Star Citizen Guild Gets a $45,000 Refund

I have donated something like $60 towards Star Citizen, that was back when they promised privately hosted server support etc. Like my other crowdfundings it is a tiny investment that will possibly pan into a game worth my time. If not ... too bad. I treat crowdfunding like any other 'high-risk' investment, the risk is mine.

Given Cris Roberts track record, which anyone investing in the project should have checked up on, it should come as no suprise that the Star Citizen project would go totally off the rails, especially if they hit $10+million. While Roberts has made some incredible games, he has also demonstrated a complete lack of self control... he needs supervision, a project head that can reign him in.

IMO. Chris Roberts is an earnest fellow and he is an incredibly skilled visionary, but he is also a naive dreamer that needs to be tethered.

For $60, I have already gotten my moneys worth, and while I am sad to see the original vision for Star Citizen twisted into something I barely recognize anymore, it has been a wild ride. Still have my fingers crossed for Squadron 42...

All this wallowing in Star Citizens possible failure is getting tirering.
 
I am in for roughly $75 not sure don't even remember. i do remember when this first started it was posted on the SC site it would not be ready until 2017/2018 at the earliest. I liked what i saw, made a support drop and let it ride and check it from time to time. The time I have spent exploring my constelation, testing things and mucking about I probably already have my $75 worth so no big deal.
 
I really wish the staff at Ars and elsewhere would do a bit more research before posting this stuff, knowing that it has become an issue of contention. Especially as the "game journalism" industry has latched onto the title and regularly generate clickbait (mostly on the negative side - as negativity is the crux of yellow journalism since the term was coined), there's a lot of low quality pieces on Star Citizen.

Suffice it to say, there was no 45K refund - that was nonsense. There was a $300-ish refund to an individual player, which they do at their discretion even though their TOS says they aren't compelled to do so. I'd ask that the mod please edit the title and/or remove the topic, as leaving it as stated is needlessly inflammatory and more importantly, inaccurate.
 
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hexamon said:
This is not true. You probably tried and depending on when you tried they might have told you no. They were saying no for a while at first but it was pointed out to them that they were required to give refunds for a few reasons. So now it is possible to get refunds even in the US. They might try to talk you out of it but they will eventually give in.
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Sounds like the return policy of an upstanding company with no issues whatsoever.
 
So turns out the report was false:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/tired-of-waiting-star-citizen-guild-gets-a-45000-refund

Update: Cloud Imperium spokesperson Dave Swofford tells Ars that "a lot of the information was fabricated" in the Reddit post discussed the below. Swofford says the account in question was issued an individual refund of $330, not the $45,000 claimed in posted screenshots and videos which Swofford says do not reflect actual complaints requests logged by the company. What's more, Swofford says the refund was handled "in a timely fashion" with "no extended debate over whether we should."
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So basically sounds like the media pounced on this because it was "juicy" ...was not factual whatsoever, oops.
 
This is fake news. CIG refunded this guy $330.00. He then edited the image and claimed a $45,000.00 refund on reddit. Completely and utterly false. I expect we will see more sillyness along these lines as long as CIG decides to delay 3.0.
 
EODetroit said:
How dare you post encouraging information about Star Citizen on the [H] forums!

/s
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It would mean more but the last negative article about SC they said the same thing.

When will 3.0 actually drop, tune in next week to the next exciting episode to find out.
 
Xaeos said:
I really wish the staff at Ars and elsewhere would do a bit more research before posting this stuff, knowing that it has become an issue of contention. Especially as the "game journalism" industry has latched onto the title and regularly generate clickbait (mostly on the negative side - as negativity is the crux of yellow journalism since the term was coined), there's a lot of low quality pieces on Star Citizen.

Suffice it to say, there was no 45K refund - that was nonsense. There was a $300-ish refund to an individual player, which they do at their discretion even though their TOS says they aren't compelled to do so. I'd ask that the mod please edit the title and/or remove the topic, as leaving it as stated is needlessly inflammatory and more importantly, inaccurate.
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There is no "at their discretion," they tried to deny refunds until a complaint was filed with the California Attorney General.

The release date for the game was stated to be 2014.

The only thing in question is whether CIG Is lying or the guy who posted about getting a 45k refund is lying, and with CR being a known list at this point I give it a 50/50 odds on who is lying.
 
Schtask said:
3.0 release is coming up soon btw. Only 26 critical blockers left. They crushed 50 last week.

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They crushed them by cutting many of the new systems from 3.0. It's just a number at this point. The 3.0 that is about to come out has no resemblance to the 3.0 that was, "about to come out" over a year ago.
 
Schtask said:
3.0 release is coming up soon btw. Only 26 critical blockers left. They crushed 50 last week.

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Considering 3.0 was right around the corner a year ago, and they have only squashed 50 out of 76 critical bugs, 3.0 should be out around March 2018 at that rate!
 
What did CR lie about? I mean other than setting a new standard for scope creep of a project.
 
Megalith said:
More and more Star Citizen fans are getting fed up with the “lies”: one group has happily announced on r/starcitizen_refunds that they received money back for three of the game’s $15,000 “completionist” packages, which allow access to dozens of optional ship designs among other extras. Sharing photo and video evidence of forum discussions confirming the refunds, they state that they couldn't "wait any longer, and a new generation is joining also who have absolutely no interest.”

It was a nightmare getting the refund; we are a commercial org and pooled the money to buy the completionist packages and used a corporate card to buy them, so we had major issues with getting refunded to the same card, PayPal, and then providing ID. Total, it took about 5 weeks to get sorted. A lot of time was spent trying to explain the situation to some woman called "Schala" and just getting the same answers copied and pasted backwards and forwards; they definitely try to delay you as much as possible in the hope you'll forget or give up.
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This story should be edited to indicated that it has been proven fake.

[Update: Cloud Imperium spokesperson Dave Swofford tells Ars that "a lot of the information was fabricated" in the Reddit post discussed the below. Swofford says the account in question was issued an individual refund of $330, not the $45,000 claimed in posted screenshots and videos which Swofford says do not reflect actual complaints requests logged by the company. What's more, Swofford says the refund was handled "in a timely fashion" with "no extended debate over whether we should."
The OP of the reddit post deleted his account.
FINAL EDIT (I HOPE)

While the modteam were discussing which actions to take with this post in regards to David Swofford's comments, the OP made our decision for us by deleting his account so that's that. For those of you unsure of what that means, it calls the integrity of the poster into question. Maybe the guy went through an insane amount of effort to fake a refund, and bailed when Swofford called him out. Maybe it wasn't faked and the guy was getting a ton of shitty PMs and bailed. I honestly have no idea what made him delete his account, and unfortunately now I can't dig deeper to find out. What I do know is that we'll be removing this post from sticky status and locking it to end the discussion, but it'll still be around if you want to link to your hot take where you totally called it being a fake or whatever later ;P
FINAL EDIT (I HOPE)
 
There could be more to this story. The OP was found in a Discord channel. He indicated that he had TWO accounts: his personal $330 account and the guild's $45k account. Both were refunded.

So whilst CIG was telling the truth about the $330 account, they also didn't tell the entire truth about the $45k account.

The OP is currently working with a media outlet to have the $45k refund validated.

Take all of this with a grain of salt.
 
bigdogchris said:
What did CR lie about? I mean other than setting a new standard for scope creep of a project.
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3.0 is right around the corner.

Sq42 is right around the corner.

100 star systems at launch, changed to a couple and more added later.

Original release date of 2014, saying the scope changed doesn't change the fact he lied in the kickstarter.

That's just a couple lies.
 
LightsOut41 said:
No they didn't crush/fix 50 last week. They reclassified most of them into a different category rather than fixing them.
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That seems like an oddly specific claim. I'd love to read up on it if you have a source. I've seen their schedule here https://robertsspaceindustries.com/schedule-report that lists the 50 or so fixes. Seems like if those bugs still exist in a couple weeks when 3.0 comes out they'd be easy to verify as not actually fixed.
 
Rahh said:
The way things were going for them why ever release a game period? They just keep strolling along collecting money for graphics rendered.
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Dayz has made a killing under such guise, however admitedly they have had a working product (despite its flaws) for dozens of players in a server since initially taking money on steam.
 
I put in $250 for this and waited as patiently as I could, but just got it refunded a few weeks ago. I was mostly looking forward to SQ42 as I loved the old Wing Commander games, but they seemed to be focusing their efforts elsewhere. The customer service was great about the refund, a few emails to request and confirm across maybe a week total and it was done. Had I only been in for $35 I probably would have just waited it out, but I had too much invested to wait longer. It was my risk to take and if they told me to pound sand that would have been reasonable, but my experience was quite good.
 
I too put in $35. I don't get the people that are constantly buying ships, but whatever, it's their money. I only care about SQ42 and hope it is released someday. lol If not, oh well.
 
Out of curiosity, even if you want the ships etc that people are buying, why are people buying ahead of time instead of just waiting to pay more money until there is a finished game?
 
zerogg said:
Out of curiosity, even if you want the ships etc that people are buying, why are people buying ahead of time instead of just waiting to pay more money until there is a finished game?
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Ships purchased support the development of the game.
 
Advil said:
The people or organizations that provided money like this... over $10k, deserve payback and frankly with some kind of interest. That's investor levels of money. There's no way you can pretend that money of that amount could ever be considered fair compensation for any type of play of the actual game. That's ludicrous. I was always hoping that there were special circumstances for anyone who gave that much.
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KickStarter or Star Citizen is not an investment and no one deserves payback with interest.
KickStarter customers still think, no matter how many times they are told the opposite, that when they contribute to KS programs they are actually buying *nothing at all.* There's no "pre-order" involved. There are no guarantees, no contracts--putting money in a KS is merely seeding a company and individuals you like/trust with seed money in the hopes they are able to accomplish what they started. With a KS, there are no promises made to anyone.
plagarized from WaltC bluesnews forums
 
I have a starter pack in Star Citizen and Camelot unchained. I have a feeling both will end up as essentially vapourware. By the time they have arrived we will all have moved on.
 
fake news

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oh yea i have also 700 dollars in
 
Jim Kim said:
KickStarter or Star Citizen is not an investment and no one deserves payback with interest.
KickStarter customers still think, no matter how many times they are told the opposite, that when they contribute to KS programs they are actually buying *nothing at all.* There's no "pre-order" involved. There are no guarantees, no contracts--putting money in a KS is merely seeding a company and individuals you like/trust with seed money in the hopes they are able to accomplish what they started. With a KS, there are no promises made to anyone.
plagarized from WaltC bluesnews forums
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The original SC TOS actually promised a refund if the game was not released within 18 months of the original stated time frame. That language made the project attractive at some level. Furthermore, there is less of a case for SC to be considered a kickstarter once they internalized everything. The language they used for a period of time could be interpreted as a purchase. Anyway, in regards to SC it is moot. They provide refunds. The fact that this particular refund is in question does not change the fact that some meaningful number of people have gotten refunds.
 
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