For anyone interested in Star Citizen, this is information you need to know.
Star Citizen is still in development, and will be until well into 2015. For those who buy the game before this release, they are promised in-game rewards based on stretch goals. However, these rewards are denied to anyone who gets the game as a gift, and Cloud Imperium Games will not inform you of this until it's already to late to do anything about it.
The issue is with the Backer Reward System. In order to be considered a backer while the game is in development, and get the rewards listed under the stretch goals, you have to buy something with your account directly. If you got your account or ship as a gift, you don?t count as a backer, and you don?t get any of the backer rewards until you do buy something. I think there are quite a few citizens out there who made their accounts based on gifts and don't realize they aren't considered backers.
Now, there was no way to know about this when gift accounts are bought. Cloud Imperium Games does not put this stipulation on the purchase page at all. The only place you can see this ?rule? at all is buried deep in the FAQs, a place you would not usually look unless you already have an issue with their system.
You can become eligible for rewards if you buy something using your account, but even then, you only get backer rewards from the date that you spent money, not from the date that you activated your already bought-and-paid-for account.
So if you got your account as a gift, but decided to wait a few months before buying a ship upgrade or a skin, then you are denied any in-game rewards that were promised to backers after you activated your account. The citizens who receive gifted packages have the same access to the community, and many voted on stretch goals and have been part of the Star Citizen journey for all this time, but they are not given the same in-game status unless they bought their own account. This is wrong.
In this case, think of all the gift accounts out there, given for Christmas, birthdays, etc. Accounts given from parents to children, friend to friend, and spouse to spouse. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of them are not aware that they are not being given the same privileges that everyone else is getting, even though their accounts cost just as much.
Something tells me if word of this gets out, Cloud Imperium Games will be forced to change it to avoid the huge losses in gift package sales.
TLDR Version: If you get the game as a gift, you're going to be treated as a second class Star Citizen. If you buy the game to gift for someone else before the end of the beta, you are cheating them out of getting any backer rewards unless they use their own money to upgrade the account.
Here are the main points being echoed by disappointed players through several forums.
- The gift givers are inadvertently preventing friends and family from receiving backer rewards.
- There are no extra benefits to those who give gifts when another account is created.
- This information is not clear and apparent on the store page.
- This information is not presented when a citizen receives a gift.
- The citizens who receive gifted packages still contributed money to the campaign, though indirectly, it was still bought by another citizen to gift to them. Were it not for those birthday, charity, celebratory event, or Christmas presents, the money would not have been pledged.
- The citizens who receive gifted packages are in a catch-22 situation, where they usually only find out about their problem after it's too late.
Star Citizen is still in development, and will be until well into 2015. For those who buy the game before this release, they are promised in-game rewards based on stretch goals. However, these rewards are denied to anyone who gets the game as a gift, and Cloud Imperium Games will not inform you of this until it's already to late to do anything about it.
The issue is with the Backer Reward System. In order to be considered a backer while the game is in development, and get the rewards listed under the stretch goals, you have to buy something with your account directly. If you got your account or ship as a gift, you don?t count as a backer, and you don?t get any of the backer rewards until you do buy something. I think there are quite a few citizens out there who made their accounts based on gifts and don't realize they aren't considered backers.
Now, there was no way to know about this when gift accounts are bought. Cloud Imperium Games does not put this stipulation on the purchase page at all. The only place you can see this ?rule? at all is buried deep in the FAQs, a place you would not usually look unless you already have an issue with their system.
You can become eligible for rewards if you buy something using your account, but even then, you only get backer rewards from the date that you spent money, not from the date that you activated your already bought-and-paid-for account.
So if you got your account as a gift, but decided to wait a few months before buying a ship upgrade or a skin, then you are denied any in-game rewards that were promised to backers after you activated your account. The citizens who receive gifted packages have the same access to the community, and many voted on stretch goals and have been part of the Star Citizen journey for all this time, but they are not given the same in-game status unless they bought their own account. This is wrong.
In this case, think of all the gift accounts out there, given for Christmas, birthdays, etc. Accounts given from parents to children, friend to friend, and spouse to spouse. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of them are not aware that they are not being given the same privileges that everyone else is getting, even though their accounts cost just as much.
Something tells me if word of this gets out, Cloud Imperium Games will be forced to change it to avoid the huge losses in gift package sales.
TLDR Version: If you get the game as a gift, you're going to be treated as a second class Star Citizen. If you buy the game to gift for someone else before the end of the beta, you are cheating them out of getting any backer rewards unless they use their own money to upgrade the account.
Here are the main points being echoed by disappointed players through several forums.
- The gift givers are inadvertently preventing friends and family from receiving backer rewards.
- There are no extra benefits to those who give gifts when another account is created.
- This information is not clear and apparent on the store page.
- This information is not presented when a citizen receives a gift.
- The citizens who receive gifted packages still contributed money to the campaign, though indirectly, it was still bought by another citizen to gift to them. Were it not for those birthday, charity, celebratory event, or Christmas presents, the money would not have been pledged.
- The citizens who receive gifted packages are in a catch-22 situation, where they usually only find out about their problem after it's too late.
