So I may do to SC what I did in NMS, not log in for 2 years, let it all settle out, then show up with a fleet of 72 ships, after the asshats have left 
Right now there are probably less than 10,000 backers logging in on a regular basis. Far less.
The community that actively tests and/or plays in the live alpha is a miniscule percentage of the backer base. I expect there to be a much larger population that will be joining in more often when the rules are more strict on these types of activities.
It isnât like they have not been warning everyone for months and even years. It is coming, reputation will matter, actions and choices will matter and if you choose to put yourself on the wrong side of the law, it will cost you. Just because it doesnât cost anything significant yet there are some who think it never will. They will be crying a river one day in the not so distant future.
I hope youâre right, I fear youâre not. Because there is a small % testing, theyâre the âmajorityâ, the âvoiceâ. âIâve put in 100s of bug reports, my opinion matters dammit!â So they get pissed and start yelling, the game is unplayable, âyou said piracy would be viable!â, âyou made promises!â etc. CIG hears nothing but that, because those of us who donât mind are quiet, and they back it down to make it more âgameplayâ.
What gives me confidence is
- Chris is a known control freak.
- He has repeatedly stated heâs making a game he wants to play.
- He doesnât strike me as a douche bag player type.
I donât think heâs going to listen to the âvoicesâ that concern you and there will be tears when the other shoe drops. 
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Correct. There is no such thing as a âfamousâ smuggler 
If youâre famous, youâre doing it wrong
Does that mean that OTG will allow smugglers but not pirates?
But of course, smugglers are just scoundrels, pirates are scum!
In all seriousness, nothing is decided at this point.
The intention 4 years ago when we started this sub-chapter for a game that was just starting development was to keep the typical white hat approach that OTG always has followed in the past.
But every time I have had any kind of discussion with red names about any of this, at least any who are aware of SC and informed about its development, then I get the same answer: It will be up to the chapter leadership at the time the game releases or when the chapter is formally created, whichever comes first.
Now, that is not said to cause any worry or concern or panic for anyone. Nothing has changed and the posts that were made outlining the intentions for this chapter and the game still hold true. But that is not to say that it canât or wonât change. It really depends on how things are built in the game.
Take for instance WoW. We have always had 2 chapters in that game because the 2 sides are so diametrically opposed. There is little reason or logic to having one chapter that contains both Alliance and Horde (or at least there wasnât for a very long time, I have not even looked over there in ages so I could be wrong nowâŚ)
Similarly, if pirates and citizens become the same type of coin with 2 sides, then we will likely begin with a citizen side chapter and then, if there is enough support for it, players who wish to create a pirate chapter will be allowed to do so. Under the same requirements for any chapter, of course.
The key to remember is that the game is still being developed and the rules are still be formed around how players will interact in the game. When we have more to go on then we can decide how we as a chapter will move forward as well.
TLDR: Too soon to tell.
Now my personal take on it: We will allow players to keep their characters in our chapter/org as long as:
- They follow all of the existing rules for OTG and
- They remain without a wanted status in game.
What profession you choose beyond that is not anyoneâs business.
I have a lot of faith in Chris Robertsâ intelligence and also in his control freak nature (maybe not so much on the business end of things but he has learned a lot since starting this venture). In many ways, I consider he and I similar. So, as I am aware that the vocal minority often screams down the silent majority, I would think that so would he. Now, how that translates into ensuring that his vision and mine come to fruition (i.e. how successful he is at reaching that goal) is something that only time will tell. I would think that the closing down of communication (over Modding) was something that he did not sanction and, if it comes to his attention, will not be something that is tolerated. My concern is his striving to make this game all things to all people. I have learned that when you try to please everyone, everyone is less than satisfied and you wind up pleasing no one.
Again, I hope youâre right. Heâs not run/made a game in 30 years, the community has changed a LOT in that time. 30 years ago it was me and Ben, geeky nerds loading up our games in 5.25" disks and 10mb hard drives, playing on EGA, and maybe there were 100,000 of us, nation wide. Selling 10,000 copies of a game was a huge success. And only nerds played games.
Now âbrosâ play games, the elitist asshats who play Fantasy Football, D&D for guys who used to beat up kids for playing D&D.
One thing I agree with you though is CRâs opinion of the community. They attacked his wife and kids, threatened them, so I think he knows the score and can have resolve.
Bah, you and your fancy schmantzy EGA. Real gamers did CRT green text only Zork! 
A big reason I back is to cut out the publisher that would put on pressure to appease the âbrosâ for moar proffitsss.
The down side is the publisher would also put pressure on to get the dam thing out the door!
Iâm ok with that trade off.
Iâm not sure where you got 30 years, but Freelancer was a game he developed and released in 2003. As it is now 2018 my math says thatâs only 15 years, or you could look at is as only 8 years between games since he started developing SC in 2011. Even then he wanted Freelancer to be more than it was, closer to what SC is becoming, but Microsoft wasnât going to keep pouring money into the project.
Since Iâm tossing nit-picky babble out, CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. So not only were the monochrome monitors with their green (or amber) text CRTs but also black and white TVs (which I used for my Timex Sinclair 2068 loading games off cassette tapes), color TVs, CGA, EGA, many VGA monitors before LCDs were improved and became more affordable.
Which is why CR didnât like working with Microsoft.
I was clearly exaggerating, old people do that, but even in 15 years the market is completely different. Freelancer sold what, 500k copies? In todayâs market, thatâs a failure, indie games sell that many copies, on the dollar Steam sales. And heâs never made an open world PvP game of any size. The communities are vastly different. When he founded CIG, he surrounded himself with fanbois like Ben, not hardcore douchebags that understand how toxic communities are. Again, he was utterly startled and offended when the community attacked his wife. Really? Toss a woman covered in red meat to a shark tank and âomfg, they bit her?!?!?â
I hope your right, for my walletâs sake at the very least
Not that I think the things that were said about Sandi were in any way fair or appropriate, but
She did set herself up for some of that. I am not sure what her qualifications are for the job she holds, but it would appear she has little to no experience in marketing or public relations. She makes the age old mistake that hundreds of thousands of start up companies make: they do what they like expecting others to like it too. Her take on marketing is the way she would want the game marketed to her, not the way gamers would want the game marketed to them.
So while I do not agree with some of the rude things that have been said about her, I have very little respect for her in her capacity as a board member of CIG and the head of marketing and global whatever it is her title says. She obviously is there through pure nepotism, which is no surprise it happens everywhere all the time. But she would have been better as just the face of marketing, the commercial maker, the presenter and not as the decision maker.
So I am double not surprised she got eaten alive by sharks.
@Simdor @macallen It was Chris Roberts who threw her into the deep end of the pool with the sharks. She just mistook the sharks for toothless guppies. CR was utterly naive about how brutal the community could be. He just thought he would be surrounded by fanboys the entire ride through development and that the marketing of the game(s) would be a cushy position. By the time they woke up it was too late. Then the damage control started setting in, etc. So, I blame CR. Sandy was just very trusting. If I recall, she was/is a model. I have no knowledge whether she has any degrees in business, marketing or advertising. I would have to guess that she does not and am sure that CR does not.
And this is why Iâm concerned. For 6 years CR has misunderstood or underestimated the vitriol the community is capable of. He threw his wife into it, what is to keep him from throwing his game into it as well? Unless it is done to him, to his face, he may not even see it.
I know it makes me weird that I donât care about the tech. It has far surpassed every expectation I could ever have. The tech is just the framework, the people are the game, and this game has horrible people. If CR doesnât know that right now and isnât planning on corralling this right now, then itâs going to suck.
As a married man, oh, he heard it from Sandy. It might be me but her face is not the face of someone you do bad things to and expect not to hear about it. So, he found out at that point. I think at this point he is just trying not to alienate anyone who would be part of the player base/backers (i.e. $ is the first thought, keeping $ rolling in is the second thought).
I agree with you. The people make the game, not the other way around. I made friends that I am still friends with a decade and a half later even though we donât game together much anymore. I still reminisce about the cool things we were able to accomplish that we all thought beyond us. How we pulled together as a team. Graphics takes a backseat to that. I think that CR is smart enough and wise enough to get that. I think that his creating ships that need to work with other ships to get things done shows that.
I"m here because of people I met in a game. Iâve never said âI love the tech with this game, I will continue playing it!â I played SWG until they turned the power off, along with CoH, because of the people I played with, the cities/teams we built, etc.
I do hope CR pulls his head out of his behind and figures this out sooner rather than later.