Unassailable

@johan26:
To make a few things clear (before closing this topic that was ongoing for too long):
 
1) Arguing the fact that the limited success is just due to the monetization model is a very very biased statement to justify a point view.
True, it had an impact, without a doubt. But if there was a calculated factor to reduce the amount of players interested, it was this one. We don't want to publish a "mass market" game to apply to any kind of player. And it's also just a matter of financial viability: Dual Universe might the first MMORPG to use cloud technology to host the game universe and it will have a cost per player. Yes, Dual Universe will be a niche game, but with a community probably much bigger than all those against the subscription model can imagine: Free to Play and Buy to Play have shown they weren't perfect models or the ideal solution for every game. In short, there are not the prophetized evolution as they were presented. There are just alternatives, and alternatives that make sense in specific cases. As it is now, they're are not the models that make the most sense for Dual Universe. Plain and simple.
 
2) If you don't see other reason for the slow progress of the kickstarter, here are a few that are quite obvious:
- Dual Universe was nearly unknown 3-4 months ago. Visibility takes time. A lot of players that can be potentially interested are not even aware yet of the game existence.
- There have been a few recent events (notably one very ambitious Sci-Fi game made by an indie studio that promises a lot more than what has been really delivered) that generated - understandably - a lot of distrust to the genre and we happen to have started the Kickstarter campaign in the middle of that. This is very unfortunate, but we couldn't reschedule the kickstarter campaign for later. So we have to deal with it.
- There have been several kickstarter projects that have disappointed recently, generating - again understandably - some distrust to the crowdfunding model.  This didn't help to promote the game either. We still think that Kickstarter is a powerful way for indie developers to finance their game, even if there are projects failing. It's not a perfect model (no one is), it's true it can be improved, but it's a model that need to exist, just because it's a relevant model in many cases.
 
Failure shouldn't make loose faith in a model or a genre, especially when there have been also many success, but this is something only players can decide on a personal level and the mood nowadays tends - unfortunately - to see the bad without seeing the good.
 
We hope this will have answered most of the questions on the topic.
 
Best regards,
Nyzaltar.

How about non-playable robots? Programmable guys and mechs and stuff. That could be a lot of fun, depending on how it's done.

I think people should be able to make so many different kinds of ships that classes will be very general. We'll know what a fighter is, or a Frigate or a Cruiser, but that will be determined and popularized by players, and honestly... a lot of ships won't fit inside those roles. After someone makes a Destroyer, which is to a Cruiser what a Cruiser is to a Frigate, someone's going to make a super-Destroyer, what will we classify the 'deathstar' as? What's a Destroyer that's used as a mobile habitat and has no weapons? Do Carrier ships have different classes based on their size? What about modular designs? What about Voltron? What class of ship is that?
 
No, seriously guys, I'm making Voltron. Holla at your boy.

On lack of hype:
 
There are a lot of games that have this same kind of look. Proc-gen and dynamic server loading are just kind of hitting a stride where they can do a really cool space setting, and so there's a few games out like this, and DU is kinda lost in that shuffle. From what's been seen, it's not necessarily more interesting than NMS, based on the marketing alone. And NMS looks prettier and is out sooner. Once this game can show something that's fresh and new, it'll start to take off. I'd strongly suggest using this hype to get the most ardent and creative followers into the Alpha to actually build some stuff so they can show it off, and build hype further from there.
 
On Bluedrake:
 
His rants actually got me interested in this game, because he was pretty repulsive and pedantic. If you pick up a smoking gun and beat someone mercilessly with it, eventually, I feel kinda bad for the shooter, particularly if they didn't kill anyone. That's kinda what happened for me watching his videos on Dual Universe. Using the idea that they used store-bought assets instead of building an impresive capital ship in game on systems that are not finished as unequivocal proof of incompetence and immorality is silly, especially going on for an hour about how the promise that everything will be made in game not being fulfilled yet is just the worst and anyone who disagrees is a bleeding idiot, or decrying the immorality of hyping a pre-alpha game, which, for an indie, is kinda necessary to get it done. Perhaps he didn't know about the server-tech-first mentality when he went on his rant about server tech. Doesn't matter, I suppose, I didn't watch him because I thought his research was top-notched, I watched because I wanted to hear someone be passionate about something, and someone passionately against the game would tell me more about the game than someone passionately for it, honestly. I'm glad he was proven wrong, and not surprised it didn't 'take.' He's a shock jockey, and he serves a purpose and I appreciate that as that and nothing more.