want
• The rewards aren't appealing enough
• I haven't, but plan to
• I can't afford it!

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Original update published on October 17, 2012

 

[Wedge009]

It surprises me how much fuss is being made over independent-funding vs Kickstarter (looking at some of the comments on that news post on the RSI site). But what do I know?

 

[Quarto]

It surprises me how much fuss is being made over independent-funding vs Kickstarter (looking at some of the comments on that news post on the RSI site). But what do I know?

It is a little surprising, but only a little - imagine if a company decided to sell and release a game through their own website, explicitly declaring that they don't want to use Steam. It's similar in this regard. People have just managed to get used to Kickstarter, we've been hearing about all kinds of Kickstarter successes, and people have spent months talking about how Chris Roberts should use Kickstarter.

All in all, abandoning Kickstarter and taking the direct route seems like a pretty obvious next step. Kickstarter is about cutting out the middlemen, but Kickstarter itself is a middleman, so it makes sense to abandon it. But people generally do feel safer dealing with trustworthy middlemen, so not everyone is happy about it.

Also, to be fair, there is a counterargument to be made that Kickstarter would have actually helped Chris Roberts. That website outage RSI suffered was a massive setback, and it is plausible that had he stuck with Kickstarter, we'd now be looking at the third million rolling in, instead of encouraging people to finish up the first million.

 

[Wedge009]

Well, again, it's probably just me (foolishly) speaking from my lack of experience, since I hadn't heard of Kickstarter before - so, of course, not having it available doesn't really make any difference to me.

 

[ChrisReid]

The Kickstarter is a hit! Already over 500 backers there in the first 90 minutes!