Some people have spent a lot of money on the game - have you ever thought about putting in a spending limit?asked by Tom Phillips
TL;DRChris Roberts doesn't directly address a spending limit, saying nobody needs to spend more than the base amount and that most backers paid the minimum, with big spenders being a minority.
I know some people don't think we say it, but I do - you don't need to spend any more than the base amount. That's all you need. I definitely think there are some people out there who just like the idea of supporting this. For them it's their hobby. I have friends who aren't necessarily into computer games but maybe they're into golf, which can be a pretty expensive hobby. I like to play games, I don't buy antique cars and restore them, or play golf, or any other middle-aged person's hobby. So I figure I'll spend a couple thousand dollars on games, I'll budget where I'm going to spend that, on World of Warcraft or EVE Online or whatever, because I like what's happening and I want to support them. It's nice to have that level of support, but by far the majority of the people who have backed it have paid $40. What happens is, it's much more of a headline to write about a person who's spent $100 or $1000. Longer term, people who have spent a decent amount of money in the game will have more value than if they'd spend $1000 or $10k on a Kickstarter and got to have dinner with a developer. Most of our stuff is related to the ships you have, and dollar to the actual in-game cost, the money cost is significantly less than the in-game cost. Some of these ships, like the Idris, are massive capital ships. As an individual, maybe Bill Gates could afford a carrier. Nations buy those things, not individuals. That's part of the appeal - ships in Star Citizen are so fully-realised. I would love to be Roman Abramovich hanging out in the south of France but I don't have that much cash.
I definitely do not.
There's a very small number of people in the world who have that. But in Star Citizen maybe you've got yourself a billionaire's yacht. It's a big-ass ship and you can have all your friends over to hang out. People set a value to this virtual space and for whatever reason they like spaceships more than other things.