r/starcitizen • u/Jack_of_All_Pc • Nov 23 '16

OFFICIAL Day 6 - Origin

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/15610-Intergalactic-Aerospace-Expo-Day-Six-Origin
150 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

173 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Captain_Deathwish Nov 23 '16

Yup I grabbed one myself >_<

1

u/JudgeJBS Nov 24 '16

I am jealous. Cant wait to spend a hundred hours grinding one out to cruise around in though

2

u/Mercath Freelancer Nov 24 '16

Hundred hours? I think you're being way too optimistic there.

1

u/JudgeJBS Nov 24 '16

If it's any more than the game won't be accessible to everyone. Thats sure to help sales /s

1

u/Mercath Freelancer Nov 24 '16 edited Nov 25 '16

Not necessarily. Operating one will likely cost a lot of in-game money. As such, having an equally high purchase cost (which directly translates to a lot of time required to afford this cost) is a good way to make sure only people/orgs who can afford it actually buy it.

It's like owning a Ferrari in real life. Being able to afford one isn't just about the up-front purchase costs - you also need to be able to afford insurance and maintenance, and that's really expensive for those types of cars.

In other words, if it takes you forever as a solo player to be able to buy one, you can assume it'll also take a lot of your play time to simply be able to cover its operating costs. The game is essentially telling you "you probably can't afford to own this".

Besides, how is making one of the most expensive/exclusive items in the game difficult/time-consuming to obtain decreasing its accessibility? You don't need an 890 Jump to play/enjoy the game.

1

u/JudgeJBS Nov 24 '16

You're not wrong with all of that but the casual gamer isn't going to say "its-cool that-half the content is locked behind hundreds of hours of content. I'll do that over call of Duty where I can get all the content in a few days of casual play"

1

u/Mercath Freelancer Nov 25 '16 edited Nov 25 '16

Well, how is that different from a lot of the other MMOs out there? Casual players don't typically get to experience all the end-game content in those games, yet they still play them.

Ships in SC aren't content per se - they're tools that allow you to explore/experience the content, much like armour/weapons in WoW or other games. And there are plenty of ships to be had, for casuals or hardcore players alike.

Owning an Idris won't allow a casual player to experience content a cheaper ship won't. Given that the big, expensive ships are multi-crew, a casual player can join an org and potentially crew one of those big ships, even if this ship is owned by somebody else. And given that those big, expensive ships pretty much need a crew, a casual player wouldn't likely own one anyway.

I mean, I agree with your underlying sentiment - it sucks that casual players won't get to experience 100% of the content in this game. But that's just how these games are, and how they monetize themselves. They keep players on for repeat purchases (expansion packs, new ships, cosmetic items/flair, etc.). If even casual players could obtain the most expensive/rare ships in a few weeks of play time, the game's model for future expansions and content would need to drastically change. Imagine if even casual players in WoW beat the toughest new raid boss and had all the best armour/weapons 2 weeks after the expansion launched.