Star Citizen (and Squadron 42) - Chris Roberts' space flight sim SP game and MMO - by EvaUnit02
Starker on 3/10/2015 at 17:29
For me, the problem with the articles is that there are a lot of claims in the articles and not a lot of proof. It's basically just rumors and opinions by some former employees mixed in with some op-ed. Without proof, the rumors about how backer money is used for private purposes are nothing more than that... unfounded rumors. "Oh, the guy has a nice house, must be paid with backer money." And that's nothing to say about the parts that basically amount to personal attacks.
Nedan on 3/10/2015 at 18:21
Without proof, even the nine other clocks are broken. Unless we live in a world were you are automatically guilty until proven innocent, the burden of proof still falls on the accuser or accusers (in this case, the journalists writing these articles). Otherwise, it is nothing more than cheap crappy clickbait journalism at its worst.
henke on 4/10/2015 at 07:40
I heard a podcast about this thing recently. (
http://www.npr.org/2015/09/22/434597124/trying-to-change-or-changing-the-subject-how-feedback-gets-derailed) Switchtracking! It's when 2 people are arguing over different things, but think they're arguing about the same thing.
Nedan, I agree with this:
Quote Posted by Nedan
the
burden of proof still falls on the accuser or accusers (in this case, the journalists writing these articles). Otherwise, it is nothing more than cheap crappy clickbait journalism at its worst.
But it seems you don't actually understand what the "Even a broken clock is right twice a day" proverb means. In this case it does not mean "Derek Smart is right", it means "Derek Smart
could be right".
Nedan on 4/10/2015 at 10:47
I know what the proverb means (I still find the proverb stupid along with the other one I posted). My problem is that Derek Smart has a long (really, really looooong) history of crap like this. From potentially lying to bait & switch tactics to just outright trolling others because he gets off on stirring the pot out of some weird fetish of his.
The proverb that might fit him best would be classic tale of chicken little. He has claimed that there is fire when there isn't even any smoke. And he has done this so much over the years that it is hazardous to ones health to even try believing him on any crap he says anymore. Personally, I feel that for anybody to even remotely take this troll seriously needs to have their head throughly examined.
But... could he be right? Sorry but I refuse to acknowledge the town troll on general principle as he has his own ulterior motives on why he attacks RSI or anyone. If I was pushed to answer, then I'd say no. Now RSI isn't squeaky clean by any stretch of the imagination.. but no developer really is. And going on Derek Smarts past history alone, I'd more than likely believe that he doesn't really care if any of us get screwed out of our pledge money. He probably cares more about shutting down a game (Star Citizen) that could potential be like his games but with the added benefits of not being developed by him (always a plus in my book), being better over all (more user friendly, better control scheme, etc.), & actually more mainstream compared to anything he has ever slapped his name on.
So it isn't about whether he could be right or not... it's more along the line of not feeding the town troll.
Thirith on 4/10/2015 at 10:55
Quote Posted by Nedan
So it isn't about whether he could be right or not... it's more along the line of not feeding the town troll.
The point is, though, that others say the same thing. Are they automatically wrong just because Derek "Broken Clock" Smart says these things too? If it was *just* Smart making these allegations, it'd be easy enough to ignore them outright, but as it is, saying "Well, if Smart *also* says so, obviously it's BS!" is perhaps a bit facile.
Starker on 4/10/2015 at 13:09
A lot of the stuff is instigated by Derek Smart, though. The first Escapist article was practically a mouthpiece for him and the second article is a reaction to the first one.
I'd probably be a lot more concerned if I had backed the game, but from what I've read of the allegations, there doesn't really seem to be any solid proof for any of it. There are no screenshots of e-mails which would confirm the awful treatment by the management. There are no photos of receipts which would indicate backer money being spent for private purposes. There aren't even any direct witnesses -- just people who have heard something or who reckon' something.
Instead we have quotes like:
"It's never been done because it can't be done."
- Several sources
"...four months were spent filming performance capture with this all-star Hollywood cast, at a cost that several employees anticipate being astronomical."
"...company has less than $8 million of what was raised from the crowdfunding efforts left - a number that several employees have stated is "common knowledge" within the company..."
...and so on, to the tune of Leonard Cohen, everybody knows that the project is going to crash and burn. It seems to be so obvious that no proof is really needed, because of the narrative that has been created.
Just take one specific allegation -- the reason for the higher priced ships appearing is apparently that the company needs money badly, so they started selling 900$ ships all of a sudden (to appeal to the previously untapped rich gamers market?). A much more reasonable explanation for this, however, might be that the higher priced ships were just next in line and always planned. Every little tidbit suddenly gains huge significance to the conspiracy theorists and to the people who already want to believe the worst.
WingedKagouti on 4/10/2015 at 18:45
The fallout of that is probably going to be a lot of ad revenue (via massively clickbaity titles for articles) for sites covering the events...
Starker on 4/10/2015 at 19:16
Well, those who are prone to clickbait are going to clickbait, but I think Forbes, for example, has handled this pretty well, all things considered.
Stories like this is why I'm so sad that video game journalism is a joke. A reasonable publication would have waited with the story and tried to find out whether there was something behind the rumours instead of rushing to publish them. Perhaps even hired a detective agency or done some investigative journalism. Now, even if there have been some wrongdoings, there has been ample time to get rid of evidence.
Shadowcat on 5/10/2015 at 08:45
I'm not going to pretend I have the foggiest idea what the truth is here. I just wanted to say that this bit of the prefix to the latest letter from Cloud Imperium made me laugh out loud:
Quote:
Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.