It is undeniable that the game LOOKS great. I pledged $100 ten years ago and that got me access to SC and the single player campaign (lol) Squadron 42. Since then, I've played the game a ton by myself, with friends. Exploring around, stealing peoples ships, doing missions, dogfighting, racing... I've had a lot of fun over the years and I don't feel like for the equivalent of $10 a year I've been scammed.
The game is only $45 to buy into today, and there's hundreds of hours of content to explore already. Ships can be purchased with in-game money, no need to purchase anything with real cash. I don't see what the fuss is about.
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With games like Fire Emblem Heroes, FF7 Ever Crisis, NBA 2k, and so many others designed to fomo the shit out of you until you cough up tons of money... I don't see why Star Citizen in particular always gets the bad rap.
The fact of the matter is, for $45 you can play hundreds of hours of Star Citizen right now and never pay anything else in the game and still do everything there is to do.