Chris Roberts Back in your wallet - STAR CITIZEN

[rk47]

Stop STOP STOP I'M OUT OF POPCORNS! 

[Hutch]

I brought the sharing size

[Ginaz]

Yea, I want interoffice fucking, adultery, and trips to Mexico.

NSFW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqy-RK-Cw4

[satael]

(spoilered for size)

The cult is strong in this one. 

[jakonovski]

The conspiracy theories are coming in fast, so expect a full blown social media slapfight. Just like I predicted, the focus is completely off the game for now.

[jakonovski]

Oh, and by the way, it still doesn't detract from the fact that I could have spent that amount of money in much better way, yes, but I just wanted to state that, in my case, that amount didn't damage myself nor anyone around me in any way. Lucky for me, no drama stories to tell here (nor for the foreseeable future. I've stopped my virtual ship business quite a few months ago, actually).

This is good to hear, and actually what matters. I think I've said it before, but thanks to some family drama in the past I'm kinda sensitive to anything that resembles a gambling addiction.

[Cyrrex]

Sounds like some heavy-hitters are about to take up the fight, this bodes well. 

[Ginaz]

(spoilered for size)

The cult is strong in this one.  

Also:

"My judgement made me go and donate another $1000 to the SC development because of all you so called “journalists”."

Man the Chris Roberts cult of personality are sure out in force in the comment sections.  Fucking weirdos.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2015/10/01/report-star-citizen-is-almost-out-of-cash-and-chris-roberts-insatiable-ambition-is-to-blame/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId%2Fblog%2Fcomment%2F2327-17606-6764

Edit: Oh snap!
"Mac Senour 6 hours ago

As a 30 year vet of the video games industry, and an ex co-worker at Origins with Chris Roberts, I feel qualified to say this: this game will never be completed."

[rk47]

Sounds like some heavy-shitters are about to take up the fight, this bodes well. 

TURD FOR THE TURD GOD 

[Falconeer]

Just a data point. Apparently they sold 357 of those brand new $900 ships in the last day and a half, grossing $322K. Curious to see the day-by-day after yesterday's stuff.

[jakonovski]

Christ. Is there some kind of a Star Citizen Tithe for true believers during times of trouble?

[Teleku]

Well, trying to find something positive here.  If this whole thing does collapse in an orgy of smashed coke machines and weasel rape, there might be a good opportunity for somebody to buy a ton of art assets for cheap during the inevitable sell off of company assets.  Not knowing a ton about 3D game development, would it be very hard for another group of people to take the art/animation assets they’ve already developed and use them in a totally different project?  Or is there a lot of stuff baked into them that makes it hard to re-purpose this stuff outside of whatever special Engine SC is being developed in?  Say what you will, but a lot of the artwork and 3D models for this look pretty nice.  It would be a shame if that all totally went up in smoke.

Could be a way for another company to get $100 million (minus company sex parties and CEO blow) worth of art assets for pennies on the dollar.  Maybe for use in a future Elite expansion possibly.   

[Jeff Kelly]

What I find curious is the way the 'gaming press' is handling the whole drama. By pretending it does not exist.

Right now other members of the games media are using the "gamergate supporter" tag Chris Roberts mentions to pretend that this story is fake or at least doesn't hold much water.

Usually the reaction to a mention of SC is "Hey I didn't know that still existed. Hey they are now at how much money? Quickly let's talk about something else". For a business that likes to pretend that it works like real journalism this is exceptionally funny every time it happens. I guess it is easier to shit on the latest Konami fuckup instead.

[Azazel]

So is there a TL:DR summary of the Escapist article and Roberts' reply to it? Because I enojoy the popcorn but I'm not reading all that shit.

[Falconeer]

Escapist article: 7 anonymous employees say Star Citizen is out of money, is mismanaged, will never get done, and Roberts and his wife lead the studio like abusive jerks.
Roberts reply: None of that is true and if you publish this you will hurt us and our 260 employees even if it's not true. And it's all Serek Dmart's fault.

[satael]

Well, trying to find something positive here.  If this whole thing does collapse in an orgy of smashed coke machines and weasel rape, there might be a good opportunity for somebody to buy a ton of art assets for cheap during the inevitable sell off of company assets.  Not knowing a ton about 3D game development, would it be very hard for another group of people to take the art/animation assets they’ve already developed and use them in a totally different project?  Or is there a lot of stuff baked into them that makes it hard to re-purpose this stuff outside of whatever special Engine SC is being developed in?  Say what you will, but a lot of the artwork and 3D models for this look pretty nice.  It would be a shame if that all totally went up in smoke.

Could be a way for another company to get $100 million (minus company sex parties and CEO blow) worth of art assets for pennies on the dollar.  Maybe for use in a future Elite expansion possibly.   

Check out how Curt Schilling's 38 Studios' game assets were auctioned and how quickly that happened. 

[schild]

Has anyone pointed out - and I'm not going through 83 pages of nonsense to see - that it's HIGHLY likely that the numbers of things "sold" is completely fabricated and they don't have nearly the money they're claiming?

I absolutely refuse to believe they legitimately sold 357 of a $900 ship with all this shit going on.

[Falconeer]

Yeah, I asked myself the same question a while ago. No, no one has ever pointed that out and neither is doing it now.

[jakonovski]

Has anyone pointed out - and I'm not going through 83 pages of nonsense to see - that it's HIGHLY likely that the numbers of things "sold" is completely fabricated and they don't have nearly the money they're claiming?

I absolutely refuse to believe they legitimately sold 357 of a $900 ship with all this shit going on.

Such weltschmerz.

[Jeff Kelly]

None of the companies in Roberts' conglomerate are publicly traded (at least that I know of) so as long as he correctly reports revenues and expenses to the IRS and his investors (if there are any) he's OK. He'd probably not be liable for misrepresenting sales figures.

If he used those sales figures to secure additional funds like for example "tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships" then he'd be committing fraud though.

[Jeff Kelly]

Right now I wouldn't bet one way or another. Both options,  that there are enough people willing to spend up to $10,000 on a pipe dream or that the sales figures are inflated, seem equally likely. So it's probably a combination of both.

[Lucas]

Yep, I wondered about it myself a lot of times: that amount of money still seems incredible to me. But then again, having followed the forums, reddit and other places for the last few years, see people talk about their plan on purchasing ships during a big sale like this last one (and then commenting about having actually purchased them, sometimes in bulk), I realized that it's not entirely unreasonable 

[apocrypha]

I had a brief perusal of the official forums and the Star Citizen subreddit this morning and the levels of blind adulation, fanboi frothing and complete denial on display make me convinced that they absolutely could have sold this many imaginary spaceships for a game that will never exist.

Back before Elite: Dangerous was released the forums and subreddits were pretty deeply mired in fanatical bias, but this is a whole other level. The fact that *any* dissent or caution is able to surface, however briefly, before being shot down is a very strong indicator of just how deep the troubles must be running.

[Khaldun]

Apocalyptic cults get more and more intense as the appointed day approaches, but oddly, many of them stay devoted even when the world doesn't end when it was supposed to. Because by that point they've usually given over most of what they owned and most of their ordinary life to the cult, so it's not like they have anything to gain by walking away.

[IainC]

In the response to The Escapist though, Roberts does actually confirm that Sandi Gardiner is his wife. Which is a thing that was hotly denied and apparently a huge secret previously.

[Cyrrex]

Isn't there another Roberts (Erin?) that is vice-president of something important sounding?  Does this guy only surround himself by people he's had sex with?

[Lucas]

In the response to The Escapist though, Roberts does actually confirm that Sandi Gardiner is his wife. Which is a thing that was hotly denied and apparently a huge secret previously.

Hmm, not exactly: they never rented a page on the NYT declaring to the world that they're married, no. Interestingly enough, having closely followed the project since the beginning, having watched that infamous "last stretch" YT video and other stuff, I alwas knew they were, infact, married (judging from what I've seen on the various forums, I was definitely not alone in knowing that).

And yeah, Erin Roberts is Chris' brother: he worked at Origin, contributed to the Wing Commander titles, Strike Commander, Privatter, produced Privateer 2 and later on Starlancer.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,23689/

He's currently the director of global production for CIG and also in charge of the UK office (Foundry 42) which is the one in charge of the majority of work for the single-player portion of the project.

[Cyrrex]

Erin is a dude's name?  Well okay.

I am thinking of another bimbo who made some comment about how she couldn't be VP of XYZ when there was no President of XYZ, or some other moronic comment.

[Velorath]

In the response to The Escapist though, Roberts does actually confirm that Sandi Gardiner is his wife. Which is a thing that was hotly denied and apparently a huge secret previously.

Hmm, not exactly: they never rented a page on the NYT declaring to the world that they're married, no.

This goes beyond not renting a page in the NYT. They have never publicly acknowledged it up until now, and anytime somebody on the RSI forums has asked if they are married or if Chris has a wife moderators have shut the conversation down and said that that's personal information.

[Falconeer]

Erin is a dude's name?  Well okay.

I am thinking of another bimbo who made some comment about how she couldn't be VP of XYZ when there was no President of XYZ, or some other moronic comment.

That was in fact the wife we are talking about who said that, Sandi Gardiner. Calling her a bimbo though...

[Malakili]

(spoilered for size)

The cult is strong in this one. 

My favorite part is that the "war" he is going to wage is spamming comments sections. Fight the good fight, sir.

[Teleku]

Internet war.  Internet war never changes.

[Draegan]

MISC Endeavour sale (lasts until CitizenCon, October 10th):
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14972-Research-Unbound-The-MISC-Endeavor

when that page reached the pricing and sale portion is the single point that has shaken my faith in this game's potential the absolute most

and keep in mind i still think this will produce an ok game in the most likelihood.

but jesus christ.

Best part is you can increase quantity of modules in your checkout cart. Just in case you need 4 or 5 $100 farms.

[Trippy]

In the response to The Escapist though, Roberts does actually confirm that Sandi Gardiner is his wife. Which is a thing that was hotly denied and apparently a huge secret previously.

Does anybody why this was supposed to be secret?

[Trippy]

Well, trying to find something positive here.  If this whole thing does collapse in an orgy of smashed coke machines and weasel rape, there might be a good opportunity for somebody to buy a ton of art assets for cheap during the inevitable sell off of company assets.  Not knowing a ton about 3D game development, would it be very hard for another group of people to take the art/animation assets they’ve already developed and use them in a totally different project?  Or is there a lot of stuff baked into them that makes it hard to re-purpose this stuff outside of whatever special Engine SC is being developed in?  Say what you will, but a lot of the artwork and 3D models for this look pretty nice.  It would be a shame if that all totally went up in smoke.

Could be a way for another company to get $100 million (minus company sex parties and CEO blow) worth of art assets for pennies on the dollar.  Maybe for use in a future Elite expansion possibly.   

SD should buy it and make the game he's always promised