Amen.
Anyone who says people play the game, means they use the tech demo that is there since 2014. Shooting some AI ships in an arena. Do a race around a track, walk in an empty base, and walk in the hangar.
That's all the playable game.
@OP if you want to play now a space sim game, look towards Elite Dangerous with Horizons. Star Citizen at best will come out 2019 if not later.
Actually I just logged in and checked my Golden Ticket email (dated 11/09/2012) - I'd thought it was 10/10 as in October 2010, as that's what my ticket says in game.... It's actually 10th October 2012. Either my memory is going, or I'd never looked that closely. Apologies for that one.
Haven't really played SC it some time due to really slow internet speed for DL like it takes me 25 hours+ to download every patch. So i'm looking forward to 2.6 and beyond as it will be a legit patcher instead of having to re download the game every time they update it.