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Is Star Citizen a Class Action Lawsuit waiting to happen?
luclinraider
Member UncommonPosts: 96
in Star Citizen
Just seeing what people's thought's are.
With the estimated desired refund rate at around 25% according to forum polls, and no refund option offered....along with the fact that technically speaking they are only required to refund the original KS backers if no product is given. The only other option for their other 750k backers.....(Just a guess, I know there's alot of them though 
), is a Class Action Lawsuit to get their money back.
With all the recent controversy...is there one on the horizon. And if one was to take place, do you think it would sink the project? I am thinking it's a definite yes.....
Comments
I don't think so, there isn't really any ground for a lawsuit unless the game doesn't launch or break factual stated rules.
There might be a s#¤%storm when the game launches though, many people have spent loads of money on a game that they havn't hardly even seen anything from and that usually leads to dissapointment.
Thou should not believe someones propaganda **cough cough won't mention names, or IT is being summoned ** with respect to polls on the RSI forum. There IS no desired refund rate of 35 %.
There was a poll on the RSI forum
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/271799/are-refunds-for-our-packages-ships-from-cig-now-okay-to-be-requested
with the question "Would you like there to be a publically available refund process now, given this latest development?" and out of the 1173 participants 25.15 % voted YES and 74.85 % voted NO.
The result from this poll was then intentionally used wrong to imply that 30-35 % of the backers wanted a refund.
About the OP question: I think NO. In my opinion as long as CIG is working on the game (which can easily be verified) a lawsuit will have little chance in court at this point. Especially as one of the owners of CIG is a lawyer. Delays are normal in the video gaming industry (its even mentioned in the SC TOS that every backer signed) ... and so are flame wars.
Have fun
I am a Comp Sci and BA and i have to fully agree with you. If i look at the transparency of Elite Dangerous (Financial Report) and the humble salary they pay themselves i am impressed.
I wish CIG would produce a report like this and be accountable. I am pretty sure though that with the salary CR is paying himself and his brother it would cause a huge shit storm from the backers.
There is a reason why a company would not disclose this information.
"It's pretty simple, really. If your only intention in posting about a particular game or topic is to be negative, then yes, you should probably move on. Voicing a negative opinion is fine, continually doing so on the same game is basically just trolling."
- Michael Bitton
Community Manager, MMORPG.com
"As an online discussion about Star Citizen grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Derek Smart approaches 1" - MrSnuffles's law
"I am jumping in here a bit without knowing exactly what you all or talking about."
- SEANMCAD
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PEER PRESSURE...
I have for one have let every games Dev and/or Publisher that has a Backers/Founders/Early Access , I am interested in, that despite my desire for their products, I refuse to enter any more programs such as these, because of what BS Star Citizen and RSI are pulling.
If enough of us do that, maybe RSI will cut to the chase and just declare FAILURE so their suits can retire to the mansions and sports cars they bought with our money.
We are suckers...
Exactly and don't forget little sister, she really loves spending the donations.
If people actually read the terms of service on websites and games and actually clicked "I Do NOT Accept" so many things would be better.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In a few short years we've gone from buying a released game, to pre-ordering a soon to be released game, then to paying to alpha test a game in development, and now have reached the pay for an idea phase.
If people want to waste their money paying for ideas, they are welcome to do so. But don't run crying foul when the idea you paid for doesn't happen the way you want.
What would be the reasons for the Class Action Lawsuit?
They are making the game, already delivered working modules to backers with alpha/beta access and are explaining their progress every months and why they are currently having delays for other modules. Since when is delay in production a reasons for a Class Action Lawsuit?
Yes. The reason is : CIG is a private company not listed on any stock exchange.
Frontier would NOT disclose their financial data voluntarily - its A LOT OF WORK (many man weeks) to generate that data, report and figures. But they have to, because they are listed on the London stock exchange. Almost NO company would voluntarily saddle themselves with such a large amount of work unless they have to by law.
Personally i hope CIG does not waste employee time on generating a 60 page financial leaflet that is not required by law (but only "demanded" by a loudmouth who is a proven internet scourge and lousy developer that is feuding with Chris Roberts since the 90ies).
I rather have CIG use that employee time (man weeks !) to work on the game itself.
Have fun
We already know what you would do personally. You have made it perfectly clear that no matter what CIG and, by extension, Chris Robert's does you will worship him, support him, and follow him to the end. There are about 3 or 4 of you like that on these forums and no doubt legions more on the RSI forums. [mod edit]
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Basically this... the way folks act you'd think this game was in development for the greater part of the last 10 years. It's a little over 2 and half years into it's full development, that's hardly enough time to build one of the largest games ever created. even 2016 is pushing it.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Keep repeating (and embellishing) the allegations that you half-heard and only partially understood and the story will become epic in no time.
There's a vast difference between asking "Should we offer a refund procedure ?" and asking "Do you want a refund ?".
I would always vote "yes" if asked whether there should be a refund procedure. Not because I wanted a refund, but because I think it's a good thing to have some form of reasonable refund policy on any item or service.
So 30% of 1173 forum warriors voted in favour of an expand refund procedure. Apparently the other 974,000 backers had no interest in the discussion...
Actually whatever ot not the company is publicly they still have to do the work. Only difference is that they do not have to release the information, but if the government comes knocking they still should have proof for all the spending, tax return request, profits, etc. I doubt the govenment is willing to wait "weeks" before recieving the needed papers.
Also I hightly doubt a developer has the skill anyway to create a financial report....so you do not have to worry about someone not developing in the meantime...
Where is everyone getting the notion this game should be out already?
Because a lot of people believe lots of money is faster development. Not realising that you could just keep hiring developers, but at a certain point the productivity would actually be going down instead of up. Also this is the first time for a lot of people that follow a game from the early stages. I guess most people usually start to follow a game later in the development when things are already a long time underway.
Changed the 35% to 25%. Was my mistake.
Still quite a large percentage that is likely close to 250k people wanting their money back.
But I am not here to spread propaganda, just to see what people are thinking.....I really couldn't care less about SC's rep.
To be honest I'm still having a blast on GW2 and looking forward to the expansion. Space sim isn't really my thing :P.
Seem's most of you don't see a lawsuit on the horizon though. Seems good for SC...although I can't help but think it's just cementing the perception that so many studios have, that is, us as the gamers are nothing but idiotic sheep of whom they can treat accordingly.
Seeing that he hired a lot of employees and is using at least 3-4 businesses to make this game,there is absolutely nothing to prove he is not attempting to make this game.IMO he could stop doing anything right now and enough paper trail would show this was an attempt and that is all he is bound to.
The whole USERS side of the Kickstarter information is non complete very shotty work,obviously done that way to mislead people.I am sure there is a more binding contract between Kickstarter and the developer but of course neither care of you and your money,that would be strictly between them.
There are only two avenues,PROVE there was no or lack of attempt to make this game and show something of concrete evidence that he made promises.I am certain by this point he is too smart to leave either hole open,so he is basically home free living easy street.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
For sure, look at how long Development has been on Fallout 4. They started right after Fallout 3. And just recently showed it off. That game isn't close to the scope SC is claiming.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Nah no jail time ,remember that guy who stole money from Cheyenne Mountain entertainment,he had been caught previous doing the same thing.Nothing happened to him and obviously people kept giving him money in trust.Well i believe he did have to go to court but unless you have a ton of proof nothing happens.
I have a pretty good idea why MOST laws you would expect to be better are not.It is because our governments are often involved in most scandals,like receiving donations for favors.SO no way is Government going to have a lot of laws surrounding free money,handouts/donations.The biggest donation to the government in my region also happened to be the guy who ran the most old age homes and you can only get those when approved by the politicians.
These businesses pay taxes to the government,they pay license fees,they pay copyright fees,law backs them up.Government cares when businesses go under,they don't much care about the individual.Matter of fact governments help keep failing businesses alive,you think they would help you out,not a chance.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Although I am a backer of SC, I have not been following very much lately. However I think this issue of delivery of services based on a KS is an interesting one. In another KS project I'm following there are similar issues, and I have this question:
if if a developer runs a Kickstarter and promises to deliver an MMO, but the number of subscribers never breaks 600, and the developer themselves had boasted that the game was being developed in anticipation of about 50k subscribers, would that constitute a broken obligation?
Played: E&B, SWG, Eve, WoW, COH, WAR, POTBS, AOC, LOTRO, AUTO.A, AO, FE, TR, WWII, MWO, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, NWO, WoP, RUST, LIF, SOA, MORTAL, DFUW, AA, TF, PFO, ALBO, and many many others....