Someone has spent $30,000 on Star Citizen, and says he'll spend more

PC Gamer has an interview with a Star Citizen fan who has spent $30,000 — you heard that figure correctly — and it is a must-read for anyone with any interest in the ongoing story of the most crowdfunded video game in history.

The gamer, whose handle is Ozy311, describes taking on second jobs in real life to come up with the money (he says he hasn't financed anything) and calls Star Citizen creator Chris Roberts one of the three most influential persons in his life. (The other two also are not relatives.) He weighs in against accusations hurled at Roberts and his studio following a year of delays to core components of the game.

Even better, Ozy311 says he knows he'll end up spending more money. Really, read the entire interview. Regardless of how you feel about Star Citizen, it is transfixing and worth your attention.

Few games that haven't yet launched have achieved this kind of controversy like Star Citizen. However, the $94 million Cloud Imperium Games has collected from donors since October 2012 makes indefinite delays to things like the Star Marine first-person module a lot more serious than the usual setbacks that many big games face.

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What the hell is going on with Star Citizen?

Star Citizen's full launch is due sometime next year. Meantime, Cloud Imperium has rolled out parts of the full game to donors meantime, including the Arena Commander space dogfighting module in June 2014.

Star Citizen has hawked a fleet of virtual ships at prices of $110, $250, $400 and even higher. Cloud Imperium has hired on big-name actors for its voice-overs and cinematics, yet Roberts deliberately won't offer a timeframe beyond "the near future" for the launch of a new wide-ranging module that includes the promised first-person-shooter features.

Cloud Imperium at first said Star Marine's module would launch this spring, then pushed the timeframe into late summer. Roberts and Cloud Imperium have insisted the prior timeframes they had given were informal commitments only.

Polygon has its own in-depth discussion with major figures in Star Citizen's creation, in particular Roberts, who has lashed out at criticisms of the game as driven by obsessed axe-grinders. Still, Roberts is making the game, so of course he is all in. It's quite another to hear the same thing from a person who gave him $30,000 to do it.