TL;DR: I may be mistaken about how playable it is, I'll have to give it another try. Thanks for the reassurance. I haven't tried it myself in many years, and have only relied on articles like this to hear about the progress. Perhaps I'm biased since the comments always love to hate on Star Citizen and few people are defending it. RE single investor: if everyone who paid money for it was happy then yeah there would be no difference. But I think a lot of people paid money expecting a longer gaming experience within a few years, and instead it's taken a long time and they're still focusing a lot on cosmetic things rather than gameplay and content. IMO gameplay and content should be the top priority, and cool visual stuff can come later. But if piracy/mining/exploring planets/missions can actually provide ~10 hours of enjoyment without being seriously hindered by bugs, then I'm totally wrong and should update my comment.
Thanks for the info, perhaps I should update my comment. It was barely beyond a tech demo when I tried it so many years ago, but it does seem like it's added a lot since then (and I've only learned about it after digging in more today). I've seen some comments in this post that said there isn't much to do besides walk around and look at stuff, which matches my experience many years ago, but perhaps it's not really accurate anymore. Some articles have talked about piracy and mining actually being viable as ways to make money to get a better ship. If those are enjoyable and not severely limited in content and so buggy that progress is hard, then I'm totally wrong and can maybe say that 10 years later my return on investment is adequate :) , and maybe in another few years there will be even more content and give me something more like ~10+ hours of enjoyment.
I know people who play several hours a week and say they’re having a great time. There’s definitely a full game in the alpha, but it’s far from polished or finished.
This is actually really reassuring to me, I'll have to give it another try.
Every person I know who’s spent money on star citizen seems happy with their RoI.
Perhaps the people you're talking to about it now are somewhat skewed towards people who still enjoy it for what it is now. I've almost forgotten and wouldn't think to mention it to most people, but I paid $40 for it around 9 years ago, because a friend mentioned it to me and it seemed like such an amazing idea. It showed so much promise, the racing seemed fun and complex, and later I tried Squadron 42 and felt like I could see the vision coming together. But then after not trying it for a few years, I keep hearing more of the same thing: new cool superficial feature, but still lacking in significant enjoyable gameplay. I am actually kind of scared to try it again and be disappointed in the lack of content.
I realize too that Squadron 42 is apparently a fairly long and mostly finished experience? That alone might be worth $40, though I do think 10 years is a little long to wait for that. I'll concede that they do seem to be delivering on some of the hype, it just takes way too long, and I'd rather they prioritize on something simple but playable for long periods, versus cool immersion and fancy animations and concepts.
Perhaps a lot of the people who enjoy it now enjoy the kind of role playing aspect of getting in a ship with friends and walking around exploring? I would enjoy that somewhat too, every few years, almost like a really advanced VR chat, I guess. But my friends have lost interest in this due to the never ending development cycle. And I would hate to be the one to say "hey guys let's try this out again, it's way better now", and then have everyone be disappointed when someone gets stuck in a wall or the content seems really limited.
Anyway to summarize: perhaps I'm wrong, maybe the game is worth $40 now and I've just been biased from people loving to hate on a game that they haven't even tried. I'll have to give it another try.
