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D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice


STAR CITIZEN - LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

SANDI SHOWS HER TRUE COLORS

quote:

One enterprising Good, Beer4TheBeerGod (explains why he did it), engaged Sandi Gardiner in an epic email exchange which, if nothing else, pretty much solidifies the comments made to The Escapist magazine (article) about her attitude toward people working on this project.

In the email exchange, it is clear that she has no respect for the people who are working on the game, now those who have given them over $105M to date.

The entire email thread is up on imgur and pastebin. It has also sparked at least one media article and TV stream (at the 1hr:05 mark)

Basically, Chris Roberts spent the better part of eight hours (according to him - it could be more lies) writing up a diatribe worthy of a high-school term paper, extolling the virtues of his wife, Sandi. Yes - it was all pure bullshit.

Anyway, the revelations in this email, got me so mad, that I was invited on an Open House stream where I vented against not only her bullshit, but also at toxic Shitizen #1, Wulf Knight aka @accelerwraith aka The Wulge

NO REFUNDS. gently caress OFF

As I predicted months back, now that they have rushed to release 2.0 this past December, they are now using that lovely release as excuse for refusing refunds (1, 2). This is also the precursor to their refusal to release financials as per the ToS which they modified to extend the time for giving refunds and financial accountability.

This despite the fact that, as of this writing, they have yet to deliver even 10% (others peg it at 6.5%) of what was promised in the funding goals and the feature list.

SANDI GARDINER USING COMPANY RESOURCES FOR PERSONAL ACTING PROJECTS

quote:

Who remembers back when I was saying that Sandi was using backer funded resources to promote her acting career? It’s in two blogs that I wrote. And this was her response to one such query.

Well, some enterprising Goon put it all together last night.

If you go to her online resume, then click on the media tab, you will see a series of videos there.

The 2nd video “Full Performance Capture” is from Squadron 42 shoot.

The 4th video “Interrogation Scene” is Alex Mayberry (ex-CIG producer) as the detective.

The 5th video “Reverse the Verse” was added to a RtV video and has no relevance to that show other than her using company resources.

All of the above were shot on company premises, using company – and backer funded – equipment. Now being used on her personal ventures. In fact, the 5th video has absolutely no relevance to the game or company; and was tacked on the end of that AtV segment.

CHRIS ROBERTS ADMITS DEREK SMART WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE CRYENGINE

You can read that piece of fail over here.

CHRIS ROBERTS FAILS AT PLAYING HIS OWN GAME DURING LIVE STREAM

All that needs to be said is in this YouTube video.

THE GIZMONDO MONEY LAUNDERING CONNECTION

You can read about that over here. It's epic.

THE TOS VERSIONS

15-02-01 v1.2
13-08-29 v1.1
13-08-13 v1.0
12-09-13 v0.0

quote:

ToS v1.1 of 08/29/13

IV. Charges & Billing

RSI agrees to use its good faith business efforts to deliver to you the pledge items and the Game on or before the estimated delivery date. However, you acknowledge and agree that delivery as of such date is not a promise by RSI since unforeseen events may extend the development and/or production time. Accordingly, you agree that any unearned portion of the deposit shall not be refundable until and unless RSI has failed to deliver the pledge items and/or the Game to you within 12 months after the estimated delivery date.

A. Fundraising & Pledges

For the avoidance of doubt, in consideration of RSI’s good faith efforts to develop, produce, and deliver the Game with the funds raised, you agree that any deposit amounts applied against the Pledge Item Cost and the Game Cost as described above shall be non-refundable regardless of whether or not RSI is able to complete and deliver the Game and/or the pledge items. In the unlikely event that RSI is not able to deliver the Game and/or the pledge items, RSI agrees to post an audited cost accounting on its website to fully explain the use of the deposits for the Game Cost and the Pledge Item Cost. In consideration of the promises by RSI hereunder, you agree to irrevocably waive any claim for refund of any deposit amount that has been used for the Game Cost and Pledge Item Cost in accordance with the above.

ToS v1.2 of 02/01/15

VII. Fundraising & Pledges

RSI agrees to use its good faith business efforts to deliver to you the pledge items and the Game on or before the estimated delivery date communicated to you on the Website. However, you acknowledge and agree that delivery as of such date is not a firm promise and may be extended by RSI since unforeseen events may extend the development and/or production time. Accordingly, you agree that any unearned portion of your Pledge shall not be refundable until and unless RSI has failed to deliver the relevant pledge items and/or the Game to you within eighteen (18) months after the estimated delivery date.

For the avoidance of doubt, in consideration of RSI’s good faith efforts to develop, produce, and deliver the Game with the funds raised, you agree that any deposit amounts applied against the Pledge Item Cost and the Game Cost as described above shall be non-refundable regardless of whether or not RSI is able to complete and deliver the Game and/or the pledge items. In the unlikely event that RSI is not able to deliver the Game and/or the pledge items, RSI agrees to post an audited cost accounting on its website to fully explain the use of the deposits for the Game Cost and the Pledge Item Cost. In consideration of the promises by RSI hereunder, you agree to irrevocably waive any claim for refund of any deposit amount that has been used for the Game Cost and Pledge Item Cost in accordance with the above.

STAR CITIZEN - HOW WE GOT HERE

quote:

In July, after I got wind of the Star Citizen project in trouble, unable to deliver, backer money being wasted, I started to investigate it.

I got in touch with Chris to try and get some more details from him. He ignored both of my inquiries on LinkedIn and Facebook.

So I continued with my research and subsequently published that first blog, Interstellar Citizens.

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

Then, in what can only be described as sheer madness, they lost their minds and made it personal.

They canceled my backer account, and refunded me. Without my asking.

Then to make matters worse, they sent out a press statement about my being refunded, and my account canceled.

http://www.pcgamer.com/derek-smart-star-citizen/

Then tried to make it look like I had somehow violated their ToS for the game and the website.

Problem is:

1) I have never posted on their forums

2) I have never downloaded the game due it not being complete nor playable. They actually confirmed this in their legal response letter as mentioned in this blog.

http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/09/star-citizen-the-long-con/

Then they doubled down when Ben Lesnick in customer service, made a public forum post about it.

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/5304637/#Comment_5304637

All these actions were taken in obvious retaliation for the blog and the fact that it got widespread release in the media.

As you can now see, they simply made it worse by making themselves subject to the Streisand Effect.

They bet on my being completely vilified for writing an opinion based and technical blog. Forgetting that I have been a fixture of this industry for almost 30 years and that sort of tenure has its merits.

So I kept digging and writing. All the while Chris and Sandra kept making defamatory statements about me both in writing and in person. And there are people willing to be deposed under oath about the aforementioned statements.

Thus far, I have written the following blogs (sorted latest to oldest):

http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/10/star-citizen-the-endgame/
http://www.dereksmart.com/2015/09/star-citizen-the-long-con/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/08/sc-blackknightsmatter/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/08/interstellar-breach/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/08/interstellar-raiders/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/07/interstellar-justice/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/07/interstellar-discourse/
http://www.dereksmart.org/2015/07/interstellar-citizens/

During all this, the cult-like leaders decided they were going to wage war on me. So, well, I accepted the challenge:

Star Citizen fanatics, in addition to trying to burn my social media accounts in order to silence me, have orchestrated a protracted attack designed to harass and defame myself, my friends and my many social media followers.

Even if they succeed in burning my social media accounts, it will be of NO consequence.

They already succeeded in getting my TwitchTV channel kicked off-line two weeks ago during CitCon in order to kill my pre-planned commentary on the Star Citizen "Citizens Conned" event in Manchester. They did this by spamming the TwitchTV support queue with bogus reports, resulting in a 24hr auto-ban of the account, thus killing the planned commentary.

This week alone, they've had my Reddit account shadow-banned using dodgy and bullshit "doxing" reports which they doctored and sent to sympathetic Reddit admins. When you have a community of over 700K+ of which a sizable number are fanatics, you can expect to find them and/or their friends everywhere. It's like Scientology all over again.

And now they're trying to burn my Twitter account using the same methods.

With unwavering certainty I stand firmly on my opinion that this Star Citizen project is now an epic scam of global proportion. And it should concern all of us in gaming. That aside from the fact that recent developments have squarely moved it into the realms of MLM shenanigans; making it nothing but a desperate money grab.

I also know that I am not alone in this opinion. With over 700K+ backers, even 25% being White Knights, means that I am outnumbered.

But despite that, I will never - EVER - quit this fight. Even amid death threats I have received and which I have shared online, I will see this to the very bitter END. Anyone who was around during The Great Flamewar of the nineties, and which mostly played out on Usenet and a few online communities, knows that I'm NOT the sort of person to be trifled with. I have absolutely NO concept of the term "SURRENDER" let alone "QUIT". Especially when I know that I am onto something.

A lot of these fools don't know me and those who do, fail to realize that I have survived almost 30 yrs in this industry out of sheer passion, tenacity & resilience. People simply don't scare me. They never did.

I will win this, simply because I know that I am RIGHT. There is absolutely NO way on this God's Earth whereby RSI/CIG will EVER get away with this. They have NO choice but to come clean about this project and be held accountable for what I now believe to be the early stages of a sudden and catastrophic collapse of this project.

The White Knight minions who are behaving in a cult-like manner, are largely inconsequential to the big picture. They're just annoying.

This is a $93m+ crowd-funded project with ZERO accountability & headed by shady execs; some of who had ties to Gizmondo, a company that suddenly collapsed, after being found to be a major global money laundering operation. This is the subject of my next detailed blog, currently awaiting legal clearance prior to publication.

It is due to things like this that I have been taking legal action - with MY own money - in order to get them to provide financials as promised, so that the backers (those who aren't in a cult) are assured that the project can in fact be completed and that the crowd-funded funds have in fact been spent ON this project and NOTHING else as per clear FTC guidelines.

Instead they've attacked me; and sent out messages designed to send their mindless horde of Star Citizen White Knights to attack me and others online. In so doing, there is NO corner of the Internet where a question of accountability for this project, doesn't evoke my name. They made me the bogey man in an attempt to continue to deflect attention away from the tough questions now being asked since my first July blog. And they continue to attack ANYONE who even voices ANY sort of dissent against this project.

And these incessant attacks have been orchestrated by the White Knights heavily vested in this pipe dream and who are so fearful of ONE man, that they are willing to continue casting the Star Citizen community in a poor light in order to achieve their goals (nobody has ANY clue what that is btw).

I am going to burn ALL their JPEG ships to ashes. There will be NOTHING left by the time I am done. NOTHING.

All I did was write a series of blogs. Then they declared war.

Now we're at war.

The TL;DR version



THE ESCAPIST INVOLVEMENT

quote:

After catching wind of my ramblings, The Escapist did their own investigation and published this article and this podcast.

Which sent Chris Roberts on a complete meltdown spiral in this diatribe response.

THE SPANKING OF ORTWIN, THE RSI/CIG IN-HOUSE COUNSEL AND CO-PARTNER


THE LEGAL SHENANIGANS

quote:

I gave them until Nov 1st to comply with the three demands in the August legal letter (above).

During the month of Nov, it would have been 12 months since the promised delivery date of Nov 2014 has passed. After which they promised to refunds and provide financials. Failing to do this, subjects them to legal action which has been in the works since last month.

THE WHITE KNIGHT ABUSIVE & HARASSMENT BRIGADE

quote:

Since they declared war on me since July, and have decided to setup shop on /r/DerekSmart/ and are running a campaign from there.

I have setup a blog where I'm going to call out all of them, then update it with progress reports, moderated comments etc. All in one place. You can see a PDF copy of the first version I'm working on.

What you missed in the past 24hrs in the mega-thread. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Reddit circle-jerk 1, 2

GOONS RUIN EVERYTHING

Well, uhm, yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGRsEF953n0 // notacult. nuh-uh. at all. not even

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVuMMf-jyQ // Money Tops



Hey Reddit! Archive this!!

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For nostalgia Star Citizen: Even the Pope won't invite me to dinner to discuss religion

You can also watch the critically acclaimed Star Citizen TV pilot staring all the usual suspects.

UPDATED 04/04/2016



...and so it was on 07/06/15 that I wrote my first Star Citizen blog, Interstellar Citizens.

Since that time, amid the dreams, the lies, and the deceit, coming from the company, a lot about this disastrous project has been written, spoken, and speculated. What most people don't know is just how bad things are or that they have unequivocally lost EVERY penny they put into this project.

And through all that, I stand firm on the opinion I made back in July 2015 that "Star Citizen, as has been pitched, will never get made. Ever.".

Now, in year five and over $111M, it exists as nothing more than a glorified tech demo. It's not a pre-alpha. It's not alpha. It's not a beta. It's not a game. It's none of those things. It's a glorified CryEngine mod.

The protracted false advertising of a product in order to make money from hapless gamers, is tantamount to consumer fraud. Look it up.

Events set in motion about two weeks ago, but which have been brewing since last year, have now sealed the fate of this project. It is unrecoverable. It is unavoidable. It is an E.L.E. And it is about time we as gamers, knew the truth.

I have always stated that there is absolutely NO version of this, where they get away with this. Yet people think that these things just get resolved over night. It takes time to get to the bottom; then you have to sort through the chum. It's a process.

And I have a response to that in this encrypted code that's been working it's way through these past few days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et7hT885kWU

D_Smart fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Apr 4, 2016

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Blazing Zero
Sep 7, 2012

*sigh* sure. it's a weed joke
oh boy im getting in on this thread

e: op can you express the amount of financial damage youve done to cig in bitcoins?

Incombibulator
Dec 9, 2014

I'm ready for my close-up
Ms. Gardiner...


Grimey Drawer
Ground floor of ground zero. I'm in.

Incombibulator fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Oct 26, 2015

Mekchu
Apr 10, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS


Unfunny Poster posted:

Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Ingredients
3 pounds small red or white potatoes
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic; toss until the potatoes are well coated. Transfer the potatoes to a sheet pan and spread out into 1 layer. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until browned and crisp. Flip twice with a spatula during cooking in order to ensure even browning.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, toss with parsley, season to taste, and serve hot.

Szcwczuk posted:

Split Pea Soup

Ingredients
4 cups dried split peas
water
Ham on the bone
some thin sliced onions
some salt and pepper
Thin sliced potatoes, carports and celery.
1 palm full dried marjoram

Directions
In a large stock pot, cover peas with cold water and soak overnight.

Once peas are soaked, add ham bone, onion, salt, pepper and marjoram. Cover, bring to boil and then simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove bone; cut off meat, dice and return meat to soup. Add celery, carrots and potatoes. Cook slowly, uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Server with a really heavy bread.


I own a restaurant I guess I could post a lot of poo poo.

Hooded Reptile posted:

Napa Cabbage Salad

Ingredients:

1 head napa cabbage
1 bunch minced green onions
1/3 cup butter
1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles, broken
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce


Finely shred the head of cabbage; do not chop. Combine the green onions and cabbage in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Make the crunchies: Melt the butter in a pot. Mix the ramen noodles, sesame seeds and almonds into the pot with the melted butter. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake the crunchies in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven, turning often to make sure they do not burn. When they are browned remove them from the oven.

Make the dressing: In a small saucepan, heat vinegar, oil, sugar, and soy sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, let boil for 1 minute. Remove the pan from heat and let cool.
Combine dressing, crunchies, and cabbage immediately before serving. Serve right away or the crunchies will get soggy.

Finely shred the head of cabbage; do not chop. Combine the green onions and cabbage in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.


Prep
15 m

Cook
15 m

Ready In
30 m

edit: formatting got messed up

Hooded Reptile posted:

I made this the other day, kind of pricey though,

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds kielbasa
3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large onions)
2 cups chopped leeks, well cleaned (2 leeks, white parts only)
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 1/2 pounds small potatoes (red or white)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
2 dozen steamer clams, scrubbed
2 pounds mussels, cleaned and debearded
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, in the shell
3 (1 1/2 pound) lobsters
2 cups good dry white wine

Slice the kielbasa diagonally into 1-inch thick slices. Set aside. Saute the onions and leeks in the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed 16 to 20 quart stockpot over medium heat for 15 minutes, until the onions start to brown.

Layer the ingredients on top of the onions in the stockpot in this order: first the potatoes, salt, and pepper; then the kielbasa, little neck clams, steamer clams, mussels, shrimp, and lobsters. Pour in the white wine. Cover the pot tightly and cook over medium-high heat until steam just begins to escape from the lid, about 15 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and cook another 15 minutes. The clambake should be done. Test to be sure the potatoes are tender, the lobsters are cooked, and the clams and mussels are open. Remove the lobsters to a wooden board, cut them up, and crack the claws. With large slotted spoons, remove the seafood, potatoes, and sausages to a large bowl and top with the lobsters. Season the broth in the pot to taste, and ladle over the seafood, being very careful to avoid any sand in the bottom.

Total Time:
1 hr
Prep:
30 min
Cook:
30 min

Yield:
6 to 8 servings

Level:
Intermediate

Unfunny Poster posted:

Spring Rolls
3 c flour
1 1/2 c cornstarch
water
Roll very thin - or buy store bought wrappers


filling:
garlic crushed
onions - fried to brown
beef cube (Seasoning - Maggi)
Mix together


bean noodles - soaked 1 hour
grated carrots
grated cabbage
combine last 3 items and drain for 1 to 2 hours

Mix together:
Chicken, cut into small pieces
garlic powder
garlic onion mixture

Layer carrot mixture, chicken carrot
fold sides and roll from skinny to wide side.. Can use egg white to seal end.
Fry slightly, then bake until brown.

Sauce (aka Ha's Sauce*)

5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T olive oil
saute in wok
add 1 c water (use to rinse out food processor of chopped garlic)
add to sauteed garlic in wok
add 1/2 c vinegar (to taste)
3 T Sesame Оil
3 T Soу Sauce
3 T Gold Label Seasoning Sauce
1 C sugar (to taste)
420 g tomato paste (Rosanova)
2 1/2 c water
stir and heat
Mix 2 T corn starch with 1/2 c water. Add to sauce
bring to a boil, stirring constantly
Add 1 T Sesame oil


*named after a Vietnamese lady who was my neighbor as a kid and gave my parents the recipe


Dante80 posted:



Smyrna Stuffed tomatoes/peppers.







Ok, this one is a little difficult, but definitely worth the try. We tend to eat this a lot in the summer, together with baked potatoes.

In some parts of Greece, they tend to also add ground beef meat to the stuffing mix. I find the following recipe without meat a little better. Translating from Greek. Lets do this!

Ingredients (for 10-12 people or 7 goons.)



12 small dark green peppers
12 small tomatoes
2 ½ cups long grain rice Parboiled. Each couple (tomato-pepper) needs 2/10 cup rice. At 5 couples, you need 1 cup
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4-5 potatoes cut into pieces 3 cm
800 g. tomato juice (2 boxes)
170 g. tomato paste (2 packs of 70 gr.)
60 g. black raisin
50 g. pine cone
4 tbsp chopped parsley (half a bunch approx.)
4 tbsp chopped fresh mint (if not found, put a total of 4 tbsp dry mint)
1 tbsp dried mint
80 g. grated cheese
2 tsp sugar
200 ml. olive oil
50 ml. water
1 tbsp breadcrumbs
Salt, Pepper

5 stages and 19 steps (I said this takes a while, didn't I?)

A. Prepare and assemble the materials:

1. Put the tomatoes and peppers in a pan that you can see they fit in with some small spaces between each vegetable. This will help to fit the potatoes and decide how much extra stuffing, will eventually get into your pan.

2. Wash the tomatoes and peppers and cut the peppers stalk at its root. Throw it away, you won't need it.



3. Finely chop the onion in a food processor (if you are space rich) or a grater. Grate the cheese. Finely chop parsley and mint and finally cut the potatoes into cubes of irregular 3 cm sized pieces.



B. Prepare tomatoes and peppers:

4. You start with the peppers: Cut with a knife the lid (without getting all the way though), lift it and remove the interiors. Keep them in a bowl, this is the stuff that makes or breaks the stuffing.



5. Continue with the tomatoes: Cut the lid with a knife (again, not all the way through) and use a spoon or a curved tool (makeshift or not, are you space rich?) to empty most of the interior (jack-the-knife style). Keep the flesh and the seeds in a separate bowl.



6. Use a fork to perforate the bottom part of the vegetables (careful now). This is a very important step, because it will help keep the stuffed vegetables moist and also take in the juices from the sauce in the pan, later down the line. When finished, put them back in the pan, and place the potatoes you chopped between them, so that all veggies are upright, lids facing you with terror.



7. Now...take the insides you gutted (you murderer!), and grate them well. Put them in a bowl.



8. In this bowl, add the raisins, one canned tomato paste and the chopped mint and parsley.

C. Prepare the filling:

9. In a large deep frying pan with a little oil (always go olive) over low heat, add the onion with the sugar, stir well for a minute or so, and then add the pine nuts. Let them brown for a total of 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.

10. Add the rice and saute for 1 minute, stirring like a madman.

11. Then add the entire contents of the bowl with the tomato sauce, pepper, herbs and raisins and stir. Try to not jump into the pan yourself, the flavors are pretty baller right now.



12. Once it starts to boil, pour about 2 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper and 1.tbs dried mint. Change hands (if you are doing this properly then you have to, your first hand is too tired from continuously stirring) and...yep, keep stirring.

13. In 4-5 minutes, something wonderful happens! Most of the juice is reduced and the rice absorbs it, thus becoming the stuff(ing) of legends. When you see that, pat yourself on the back, turn off the heat and after moving the pan away from the heat, dispatch the grated cheese inside. Stir (for a last time, I promise) and your filling is ready.



D. Fill the tomatoes and peppers:

14. Before you begin, preheat the oven to 180C.

15. Pull the lids up, and using a large spoon fill each tomato and pepper until full, without pressing the contents. Leave a little margin to the rim of the vegetable, so when the rice expands in cooking, it does not overflow. If you have any filling left after the procedure (you should if you used properly sized peppers/tomatoes), then don't worry. Put in between the veggies, it will make the sauce even better!.



16. Put the caps back down, take a little tomato paste (from the second can), a sprinkle breadcrumbs and a little cheese, and put it on top of them. This is more a "LOOK AT ME, I'M FABULOUS!!1" step instead of a proper one, but its still worth it when you eat the cap afterwards.



17. Now, throw around the veggies the canned tomato juice, the rest of the tomato paste and the 50 ml of water, as well as a little salt and pepper.

18. Finally pour slowly the olive oil, both between the veggies and on their lids. You are ready for the oven (and your kitchen needs a thorough cleaning, I know T_T).



E. Cooking: 19.

Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour 40 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the oven and how "crisp" you want them the veggies (I say go for the full 2 hours, its worth it. After the first hour passes, baste the veggies with the sauce in the pan every 10 min or so.



Serving:

Ok. Now for the cruel part. Take them out of the oven, and defying the wonderful smell of mint and vegetables that breaks your nose and whispers "TAKE ME NOW, YOU HORNY BASTARD, I want me inside you!", leave at least 1 hour before serving. The juices have to get back to the veggies, you need some time to let them settle.

Best served at room temperature, accompanied with good bread and feta cheese.

For posterity sake, a before and after pic.



Hey reddit, archive this!

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

Liquid Gold

Ingredients
5 Gallons Motts Apple Juice
10 lbs Granulated Cane Sugar
4 lbs Turbinado Sugar
3 lbs Honey
10 Packets Danstar Champagne Years (2.5 cups Water)
Yeast Nutrient
2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 Tsp Cardamom

Process
1. Pour apple juice, sugar, and honey into sanitized container. Shake well.
2. Hydrate yeast with nutrient.
3. Pitch yeast. Make sure you have a blowoff tube.
4. Add spices.
5. Age until you get tired of waiting.

Notes
1. The longer you let it age, the smoother it will taste. I'm expecting this stuff to be amazing in a year.
2. This is insanely potent. 18% ABV.
3. I've done some experiments with Wyeast 4347 and it might make things a bit crisper. Still takes a lot of aging. Might try a starter with apple juice next time.
4. You'll need a massive bucket for this. I had a 6 gallon carboy and it was nearly overflowing between the honey and juice.
5. I wish I had known how to make this stuff when I was in college.

EDIT: I doubt Blarghle reads this thread but the above recipe was inspired by him.

Mekchu fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 27, 2015

flyboi
Oct 13, 2005

agg stop posting
College Slice
derek will you accept jpegs as restitution in the lawsuit

joats
Aug 18, 2007
stupid bewbie
Cool Stuff














People Fired/Quit

Sarsapariller posted:

Executive Producer Eric Peterson leaves - Just didn't want to change locations! Simple as that.

Executive Producer Alex Mayberry leaves - People change jobs! Fact of life!

Associate Producer Travis Day leaves - It's fine! Everything is fine!

Concierge Customer support Chelsea Day leaves - Well naturally she wanted to go work with him! That's normal!

Community Manager James Pugh leaves - Turnover is a regular occurrence at major development studios!

Associate Marketing Producer Alyssa Delhotal leaves - Just a- just a normal set of coincidences!

Production Coordinator Lisa Ohanian leaves - Probably just wasn't very good at the job!

The entire Foundry 42 character design team quits - Couldn't keep up with Chris's vision!

DevOps Engineer Jeffrey Parker/ Lead Character Artist David Jennison/Senior Gameplay Programmer Tom Davis/Senior 3D Artist Paul Forgy leave on the same day - Just right-sizing the company!

Lead Technical Designer Dan Tracy leaves - I SAID EVERYTHING IS FINE

Austin Team gets laid off exactly as predicted, months ago, but denied by CIG - WHY ARE YOU SPEWING GARBAGE DON'T BE A SENSATIONALIST

joats fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Oct 30, 2015

Dusty Lens
Jul 1, 2015

All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Ground floor of a new reddit archive.

Dongattack
Dec 20, 2006

by Cyrano4747
gently caress yes time to sue

AP
Jul 12, 2004

One Ring to fool them all
One Ring to find them
One Ring to milk them all
and pockets fully line them
Grimey Drawer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGRsEF953n0

No Mods No Masters
Oct 3, 2004

:justpost:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL6AHr5nvVA

lets hang out
Jan 10, 2015

Hey Derek

Blazing Zero
Sep 7, 2012

*sigh* sure. it's a weed joke

Dongattack posted:

gently caress yes time to sue

finally the foreplay is over. right?

mormonpartyboat
Jan 14, 2015

by Reene
who farted

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon
gently caress yes.

joats
Aug 18, 2007
stupid bewbie
Intense Gameplay!


Realistic Weapon Handling!


Tacticol Positioning!


Buzzword!




joats fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Oct 26, 2015

DoctorStrangelove
Jun 6, 2012

IT WOULD NOT BE DIFFICULT MEIN FUHRER!

WITNESS ME!

B_of_InfoRedux
Oct 6, 2015

WANT A MELTDOWN? KEEP READING FROM YOUR MOTHERS BASEMENTS WHILE YOU BEAT YOUR TINY DICK SECRETLY THINKING OF SANDI YOU HYPOCRITICAL PIECES OF HUMAN GARBAGE.
Oh gently caress yeah.

Edit:and a hello to the inevitable reddit assclowns too.

B_of_InfoRedux fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Oct 26, 2015

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos
Peggy sue peggy sue oh my darling i love you
Oh peggy my peggy sue
I am going to sue, oh sue sue sue oh Peggy I am going to sue you ooh ooh oh
I hate you all and I'm going to loving sue ooh ooh uh ooh ohh

Ursine Catastrophe
Nov 9, 2009

It's a lovely morning in the void and you are a horrible lady-in-waiting.



don't ask how i know

Dinosaur Gum
Ground floor.



90 Million Dollars:





















From these people:







Ursine Catastrophe fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Oct 26, 2015

Dongattack
Dec 20, 2006

by Cyrano4747

:mediocre:

Banano
Jan 10, 2005
Soiled Meat
deepak smizzra appears to be kickin it old school

VenusRedux
Oct 5, 2015
YES! I'm here for this. It will be glorious.

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
lol

Mekchu
Apr 10, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Feel free to share recipes and I'll add it to the cookbook.

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos

hold me

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
recipes and anime

good first page

Michaellaneous
Oct 30, 2013

Oh gently caress yes count me in.

derek smart Derek Smart DEREK SMART

e:
I don't want off Mr. Smarts Wild Ride.

Dusty Lens
Jul 1, 2015

All Glory unto the Stimpire. Give up your arms and legs and embrace the beautiful agony of electricity that doubles in pain every second.

Unfunny Poster posted:

Feel free to share recipes and I'll add it to the cookbook.

When the dust has settled this will be the true legacy of Star Citizen.

A Neurotic Jew
Feb 17, 2012

by exmarx
From: Chris Roberts
Sent: 01 October 2015 14:10
To: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article

John,

I was quite shocked to see the email that David Swofford forwarded to me filled with a bunch of conjecture, falsehoods and opinions of disgruntled ex-employees enflamed by Derek Smart’s personal quest to destroy Star Citizen.

I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up. We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.

So why is it for you guys? Do you really want to give a platform to Derek Smart? This is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).

Derek has a long history of finding some “big” thing to joust at just to keep himself in people’s consciousness rather than let his games do the talking. We’re not the first project where he has made it his mission to attack. Personally I think it would be much better to use that energy on his own game rather than take this path. He’s managed to rouse up enough attention that sites like yours are reporting his bile like it’s fact. You can’t pretend that the article that you published the other day was anything but a mouth piece for him. It completely repeated his narrative hook, line and sinker and mentioned plenty of out of context material in an attempt to harm the project and my reputation. I just don’t get it. The only person who is famous for being a blowhard, bully, an awful game developer and human being is Derek Smart. Just look up his history over the years. Or see how he treats people who dare to write a bug up on his current “game.” Why aren’t you doing a piece on the state of Line of Defense? Everything he accuses us of doing, he actually does himself! He’s the king of self-projection!

I’m pretty disturbed by your approach to this piece as well as the last piece Escapist published online. Why the rush to publish with or without our comments by noon today? What’s so urgent that you can’t take a little time to actually approach this like responsible journalists and do proper fact checking, get both sides of the story and only publish verifiable claims that have proof? Otherwise you’re just engaging in the same kind of campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that Derek Smart has been actively pursuing every day since he realized that he could get attention by attacking Star Citizen (as he certainly wasn’t getting any for his own game).

I’m also pretty concerned that your reporter on this is compromised and pursuing her own agenda. For someone who is a self-acclaimed Gamer Gate supporter, which last I checked was about ethics in video game journalism, she’s not been behaving or going about her business like an ethical reporter. Lizzy Finnegan appears in this tweet from Bandit@istheguy:



This is directed at a self-avowed feminist. Meantime, Bandit@istheguy is the very same person who started attacking Star Citizen on the day before your reporter wrote her article, tweeting about two people we parted ways with, then following up by retweeting the Escapist article and people who mentioned it…and then finally ending up by doxing myself, my wife and one of my daughters with this sequence of tweets.

“Bandit” is an anonymous account that was created on August 11th of this year and is almost exclusively used to aggressively attack and harass folks seen as enemies to Gamer Gate – the usual targets are all there, as are the usual proponents being retweeted. It’s notable that this account was interacting with and supporting Derek Smart when he was complaining about being blocked and reported as a harasser by two huge GG targets; Randi Harper and Briana Wu, which was another Derek Smart self-announced drama (he loves to play the victim, which he did when we refunded him publically sharing his refund email, claiming we were trying to silence him. We weren’t – we strongly believe in free speech and allow many dissenting opinions on our forums as long as they stay within standards of decency. You don’t keep someone as part of your community who is demanding you run the development differently or else he’ll sue you, especially someone who is plainly using the opportunity to attack Star Citizen for self-promotion).



Derek tweeted @1:15pm on September 24th about us letting go of staff in LA, less than an hour after we had completed the exit interviews of the two employees we were terminating (considering he’s in Florida and we’re in LA it’s not hard to connect the dots on where he got his information from). At 4:01pm “Bandit” starts mentioning people being let go.
If you look at the Twitter history of Liz and “Bandit” they frequently retweet each other’s tweets and generally reinforce each other’s views / opinions. I don’t know Liz’s personal life (nor do I care to) but based on the picture of her in “Bandit’s” tweet it is not a stretch to assume there is either a close relationship between Liz and “Bandit” or they are potentially one and the same. Which kind of calls into question these statements she made on Twitter:


Also retweeted by “Bandit” (as evidenced above).

This would explain her approach to the article, which was to pretty much take everything that Derek Smart claimed and report it without allowing us any opportunity to properly respond. Liz’s first email to David Swofford was at 744pm on the 24th, after which “Bandit,” riding into battle for his/her new friend, and Liz directly referenced Derek Smart’s claims. I didn’t see this until Friday afternoon (David works out of our Austin office, I was in our LA office) after David had a brief and rather irritated exchange with Liz (attached). I replied to him with some comments and concerns expecting David to have the opportunity to go back to Liz to further discuss some points she was bringing up that were clearly just singing out of the Derek Smart hymn book and much to my dismay and disappointment the article had already been published.

Which brings me back to my original point on all this. Why the rush to publish an article without allowing a proper round of fact and source checking? It completely feels like an agenda is being pursued. This is not the journalism that I remember from the Escapist of old. It’s click bait journalism of the lowest standard. It’s pretty ironic that it’s exactly the kind of journalism that Game Gate stands against. I’m also pretty bemused how suddenly Star Citizen and I have become the subject of attacks by a few people who associate themselves with Gamer Gate. I’m a gamer. I am making a game that gamers have overwhelmingly said they want made, to the tune of almost $90M and rising! I believe in ethics in journalism. I also believe in being inclusive to all and not being abusive to people in person or online. I don’t support either side because I believe it’s too polarizing but I believe we can do better, as gamers, as journalists and as human beings.
So why? It can’t be because we don’t buy banner ads and thusly are an easy click bait target for sensationalist pieces. I have to believe that your reporter is telling you she is onto something and you are taking her at face value and not questioning her motives or ethics.

Derek Smart is very adept at doing what he has been doing; spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He always grabs one nugget of a fact and uses that to sell a whole lot of lies and disinformation. He tweets about Star Citizen EVERY DAY. Not once but multiple times. If you read his Twitter stream it comes across as the crusade of a crazy man. He continually blogs about us. He constantly agitates…encouraging people to ask for refunds, report us to the FTC, the FBI and/or their local attorney general. He calls me a liar, a fraud, incompetent and many other names. He has slandered my family members and business partners. He has publically doxed me, sharing the address of my home in LA, pictures of my wife and five year old daughter. He constantly attacks Sandi Gardiner, accusing her of having no qualifications, or experience, that she had other people do her work for her and only has the Marketing position because she is my wife. That is incredibly ironic considering we are the most crowd funded project in history, that she wrote the marketing plan, and single handedly executed it when we were a tiny team – even today she’s the only dedicated marketing person at the company, for a game that has raised almost $90M for its development solely through viral marketing, word of mouth and PR. If you were going to criticize Star Citizen you certainly can fault us for taking longer than everyone wants, which would fall on the development side of the company but not marketing! The icing on the cake is that she has five degrees and speaks five languages, which I am willing to bet makes her a lot more qualified than Derek Smart is!

You have to ask yourself why? What does he have to gain? He didn’t like how I was running Star Citizen? Fine, he has his money back. He has no active claim in the game, nor would I ever want someone like him to be part of our community. I have never met Derek Smart, nor do I ever care to. I have never done anything personally to him. Yet he has continued to wage a FUD campaign on Star Citizen, the company making it and its community since July. He actively tries to destroy the hard work that I and everyone else making the game have put in to this project. He wants to tear down something that close to one million people have put their hopes and dreams into. Is it ego? A sense of self-importance? The fact that he’s getting attention again after being in the wilderness? It’s probably not a coincidence that he’s actively courted the Gamer Gate crowd, while professing to remain neutral since he started attacking Star Citizen. It’s also probably not a coincidence that he’s been using the buzz words “accountability” and “ethics” when attacking us as he knows in today’s internet world, where almost no one actually does the research to find the real facts that hyperbole sticks and people love to tweet an instant response to an attention grabbling statement on Twitter.

Derek Smart publishes blogs where he talks about lawsuits and how’s he going to take us down. He’s going so far as to publically share a letter with some pretty silly requests from his supposed lawyer (he seems unable to sign these letters), regardless of the fact we haven’t received the letter. In his latest blog he linked to a letter from his “lawyer” that was dated September 14th. We only received it yesterday, on September 30th! And it was post marked September 22nd! If you know anything about real legal discourse you would know that it stays behind closed doors. You don’t publish this kind of communication as it will prejudice any possible case. What he is doing is just a publicity ploy to get headlines from journalists who don’t know any better and to worry Star Citizen backers into thinking he’s going to legally give us troubles. And this is exactly his FUD plan – scare enough people, tell enough lies, round up the occasional angry ex-employee to help pour fuel on the fire to give him some semblance of credibility. We are not afraid of Derek Smart. We have nothing to hide and are very confident in our ability to defend ourselves against anything he may try to bring. But my bet is he won’t – he’s full of hyperbole. He claims he’s made over $200M in royalties from his games as recently as a week ago (I don’t think I have to go into why this is a complete lie). He also says frequently that he’s worth over $100M, or that he has two PhDs, or that back in July he was taking out a full page ad in The New York Times to expose us. He says a lot of things to get attention and for some reason people don’t call him on it. You may say, “Well don’t shoot the messenger,” but when the messenger is delivering his own message, then I think it’s perfectly fair to question that persons motives and credibility.

And you know what? If he was a decent person he would state his opinion and then sit back and see if it actually plays out, which at that point perhaps he would be vindicated. Instead he is actively trying to make his prophesy come true, using whatever dirty tricks he can muster. Why?



So he’s trying to put 261 people out of a job and destroy the dreams of almost a million people? For a personal vendetta? To gain some notoriety? Because he’s jealous that people love my games and ridicule his?

I’m just a passionate game developer making the game of my dreams. I am lucky enough to be supported by a huge community of gamers that has contributed a large amount of money to make a game that no publisher would dream of making. We have a very large team, most of which share my passion and dream. Yes, there will always be people who don’t fit in with the work and dedication that the dream demands and some of them will be resentful when they part ways, but I am in this to make something that will stand the test of time, much like Wing Commander has. When reaching for the stars there are bound to be a few bumps and delays on the road. You’ve covered games for a long time. You know that games, especially big complicated ones always have hiccups and are frequently subject to unforeseen delays. We aren’t even at the three year mark of full development (we didn’t open up the first development office in Austin with 15 people until February 2013). Projects of half our scope frequently take four to five years.

We are a very public project and rely on the goodwill of gamers to exist. Having a negative article that includes the views or comments of a small number of disgruntled ex-employees with their own opinions on whether things were run well or not, especially when they will be shielded behind anonymity, could give people an impression of the project and company that is 100% false, especially if we are not part of the story. This would be far more damaging to us than a normal developer or publisher. I know that this kind of material is great for clicks but you also have to remember that we are talking about the jobs of 261 people and numerous contractors. Every time a game studio shuts down every outlet and commenter is quick to lament the state of the game industry. Every time a big public company pushes out a game quickly to make the holiday season everyone laments about lack of ambition and taking the audience for granted. Here you have a 100% gamer funded project on the PC, a platform that almost every publisher ignored or pushed crappy console ports to and you have a game in a genre that everyone said was dead to a level that no publisher would dare to – and you want to harm it? Shouldn’t the press be cheering on these kinds of games? The gamers spoke. They wanted something as big and ambitious as Star Citizen. I will deliver it – I have never in my life worked this hard – including when I was 20 and making Wing Commander. There is a huge group of very talented game developers who all share this vision, who are all working as hard as possible to deliver a game that will make all the backers happy. So I implore you to think twice about going for something that while it may be fun to see Rome burn…isn’t in the best interests of the game, the employees of CIG or the 987,217 members of our community. You may say that if it isn’t true what is the harm but we both know in today’s world that’s not how it works, the truth will be lost behind the click bait headlines and the damage will be done.

In an effort to be complete and also answer the talking points you sent David here are my responses;

-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.

CR: How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it’s what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn’t make a good game with $200m so I don’t think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it despite the inaccurate rumours perpetuated by Derek Smart.

-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.

CR: What concerns expressed prior to launching the Kickstarter? The small, tight team that put together the KS campaign and worked on the technical demo are all very much still at CIG and none of these people had any doubt. And judging from the record breaking campaign which is the biggest crowd funded project (not just game) in history I would say that there’s a large amount of people that also didn’t have these concerns. So may I ask where did these concerns come from?

-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.

CR: Is this the FAQ line you’re talking about?

The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences.
You will notice that this is saying that we would only be able to deliver Squadron 42, not the bigger game without additional funding. If you refer to the stretch goals you will notice that the base goal was enhanced community content (delivered), alpha dogfighting module (delivered) and Squadron 42 (in progress). That was the base game as described. The full persistent universe and all the extra features like FPS boarding, multiple star systems to visit, extra ships and so on are all stretch goals. As is true with most projects when the scope changes so do the timelines, you can’t build a castle in the same time you would a wood shed no matter how much money or how many people you have. To try to make some kind of narrative about how we promised the game in two years no matter how big the scope grew is false. Could we have shipped a small scale 30 mission game in the old Wing Commander format in two years? Yes, but that’s not the game the community wants or the game we’re building. What we are delivering now, just on the Squadron 42 side is more akin to a huge AAA game that would retail for $60 by itself. The value for money that people are getting for a $40 pledge is pretty crazy.

-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).

CR: All personnel and HR matters are obviously completely private and we can’t comment on this as a matter of principle. As always, there are two sides to each story.

-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).

CR: No crowdfunding monies are used for any private purposes – these allegations are completely false and defamatory. This is pure innuendo for nefarious purposes and I guarantee that anyone making this claim will be unable to show any proof of it as it simply hasn’t happened. Ever since Wing Commander came out I’ve been lucky enough to be financially independent, driven nice cars and lived in nice houses. That’s due to money earned through royalties, the sale of Origin to Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil to Microsoft and prudent investing. So why are people making a deal about me having these things now? I also find the continued attack on Sandi fairly alarming. Why is she being singled out? Because she’s my wife? A woman? Yes, she’s also an actress and there’s nothing wrong with her also engaging in one of her passions after hours or outside of work. We let employees play games of D&D in our conference room in the evenings or weekends. I don’t see attacks from Derek Smart about how this is a waste of company resources (and it is not his to comment on or judge anyhow).

-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.

CR: The opposite is true. CIG benefited from pre-existing software that Turbulent had developed. Our JV with them allowed us access to cheaper rates and bound an important part of Star Citizen closer to CIG, which are both beneficial to CIG and the backers. Per our agreement Turbulent is of course free to offer their technology to other customers.

-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.

CR: Where does this come from? Has anyone given you examples of “big name” actors or numbers? It’s completely incorrect – we paid appropriate rates for normal VO work for the commercials. Now for Squadron 42 we do have a really great cast, which we will announce in a week from Saturday, but that was one of our stretch goals so it would be a bit rich to accuse us of mismanagement there!

“Squadron 42 will feature celebrity voice-acting including at least one favorite from Wing Commander”

-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”

CR: Anybody even with minimal knowledge about game development can assess the significant progress by looking at the released modules and the detailed monthly reports from each development studio. We have a massive team, working flat out to build something special for everybody. We feel like we’ve made huge strides and have completed a good portion of the underlying technology that will enable us to make Star Citizen the game that your sources say can’t be made. I don’t know how someone could say with a straight face that they felt “they were making commercials, not a game.” In fact we haven’t had a ship commercial since last year! As an aside the commercials were used as a fun milestone to make sure everyone got the ship to final game quality, and it focused the artists on finishing the work for public consumption, which in turn helps with getting more final assets in the game sooner. It was also a great way to build the lore of the universe of Star Citizen up, which is a universe we intend to continue to expand for many years to come.

-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them

CR: In every project I’ve done and others I’ve witnessed it’s a very common tendency for people to want more staff to help finish the job. It’s always that way until the game is finally done. Under Erin’s leadership at head of Global Production we’ve re-organized to make things more efficient (which is really what started this flap in the first place) and we are in a hiring mode (which you can see by our open positions) which shows that we are working to address these concerns. We have ten confirmed new hires that will start this month alone and offers out to several more candidates.

-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.

CR: I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can’t even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more “game” than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone – from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone’s opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this “concern”.

-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.

CR: Where are you getting this from? Have you guys really looked at what you can do right now in the game? You’ve been able to walk around your hangar since August of 2013. I’m pretty sure that was a complete character walking around rather than a mass hallucination. We have multiple characters in the game and are working on a lot more (of which some will be seen at Citizen Con).

-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.

CR: This is completely false. We’ve actually made public statements to this fact. All Austin employees have been advised of a fairly minimal restructuring where some roles have been moved to LA or Europe for overall team efficiency. The majority of our Texas employees will remain in the Austin studio (indefinitely, by the way). As I’ve mentioned previously we are actually increasing our worldwide headcount in order to complete the game as effectively as possible. I would hope that the backers want us to be constantly trying to increase efficiency and making the hard choices that will benefit the game.

-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game

CR: It’s about making a great game. Crowd funding is just a tool that allows us to do it with freedom that you would not normally have with a traditional publisher. So no it’s always about the game.

-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”

CR: This is the statement that really makes my blood boil. If any current employee feels this way they should not be working on Star Citizen or at CIG! I suspect these are the words of a few bitter ex-employees trying to stir trouble but I consider it a privilege and an honor to have so many people support myself and the team in making the game of all our dreams. I have nothing but gratitude to our backers for their support and patience and nothing but respect for the CIG team giving their all to make this game. Anyone who doesn’t feel this is welcome to the door, and as you must now realize there have been a few people who haven’t shared the same passion or love and now resent being called out for it.

Ok, there you go.

I would like to point out that ever since I got your email from David I have been working on this response. I worked on this until 5am last night, and a couple more hours this morning in the UK, where I am currently am in preparation for CitizenCon in a week from Saturday. Conservatively it’s taken me about eight hours to write. This is time I could have spent working on the game instead of dealing with a Derek Smart instigated drama. And this is really what annoys me – that his silly rantings occasionally gain traction and pull me away from the very thing I prefer to do and the very thing everyone wants me to do and the very thing Derek Smart accuses me of not doing – FINISHING THE GAME! By constantly tweeting, writing blogs and soliciting journalists in the background to report his “findings” he’s waging guerrilla warfare on my time, the time of other key executives, and the peace of mind of our employees and backers.

I would ask you to think hard about this in the context of what you guys have been considering running with. What do you hope to achieve by running with an article like this? What good do you hope will come out of it? Are you looking to cast assertions on our chance of success? What’s the point of unfounded conjecture and innuendo from biased parties? People say we will not deliver the game we’ve promised. So? Shouldn’t you just let us get on with it? If it falls apart they will be vindicated, if not we will be. I don’t know any other project that gets the level of scrutiny that we get in the development phase. Every day I have to deal with thousands of arm chair CEOs and developers mostly because we are the most open game development project in history. I have no problem with our community having its opinion on various facets of our development but when our openness is used against us by a small number of outside agitators harbouring ill will against us, it becomes incredibly frustrating and detrimental to my ability to deliver the game as promised.

If you guys are willing to do a proper piece then I’m happy to engage. You’re invited to visit all of our four studios, meet the developers making the game and see how we’re building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand. I’ll put my 261, their passion and energy against the complaints of a few disgruntled ex-employees any day. We have backers visit the offices all the time, they all come away with the same impression – that the entire team is dedicated to making the best game possible – if you took the time to research this you will find that it is a common comment and that the “noise” that has been generated is really from a very small number of people and some quite bitter ex-employees.

-Chris

A Neurotic Jew fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Oct 26, 2015

3
Aug 26, 2006

The Magic Number


College Slice
aww yiss

reddit this, archive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88WL5MX1Co8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0RvCN3gYJA

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
hey reddit, archive this

middle finger ascii

alarumklok
Jun 30, 2012

what does white knight even mean anymore?

program666
Aug 22, 2013

A giant carnivorous dinosaur
posting in the first page

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003


Mekchu
Apr 10, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Dusty Lens posted:

When the dust has settled this will be the true legacy of Star Citizen.

I should make a Kickstarter for a real one that is put together. It'll take about two weeks.

peter gabriel
Nov 8, 2011

Hello Commandos
resevered

AP
Jul 12, 2004

One Ring to fool them all
One Ring to find them
One Ring to milk them all
and pockets fully line them
Grimey Drawer

:ironicat:

it dont matter
Aug 29, 2008

Does anyone have a good recipe for leg of pork? I have a pig leg in the fridge and need to do something with it.

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Ursine Catastrophe
Nov 9, 2009

It's a lovely morning in the void and you are a horrible lady-in-waiting.



don't ask how i know

Dinosaur Gum
For posterity:

Enchanted Hat posted:

I know that there is an entire subforum dedicated to it!

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/categories/star-citizen-role-play

That's not the real gold, though. The good poo poo is in the Star Citizen fan art subforum: https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/categories/fan-art

https://forums.robertsspaceindustri...ithin-the-teams. The pictures in this thread look like something out of a serial killer's basement. I don't even know what some of these are supposed to be.

hail the victorious dead, taken from the internet before their time

and returned in glorious chariots of light






























Ursine Catastrophe fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Oct 27, 2015

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