Cloud Imperium Games have started a controversy train when they removed the cap on maximum UEC currency in Star Citizen which could ruin the game's economy before it launches. Chris Roberts responded to criticism by defending the decision.
Fans of Star Citizen have become aggravated with Cloud Imperium Games' decision to remove the cap since it would give way to more pay to win prospects in Star Citizen. Players have set up a on reddit where they voiced their concerns, chief among them being possible in-game currency inflation.
The daily 25.000 UEC purchase cap is still in place, but considering Star Citizen has no release date, it could technically be possible to purchase 25.000 UEC each day until the potential eventual final launch. Players could therefore hoard immense amounts of UEC and hold immeasurable advantage over new players because they would have infinitely more money. The "infinitely" is not an exaggeration as Star Citizen will likely never release, so current players will be able to stockpile UEC indefinitely, at the low price of $1 per 1000 UEC.
In the video above, Chris Roberts spoke up how the game is not pay to win and never will be since it's an open ended persistent sandbox universe that doesn't have an end or a win-state. Another thing it doesn't have is a release date, but that didn't come up.
Yet, for some reason the game has PvP, which inherently has a clearly defined win-state. This may have slipped the CEO's mind since odds are high that a lot of his brainpower is devoted to the more pressing matter of perpetual monetisation.
He also stated that it puzzles him that critics complain about the UEC cap being pay to win but not the ships they bought directly for real life currency. This would make a great argument since buying in-game currency with real life money or directly purchasing a ship with it is pretty much the same. CIG gets paid either way.
The only problem with this is that Star Citizen's ship purchases and their ridiculous prices are a regular occurrence on many media outlets, so the criticism was there all along. It's rather troubling that Cloud Imperium Games chose to ignore this though.
Cloud Imperium Games
Apparently the cap had to go because players wanted to melt down so many items that the cap was dragging them down. You can decide for yourself whether there is truth in Roberts' words, as he offers more rationalisations starting at the 32:40 timestamp in the video above.
Gallery of pictures from Star Citizen the eternal fundraiser
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