There has been an absolute mountain of work done on Star Citizen, it's just not in the areas you would expect. As far as I can tell, all the money went into building an engine that generates more money which in turn allows the project to drag on, with all other considerations being secondary.
That doesn't mean they're not working on an actual game (or games), but it follows that almost all the effort goes into the in-game asset sales funnel. Creation of new assets and selling them.
What you and I would likely consider core parts of game development, namely focusing on technology and gameplay, has never been a priority except in short bursts. But even during those short burst of priorization, development seems to have been hampered by duplication of effort, incompetent programming, and absent project management. Judging by what's being accomplished, the often-repeated reasoning of "it's just very complex and ambitious" is not enough of an explanation. On top of this, I believe there is actually a disincentive of making gameplay progress too quickly, because much like many SV startups there is probably more value in keeping the unicorn phase going.
That being said, I don't think SC is a scam. It's just a victim of its overall design in some respects, while continuing to be very successful financially.
That doesn't mean they're not working on an actual game (or games), but it follows that almost all the effort goes into the in-game asset sales funnel. Creation of new assets and selling them.
What you and I would likely consider core parts of game development, namely focusing on technology and gameplay, has never been a priority except in short bursts. But even during those short burst of priorization, development seems to have been hampered by duplication of effort, incompetent programming, and absent project management. Judging by what's being accomplished, the often-repeated reasoning of "it's just very complex and ambitious" is not enough of an explanation. On top of this, I believe there is actually a disincentive of making gameplay progress too quickly, because much like many SV startups there is probably more value in keeping the unicorn phase going.
That being said, I don't think SC is a scam. It's just a victim of its overall design in some respects, while continuing to be very successful financially.