I backed Star Citizen nearly 10 years ago, and while this is a very lengthy post, and honestly one of countless posts on the subject, I felt it was necessary and prudent to voice my opinion on the drama that has unfolded over the past few days. Let me start off by giving a bit of an understanding where I have come from. My first few pledges were small ships that ranged from an avenger to a Banu Merchantman, to even an Idris. I remember debating with other members of the community whether the BMM's front was going to be facing as it is now, or the other way around, since there was no clarification originally about which side actually faced forward from CIG. I was part of the team that was adamant about the direction it faces now, and was so happy to see it in last years videos. I met a collection of friends, even my best friend back in 2013. I saw Star Citizen slowly growing, was sad when one of our oldest members, Aspen. Stopped logging in on TeamSpeak, and steam, he was 86 when he backed the game back in 2013. He had big dreams and hopes for Star Citizen as well, I've no doubt he has passed on now, and it makes me sad. I bring this up because I want to show how important Star Citizen has been to me over the years and how much it has given to me throughout it all, I have gained so many friends, and lost good ones over the years from this community. Over the years as things changed, discord became prevalent and communication became easier. I stopped following star citizen from weekly, to monthly, to quarterly. Now occasionally I check in on the big dates, November, and every now and again when I hear from my community there's a big update. And one thing over the years that has bothered me to some extent, is low ratio of progress to promises... Before people flip out, I understand that it takes a long time to go from a studio of what... 15 to hundreds, what are they at now? 500? A hefty number to be sure... I was, and at times are proud of telling people about Star Citizen, getting them into it, before there was any incentive to do so, just because I wanted them to get in on the ground floor too, to see an incredible game made by a developer that my dad told stories about his games, positive and amazing memories, so it was an easy sell to me. Fast forward to the delays in Squadron 42, the interviews with the actors, the video slices of missions that were teased the technology... fast forward thru missed dates, missed dates, tech that was promised and vanished without a word, continued delays on ships, and every subsequent sale where, despite all those things, I still believed in the vision, and in a way. My main reasoning was that a lot of this stuff has never been implemented before, a lot of this tech will take a lot of time to implement. To me, I never even thought back in 2015 we would see anything significantly tangible to 2020, or even beyond. As I saw Crusader being released, and the final planet for Stanton being added, it brought back the memories and beliefs that Star Citizen is a game unlike any other, where I can soar with my friends through space, fight through mines for a mission and will one day, have that big open series of star systems to explore, from Tera and the alien worlds, to Sol and the Vanduul threats. It gave me a bit of renewed hope for what was going to be possible in the future. So when I saw CIG renege on their promise on how to treat the backers. It hurt me, not so much on a personal or emotional level. But it was the first time I had personally seen them speak negatively about the people who got frustrated about a missed tech, a missed promise, or failure to follow through on a given release date. I get it, I'm one of the old backers, I don't bring a tremendous amount of new money every year. My 10,000 + was spent over the course of nearly 10 years. I still remember back in the day when I would pester the devs about where the Idris was, no doubt annoying them, and got a different answer from them every year, whether it was tech, or because spoilers, etc. But I was never treated as noise through the years and finally I remember the first video where the Idris flew over the space station, and I just about lost it I was so excited. Now I am reminded over the years of every missed promise, deadline, time commitment or feature that CR and the rest of the project managers at CIG missed. And wonder to myself. Why is it wrong to voice our disapproval when these timelines for promised tech and features are missed. Why should the entirety of the community be punished because you failed to deliver content, tech or features and want to avoid the accountability. Things happen yes, I fully understand that there is also a commitment to quality, one that I hope is never forsaken. But be careful CIG on how you treat your backers. Even the negative ones, the most vocal of them, have every right to voice their disapproval on missed dates. Because those people will go to bat for you when detractors who want your game to suffer and fail.(DS anyone?) Its your responsibility, as your promise to us to treat us like a publisher. I would never dare call the people who pay for my work in my field... "noise" because they voice their frustrations. You cannot, and should not silence the lines of communication created to show your progress and promises. Those that disagree, or voice their disapproval of your methods will always exist. I remember they existed a few months after the forum was created and have persisted through the years. By being open, and following through with commitments. Not sacrificing your trustworthiness for marketing or sales, that is the way to build the communities trust and belief in Star Citizen and build a positive view of Star Citizen. Let your actions and methods speak for themselves. When it comes to the roadmap, I was never huge into it. I got into Star Citizen long before it existed, back when CR did regular weekly updates on content with wingman and others. So as the roadmap had been released and continually a good half if not more of features and tech was removed from the roadmap or shifted around, despite what Erin Roberts said years ago that "if its on the roadmap we are damn sure its going to be released." I never put much stock into it because as time wore on and more features were removed and never added back in, with no sight in the future to where they will be worked on... Right now, I cant trust a date set by the project managers at CIG, even If I wanted to. As my father used to say. "It takes a whole lotta attaboys to make up for one oh shit." And right now, we are seeing a whole lot of "oh shits" and not enough "attaboy" moments. Do I think CR or anyone at CIG will read or even see my post? probably not, those days are long gone. But I do hope that CR or someone at CIG does see it, and remember that while they are developing his dream. He couldn't have gotten anywhere near to where he was without the help of his backers, that's us, the people on the forums as much as the people watching from the sidelines. The people who gave him money to produce a game. Not the people who may eventually give him money in the future, or pay for their paychecks next year. But those of us who have been here since he came to us on Kickstarter and promised us a game unlike any other, promised to be treated like publishers, and with the recent post about suggesting those that watch the roadmap, and see removed features and get frustrated by it as being "noise" that could possibly harm the chances of new people giving him money is not treating backers with respect. Its treating us like nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet. And that, is not ok.