Star Citizen Central

[Grizzly]

As exemplified by the escapist.

I heard rumblings before about this, but they were by Derek Smart, a person who I do not trust by default (As he posseses a sort of scary arrogance), but the escapist’s article sounds credible enough.

**Update:**Courtesy of EPICTHEFAIL, mr Roberts already has an response.

[TheDreamlord]

The only thing that surprises me is that people are surprised about this! Ever since the “space plant” malarkey it was obvious this was going to fail.

[EPICTHEFAIL]

The Escapist’s article is also based on Derek Smart’s information. I know, I’ve checked (I am drawn to SC-related shitstorms like a mosquito to my desk lamp). Anyway, I don’t particularly trust this, ulterior motives and all that, but I would also be the last person to be surprised by SC dying of a massive cash haemorrhage. I mean, these are the people who ran a fucking reality TV show and have four massive convention appearances a year, including their own CitizenCon, and are run by a man who demands everything to be redesigned at least three times before it’s released, even (especially) if it was all right the first time.

edit: SC have just now hit back in the most amusing way imaginable. I still haven’t read it through all the way, but can barely hold back from giggling already.

[Grizzly]

edit: SC have just now hit back in the most amusing way imaginable. I still haven’t read it through all the way, but can barely hold back from giggling already.

I immeaditely considered renaming this topic to “Star Citizen may have difficulties taking off, but sure hits the right people blasting off” but that didn’t fit :o - Thanks for posting that epic.

[Squiz]

Derek Smart. Derek Smart. Derek Smart.

[Grizzly]

Derek Smart. Derek Smart. Derek Smart.

I fully realize that I, trough my ignorance, may have just given air to an internet troll (you know, the very thing I’m supposed to prevent)

Aaaaaaaargh this is emberassing.

[EPICTHEFAIL]

Frankly I don’t trust anything Smart says, but several ex-employees have also talked to Escapist and aired similar concerns apparently (though they may have been the same ones who talked to him). I’ve also seen a figure of 8 million being thrown around for what’s left of their crowdfunding budget, but can’t for the life of me find it. I’m not entirely sure it’s quite that bad, but the increasingly expensive and amusingly over promising ship sales do have an air of desperation about them, and SC’s recent habit of deriding other space sims (especially Elite, which Mr. Roberts supposedly likes) in order to curry favour with their own rabid fanboys certainly reads a lot like “please donate to our church, we blew all our cash on new Audis”. This is probably just a matter of a stopped clock being right twice a day though, and money and CR’s habitual Molyneux-like overpromising are only some of the many, many problems SC probably has right now.

[Grizzly]

True, but Chris Roberts also has an ability to deliver. See his Wing Commander franchise, which was an extremely ambitious project which he pulled off just fine (games 3 and 4 are a must play for anyone interested in Sci fi and gaming). Derek Smart has been famous for his (self admitted) trolling antics since before I knew of the existence of a thing known as ‘The internet’. Derek Smart is not a broken clock - He’s the one messing with them.

(He’s not very famous within the FS2 community I frequent, at the very least).

[peschiNL]

I am baffled people are actually listening and responding to this troll (and he is 100% troll, always was, and always will be), he lost his creditabily a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. (old comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.space-sim reader)

[Aerothorn]

Like, this is a fascinating story, and it may well be true - but the proof will be in the pudding. I feel like at this point this is just causing unnecessary heat towards the Star Citizen team; if it’s a house of cards, it will fall down and we can have all manner of “what happened” pieces then. If it’s not, stuff like this will be REALLY embarrassing for the Escapist.

[c-Row]

Frankly I don’t trust anything Smart says, but several ex-employees have also talked to Escapist and aired similar concerns apparently (though they may have been the same ones who talked to him). I’ve also seen a figure of 8 million being thrown around for what’s left of their crowdfunding budget, but can’t for the life of me find it.

Don’t worry, funding is save.

[alms]

Can it really crash and burn though? all they have to do is keep churning out special edition ships, or is that honeymoon all over already?

(edit: damn ninja’ed by c-Row)

certainly reads a lot like “please donate to our church, we blew all our cash on new Audis”.

…VW Group stock? Pre-crash?

True, but Chris Roberts also has an ability to deliver. See his Wing Commander franchise, which was an extremely ambitious project which he pulled off just fine (games 3 and 4 are a must play for anyone interested in Sci fi and gaming).

Wing Commander was a long, long time ago, though I’m not going to make risky parallels there, I’m just thinking of a certain british developer, when he had a big, well-funded and dependable team behind him to drive crazy, and his most recent ventures.

[Kiril]

As a former CIG employee myself, trust me, I am wouldn’t lie about this. I would like to say the exact same phrases as Derek Smart, but I am nothing to do with him.

[deano2099]

I read the Escapist article (once it had been updated) and thought fair enough, it could go either way, not sure who to believe.

But then I read the response someone posted, and saw that before he addressed the points, he spent 2500 words trying to establish a link between the author and Derek Smart through digging up screenshots from Twitter archives and then attacking Derek Smart himself.

I mean, that guy is a dick but all the Twitter screenshots and “this person knows this person and tweeted this person” gave me bloody flashbacks.

[Wenz]

I fully realize that I, trough my ignorance, may have just given air to an internet troll (you know, the very thing I’m supposed to prevent)

Aaaaaaaargh this is emberassing.

Maybe you are not the Grizzly we all hoped for shakes head (jk;0 watched some mgs5 vids).

[EPICTHEFAIL]

Wing Commander was a long, long time ago, though I’m not going to make risky parallels there, I’m just thinking of a certain british developer, when he had a big, well-funded and dependable team behind him to drive crazy, and his most recent ventures.

Is it the same British developer I mentioned? And I’ll just add that Chris Roberts has already tried to make a game that made basically the same promises as Star Citizen and that was released as a half-baked cobbled-together mess once Microsoft got tired of him going vastly over budget. True, Freelancer was considered pretty decent (though I was rather unimpressed when I played it), but he does have a history of messing up royally (that’s not even mentioning the Wing Commander movie - and he’s now directing Squadron 42) and Star Citizen in its current state is already a mess, as anyone who has gone near the forums can attest. A lot of the basics are still pretty flimsy at best, and while some of the stuff they’ve shown (the multi-crew “mini PU” in particular) does look really good, the fact that they still can’t come up with a decent control method that doesn’t simultaneously screw over non-mouse users while feeling absolutely awful with a mouse and keyboard is worrisome, considering they are already 3 years and almost $90 million in. That’s the absolute bare minimum for any game, never mind the most ambitious project in gaming currently.

[Stellar_Duck]

Aaaaaaaargh this is emberassing.

Embearrassing, surely?

[TheDreamlord]

I am a bit confused as to what this current (linked) article has to do with Derek Smart. Most comments are from current or former CIG employees. And really, when something looks like shit, smells like shit and feels like shit, what are the chances of it being black forest gateau, eh?

I would absolutely love to see the game surface and succeed. I loved Wing Commander as a kid (I played it on an 8086 in 10 frames per second and still loved it). However, everything about CR’s current endeavor screams arrogance, money scamming and failure.

[EPICTHEFAIL]

This just keeps getting better: a heartfelt fanboy-turned-employee’s yellow-text shower of praise heaped upon CIG, with only the finest purple prose, for your reading pleasure. Forgive me for being cynical, but posting something like that mere hours after a 4000-word rant from your company’s chairman does not a good impression make, especially since he does not exactly establish himself as being of particularly sound judgement. The “Rear Admiral” package was $250 IIRC, and he bought it after watching a single trailer?

Edit: Dreamlord, we’re talking about Derek Smart because a few weeks back he “dug up” some “dirt” on CIG (by which I mean talked to angry ex-employees and started running interference) that sent their knickers in a twist and resulted in a bunch of people getting fired when Escapist caught wind of it. This is basically a follow-up article to that.

[Gus_Smedstad]

I’m just thinking of a certain british developer

What the article reminds me of is Ion Storm. It’s a very inexact match, I know, since Ion Storm did in fact release some great games such as Deus Ex and Anachronox and CIG hasn’t done anything yet, but the overspending of development funds on luxury stuff and the endless revisions of the primary project calls it back for me.

The “Rear Admiral” package was $250 IIRC, and he bought it after watching a single trailer?

I’ve done dumber stuff in fits of enthusiasm. Mostly Magic:TG related. I otherwise agree with you, I just had a “can’t throw the first stone” moment reading that particular sentence.