Vapourware Scam Citizen - Only people with too much money can become StarCitizens! WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

[Dexter]

Article was also posted here: http://www.reaxxion.com/10195/why-star-citizen-is-likely-going-to-be-a-complete-disaster

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...-citizen-39-s-executive-producer-departs.aspx

Wonder who else is going to wash their hands from this train-wreck?

Also, there's apparently a first FTC complaint for fraud: https://ia601506.us.archive.org/9/items/StarCitizenComplaint/StarCitizen_complaint.pdf

More Derek Smart drama

 

[justincz]

may be mostly talk no action, or something that is quickly over with. if it goes thermonuclear, its a great excuse to close down a company. management see no way out, protect as much cash as possible and provoke a lawsuit on your own ass. you can never know with these white collar guys.

 

[Drax]

Who the fuck is that guy?
What kind of stupid name is "Derek Smart"?
And, yeah, that fucking article is 3/4 MEMEMEME this is what I DID, for like 10 pages, sigh...

 

[Ulminati]

Who the fuck is that guy?
What kind of stupid name is "Derek Smart"?
And, yeah, that fucking article is 3/4 MEMEMEME this is what I DID, for like 10 pages, sigh...

Derek Smart did Battlecruiser 3000AD and is basically the Cleveland Mark Blakemore of space games. (Except he actually finishes games)

 

[Executr]

Oh boy, the ride never ends. Time to grab the popcorn.

Who the fuck is that guy?
What kind of stupid name is "Derek Smart"?
And, yeah, that fucking article is 3/4 MEMEMEME this is what I DID, for like 10 pages, sigh...

Did you know that if you say his name 3 times he'll show up here?

 

[Drax]

And I still don't get what is his beef with Roberts...

 

[J_C]

That is a massive butthurt from this Derek guy. Calling attorneys, leaking stuff to the public, filing FTC complaints, FTC investigations? Does this guy think that this will turn into the new Watergate?

 

[Keshik]

Yeah, he seems to have some problem with Roberts, maybe consumed with envy (not sure why, Smart isn't a popularly known dev) as his little bit on how he's been around longer than Roberts, etc.

Also "for every gamer that hates me, my guess is that there are ten more who have always stood by me"....what...

 

[Ninjerk]

So.... someone obviously reposted this. Is he going to sue them?

 

[Drax]

Or, much more amusing: Is he going to sue us?

 

[Perkel]

Who the fuck is that guy?
What kind of stupid name is "Derek Smart"?
And, yeah, that fucking article is 3/4 MEMEMEME this is what I DID, for like 10 pages, sigh...

And I still don't get what is his beef with Roberts...

All you need to know about him is in his facebook post:

TLDR i created game in 5 years and it sells shit and it is almost the same as SC ! I created it alone !
I saw SC crowdfunding and i want that money !

 

[Night Goat]

It seems like an advertisement for Line of Defense, disguised as an article about Star Citizen to get people to read it.

 

[Drakron]

At least Line of Defense is out.

 

[Echo Mirage]

That is a massive butthurt from this Derek guy. Calling attorneys, leaking stuff to the public, filing FTC complaints, FTC investigations? Does this guy think that this will turn into the new Watergate?

At least if it does turn into the next "gate" controversy we can call it Stargate.

 

[Drax]

 

[Luka-boy]

At least if it does turn into the next "gate" controversy we can call it Stargate.

You made me spill my drink all over my beard.

 

[Jack Dandy]

Despite Smart being, well, "controversial'.. he does have a point.

Star Citizen IS going to crash and burn, and I'd hate to see it ruining the concept of crowdfunding in the public's eye.

 

[Beowulf]

Not to mention that if he really got a hold of that money he is jealous of, he could make something really good - that is if he would spend some of it on an intern programming few lines of code that would change Dereks every post on forums/blog/whatever to the link to demo version of the game or just a already released feature list.

 

[Andnjord]

Please carry on mr Derek Smart, this is entertainment of the highest order.

 

[Whiran]

Despite Smart being, well, "controversial'.. he does have a point.

Star Citizen IS going to crash and burn, and I'd hate to see it ruining the concept of crowdfunding in the public's eye.

How do you define crash and burn for Star Citizen though?

A fair few people who have donated to Star Citizen are already satisfied with the dogfighting module. If the game development ended here they would be okay with it. Probably a bit disappointed but not by much.

The game is already a fiscal success so even if it sucks when completed and doesn't hit all of its goals in a meaningful way they got the money.

Theoretically RSI could release the dog fighting module as the full game since it pretty much covers the basic kickstarter design goals and add in a "universe" behind the dog fighting module that is nothing more than a match-making system. Voila - game done.

I imagine that the actual code for the game is messy and full of hacks (shortcuts to just get things done instead of elegant solutions to fix problems) and the game will probably be a buggy mess that will likely never fully be fixed given how the game is being developed.

Having so many offices of brand new coders with a high churn rate is a recipe for constant time overruns, duplication of effort (more like triplication or dozenification), lots of wasted time trying to incorporate different code structures, lots of wasted time trying to "integrate" different modules that were done by different teams of different skill levels and different visions.

From that perspective the whole project is a crazy undertaking unless there was / is a strong central doctrine for how to code and a very strong educational system in place to get everyone to the same stylistic level. From what I've seen in the couple of videos that I watched that was definitely not the case awhile back - new offices just got plopped in and new coders were given a chair, a computer, and told to start coding away.

 

[Infinitron]

Too Big To Fail at this point. If they run out of money, investors will line up to finish it.

 

[Jarpie]

Too Big To Fail at this point. If they run out of money, investors will line up to finish it.

Nothing is too big to fail.

 

[Ulminati]

Too Big To Fail at this point. If they run out of money, investors will line up to finish it.

They'd have to be extremely foolhardy investors if they're willing to honor whatever promises Chris Roberts has made to the backers.

The only realistic/sensible investor scenario would be for someone to gobble up the assets and trademarks, gut the game and release something far smaller. Maybe with free copies thrown in for the original backers.
But I think when Stargate is finally upon us, the brand will be so tarnished it's essentially worthless from a Marketing/PR standpoint.

 

[Infinitron]

Too Big To Fail at this point. If they run out of money, investors will line up to finish it.

They'd have to be extremely foolhardy investors if they're willing to honor whatever promises Chris Roberts has made to the backers.

The only realistic/sensible investor scenario would be for someone to gobble up the assets and trademarks, gut the game and release something far smaller. Maybe with free copies thrown in for the original backers.
But I think when Stargate is finally upon us, the brand will be so tarnished it's essentially worthless from a Marketing/PR standpoint.

But it's a provenly popular brand by now. Popular enough to have gotten fans to shell out an insane sum without an actual product. If Microsoft can buy Minecraft for 2.5 billion dollars, you think no publisher can just double Star Citizen's budget to finish the game?

Maybe they don't fulfill every single promise (I've not been following closely enough to know how crazy it's gotten) but it should be enough to create an impressive enough product.

 

[Ulminati]

Minecraft was released and popular. Scam Citizen is a bubble full of vapour. Big difference.

That said, it's a bubble with some really nice assets. If someone gobbled it up, kicked out the incompetent management, cut the MMO and FPS segments entirely and made a new wing commander out of the rest, it could be good. It'd leave all the people who bought imaginary ships raging, mind you.

Ironically, that's what the kickstarter was originally about before CRoberts megalomania took over.