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Sep 30, 2015 00:44
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Why I'm Leaving CIG Based on the quality bar that has been set for this project, a Star Citizen character takes me anywhere from 3-6 weeks to get in game. I have been working at CIG for 17 months. In that time I have completed exactly 5 characters. That's 24 weeks at most. So why is this? Ingredients for Success There are three main ingredients that are needed to produce quality characters for a project. These are concept, budget, and time. To say it simply, a character is usually only as good as its concept, since it is the concept that defines the parameters of the execution of the character. There can certainly be bad models created from good concepts, but rarely do bad concepts produce good models. Since the concept is the biggest influence of the model, then it is of utmost importance that the concept doesn't change once the model has been started. Rob and Megan are two very talented artists that have produced great concepts for us since I have been here. It's when either these concepts are changed during model creation, or after model completion, that causes problems. This is when direction wants changes to the design of the character rather than the implementation of the concept. There is an important distinction to be made about asset feedback. Different stages in the process require different types of feedback. If a concept gets approved, then the only feedback for the completed model should be about how well the concept was realized and the quality of the model (sculpt, textures). When the feedback on the model is about the design ("I don't like the leg straps") then the problem is with the concept, not the model. I have been doing this long enough to know that sometimes problems don't come to the surface until after the model is created, sometimes things just don't translate to 3D the way you expected. But this should be the exception, not the rule. This was a perpetual problem in my time here, a concept gets approved, and then unapproved after the model is created- concept level feedback on models. In looking over the models of the FPS Marines and Pirates, it should be clear that some are better than others. The difference in quality? Concept. The Heavy Marine and Heavy Pirate had completed concepts that did not change through the building of the model. They are a balanced and polished piece of art as intended by the concept artist. The others? Their concepts changed repeatedly during the model building. They crawled to the finish line as Frankenstein assets, cobbled together by different artists. The next important factor is budget. Anyone who has worked in game art knows that quality is not measured in a vacuum. Quality only exists relative to the available budget- tris and pixels. You plan and build your character based on the budget you expect to have. When I started here, I was astounded to learn that no one was able to tell me the budget for character assets. People seemed to be operating under the mantra "It's CryEngine, the budget is irrelevant" This attitude for game art production is suicide in a bottle. This apparently is still a difficult question to answer. In the absence of budget, Roberts judges all game assets against his own imagination or an asset in another game. Time is the last ingredient. When an artist is moved off and on an asset, the asset suffers. Staying in the"zone" on a character keeps the motivation high, the excitement stays constant and keeps the momentum constant for moving through the difficulties encountered. Your energy tends not to stall when you can go at an asset full bore through the life of the process. Very rarely did anything I worked on enjoy unbroken attention from me. I know there are always times when the project demands you to hop on something, put out a fire, but this has been a chronic problem during my time here. The Sataball Suit, the last asset we made, was met with satisfaction and praise. What was different? We started with a clear, approved concept, a clear budget, and were given the time to build the model. The methods for creating this model were completely traditional, no new pipeline. The pipeline was never the problem. The problem was not getting the three required ingredients. When we get what we need, we can shine. Completion and Unapproval The simple feeling of completing a task is something that we all take for granted. Whether it's graduating with a degree or emptying the sink of dirty dishes, the feeling that you have actually done something (especially if it is difficult) gives your day, your week, or your life a sense of progression. You are moving forward and hopefully bettering your situation. We all thrive on the satisfaction of completing a task. This is why redoing a task over and over again is so draining to the psyche. Now, to be clear- I expect to have to redo things at times. Sometimes the circumstances change, the asset becomes problematic, or the bar has been greatly raised by adjacent assets within the context of the game. Redoing something more than once? Repeatedly? Every asset? Repeatedly? It is clearly not about the asset or the artist. Several times since I have been here, I have had an asset approved by CR only to learn weeks or months later that he had decided that it wasn't good enough. One production phenomenon that has become familiar to anyone working under Roberts is 'Unapproval.' That is, when something that was previously approved becomes unacceptable later on in production for reasons known to Roberts only. It is usually based on whim or a nebulous quality bar that has shifted. When you get approval only to have it revoked later on, repeatedly, approval becomes meaningless. It is no longer a metric of progression. It does not energize or motivate you. It is met with apathy or cynicism. Redoing the same asset over and over again kills the spirit, and I suspect this was largely the reason the UK character team collapsed. Ownership It is essential that artists take ownership of their assets. It is what drives an artist, draws forth the best of their abilities, and makes them stick through the difficult points in the process of creation. There is nothing more satisfying for an artist than to look at a completed work and saying "I made that". Ownership also makes it easy to know who is accountable for problems with the asset and forces artists to work in a clean and efficient manner that minimizes future problems because they know that they alone will be held responsible if their asset breaks something or looks bad. When assets are perpetually passed from artist to artist, especially if they are "ducktaping" work done by other artists, there is zero sense of ownership. You are the clean-up crew instead of the creator and this very quickly saps your motivation to do your best. Why? Well because you can't really claim ownership. It wasn't your asset. Authority and Responsibility When someone is hired for a position there is a direct ratio of the authority that they can expect to have, and the amount of responsibility that they will be expected to have. A junior level artist doesn't expect to be able to make any real decisions on how things are done, but no one would hold them responsible if the pipeline or character art as a whole is sub-par. Conversely, a Lead should expect to have most of the control on pipeline and asset review, and for that privilege and trust they trade accountability for the pipeline efficiency and asset quality as a whole. Because they make larger scale decisions on the system, they a held accountable for what that system produces. It became clear within a matter of weeks of working at CIG, that all the decisions for the character pipeline and approach had been made- by Roberts. It became clear that this was a company-wide pattern- CR dictates all. Instead of articulating the standard for approval and allowing the team to develop the best methods to meet this bar, Roberts dictates what the method is, usually with a fraction of the knowledge that the employee has over their particular field. Then, when the plan or method fails to produce the results CR wants, the employee inevitable takes the blame, after all they are responsible for their corner of the game. The Bus When you have someone at the top who wants to make every decision but is accountable for no decisions he makes and is keen on publicly blaming those beneath him for those bad decisions, it creates an environment of people desperate to avoid that blame. Since no one can hold CR accountable, and they certainly don't want to be made out at fault, they point fingers at anyone else. This breeds distrust and resentment among coworkers. I have been a victim of undue blame at times and am sure that I have thrown others under the bus as well. Forrest Forrest became involved in the character pipeline when it was decided to redo the FPS characters. I like Forrest on a personal level. I think he is a good guy at heart and is doing the best job he can with the experience and personality he has. His mandate from CR was to improve the look of the characters. So what is the problem? Experience and attitude. Forrest came into the character pipeline full force. He had already decided what was lacking for characters. Namely- the ship art pipeline and techniques. He was not concerned with budget and memory. He was not concerned with time. He wanted what CR wanted- great looking screenshots. He dismissed my concerns about the time it will take to do characters like ships, tri count, and memory. He told me that I didn't know how to model characters (after eight years of doing this). Forrest is very green, but more importantly it is obvious that he does not know how to deal with conflict or even disagreement. Putting someone with so little experience in games and no experience with characters in charge of the character team was frankly insulting. Billy and I spent a month undoing many of the ship techniques that Forrest had insisted on- mostly multiple materials and how the UVs were laid out. I wouldn't expect someone at Forrest's experience level to know what is common sense to anyone who has shipped a title. That is-plan for the game, not for screenshots and know that you will have less memory than you think. Forrest made every rookie mistake in the book in his charge, but what was worse is that he mowed down anyone who challenged his naive assumptions with insults and dismissal. With CR at his back, he stomped around like a child wearing his Father's boots. Convincing Forrest that he might be wrong about something is a campaign in itself. Forrest might have value from his contributions to other areas of the art, but his involvement with characters was wasteful in time and effort, and absolutely corrosive to moral. He is simply the wrong man for the job and is one of my biggest reasons for leaving. The Elephant in the room Visions are cheap. Ideas are cheap. A good leader is not simply someone with a vision or a great idea. A good leader not only has the vision, but they can communicate that vision to the team, and more importantly they inspire and energize the team members with that vision. Chris Roberts might have a vision but he can't communicate it. And therefore, no one on the team knows what it is. This is known to every team member, certainly of the art team. Roberts is not an artist and it is clear he is not a visual communicator. The basic understanding of macro vs micro, what is essential to the piece and what is not, completely escapes him. Everything is of equal importance- the laces on the boot are just as important as the overall value pallet and silhouette, in many cases more. This is indicative of Robert's extreme lack of understanding of the most basic of artistic principals. That level of ignorance and lack of visual depth for an artist would be problematic, but for someone at a director level, it is absolutely crippling to a project. Robert's deficit wouldn't be much of a problem if he trusted the vision of the art directors, people who are actually artist and have directed other artists. But he doesn't, insisting that he is the only one who can direct the artists. I suspect this is an issue of ego, a man intent on appearing like a visionary. But regardless, the results so far have been disastrous, rife with perpetual rework, wasted time, and mass frustration. No one can buy into CR's artistic vision because no one, including CR, seems to know what it is. So the one thing that no one discusses is the biggest problem. Roberts is someone who on a companywide level is always feared, but never respected. His direction is met with nervous compliance to his face, and rolled-eyed resentment behind his back. When his orders are articulated later to the rest of the team, and basic questions of logic and practicality are inevitable asked, they are met not with an explanation of why CR's idea is a good one, but the importance of his happiness. The explanation is always the same- "I know it makes no sense, but that's what CR wants". This team is filled with people who have experience publishing other titles. Lots. We all know how it is "supposed" to be done. But everyone is faced with the same repeated dilemma, a choice- make CR happy or do what works for the game? Short term survival vs long term wins. And unfortunately it's the survival option that wins out, mainly because turning away from a directive of CR is a recipe for unemployment. I am only speaking from one corner of this project, but I know that the micro managerial frustration experience is an epidemic at CIG. Everyone seems to be unhappy for the exact same reason. I don't foresee anything changing at CIG if Roberts doesn't change himself. And this is a shame because the company has all the ingredients to do something truly great, if only they would be allowed to do it. quote:Reposting for all the new people
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Sep 30, 2015 08:27
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 Early days.
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Sep 30, 2015 09:21
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It depends how bad the drop off rate is, maybe ~ 200k from the first day. They delayed the launch till after the daily counter reset so first day will look larger than normal, generally a sale arrives some hours before the end of a day, not at the start (timer appears to be close to GMT). This sale is going to have three FAQ's instead of two, so they've definitely calculated that they see a bump in sales from the vague answers given each time. The worst thing is that desperate isn't a good look, they had people expecting a top price of $450, which is crazy enough for something that most likely will never actually reach the hangar. But they saw the somewhat positive reaction to the price and couldn't resist adding poo poo on top to create a smug package so now to be all smug with "I got the best package", it's $900 instead of $450. This poo poo doesn't cost them anything apart from a concept artist fee, so I'd figure the extra cash from the $900 sales are just not worth the lost $450 sales from people looking at the top price and just going "lol nope". Jethro_E7 posted:"We never expected these to sell - they are specialised ships and will serve to flesh out the amazing Universe that we are building. We can also confirm that 72 of these have sold (12 of them to one backer) and are excited for these backers who are in for a treat!" The terrible Space Bus sale exceeded their expectations by several times. I expect similar comments if it does badly, as it's a comment that means nothing and makes no sense apart from, "are you really that bad at judging this poo poo after all these sales?". AP fucked around with this message at 09:55 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 09:52
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Sep 30, 2015 10:19
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletechquote:$835,228 The media hopefully have a new crowdfunded darling to lavish attention on. Does anyone know if  are in any way going to benefit from the funds raised for Battletech?neonbregna posted:So judging from all these new posts star citizen has been released and nerds have been inserting feeding tubes in order to play he greatest simulator ever to be released or Christ Roberts has gotten dsmarted. Can someone please summarize? http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sni6td https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14972-Research-Unbound-The-MISC-Endeavor AP fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 10:52
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willus posted:what is the wulf knight and why is it a dick He's a Star Citizen guy who spent $25k+ on Space Ship pictures while being off work for 7 months.  He bought the above beauty about 8 hours ago. Hobbies also include gardening, sending pizza to hungry people and gifting females pictures of his winkle.
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Sep 30, 2015 11:48
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He appears to be friends with the guy using science to decode an ancient alien space rock from the far future.  The same guy also wrote a theme tune for the picture Wulf just bought. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Cm8_-3378
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Sep 30, 2015 12:05
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kikkelivelho posted:How bad is that? I have no idea how previous sales have gone. It's too early to say with any accuracy, the first 24 hours is when the people who absolutely were going to buy it and were just waiting for the sale, actually do so. I think the figures will drop off as it won't be as popular with other impulse buyers, too pricey, but on the hand the figures aren't that bad so far and it is the only science ship they have ever sold. So if that scratches your particular ship dream itch... I wouldn't get your hopes up of a massive disappointment that's going to make them rethink anything, 800k-1 million which would be better than the Space Bus is very possible, they could even do a lot better considering this sale runs right up to Citizen Con and people are going to get hyped for that. The massive disappointment obviously comes later with the full game.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:19
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HKS posted:Did they schedule the sale for a Tuesday because some people were still holding out hope for a September Star Marine release? Or is it to pad sales numbers for the month? Or just make it in time so they can sell something else in October? Have they ever sold 2 ships in one month? All the above and yes.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:40
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Hopper posted:I too will gladly pay more than a cards value for a gift card. WTF? VAT at 20%. Ships bought with RSI credits are not charged VAT. At least there's a slight chance the government will do something useful with their cut.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:01
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:If Star Marine isn't released today then CIG will have hit exactly one announced date in the history of the project; last month's release of the Social module. Gamers Nexus has something from their interview I think that they aren't releasing till Friday, so might be FPS, but could be anything else.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:03
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Star Citizen single-player will have 'top-level movie cast'quote:Speaking to Develop, Roberts said he cast Squadron 42 like he would have done during his time working in film, an industry where he spent a number of years working as a director and producer. Earlier this year, the team spent four months shooting performance capture for the game at Ealing Studios in the UK.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:13
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Hopper posted:Wait what? If you buy a 25 € voucher , say for iTunes, do you actually pay 25+tax at the cashier? No, CIG is the only company I know of that does it this way. Everyone else includes VAT in their gift card price, but CIG obviously figured out this would mean them getting 20% less money, so..... Also why would we use that funny europe money.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:15
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There are going to be 9 Star Wars movies. Chris Roberts figures he can get at least 5 Squadron 42 ones. He's already paid for most of episode I, if rumours are to be believed for 8-11 million. I wonder who all will appear as executive producers for episode I.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:20
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Madcosby posted:I'm not convinced everyone knows it. People are talking about selling ships on reddit vs getting a refund, with identical language on "buying low" from bitcoin conversations. To be honest, everyone was just waiting for Madcosby to drop by and state the bloody obvious.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:23
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Madcosby posted:If it was obvious no one would buy ships Well people have been having doubts for a while but I think you've really started to fuel some real concerns with your analysis of the situation.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:34
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Madcosby posted:I'll try and make myself clear, I know it's difficult to hold your attention without dangling a jpg of a spaceship and a price tag in front of your faces but here goes   I dunno dude, they don't sell $2500 Javelins that often, might be worth holding on to till the game comes out. Also top class talent coming to the SQ42 movie, not sure anyone would want to miss all that.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:45
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Madcosby posted:Ap claims I keep posting poo poo he already knows yet still thinks a game is coming out and a jpg of a spaceship might be "worth holding on to" You're ruining my dreams and you just don't appear to care.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:48
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Madcosby posted:Im not trying to troll this thread I'm trying to burn Star Citizen to the ground so "earl;y-access" and video game crowdfunding dies the death it deserves I'm sorry that reality doesn't fall neatly into the personal narrative you've constructed where all people who choose to spend money on a game of their choosing suffer from some mental disorder that you get to play the hero and save them from. The reality is that people see something in the game that excites them, and they are willing to spend money because of that.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:51
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I think I've been far too negative about the glory that is Star Citizen for too long, so for the next ten days I'm only going to post happy thoughts.* *Obviously if there's another Night of the Long Knives I'll backtrack on that pretty quick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydaiTuHxXB0
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Sep 30, 2015 21:48
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LCL-Dead posted:Sandi finally replied to my refund request and I'm torn.. Rename your account before they refund you, there's one free name change. Then create a new account with the same name and a different email, that way it's easier for you to buy in again later once Multi crew and FPS come out in October (or so).
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Sep 30, 2015 22:01
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That Glass Door review does mention the "talented employees".
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Sep 30, 2015 22:07
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PlzcDY_oeU A short preview of the new MISC Endeavor holoviewer model in cryengine  [Subscriber's Vault] Endeavor Concept (more on image link)
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Sep 30, 2015 22:38
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The offer of surrender to the Star Citizen reddit appears to been withdrawn."Derek Smart Derek Smart Derek Smart posted:I have been waiting for this decision.
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Sep 30, 2015 23:51
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:Could someone please summarize this whole accounts thing with respect to the UK? It's really not a big deal, they are late, they aren't supposed to do that but I really doubt anyone will care. Yes, it's technically against the law but as long as Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs get their money in the end they won't take any action over it. Also Chris Roberts has already arranged for SQ42 reveal at Citizen Con to feature Concord with the big names from the cast so Prince Harry is rumoured to be attending. AP fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Oct 1, 2015 |
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Oct 1, 2015 08:50
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Sarsapariller posted:Yeah people discussing the deets of their refund processes before they've got cash in hand seems like a bad idea. Of course that goes for any transaction. I really doubt that CIG are going to care about a couple of dozen goon refunds. Also given what's happened with that crazy Brazilian guy and Derek Smart, giving unhappy poo poo posters money in the hope they'll quietly go away and not cause trouble might turn out to be a net positive.
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Oct 1, 2015 09:08
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 $339k from the first day, I think they'll be well happy with that.  Starting the Endeavor sale on the last day of September got them well over the 1 million mark for that month, but the monthly figure is still very low. Assuming no FPS and no multi crew releases they need a LTI sale at the start of a month and at the end to break 1 million now. Citizen Con and the November sale will change that a fair bit, but if I was hoping for a good result in November it would concern me that September was so bad. On that Gamers Nexus interview Chris Roberts repeated his claim that multi crew will be out before the end of October, so we'll see.
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Oct 1, 2015 09:20
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Zeike posted:Did someone totally fail at giving you a sick burn sc av or did you ironically give it to yourself? 
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Oct 1, 2015 09:28
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Karl_Ramseier posted:The legal situation is very unclear regarding crowdfunding projects, that is why the authorities wants to change the regulations. Until then we don't have any legal standing. This is completely untrue and really bad information to be smearing across the thread. Inventing a "new" way of raising cash/tasty seaweed from suckers for something and failing to deliver that something is as old as the hills, there are numerous tried and true avenues that the suckers can go down to achieve resolution, instead of the old "clubbing the witchdoctor over the head with a rock". The words like "pledge" and "kickstarter" are no different to using "Alfsuitdonation" and "spacebooster" and are absolutely and completely irrelevant.
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Oct 1, 2015 11:13
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Karl_Ramseier posted:No merchandising and subscription either. If just 5% subscribed as "centurion" that would make 40.000 subscribers, 4,8 millions a year. With 20k subscribers 2.4m and with 10k 1.2m. And DS claims that backer money is used for their poo poo PR and cons? He has no loving clue! 
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Oct 1, 2015 11:41
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Karl_Ramseier posted:I do not have any twitter accounts besides https://twitter.com/raess2009 . But hell YOU ARE CREEPY  Did they ask you to post here or was it your own idea?
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Oct 1, 2015 11:57
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Karl_Ramseier posted:If I wanted to come here as a "spy" I wouldn't gave you that twitter account. I dunno about that, you seem pretty far gone to me, hope everything turns out ok. Did you pick an Endeavor up? They look pretty cool.
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Oct 1, 2015 12:14
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I dunno about that either, Wulf has never gifted me anything.
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Oct 1, 2015 12:41
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 Impressive that early gameplay problems with the $900 Endeavor have been fixed already.
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Oct 1, 2015 14:25
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drat Dirty Ape posted:This looks like a pretty awesome dog. Letter from the Chairman quote:We’ve added a lot of ships lately, and so we’re making the $64 million goal a fun one. Paddington died after helping raise $4 million for the Space Family Roberts.
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Oct 1, 2015 14:54
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Wafflz posted:He's defending Sexual Harassment Whale not Bitcoin Billionaire Pedophile. I can see how they would be easily confused though. The best bit about Karl was him going, those aren't my embarrassing twitter posts fawning over  and being buddies with DickWolf, I'll prove it by showing you my twitter posts fawning over and being buddies with DickWolf.
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Oct 1, 2015 15:03
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Karl_Ramseier posted:I am neither a buddy of DickWolf nor Ben Lesnick. That's a bit harsh, what did they ever do to you?
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Oct 1, 2015 16:18
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^ Better link.drat Dirty Ape posted:Can someone give me (or link me to) some sort of summary about what happened? I want to know what the angry german is defending. Starts here, I'd forgotten Smart brought it up before Crazyloon.
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Oct 1, 2015 16:48
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:46 |
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EminusSleepus posted:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/14715-CIG-Employees-Talk-Star-Citizen-and-the-State-of-the-Company Beer can we put some suicide prevention stuff in the OP now?
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Oct 1, 2015 18:07
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