Toops posted:

Yeah that looks like sketchy financials/reporting. They probably took some "offshore diversification" advice from Ortwin.

nnnotime posted:

In addition to Sperglord's and Toops' questions, I wonder if this will have any impact on the production schedule for the Star Citizen HOTAS controllers they were working on?

Kakarot posted:

Hey /r/starcitizen! I think my videos were submitted to your lovely sub a few times and even reached your frontpage. In them, I was defending Star Citizen from unfair criticism, whilst not being a backer myself. I have now finally given in, and made another vid to explain to my viewers what convinced me in the end. With you I just want to share the script of said video so I don't bore you with my YT shenanigans, but if you are interested in the visual part, I'll link to the video at the end of the post.

Today, I want to talk about something that happened to me recently. An epiphany, so to say. As some of you know, I'm opposed to funding early-access games. I still find that whole concept silly and against the best interests of consumers. BUT, and that is quite the big BUT indeed, I was always fond of Chris Roberts' work, fond of spaceflight simulators, and fond of games that try to do something that others haven't tried before. Yet, in all my previous videos I proudly stated that I was not a backer, keeping true to my pro-consumer colours. This has changed. I have betrayed my principles. I have pledged 45 dollars to Star Citizen. And now, let me explain to you why I deem this betrayal of principles the best game purchase I have made in a long time.

My opposition against early-access games, as I elaborated in previous videos, is explained by two core statements: I'm not willing to pay a company for the quote-on-quote 'privilege' of being a beta-tester for their unfinished product and I don't see any incentive for early-access developers to actually finish their games, due to them being able to keep a game in early-access indefinitely, circumventing the consumer expectation of delivering a finished product whilst ALREADY demanding the full price for it. So in order to lure me into spending money on a product that is unfinished and may never come out, something extraordinary has to happen. After thinking about this a lot, I have come to the conclusion that Star Citizen as a whole is exactly that extraordinary thing.

First off, I have been craving for some proper innovation in gaming for a very long time. In a gaming world in which triple A publishers get praised by their corporate slaves for releasing the same drivel over and over, the only way to show them that Call of Duty kids are not the only demographic worth catering to is to vote with ones wallet. This usually means NOT buying a product you deem unworthy of your money. But it CAN also mean buying another product. So in order to cast my vote, I chose to spend money on a company that promises me a literal universe filled with content, a company that says to me: 'You can fly a spaceship! But you can also walk around in it, and float in space in your spacesuit! How about shooting other pilots in the face after you've spent the night drinking in a space bar?' Or in other words, a company that is trying to combine many features and playstyles that are usually seen in separate games, into one. The ambition to create a wholesome simulated universe is therefore my number one reason for betting my money on the Robert Space Industries horse, but this reason alone would have never convinced me to do so.

Hilariously, the other reason for pledging, the one that gave me a virtual push to finally take that leap of faith, were the critics of Star Citizen. Do you remember that Escapist article by Liz Finnegan in which ominous and anonymous sources claimed to be able to prove that Roberts and his wife were evil personified, and that their hiring practices were racist and sexist? Not only did we never hear of them again after RSI threatened to sue - or at least I haven't - but these allegations made me research the whole project deeper, delving into dev logs and speeches Chris Roberts gave, and made me watch a couple of the countless videos that the developers produce on a regular basis in which they explain what they are up to right now and how the progress is going. And guess what? The buggers are transparent as gently caress! Never before have I seen the development of a game so well documented, never before have I seen the devs showcasing their work on such a regular basis. I would not have done that research without all the voices on the internet trying to cut down the tall poppy, as they say here in Australia. And that is what much of the criticism of Star Citizen is: trying to drag an ambitious team down into the mud that said critics are used to swim in.

Of course there is valid criticism, and there are valid concerns too, but when most of the criticism boils down to 'Vapourware LOL' or 'cash grab scam ROFL' in spite of the obvious progress being made, and in spite of the current playable version of Star Citizen, then a person like me ALSO gets the urge to support that game just to spite those who want to obviously continue to live with a gaming industry in which creativity gets punished, and ambition gets called a pipe-dream. Yes, you heard that right. One of the reasons to pledge for me was to prove those who willingly fellate the megalomaniac corporate publisher blobs wrong. To be part of what may very well be the second coming of PC gaming. Or its biggest failure. But hey, even if Star Citizen fails, at least they loving tried.

So here I am, a newly pledged Star Citizen, and proud of it. In the end, it all boils down to to the concept that if I want the game industry to change, I figured that voicing my criticism and NOT buying games I abhor isn't enough. I decided to put my money where my mouth is. Now, please, for the love of the flying spaghetti monster, don't prove me wrong, Star Citizen.

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCiE80VNHmY

Sperglord posted:

If this is catastrophic earnings or outright fraud, then the company may go into a holding pattern until legal / financial questions are answered. Replacing General Counsel suggests that filing for Chapter 11 isn't in order. Chapter 11 is a 'normal' part of the business world, replacing the entire board isn't.

Toops posted:

I really, really, really hope it's fraud, and that somehow CIG is implicated. The universe would just make more sense.

Toops posted:

I really, really, really hope it's fraud, and that somehow CIG is implicated. The universe would just make more sense.

Hillary Clintons Thong posted:

I think gilbert gottfried would be a good sandi in a movie

D1E posted:

Did Fuzzy Modem ever admit that he was madly in love with Sandi and directing a "movie" in hopes of wooing her away from Chris?

Dapper Dan posted:

The fact is that Kickstarter has done that. Everything Roberts is claiming to have 'done first' has already been done. The publisher system has been impacted by Kickstarter, Early Access and Social Media, they are no longer essential. You aren't 'sticking it to the publishers' because that's already been done by Tim Schafer, Brian Fargo, Harebrained Schemes, Obsidian and dozens of other games successfully Kickstarted without publisher support. What Roberts has done is nothing new, he just made a lot more money. And if it tanks, guess what? You've just proven that you need publishers to manage large projects. The publishers will be popping the champagne because you've hosed the one thing this model relies on: trust. Good on you.

The PC Gaming Renaissance has already occurred. PC sales are slowing, yes. But this is because there are so many games you don't need a high end PC to play. For example, I'm running an i5-760k that's still going strong (with an R9 270X since I had to replace the graphics card). But you know what isn't slowing? Digital games. PC Gaming is a $61 Billion dollar industry. It has surpassed mobile and console games. It is viewed as undervalued. Steam has done it. Digital games have done it. Roberts is completely inconsequential.

His game is nothing but a mish-mash of ideas ripped from other games. Want everything that SC has to offer? Buy Elite. Its done, you can play it and it will come with VR support. You have an actual plan and no outlandish promises. Its not deep at the current moment, but if you can wait for SC, you can wait for ED. No Man's Sky is coming out. Rebel Galaxy. X Rebirth 2.0. Angels Fall First. Eve Valkyrie. gently caress, even Derek Smart's games (they are for a niche audience. Say what you will, but I can buy most of his games now and play the entire thing). All of these are out now or will be out before Star Citizen. Nobody wants Squadron 42. No one cares. It means nothing and has done nothing new. People will just play old Space games if they want a linear story. There is nothing innovative or new that Roberts has done at this point.

The only thing that Roberts has revolutionized is taking money from the mentally challenged and the mentally retarded who have no critical thinking skills and believe anyone at what they say. I'll give Roberts that, he is good at making people pay for poo poo that doesn't and will never exist.

And why Roberts? Two things: 1) Nostalgia and 'The Great Man' fallacy. We see nostalgia through rose colored glasses. It is hard to be objective with something that we enjoyed as kids, at least for a lot of people. Most of these people haven't played a game in years and it shows. To the guy who had to make up his own quests to the people desperately shipping a vending machine from point A to point B, it shows. The 'Great Man' fallacy is that Roberts is the father of the space sim genre, so he must be great and had this superb skill with game design. In reality, if you look at his track record, he got lucky with Wing Commander. He dreamed big, but he was limited by technology and money and time. This forced him to make something, and it came out really well. However, with Freelancer we see the Roberts we are seeing now. Money and time and pressure didn't matter, he was content with driving the game off a cliff for his 'vision'. Microsoft had to step in and basically fire him from his own game to get it shipped.

2) Gamers are frequently uncritical thinking consumers. You see this with pre-orders, day one DLC, the Modern Warfare 2 boycott and the lack of self control. Getting caught up in the hype machine and becoming a foot soldier fan boy, touting your favorite game, product or brand. You love Star Citizen and so everything they are saying must be true. You are hyped for it, you've spent all this time invested in it, it becomes impossible to think critically or distance yourself from it. You've got other foot soldier fanboys reinforcing your views, and that reinforcement is a powerful thing.

So that's the long and short of it at least to me. The whole thing is an excellent case in consumer psychology and the power of projecting your own ideas onto a product regardless of the reality.

Daztek posted:

AP posted:

35 Weeks until Citizen Con 2016.

Daztek posted:

Someone posted DerekHelmet on /r/dereksmart



I'm not sure how he reached that conclusion

Also its funny how they're reduced to attacking his LoD game

nightwisher posted:

What credit? If I want to play Horizons I have to fork out another $33USD. I'm looking at the steam store right now. Elite Dangerous: Horizons, $32.99USD with the 20% steam sale discount applied. Unless you mean directly after Horizons was released, in which case no discount or credit was displayed anywhere on the product page I viewed.

Maybe it's for the best, Horizons doesn't look particularly deep based from the gameplay videos I've seen posted. I watched the flashy launch trailer for Horizons and saw all the planetary surface combat and thought that'd be in the game, but apparently not?

Samizdata posted:

Stop making me regret my past mistakes that preclude me having a credit card so I can join in the fun. Well, I suppose I can install a C64 emulator and play the ORIGINAL Elite...

A Neurotic Jew posted:

if this were true he would have been Smooth Modem.

Daztek posted:

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/6342700/#Comment_6342700



Oh boy

AugmentedVision posted:

So the only reason that Lesnick has a job is literally because he's a true believer, right? Like, what does he do? What does he contribute? He's not a programmer or an artist, and he is a repulsive human being in every single way, so he's clearly the shittiest choice possible for a community person. He just has that job because it's the only one that doesn't require technical skills.

runsamok posted:

Looks like Dolvak may get the case of his dreams!

(I wouldn't buy any machine owned by someone who thinks they're smart enough to remove the hard drive, but not smart enough to troubleshoot a momentary switch.)

Brazilianpeanutwar posted:

drat that guy's good! Is he on SA?

A Neurotic Jew posted:

if this were true he would have been Smooth Modem.

BluestreakBTHR posted:

Lesnick isn't just a true believer... he's the Patient Zero of True Believers. He's the AlphaBlocker and O-mega-bese of Spergs. He is their Sperg King.

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

Seriously. Sean Tracy is amazing. I genuinely want to take him out for a beer and just have him talk for hours. This is the first time I've ever watched Steve Bender, but he is equally awesome. I mean these guys are genuine, hilarious, brilliant, and if CIG spent ANY AMOUNT OF loving TIME showing this as the face of Star Citizen then it would be far more motivating. Clearly this means we'll never see them again.

Guys, if any of you are reading this (or any of the devs really), know that I consider your work and efforts to be exemplary. I really am happy that my money has gone to help feed your families. I do not blame you for the failures of Star Citizen, if anything I consider you victims of Chris Roberts and his immense ego and inability to manage a program. I know all of you want to design the game we all want to play, and if it were up to you I imagine we'd already have that game. So please accept my thanks for your efforts.

If you're seeing this, please blink S-O-S the next time you're on video.