Star Citizen Dismisses Pay to Win Concerns Because "You win by having fun"

The developers of the long-awaited Kickstarter game Star Citizen have come under community fire when they disregarded "pay-to-win" concerns while also belittling their fanbase.

Recently, the Star Citizen devs removed the pre-launch real-money currency cap. The community was upset by this decision, believing that wealthier backers would have a significant advantage when the game releases.

Lead designer Chris Roberts released a press statement in response to these concerns. But instead of accepting the issue as a problem, he downplays it by claiming there's no such thing as pay-to-win in Star Citizen.

This may be a foreign concept to gamers as the majority of games are about winning and losing. but Star Citizen isn't a normal game. It's a First Person Universe that allows you to live a virtual life in a compelling futuristic setting. You win by having fun, and fun is different things to different people.

His statement carries on the idea that the players don't know what it means to not have a clear win condition. So if we're unhappy or we're not having fun, it's because we don't understand Star Citizen's unique creative decision to be an open world.

His response is dismissive to a legitimate concern, and the community is understandably upset about this. Reddit user TyaArcade was confused by the mindset Roberts has for the game:
 

"It bothered me when he said that Star Citizen has no win condition. It seemed to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding, either intentional or not, of what a win condition is.

If I start a mission, there is a clear win condition.
If I engage another player, there is a clear win condition.
If my entire guild/clan/fleet whatever engages another, there is a clear win condition.

Just because the game has no finale, doesn't mean win conditions aren't there. I don't have an opinion on whether Star Citizen is pay to win, but the way this question was tackled just seems... weird."

 
The best they could do to resolve this bad press would be to re-enable the pre-launch currency cap. But why would they do that? It's more money in their pocket.