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Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon

Colostomy Bag posted:

Yeah, sometimes poo poo happens.

All of us have hosed up one way or another.

5912 comments

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Banano
Jan 10, 2005
Soiled Meat

runsamok posted:

£2500 was the liquidation price. It was initially listed at £3500

christ alive. He probably should have posted a theoretical spec list and promised to bespoke build it within 1.5 - 2 years

Mirificus
Oct 29, 2004

Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

Sarsapariller posted:

I had just made significantly more than that selling off the old ships so it didn't feel like such a big deal at the time. They'd put out a major leap forward and I was still having fun.

In retrospect it was a blisteringly stupid thing to do and I deserve all of the mockery I am receiving.
While what you did was unwise to say the least, I do hope you get your money back. I think you said 2.0 convinced you to buy back in. What convinced you seek a refund again?

Tijuana Bibliophile posted:

Are you well friend? Nobody should swim the length of the Brown Sea as long and as far as you have. Please rest at times and for heaven's sake don't drink the water.
Joking aside, I'm not even inclined to spend the $5 it would take to see the regular backer forums. Going through the regular forums takes enough time already. If I did have a Concierge account though, it would be interesting to see the associated forum.

Colostomy Bag
Jan 11, 2016

:lesnick: C-Bangin' it :lesnick:


Son, you can work my shields in my Javelin anytime. Just hit F-12 or what the fuckever key and hopefully we are within the same five instances to fully staff this spacecraft.

Tippis
Mar 21, 2008

It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Banano posted:

Except he was asking £2500 which equates to about $3600

In fairness to him, it probably wasn't exactly unreasonable to think that at least one citizen would be willing to stump up for it.

Sure, the asking price is silly regardless. As far as the $↔£ conversion, I only looked at the US prices. I vaguely recall that, after tariffs and taxes, UK hardware prices are effectively the same as US prices, only with a different currency symbol in front of it? If that's still the case, then $/£1,000 in parts might have been almost close to kind of reasonable, had it used up-to-date components.

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
so the next 'big' mmo coming out is black desert and im thinking about getting it but idk

Mirificus
Oct 29, 2004

Kings need not raise their voices to be heard

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/44rrne/i_just_caught_a_top_racer_intentionally_damaging/

RagnarokZ
May 14, 2004

Emperor of the Internet

Eonwe posted:

so the next 'big' mmo coming out is black desert and im thinking about getting it but idk

There is no "next big mmo", there is only the next new Free-to-Play abomination.

fuctifino
Jun 11, 2001

I was chatting with a non goon friend about Star Citizen, and the subject steered towards the gizmondo scam of 2008. He said something about the Phantom Gaming console, and as a joke, wondered if anyone in SC was involved with that. I'd never heard about the Phantom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Entertainment

quote:

Infinium Labs was founded by Tim Roberts in 2002 as a private company.

Some of you are more clued-up about gaming history, so someone please tell me that's not a relative of Crobber?

quote:

On May 16, 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Phantom Entertainment founder and former CEO Timothy Roberts of running a "pump and dump" scheme in promoting the Phantom console in 2004.[20] The Phantom lost credibility in the gaming and business worlds due to the repeated pushing back of its release date and financial scandals involving Phantom Entertainment, which lost more than $62.7 million since its creation.[21]

e: I found a pic:

fuctifino fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Feb 9, 2016

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

Ash1138 posted:

Sarsapariller made a real bad decision, but I keep seeing posts in here saying that 2.0 shows "potential" or whatever. It's all smoke and mirrors and some of y'all still have hope that it'll become a real game. Stop it.

i haven't seen anyone saying it's got 'potential'

i (and others) have said 'i wish anyone else was doing this because it could have been cool'

if you look at it objectively, ignore ben and chris and cig and whatever, it's a tech demo where you can run around, shoot people, jump in a ship, and shoot other ships. that's pretty cool.

it's only once you look past that layer of m&m candy coating that you see the rotting pile of poo poo the "cool stuff" was wallpapered onto-- janky physics, horrible netcode, a game client that crashes at the drop of a shotgun, a game design so thin you could paper it over your windshield with no adverse effects


the upshot is that SC 2.0 is doing, barely, what cryengine was built to do-- look pretty in certain situations, just pretty enough that you can look at it and say "gosh, I wish this were actually a game and a lightly-frosted pile of poo poo"

but for the most part i don't think anyone in here is looking at that and saying "yes, it's got some minor issues but the devs could totally turn this around entirely without rewriting it from scratch, right?"

LuiCypher
Apr 24, 2010

Today I'm... amped up!

Tijuana Bibliophile posted:

I'm pretty sure it's compulsive behavior

Like, the fallacy "I'm $2500 ahead from this, which means I've got a cool $2500 to spend on it for freee!!!" is classic gambling addict thinking

Sarsa please never touch a video poker machine

I imagine Star Citizens doing this for spaceship money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9GYFlKr_-I

I meant to go with a clip of Ray playing video poker machines to tease Sarsa, but the fallacy of the above clip is just too good.

Ah, who am I kidding, here is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K_v8qQb3og&t=252s

Truga
May 4, 2014
Lipstick Apathy
I did it


Tokyo Sexwale
Jul 30, 2003

Eonwe posted:

so the next 'big' mmo coming out is black desert and im thinking about getting it but idk

what is its $10 million stretch goal

fuctifino
Jun 11, 2001

Ep3: of Which Glitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvXx6qJMdh4

Hav
Dec 11, 2009

Fun Shoe

Gilganixon posted:

i colored it in this time so you preverts wouldn't go around hunting for dicks again

The coloring book is a stretch goal.

Ravane
Oct 23, 2010

by LadyAmbien

TTerrible posted:

Holy loving poo poo I missed this, I thought it was $50 or something. Hahahha

I thought it was 30 bucks! That's why I was like, alright Sarsa's just screwing around pointing out bugs and poo poo. Not the best use of money, but it's only 30 bucks and her recaps are entertaining.

$2500? :stonk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5cYgRnfFDA

A Neurotic Jew
Feb 17, 2012

by exmarx

weird that they put this out when it's actually just a segment from a really old AtV. Have they all been repeats like this?

Daztek
Jun 2, 2006



A Neurotic Jew posted:

weird that they put this out when it's actually just a segment from a really old AtV. Have they all been repeats like this?

Yep

imperialparadox
Apr 17, 2012

Don't tell me no one has told the girl she isn't exactly human!

It's not cheating (who cares) but it shows off how stupid a lot of the game mechanics are. I think the combat part of the game was like that for a while as well, where damaged Hornets were essentially becoming invincible because they just got faster and faster as they lost parts.

Midnight Voyager
Jul 2, 2008

Lipstick Apathy

Sarsapariller posted:

I had just made significantly more than that selling off the old ships so it didn't feel like such a big deal at the time. They'd put out a major leap forward and I was still having fun.

In retrospect it was a blisteringly stupid thing to do and I deserve all of the mockery I am receiving.

Hey man, as long as you know it, it's cool.

Beet Wagon
Oct 19, 2015






He really will be with us until the end.

LuiCypher
Apr 24, 2010

Today I'm... amped up!

Beet Wagon posted:

He really will be with us until the end.

But what about bunnyman? He hasn't made an appearance in awhile...

Saint Isaias Boner
Jan 17, 2007

hi how are you

Solarin posted:

Sorry but I am going to steal this and sell it on t shirts and bumper stickers.

gently caress u

Beet Wagon
Oct 19, 2015





Sarsapariller posted:

I had just made significantly more than that selling off the old ships so it didn't feel like such a big deal at the time. They'd put out a major leap forward and I was still having fun.

In retrospect it was a blisteringly stupid thing to do and I deserve all of the mockery I am receiving.

Don't think of it as throwing money away on Star Citizen even though you should have known better.

Think of it as buying this thread a $2500 present that we can all enjoy for another ten pages.

I still think you're pretty alright, commando.

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

Sedisp posted:

Sarsapariller might just be the dumbest person in this thread. Even more so than people like Octopede. At least they have just been blinded by optimism. The Sarsapariller class Whale Ship will be loyal to you after it's lost all faith in you.

Octopode got his money out and probably made a profit.

Beet Wagon
Oct 19, 2015





fuctifino posted:

I was chatting with a non goon friend about Star Citizen, and the subject steered towards the gizmondo scam of 2008. He said something about the Phantom Gaming console, and as a joke, wondered if anyone in SC was involved with that. I'd never heard about the Phantom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Entertainment


Some of you are more clued-up about gaming history, so someone please tell me that's not a relative of Crobber?


e: I found a pic:



Oh man I remember Penny Arcade skewering those guys back in the day. That would be a hilarious connection.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Beet Wagon posted:

Don't think of it as throwing money away on Star Citizen even though you should have known better.

Think of it as buying this thread a $2500 present that we can all enjoy for another ten pages.

I still think you're pretty alright, commando.

That's only like $25 a page! Well worth it!

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Beet Wagon posted:

Oh man I remember Penny Arcade skewering those guys back in the day. That would be a hilarious connection.

He's been a busy bee http://www.hardocp.com/article/2003/09/17/behind_infinium_phantom_console

quote:

So, what do we know? Well, not much at first, so we decided to compile and research all of the publicly available information we could find and see what we could learn about Infinium Labs and their new console. What we discovered was that the CEO of Infinium Labs, Timothy Roberts, has helmed several businesses that have failed or have gone bankrupt in the last six years. A couple of these high profile bankruptcies cost investors in those companies millions and millions of dollars. Mr. Roberts is now the head of a new company, Infinium Labs, and is rounding up money from investors to realize his latest vision. We've read about at least one person who has stated that Infinium Labs has generated at least $25 million in venture capital and has also reported seeing a prototype console in person. ...

After calling the Wanforce contact number listed on the website, we learned that Mr. Roberts' brother Peter is the Executive Vice President of Wanforce Technologies.

This would appear to be the second time Mr. Roberts has joined forces with his brother Peter. According to his resume, Mr. Roberts was also the Director / Investor in Phoenix Networks whose assets were sold in 2001 after laying off 50% of the company workforce. The assets of Phoenix Networks were sold to MegaPath in late October, 2000 after Mr. Roberts' brother stepped down as President of Phoenix Networks (editors note: Peter Roberts stepped down as President of Phoenix Networks not Wanforce as earlier stated):

Phoenix Chief Executive Dan Foster, who took over from Roberts in June, has laid off dozens of Phoenix workers. From a peak of just over 200, the workforce -- all based at the company's Maryland Heights headquarters -- has been cut to "something over 100," according to the company. A Phoenix spokeswoman said a precise headcount of current employees wasn't immediately available.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110827/ARTICLE/308279999

quote:

Infinium Labs created a gaming console aptly named the Phantom that led to a stock scheme for which Roberts was sanctioned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Until a week ago, Roberts faced a number of civil suits related to Phantom, and a follow-up company called GameStreamer, including one from an investor who lost $14 million.

And Phantom was not Roberts' first brush with large-scale failures. His BIG -- shorthand for Broadband Infrastructure Group -- launched during 1999 in St. Louis and collapsed less than a year later after spending the $18 million that it had raised from investors.

But Roberts insists that this time is different, that all his entrepreneurial experiences of the last 15 years are finally coming into play.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/co...5155db1a78.html

quote:

Timothy Roberts, a co-founder of Savvis who also has been involved in a string of highly publicized failures, has launched two new companies in the past three weeks.

His Station Digital, an Internet radio company based in Los Angeles, said Sept. 20 that it was open for business with a library of 30 million songs and a free "listener rewards" business model. Four days later, CloudWebStore announced itself as a cloud-based provider of e-commerce services. It also is based in Los Angeles and lists Roberts as founder and chief executive.

Roberts co-founded Savvis, a web-hosting business now owned by CenturyLink, in 1995, but left the company after a couple of years. His most ambitious venture in St. Louis was Broadband Infrastructure Group, which raised $18 million from investors in early 2000 at the end of the dot-com bubble. BIG, as it was known, made a splash by sponsoring a car in the Indianapolis 500 but closed after just nine months.

Roberts then moved to Florida to run Infinium Labs, which was developing a game console. The product never appeared and Roberts got into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission over a junk-fax campaign that promoted the company's shares. Later he started Savtira, which got some favorable press in Tampa before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2015/09/10/inside-the-grand-jury-indictment-savtira-s-roberts.html

quote:

Timothy Roberts, former CEO of defunct Tampa technology firm Savtira Corp., lied to investors and used their money for personal expenses, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
The indictment, handed down in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, charges Roberts and another former Savtira executive, Terrance Taylor, with conspiracy and wire fraud. It was unsealed on the same day the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in the same court, accusing Roberts, Taylor and a third man with fraud.

So we have Tim Roberts, Peter Roberts, and Chris Roberts, all who are terrible CEOs :v:

Loel fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Feb 9, 2016

Mirificus
Oct 29, 2004

Kings need not raise their voices to be heard
I've always found myself becoming the main antagonist no matter what; due to my ability to weave blood and entrails into poetry

Iglocska
Nov 23, 2015

Beet Wagon posted:

He really will be with us until the end.

Seriously, that picture and the fourth stimpire? Star Citizen already paid for itself.

HKS
Jan 31, 2005

Also admitting such things is the first step towards recovery. I believe in you Sarsapariller.

If anything it was a brave thing to do, and hopefully it will serve as an example for other new or old goons to admit how much they spent and start on their own road to recovery.

Ash1138
Sep 29, 2001

Get up, chief. We're just gettin' started.

Ursine Catastrophe posted:

i haven't seen anyone saying it's got 'potential'

i (and others) have said 'i wish anyone else was doing this because it could have been cool'

if you look at it objectively, ignore ben and chris and cig and whatever, it's a tech demo where you can run around, shoot people, jump in a ship, and shoot other ships. that's pretty cool.

it's only once you look past that layer of m&m candy coating that you see the rotting pile of poo poo the "cool stuff" was wallpapered onto-- janky physics, horrible netcode, a game client that crashes at the drop of a shotgun, a game design so thin you could paper it over your windshield with no adverse effects


the upshot is that SC 2.0 is doing, barely, what cryengine was built to do-- look pretty in certain situations, just pretty enough that you can look at it and say "gosh, I wish this were actually a game and a lightly-frosted pile of poo poo"

but for the most part i don't think anyone in here is looking at that and saying "yes, it's got some minor issues but the devs could totally turn this around entirely without rewriting it from scratch, right?"
I'm too lazy to go back and look for individual posts, but the impression that I got (especially around the Alpha 2.0 release) was a little of column A, a little of column B. I probably should've posted, "What the hell are you talking about?" when that happened, but oh well.

trucutru
Jul 9, 2003

by Fluffdaddy

CharlestonJew posted:

I for one am shocked and appalled that the man with the pony avatar has made bad life decisions

Motherfuck! It *is* a Pony. Ahahaha.

Wise Learned Man
Apr 22, 2008

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
Lipstick Apathy

Hav
Dec 11, 2009

Fun Shoe

HKS posted:

start on their own road to recovery.

I'm wondering if there are other whale holdouts in our midst.

VVV Beetwagon, j'accuse.

Hav fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Feb 9, 2016

EightAce
May 10, 2015

Watch it all come crashing down on his head and wonder why any of us gave him money in the first place.
Has someone really contacted private eye? if so that is awsome. Also most emails flying around CIG now contain that little Ben dancing emoji which speaks volumes ....

Beet Wagon
Oct 19, 2015





Iglocska posted:

Seriously, that picture and the fourth stimpire? Star Citizen already paid for itself.

Well worth the $75 or however much they have of mine that I'm too lazy to get back. Hell, one of these days I'll actually install it!

runsamok
Jan 12, 2011

I'll stand with Sasp.

I've still got some skin in the game, as my two teenage nephews have both picked up packages & there's no way I'm gonna leave 'em high & dry at the mercy of the Denizens of the Brown Sea. I made some money on the grey market so my net cash into the game is zero, but I'm holding on to my front row seat for the façade crumbling.

Crazy_BlackParrot
Feb 1, 2016

Christ Roberts is way better than toilet lord...
:gary: :lesnick: :yarg:
:pgabz: :fuzzknot: :eonwe:
:wtchris:

EightAce posted:

Has someone really contacted private eye? if so that is awsome. Also most emails flying around CIG now contain that little Ben dancing emoji which speaks volumes ....

GET IT VOLUMES.... Badum tsss
Exit stage right.

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Fried Watermelon
Dec 29, 2008


LowellDND posted:



So we have Tim Roberts, Peter Roberts, and Chris Roberts, all who are terrible CEOs :v:

lol

wikipedia posted:

In October 2005, it was reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had notified Tim Roberts that charges were pending against him for violating federal securities laws.[37] In a statement about the notice, Infinium said it was not notified of specific charges, but suspected they were related to an SEC investigation of the unlawful promotion of penny stocks (including Infinium's).[38] Roberts hired a stock promoter to send faxes claiming that the Phantom console's release was imminent, and the company's stock price might increase as much as 3,000 percent. The SEC alleged that the company never intended to release the console at the promised time due to significant unresolved "technological and manufacturing hurdles", and the faxes were part of a pump and dump scheme on the part of Roberts. Roberts reached a settlement with the SEC in which he was barred from serving as an officer or public director of a public company or participating in penny-stock offerings for five years and paid a $30,000 fine.[39]

When Roberts was CEO of Infinium, the company failed to report a substantial amount of interest and penalties on unpaid payroll taxes.[40] From its inception, the company had consistently reported a small amount of cash on hand amid extensive (and increasing) debt.

SC is another pump and dump scheme

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