Hey CIG team and fellow backers, I’ve been a backer of Star Citizen for years now, having backed the game on Kickstarter. Like many of you, I’ve put my faith (and funds) into the vision of a truly unique game. But it's time to address some honest frustrations that have been building up in the community. I’m reaching out here not to criticise unfairly but because I, along with many others, genuinely want to see Star Citizen succeed. Over the years, we’ve all watched as CIG has grown, and it’s clear that Star Citizen has developed in ways we couldn’t have imagined. From the initial crowd-funding success to the opening of lavish new development offices, there’s been no shortage of impressive milestones. But now, I feel that the relationship between CIG and the backers is increasingly strained. Concerns with Recent Decisions Lately, it feels like we’re more of an abused revenue source than a valued community. Recent marketing tactics—like selling “solutions” to problems CIG has introduced, frequent nerfs, and the constant release of new ships at increasingly high prices. Changes like these can undermine the trust we placed in this project from the beginning. When CIG's developers, more or less, admitted that live on stream marketing dictates development priorities, many other backers and I were taken aback. This means that ships that players pledged years ago may not see the light of day for years because the focus seems to be pumping out new ships for new ship sales. What's more, the ships labelled in the storefront as "flight ready" are often in a broken state and, in some cases, completely unusable in the game. The roadmap's secrecy, except for "tentative" feature targets, hasn't helped, leaving backers in the dark regarding the future of SC and SQ42. Whilst Citizen Con opened the doors on some of the incredible tech that CIG's talented developers are working on, it indeed presented many questions about how long these technologies will take to implement. Need for Open Communication Transparency has always been a cornerstone of crowd-funded projects. CIG’s communication with backers was once detailed and straightforward, but recently, it feels like we're left in the dark more often than not. With feature delays, unexpected price hikes, and vague timelines, it's tough to know where things stand. Many backers, myself included, want more honesty about development challenges, realistic timelines, and the decision-making process. I could live with Chris giving ambitious deadlines and missing them, but now we only hear from him when he's wheeled out for a marketing event of some description. It isn't very reassuring because many of us are here for Chris' vision. Growing up on Wing Commander and Freelancer, to name a few. Looking Forward: A Call for a Renewed Commitment to the Community We’re still here, waiting and supporting because we believe in what Star Citizen could be. If we weren't, Spectrum wouldn't be filled with posts from people who are trying to express the same frustrations as I am. I think asking for more clarity on CIG’s direction and plans is fair. Could we have open, meaningful updates beyond the new ship sale and dig into progress and priorities? Is there a way to renew the sense of partnership that brought us all here in the first place? I think asking development to prioritise player experience instead of marketing targets is also fair. The release of 3.24.2 into LIVE is a clear example of pushing the team to deliver on sales (Zeus) and marketing events. IAE is up next, and I'm sure the team will have to crunch for the event instead of focusing on the ship backlog or quality-of-life updates. I’m hopeful that CIG will take these concerns to heart, not as criticism but as feedback from a community that has stayed loyal through thick and thin. We want to support Star Citizen and feel like partners again. I, for one, and I think many others, am tired of being treated like cash cows, only brought in every time CIG needs to pump the numbers. Thank you for taking the time to read my long-winded post; I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on this.