RSI Pledge Total Back Online (October 14, 2012)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Roberts Space Industries has announced that the core of their website has been restored, including the tally of how their funding campaign is going. So far, more than 6800 people have donated around $660,000, which means the project is already about a third of the way to its first goal. However, it can be hard for such projects to maintain their momentum after initial announcement, so RSI promises to keep a steady flow of information coming that will include more fan-polling, fiction features, Wing Commander history and Chris Roberts Q&A. If you're not seeing the new RSI site after a shift-reload, try clearing your browser cache and returning. And if you haven't watched it yet, check out the 11 minute pitch video of Chris Roberts detailing his goals and aspirations for the new game.

What a long, strange trip it has been! I'm very pleased to announce that the Roberts Space Industries website is coming back online as originally intended. Thanks to the heroic efforts of our web team, you can now pledge as originally intended as well as access your account information and view the real time pledge counter.
More changes are coming, too: we're in the process of setting up the more robust forum you deserve; a search feature, PMs and everything else you have asked for will be available soon. Additional payment options and the ability to add to your existing pledges (against all odds, you demanded it!) will be online in the coming days.
It's not all going to be apologetic letters and 'back to normal' updates, either. Now that we're not "all hands on deck" dealing with the site outage you will see the Comm-Link and other familiar sections return to life. Expect more polls, in-depth ship descriptions, news from the world of Star Citizen and more Q&A with Chris Roberts! Ask him about physics! (On second thought, maybe you shouldn't, we'll be here all day?) We're also putting the finishing touches on the maps and the Galactapedia.
And one last thing: your Golden Tickets WILL RETURN. We had to put them away while we fixed the site, but you'll find them waiting for you in your accounts in the coming days.
I'd like to thank you all, personally: you space pilots have proven yourselves to be the most thoughtful, helpful and incredibly patient group I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I feel terrible that the web issues have impacted such a great group. We're going to do everything we can to justify your treatment of our endeavor. It's going to be cool!
Ben Lesnick
Community Manager
Cloud Imperium Games






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Original update published on October 14, 2012
 
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I'm coming back because I want to congratulate the CIC, and Mr. LOAF especially. It makes me happy to see "a Chris Roberts game" on the horizon, but it makes me feel that much better to see someone as dedicated as LOAF become the community manager. You guys have done an outstanding job for all of us and brought us many great and awesome things that every other gaming community should be flippantly envious of. Seeing LOAF as the go-to man for what I hope is a brand new fandom gives me the feeling that this project will be going very cool places. To say I am excited is an understatement.
 
It really sounds like Chris Roberts is trying to bring in the best and build an all-star team at Cloud Imperium!
 
I am as psyched about this project as anyone, but I am wondering why RSI decided to do their own crowd funding site rather than going through an established channel like Kickstarter. Seems like they could have gotten a lot more exposure that way as I'm sure there are a ton of space sim fans who will never hear of this project until it's past the funding deadline.
 
From the RSI site :)

We love Kickstarter. We’ve backed projects on their site and believe everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the “crowd” directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can – we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that’s designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can’t deliver this experience, which is why we’ve decided to go it alone.

I do share your concern that going it alone reduces exposure. Hopefully this isn't an issue!
 
The way I read it, if they don't hit the 2M we still get Star Citizen, it just won't be as cool as CR wanted to make it. So CR needs the 2 mil.
 
Come on people - we're at 800,000 - with 24 days left! We can do this. Talk to everyone you know who loved Wing Commander, or Starlancer, or Privateer, or any of those great titles and encourage them to donate! Every dollar we spend here will pay dividends back down the road when we show the gaming community that our beloved genre is not dead!
 
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that RSI have chosen to take the independent route. Hope the early momentum continues throughout the month.

Somewhat-related, I read an article relating to Kickstarter's shortcomings a few days ago. I'll grant that mainstream newspapers don't write the best material, but for a caveman like myself (I hadn't even heard of Kickstarter until a couple of months ago) I found it informative regarding the downsides of the crowd-funding financial model.
 
The average contribution is on the order of about $90 right now, which I think is pretty good (though that may be imbalanced from a lot of us crazy wingnuts giving more than $100). Both PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun have done articles on the fundraising totals so far, so I think that there has been some real good exposure to the sorts of people who are likely to contribute. Here's hoping to $1,000,000 plus by the end of the week.
 
Personally I think this is incredible. An AVERAGE of 90+ is extremely high for a thing we know next to nothing about except CRs track record. I would have expected that most pledge only the minimum, but as it seems there are many many of us out there hust hungry for such a game...
 
1 Million are near done. But I think Kickstarter as a second source are good. Maybe start with 1 Million. Then shorter goals. Backers want to hunt. So give them targets:

Example:
1 Million (the game as on the main site)
1,1 Million - one new ship (maybe from Wing Commander or Freelancer)
1,2 Million - 5 more missions in the campaign
1,3 Million - another ship

Project Eternity goes with similar goals and they reached now 4 Million (3,98 Million and over 160.000 from paypal) Come on there must be more Space Action Fans out there then RPG-Fans...

@Loaf thank you for the responce. Still my pledged is not on my account. Because of this another question: Maybe the funding before the crash and the backup are not yet counting. Is that right? Then perhaps we already hit the million, or?

The german sites already talking about the project. Even our Boulevard Newspaper Bild have a report about it ;)
 
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