LOL!
You just described a totally textbook modern day “Armchair Internet Detective” conspiracy.
Add some some Chris Roberts gigantism, some Derek Smart Je ne sais quoi and you get this flustercuck.
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There were already Glassdoor reviews in the same vein for a while now. Like… Last year? One of both Smart’s and Roberts’ talents is to play the crowd. Literally nothing new or significant could happen, and still they could both work up a whole lot of noise like this whole thing, by just waving their arms dramatically like orchestral maestros. Lots of people on both sides to amplify the “Us vs. Them” effect, and of course lots of “journalists” feeding on that dramatically huge bulging zit.
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[quote=“Cinder, post:244, topic:136, full:true”]and of course lots of “journalists” feeding on that dramatically huge bulging zit.
[/quote]
Quotation marks are necessary. It seems the only media sites actually publishing anything are the ones that don’t show any journalistic integrity. The problem with CIG’s crowdfunded model is that they don’t have any way of shielding themselves (such as a parent company, or publisher) so the only choice is for the heads of the company to make it adversarial. This could either escalate into a catastrophic thing, or both sides agree to move on.
The only thing I worry about is how the continued trolling (and it will continue until a judge steps in) will affect the development of the game. Good internal management will help shield the staff from this, but their morale will be affected nonetheless.
The internet’s democratization of news media has dissolved the quality requirements for reporting - cat gif news or mass murdering global meltdown news - for better and worse.
I think the cause and cure for all of the drama is just common sense. Subversion exploits flaws in people’s common sense. Misleading appeals to emotion, prejudice, etc. All roads lead to reason, right? What crappy news media (amateur on blogs or corporate on TV) and successful propaganda rely on is the audience getting lost halfway to destination.
This drama is just a distraction from what really matters. Making the game and having fun. If the devs remember that, they’ll be fine. Assuming of course the studio leaders do their job, the thing which unfortunately the over the top finger pointing drama has kind of overshadowed.
The whole thing is unfortunate, especially because of the novelty of crowd funding video games. We should all just recognize what rights and wrongs ought to be learned from it, and move on. Making better and better games is all that really matters.
Remember what blew our minds 10+ years ago. Look at what we have today. Imagine what we’ll have in the future. Getting tripped up on this kind of nonsensical drama is a waste of time; life is too short.
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There was misinformation and bad reporting well before the internet was born. We’re just living in a world where the buzz is the word and the first to get an information, as long as it’s savvy, will hurry to publish it without proper research.
All I can see is that this business is getting out of regular scope and will blow out, one way or another.
No, they should have rebuffed Smart in the first instance. They shouldn’t have given him the time of day.
As it is, this adversarial approach to criticism is merely stoking the fire, which is a lot easier when you can readily play on backers’ concerns, like them not actually getting anything from their money.
For my money’s worth, I’m a little dubious that this is all part of some one-man crusade against CIG, even if they like that particular narrative. A project like this, funded on so many backers’ money, it reeds suspicion. Everyone expects CIG to deliver, and anything that makes that look less likely will worry some. For some, they are so attached to this idea they form white knight brigades to cross the internet and defend it.
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There are in fact lots of reasons why Cloud Imperium Games is not the ideal workplace. Current employees went on the record several times (non-anonymously like on Reddit or live stream) acknowledging that the salaries are sub-standard. I remember them saying that you could earn two to three times as much at Electronic Arts or Blizzard for the same job. CIG is obviously frugal with the backer’s funds when it comes to employee pay and that alone will put some dent in your motivation.
Additionally Chris Roberts pushes the standards in about every aspect of his project, especially on the art side. What might have been quite adequate in someone’s last employment might easily be rejected and send back for reworking at CIG. Not everyone can cope with this.
Furthermore crunch times are a known evil in the industry but the community team has stated that even without formal pressure it could be even worse at CIG as people feel like they have to get something done after delays and before events and owe it to the paying fanbase more than to a traditional publisher.
So sub-standard payout, high demands and high pressure surely create an environment that not everyone will appreciate in the long run. All of this is “official” knowledge.
But anonymous accusations of racism and embezzlement? One should better offer some hard evidence to back that up. The Escapist spoke of lots of “claims” of rude Emails but doesn’t even say they were shown these Emails, just their existence was “claimed” to them.
If you want to follow a refreshing independent voice on this, check out the blog and tweets of industry veteran Kevin Dent. He wiped the floor with Derek Smart yesterday. Among many other things he says Chris Roberts and his wife have owned their home for years that Derek Smart continues to scream was somehow paid with backer money, because “sources”.
The proof for embezzlement so far? Zero, as expected. The whole thing a scam? I think the live Multicrew Demo at Gamescom was pretty damn impressive showing many of the things that some tirelessly claim cannot be done.
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We’re off on a tangent, and maybe we’ll agree to disagree, but as I see it there was nothing before our time like what you get with ubiquitous cell phones worldwide and the current social media ecosystem. That’s what I meant… Probably wasn’t said clearly enough.
Yeah, I heard the same. Friends in the studio.
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Sorry for spamming, I’m going to find how to explicitly reply to specific posts within a single reply post.
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Reply on one comment and quote it, then hit reply on another post, then hit the quote post button again.
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Or you can highlight any text you want to quote, and you’ll get a button called “quote reply” come up.
You can use that repeatedly whilst writing a reply
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Very useful in wolf threads! Although I have problems doing this on mobile from time to time.
continues getting eaten by Cthulu somewhere in the depths
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If I remember correctly they plan on having the ships autopilot to the landing spot, with the terrain being generated within view. Players should be able to walk around in their ships during landing but not control the landing itself.
That’s…disappointing. One of the things I like the most about Elite Dangerous is pulling off ridiculous/perfect landings. That being said, I’m not entirely sure how their planetary landing will work either.
Simultaneously, I do remember something like that - that it’ll be ATC taking over your final approach “for the sake of safety”, but I also can easily see Roberts caving in for the sake of maximum realism and eventually letting players land themselves. Balancing it shouldn’t be hard… You brake stuff, you foot the bill. And for griefers you have the “next of kin” karma system.
CitizenCon, just started, here is the live feed for anyone interested.
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I’ll have to watch later… currently testing in the Battlescape prototype 
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They basically announced a mini-IBS for 2.0, well “mini” as a smaller space 1mil-1mil-200kkm, with missions, FPS and other stuff…
I just watched that presentation, I think this derek smart guy is on to something, star citizen looks like a total scam. And now they even have a referral program (pyramid scheme).
All the animations and characters still look horrible and they didn’t show any gameplay.