This is why I never bothered with Em8er despite how much I enjoyed Firefall back in the day. I wasn't about to put any funds into it until I saw actual gameplay--I could smell the bullshit.
You don't mismanage a game to the point of it shutting down and then immediately start asking for crowdfunding towards bringing the same thing back under a different name and with none of the lore players originally got attached to, and that's me describing Em8er
generously. Firefall wasn't all that polished or even ever really in a release-ready state, but it had heart even despite the perpetual beta it was (and the infamous bullshit done in its name, like that stupid $3-million eSports bus). It had an original premise, interesting worldbuilding, and fun gameplay. I sunk hundreds of hours into it and thoroughly enjoyed my time with no regrets. And more than that? I never even paid a fucking
dime to be able to enjoy it. As far as F2P games went, it was one of the more respectable ones I'd ever played.
Em8er at
most was a fapbait-delivery system wearing its skin, because that was the totality of what few shreds of a tangible product we ever actually saw from it. Supposedly there were private gameplay builds, but they were only given to those who coughed up the cash for certain ridiculously-overpriced supporter tiers and they weren't allowed to reveal
anything about them, making me doubt how far development ever actually got. By the end, all the pitch appeared to boil down to was "just keep giving us more money, and we'll keep sending you 'concept art' of exclusive in-game skins you've allegedly secured... meaning we pulled random artists off the internet to draw some vaguely scifi-themed tits and ass and called it preview content". And while I like a good skintight bodysuit pic as much as anyone, I have plenty of other avenues to see that stuff which don't keep demanding my money, especially when that wasn't even what I came to this particular product for in the first place. And Kern himself has just become more and more of a right-wing social media grifter over time, because that seems to be the default remedial career path these days for the sorts of washouts who couldn't even manage to scam people properly. And to think his name once commanded a good deal of respect.
... I'd still enjoy if someone were to start Firefall's servers back up, however. Just saying...