Star Citizen: The Consequences of Accountability

I think after I came out of the closet as a backer for Star Citizen, the number one question I am asked is "why", "Why did you back that scam?"

My knee-jerk response is to punch them in the throat and grab them by the scruff of their neck as I yell at them my detailed reasons why. I enjoy that fantasy in my head for a split second and then I give them my reason and it is simple. The Free Market.

Don't worry, I am not going to leave you hanging. Why on earth would the Free Market be a suitable argument for backing Cloud Imperium Games and their endeavors in the form of Squadron 42 and Star Citizen? Accountability. Which is what I love most of all and why I backed and encourage others to as well. We get to hold them accountable, and they know that. That means more than anything else in the world.

Let me break that down for those that are going "The fuck is this dude talking about, tell more Stories!" ever heard of a little company called Electronic Arts? Not to long ago EA tried to do some really stupid...like REALLY STUPID nonsense, they tried to basically tax gamers for playing their game by making them pay for questionable at best, content.  It was an attempt to grow an extra set of tits on a cash cow and it FAILED, horribly. Why did it fail? Gamers held them accountable. They demanded EA to go fornicate themselves and EA responded by changing their position. They still managed to be dirtbags about it but in the end, they caved and changed out of fear of losing money.

That cost them still, we all know a lot of people that have sworn off their games and other AAA companies due in large part to them acting as nothing more than cash grabs churning out the same cookie cutter bullshit they always do.

CIG is attempting to make a game for gamers, one that we have always wanted. It is the single most crowdfunded project on the planet...a lot of people want this to be successful. If Cloud Imperium Games screws the pooch on this and buys the farm, guess who is going to suffer in the end? The backers? Nope...I mean some of us are out of some cash but we would be lying if we all said we did not know the risks. We Han Soloed it and said, "Never Tell me the odds" and forked over our cash. In the end, we will not suffer long term. Our lives will remain the same. We will have spent whatever we spent, and have nothing to show for it but a blog and a T-shirt. Literally the same situation we are in right now.

What about the developers? Well I mean its safe to say that anyone working for Cloud Imperium games in the upper echelons will obviously have made money on this project. They also will be in a lot of debt. Those buildings, employees salaries, travel expenses...hell the power needed to run the damn offices is well more than most of us could imagine. It's not like they are sitting on a ton of money, they are spending it on development. So if they tank and fail to produce, and the rug is pulled up from under all of us...they are FUCKED and I do not mean proper fucked. They are going to be without money, without any sort of credibility in the market, and they will be shunned. No one will want to touch them. They will be Maverick if he just "Screwed up Just This much" and had to fly that Cargo Plane full of Rubber Dog shit.

These people will in some cases be forced to move, give up possessions, and they again will have a hard time finding work. The market right now is such that they will eventually find work again, but their name is sort of "Mudd" and people do not forget.

How do I know people do not forget? Ask all the backers of "The War Z" if they forgot that developer. So when the developer changed names, production companies, and development teams...we still knew his first and last name. So anything associated with him was considered a disgrace...so much in fact that when a game came out made on the same engine everyone assumed it was associated with him and started to shit all over it, gamers don't forget. The Market does not forget. They have more riding on this than we do.

So that is why I back them. I back them because I know that they are standing in a corner. Their ego has written some checks that they believe their bodies and minds can cash. They have shown a viable proof of concept now, and they are being more transparent with their development than anyone else has ever been before.

They are rocking the boat, and at times they rock their own boat. They are human, and people need to understand that. They also need to understand that if these people screw up, the free market will crawl inside them and eat their soul. They will be crushed. The weight of the world will come down around them as they spend the next 10 years saying "The Fuck did we do that for?".

CIG is internationally known now. They are too large to just go into obscurity if they screw up. They will not go the way of Dean Hall, people will write (You bet your ass I will) about what a failure they are if they do not live up to the expectations they set. So that is why I have faith that they will not. They have too much riding on this to not win, they have no choice. They set the bar high and now they have to make it work.

Never underestimate the power of people backed into a corner. I have seen people overcome things that were truly the impossible when facing the prospect of no-tomorrow. For CIG there is No tomorrow if they are not true to their word.



We, the market, will hold them accountable. They have no choice in the matter. We have our demands, and if they are not met...there will be consequences.