BMan posted:

For gently caress's sake just stop

Truga posted:

All that ketchup

Truga posted:

All that ketchup

Dusty Lens posted:

No don't you're like two posts away from unlocking the key to sending AP into a doom spiral keep at it.

peter gabriel posted:

Has anyone got any opinions of refunds and elite dangerous and star citizen?

Truga posted:

Ketchup or Mayonnaise?

Iron Tusk posted:

Except whatever flavor those exxxxxxxxxxtreme sauces have, it's lost when it just feels like you are eating liquid knives. Spicy is good, spicy to the point of not being able to taste any other part of your food is reserved for lovely wing places.

Hezzy posted:

all I did was point out on a status that it was lovely of RSI to charge people money to receive development information first

Dusty Lens posted:

A buddy was just informed that they would refund half of his account.

They asked him to choose which pledges he would like to have refunded. Maybe someone recently read Sophie's Choice during a community interaction retreat.

He's going to talk to his bank tomorrow, though he issued an email asking after this policy.

Raskolnikov posted:

Strangely enough CIG also offered me half my account back. What is with "half" and CIG?

Dusty Lens posted:

CIG did the same with me. It just happened to be nearly the dollar exact "value" of the pledges in my hangar and more than I expected to receive so I had no trouble pulling the trigger.

Romes128 posted:

im surprised they havent elevated star citizen past a regular old AAA game like calling it a AAAA game or something stupid like that.

ShredsYouSay posted:

Ketchup is great though. Put in some redcurrant jelly, and it is wonderful.

Romes128 posted:

im surprised they havent elevated star citizen past a regular old AAA game like calling it a AAAA game or something stupid like that.

Karl_Ramseier posted:

SC is a triple AAA production and you just repeated and confirmed what he said, dumbass.

Mirificus posted:

It also doesn't make their development process any more "open". Speaking of subscriptions:

LuiCypher posted:

Condiments that you should try if you haven't already:

Ketchup - Only Heinz will do. Get the stuff with actual sugar instead of corn syrup, as I think sugar has a cleaner finish than HFCS.
HP Sauce - Is the boss. Way better on fries than ketchup, but not as good as...
Kewpie Mayonnaise - Despite looking like it's packaged for Seraph's tastes, this is way better than anything you can normally buy in 'Murica.
Chipotle-based Hot Sauces - Hot Sauce? Good. Smoky flavor? Good. Both together? loving awesome.
Okonomi Sauce - A traditional pairing with Kewpie on okonomiyaki, it's sweet and has a distinct enough tang to it that I put it on my eggs instead of ketchup for some variety. Tonkatsu sauce will also work quite nicely.
Spicy Mustard - Don't use the yellow stuff.
Honey Mustard - For when you have to use the yellow stuff.

quote:

This month in 2012, 34,297 of us crowd-funded what appeared to be an outstanding space combat project by a self-proclaimed visionary.

That game was Star Citizen.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/description

We did that despite the fact that said "visionary", Chris Roberts, had not even worked on a game in over a decade. He had not only left behind a trail of badly managed projects, a reputation for never delivering on lofty promises, but also one failed studio. His brother's studio, which had also worked on some of his games, also failed (bought by the guys behind the Gizmondo money laundering fiasco) years later.

After leaving the gaming industry in defeat, back in Hollywood, said visionary seemingly repeated the same mistakes through a series of horrid sub-par movies - including a Wing Commander movie. The end result was the operational collapse of said studio, Ascendant Pictures which ended up selling its assets to a third-party studio.

If you are beginning to see a pattern here, pat yourself on the back.

Having reportedly failed to obtain investor funding and the rights to Wing Commander, Chris decided to create the Star Citizen IP instead.

Returning to an industry that had since moved on, he managed to get over $2m from us forgiving types who believe that everyone deserves another chance. All that through lofty promises; NONE of which, four years and $95m later, have thus far been kept. In fact, last we checked, not even 10% of what was promised (see below), has thus far been delivered.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals

He had subsequently gone out and hired some of the best (no Ben and Lando don't count. They're just dedicated pawns on a short leash) people in the business. Then him and his wife (which was kept a secret until I made it public), Sandra Roberts aka Sandi Gardiner, reportedly proceeded to treat them unprofessionally.

We all believed in that original "vision 1.0" dream. But then, Chris being Chris, did what he always does: he screwed it all up by not only reneging on promises made, but also by extending the scope of the project to "vision 2.0". All that, knowing fully well that 1) they didn't even have the tech to build such a game 2) there was no way in hell that scope of a game - as pitched - could <strong>ever</strong> be developed

Having FAILED to deliver on even a "vision 1.0" game, Chris and his wife and partner, Ortwin (a media attorney in CA), figured out that there was money to be made in selling PICTURES OF SHIPS (as in JPEGS) instead of actually bothering to deliver a GAME to the people who had, in good faith, PAID for it. All the while subjecting backers to Sunk Cost Fallacy that seemingly forces them to keep funding a "dream" that has since turned into a nightmare for everyone who isn't acting like they're in a cult.

Most of those assets being sold as pictures, are not only for a non-existent game, but they haven't even been built for implementation in said game.

Then, as a slap to the face of backers of this project, in Feb 2015, they surreptitiously made a "material" change to the very TOS which they had written prior and which offered some comfort and confidence to those who kept backing the project. That being, if they failed to deliver the project within 12 months from the projected delivery date (Nov 2014), that they would i) issue refunds ii) provide accounting for where the money went.

Amid accusations of malfeasance, dishonest practices, fraudulent inducement and everything in between, not only have they FAILED to make good on ANY of these promises, but even the very people now trying to get their money back, have been met with lots of resistance. To the extent that, in some cases, not only has it taken almost a month to refund, but they are also reported to be routinely offering people half or less than the money they invested in this project. That aside from the fact that, suspiciously, some people are getting refunds from corporate entities they didn't even give money to. And in some cases, single refund have been coming from multiple entities.

In July, after I heard rumblings about the project being in trouble, I decided to do some research, talk to industry contacts etc. The picture was bleak; so I decided to write about it in order to bring awareness to what was going on. That first blog, Interstellar Citizens, was then picked up by the media.

http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/

This is what happened next:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sniofq

Amid all this, all they have "delivered" thus far, is neither a "game", nor anything that is remotely like the game they promised, but rather a series of half-baked and buggy modules. The sort of things that game modders do on a whim. Namely:

1) Hangar. Where you get to view your ships. Except that it's nothing but a staging area. And nothing else. Plus you can't view all your ships in it.

2) Arena Commander. A dogfighting app that, even after 18 months is buggy, sub-par and has very few players (out of over 700K backers)

3) Social/Planetside. A level (out of 100 promised) that is as bland, as it is empty. And with no redeeming gameplay related qualities

And they haven't met a SINGLE delivery deadline. Not one.

Plus, there are whales who have upwards of $30K invested in this game. These are same people who keep putting money into the game.

And through it all, the extremist supporters of the game are the most anti-social and abusive in all of gaming. And that's saying something. Attacking anyone and everyone - media and/or gamers alike - that voices any sort of dissent toward the game, they continue to bring toxicity to the game's community. And these are some of the people who, if this game ever comes out, that those who just wanted to support and play a game, will be dealing with. Who will want to be a part of that? Yet, they wonder why people are now clamoring for refunds.

In August, as part of my quest for accountability and to bring awareness to this train wreck, I retained three law firms to help wade through this. One of them sent a demand letter to the creators of this project. Rather than offer a response and/or resolution, instead they sent back a derogatory response which you can read over in this blog:

http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/10/star-citizen-the-endgame/

To make things worse, merely months later when some in the media, as well as in gaming proper started paying attention and taking a long hard look at the state of the project, The Escapist wrote a scathing article.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/14715-CIG-Employees-Talk-Star-Citizen-and-the-State-of-the-Company

The largely incoherent 'response' from the CEO of a $95m crowd-funded project reads like a kindergarten rant written by someone high on a controlled substance or off their meds.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14979-Chairmans-Response-To-The-Escapist

It gave yet another view of the sort of people we're now dealing with. Not to mention the follow-up baseless legal threat communicated to The Escapist by Ortwin, the media "attorney" partner in this project.

https://popehat.com/2015/10/04/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-threaten-lawsuits/

None of this should have come as a surprise, given the type of people we're now dealing with and who have been showing their true colors these past months of intense scrutiny and questioning.

As things stand, the project is in trouble. It's late. What's been delivered thus far is mostly a broken mess. The studios are going through layoffs, people are quitting, being terminated etc. And that's just the half of it.

Through all this, the WASTEFUL SPENDING of backer money continues. Ranging from repeated iterations of once completed game assets and tech, to relocating teams to more expensive States; building new offices; spending millions of dollars on the same tech (MoCap, fps module) which bears very little relevance to the game being made; paying late filing fees for UK studios financials; spending money on investigators and legal in taking actions which amount to intimidation and harassment etc. It is a very, very long list we've compiled.

And this was billed as an indie studio that set out to make a game for a group of hardcore fans who were ready, willing and able to fund it to fruition.

To make things worse, in October's CitizenCon event, Chris Roberts, despite previously going on the record as saying the game will be completed and delivered in 2016, stated that he was no longer giving backers delivery schedules for the project. And just like that, what little accountability for this $95m project was left, went out the window. It all translates to: "We've got your money, gently caress you very much, we don't owe you poo poo"

By all accounts and given current trends, this project is on track to be a sudden and CATASTROPHIC COLLAPSE, resulting in the loss of backer money. And there is seemingly nothing that anyone can do about it.

Three years ago this month, nobody saw this coming.

Discuss in my feed or in this forum update where this was originally posted

http://www.dereksmart.org/forums/topic/star-citizen-year-four/

Stanko-Prussian posted: