There is currently a major conflict within the Star Citizen community. PvP chaos escalated during a test and drove peace-loving teammates crazy. Discovering new content and reporting bugs was hardly possible.
With this year’s CitizenCon, developer CIG provided many interesting insights into the current state of the space MMO Star Citizen. In addition, the single-player campaign Squadron 42 was described as a “feature complete”.
While solo adventurers are now even more excited about a story-driven game that they can discover on their own, the community believes that something is really getting out of hand in the multiplayer version of Star Citizen.
We’re talking about Pyro, the next system with multiple planets and moons. The developers held a tech preview test specifically for this purpose in order to get feedback from participating players on new content and bugs found.
However, hard-working players were prevented from doing so by so-called griefers. These PvP pirates targeted anyone who came their way on the preview server. In this way, many players who actually only had good things in mind during this test were deprived of the fun of the game. All Star Citizen players suffer, including the griefers themselves.
If there are no volunteer testers on the server for the preview versions, the quality of future updates suffers. If toxic behavior continues to spread within the community, players will leave the Star Citizen universe and new potential space pilots will be deterred. Nobody benefits from this. Neither the PvE and PvP players, nor the griefers themselves.
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PvP players out of control, Star Citizen becomes “Wild West”
What happened? Selected Star Citizen players had the opportunity to see a preview build of the space MMO. In this early version with new content, space pilots were able to examine the upcoming Pyro star system. The focus was on exploration and finding bugs that could be reported to the developers.
But the discovery of new planets and moons was out of the question. Bug hunting also proved to be a difficult undertaking. Because both were massively disrupted by Griefer with unfair PvP battles.
What does griefer mean?
A griefer wants to spoil other people’s fun. The word grief means grief. So a griefer is someone who wants to cause grief to others.
Why did the PvP gameplay escalate? In this test, the game world did not have weapon-free zones. Griefer shamelessly exploited exactly this and spoiled the fun of other players. Areas that players have to pass through, for example to get to their spaceship, were properly monitored.
As soon as an unsuspecting character was seen, fire was opened on him. At the same time, since there were no punishments for such crimes, griefers had no fear of consequences.
In some cases, players who had just entered the game world were targeted. Others were able to get into their spacecraft, but were then taken out of the sky by griefers as they tried to reach space.
A station in the new Pyro star system
How did the community react to this? Players who had to experience such situations several times ended the game in frustration. On Reddit and Spectrum, the official Star Citizen forum, players vented their anger and frustration over escalating PvP players. Countless posts and comments contain complaints about the toxic behavior of griefers.
But the opposing side in the form of the griefers also spoke up. The result was debates about who was actually right. The PvP pirates argued, among other things, that there must be a certain risk in Star Citizen. Just the recurring gameplay loops in PvE wouldn’t be enough.
Here are some voices on the conflict:
Demands from the community and the reaction of the developers
What is required now? The majority of posts and comments are in favor of an orderly PvP experience. For the Star Citizen community, PvP is part of the game. For most players, however, it only takes up a small part of the otherwise PvE-dominated game world.
PvP missions and mutual player battles on equal terms are no problem for them and are even desirable. Even the developers asked you to hunt them in the game.
For some this isn’t going too far. They are calling for a strict ban or technical implementation so that PvP is generally not possible in test environments. For them, the focus should be purely on exploring new content and finding bugs and reporting them to the developers.
Griefers defend their behavior by citing the developers’ lax approach to the issue. CIG writes on its website, “What is considered criminal activity in the verse is a work in progress, but in most cases your moral compass will serve you well.” (via support.robertsspaceindustries.com)
Since the three systems for assessing a player’s crime only work on the live server, griefers currently feel safe. The local legal, crime and reputation systems were simply missing from the preview version for Pyro. But that’s not the only problem that Star Citizen is currently being criticized for.
What does CIG say about this? The developers are aware of the problem. CIG is already working on a solution. Using the three systems mentioned, the NPCs in the game should later react accordingly to players who show too much criminal energy.
They either prevent dishonorable space pilots from entering their territory at gunpoint or at least make it very difficult for them to set foot in the stations populated by NPCs.
CIG recently said in a video that the PvP actions of other players are part of the lawless setting in the Pyro system. What is missing here is a clear demarcation from griefing. Where does PvP begin and where does it end? And more importantly, at what point does toxic behavior in game become a form of griefing? Until then, the players are largely left to their own devices.
At minute 14:30 a developer talks about PvP in the Pyro system
What would the consequences be without concrete rules and systems? The developers shouldn’t take too long to come up with a solution. At first, griefing in preview versions leads to less willing testers. Who wants to be transported defenselessly into the digital afterlife several times?
The result would initially be less thoroughly tested updates and content of lower quality. If CIG doesn’t set clearer rules, active players could turn their backs on Star Citizen. If the toxic behavior of griefers becomes widespread, it could have a negative impact on the registration of new players. Chris Roberts and Co. are dependent on fresh money for further development.
The development studio behind Star Citizen is continually collecting large sums of money, as the financing statistics show. (via robertsspaceindustries.com)
Nevertheless, newcomers are also a financial factor that should not be underestimated. Nobody who actively participates in the development would want the game to fail. This wouldn’t be in the griefers’ interest either. Which side of history are you on?
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