This thread is a gold mine of information when it is necro'd three to four years from now
Speaking of this, for years the lovers of the cash grabbing and delays have been saying that the "Kickstarter pitch" was a minor game and that the "scope changed" and only because that they did not achieve the end of 2014 release date promised. And that they just put that date thinking in a minor game.
So, here's the proof that shows that this is far to be true, even that LATER, even Roberts after probably listening the "good" excuse of the fans, started to repeat that himself.
But here's the fact. When the crowd-funding campaign ended, CR wrote a post (both in KS and in its comm-links):
If you read it from the start, you will see confirmation that the game was funded and would be delivered with "Exceeded goals" and phrases lke "The Battle is Over", etc.
Pay attention to this. This was wrote when they had 6.2 million dollars from backers and had achieved all the Stretch Goals below that mark, including player Bengal and so many others. They promised a single-player campaign as never before and so on. Which made you have certainty that it definitely would have a variety of ships and capital ships and so on (that they "revealed" in later stretch goals).
One little but funny thing that PROVES how they lie in their reports is this:
We will also be launching new sections which have been in the works for some time: the Galactapedia
"In the works for some time". And look to the context. Clearly implies something that is about to be released. I checked today, 3 years later... Nada.
But that was not my point here. What I noticed was this:
We can't thank you enough for everything you've done for this project. Please see the next update on 'The Pledge' for our promise to you. The next two years are going to be incredible for all involved and we're thoroughly happy that all of you are along for this exciting ride.
I got some people claiming that the text of the original campaign was thought and created to make a minor game that would include Squadron 42 only... WRONG! If you read the text there you will see Squadron 42 and PU.
I got others saying that "scope raised" and blablabla... or showing ships that improved on graphics along the time... WRONG... those earlier ships were shown as earlier footage and said that would improve along the road, the improvements were to be expected... and by the time that they wrote this letter, they had achieved the stretch goals, the bigger ones, who actually could be considered as "raising the scope".
Later additions were stated in letters by Chris Roberts that were just "reveals" of things that they would do, or things that not necessarily would come in the day one.
So, if you followed me right, you see that after the scope raised, they were targetting, and hyping people about a release in the 2 year time period.
What that makes them? Make your choice... Incompetent or liars?
And what about this:
"Our intention has always been to make Roberts Space Industries YOUR site. It's not a public advertisement for the game; it's a private community for those who are making the game happen. We want your input on what we're doing and we want to share our plans with you; the occasional passer-by doesn't concern us. The plan was initially to immediately switch on a wall that would allow only you, our backers, to access features like the Comm-Link and the Spectrum Dispatches."
If its not a bait-and-swtich, a false ad, to make people rush to pledge, I don't know anymore what could be.
You STILL do not understand. They have ALL THE TIME THEY WANT AND NEED !
They are NOT working for a publisher and a fixed deadline. They are working for US, the backers.
The vast majority of backers have said it time and time again ... "take as much time as you need to make it a great game" ! It has been posted in the forums thousands of times that the backers rather wait longer to get a finished, tested and polished product than getting a bad quality incomplete rush job.
Let me give you an example ... Witcher 3. The best game i played since the original Baldurs Gate 2. Took longer than expected, but was worth every month i waited longer. If Star Citizen can be as good or better than Witcher 3, i will be contend.
Have fun
Hey, it's your money. You keep giving them all the time they need. This is bad for the rest of us gamers though because it is sending the wrong message to future developers and potential future crowdfunding projects. i know many gamers have always been of the position for developers to take their time and get it right. This position, however, is a bad one to adopt from a business perspective for the reasons stated in my post. Rarely does giving card blanche for anything every work out as intended. Checks and balances must be implemented. This is why everyone has a boss. In this case, the boss (crowdfunding backers) are being much too lenient with their expectations. Although it is expected because no one person is in a position of leadership to speak for the group, the dynamic of it all does not bode well for the project.
The vast majority of backers have said it time and time again ... "take as much time as you need to make it a great game" ! It has been posted in the forums thousands of times that the backers rather wait longer to get a finished, tested and polished product than getting a bad quality incomplete rush job.
Can you prove that? I mean. You said "the vast majority".
Can you bring the poll where those 900k voted "YES, take as much time as you need"?
Or... the 900k posts, one at least, for each individual backer, where they answered and then in the sum of the yes and no, the vast majority said YES?
Let me give you an example ... Witcher 3. The best game i played since the original Baldurs Gate 2. Took longer than expected, but was worth every month i waited longer. If Star Citizen can be as good or better than Witcher 3, i will be contend.
Have fun
You don't need to tell people that youa re going to like Star Citizen. Everyone knows here that you are going to lvoe SC and will say that the wait was worthy even if it ends to be nothing more than a Hyper Vanguard IV (that by the way, was the only good thing that they released so far).
Who actually believes a word of what Derek Smart has to say? That right there is reason enough to call this entire thread Chicken little BS and forget about it. Which is what I intend to do now.
Seriously, if you are going to start a "The Sky is Falling" thread please at least use a reliable, intelligent source.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
The guy might be a troll, a failure, whatever, that I can agree with. But one thing's for sure: reading that made me fill my FTC report in hope that I get my money back. I pledged over 200$ almost 2 years ago and by now I am beyond sick of seeing those guys CONSTANTLY advertising sale after sale after sale of ships and even friggin' CONCEPT ARTS but barely have any actual gameplay/game/universe/whatever to show... And to sell ships for constantly more and more money is getting disgusting by now (what what the last big one, 2000-3000$ a pop? What a farce....).
Enough with the goddamn money milking and constantly focusing on selling stuff to people that is not even passed alpha stage yet: I for one do not support Star Citizen anymore, they seriously deviated WAY too much since the beginning (original idea/pitch is like 1/10th of what they have in mind now) and it seems to be only about money now and nothing else. I want mine back, I filled my FTC complain in hope I get it back (which I doubt), and am no longer a believer of the train wreck called Star Citizen. They bit off more than they can chew and it's spiraling out of control slowly but surely...
Haters gonna hate, agree or not, say what you want, I don't care: I don't believe in that farce anymore, regret throwing money at them thanks to my childhood memories of Wing Commander, and just want my cash back. I highly really doubt they can deliver anything remotely close to that universe they keep promising at this point before 2025+....
Who actually believes a word of what Derek Smart has to say? That right there is reason enough to call this entire thread Chicken little BS and forget about it. Which is what I intend to do now.
Seriously, if you are going to start a "The Sky is Falling" thread please at least use a reliable, intelligent source.
He is one of the best person to talk about this development and its possibilties, considering that he spent a lot of years trying to developer similar games and also have knowledge about what they are doing.
Why don't you read the thread, or all website news which reported this post of Derek. I see more people agreeing than disagreeing with him, even that coming with disclaimer like: 'I hate the guy, but he is right'
The guy might be a troll, a failure, whatever, that I can agree with. But one thing's for sure: reading that made me fill my FTC report in hope that I get my money back. I pledged over 200$ almost 2 years ago and by now I am beyond sick of seeing those guys CONSTANTLY advertising sale after sale after sale of ships and even friggin' CONCEPT ARTS but barely have any actual gameplay/game/universe/whatever to show... And to sell ships for constantly more and more money is getting disgusting by now (what what the last big one, 2000-3000$ a pop? What a farce....).
Enough with the goddamn money milking and constantly focusing on selling stuff to people that is not even passed alpha stage yet: I for one do not support Star Citizen anymore, they seriously deviated WAY too much since the beginning (original idea/pitch is like 1/10th of what they have in mind now) and it seems to be only about money now and nothing else. I want mine back, I filled my FTC complain in hope I get it back (which I doubt), and am no longer a believer of the train wreck called Star Citizen. They bit off more than they can chew and it's spiraling out of control slowly but surely...
Haters gonna hate, agree or not, say what you want, I don't care: I don't believe in that farce anymore, regret throwing money at them thanks to my childhood memories of Wing Commander, and just want my cash back. I highly really doubt they can deliver anything remotely close to that universe they keep promising at this point before 2025+....
Good call. I did my own too.
Maybe you can try to ask CIG too for the refund.
Their default answer is to show you the TOS (they are shady after all), that has not a lot of meaning, because they changed the deal unilaterally without your approval, probably. Like "expanding" the game. You did not ask for Star Citizen X. That would be something that they should make later, with the money from sales, not making you wait for that, because they decided to do that (in fact, that's the tale, we can argue that they just decided to make more cash grabbing using the ship sales that they promised to stop on release and the "scope raised" is just a poor excuse, to delay even more)
From there, you can show to them all the bait-and-switch instances that mislead you to buy the game and require that based on the law that they are obligated to follow but did not.
If they still deny, in case of FTC contacting you, probably you will have even more material to prove their bad faith attitude on business with emails... Like myself, that have an email with Ben Lesnick lying in my face about something, even today, saved in my inbox, for whatever moment that I decide to use in my favor.
I also have another one, with the own Chris Roberts stating that he would give the refund to any person that wasn't 100% with him. His words. A prove that I also have in my inbox until today.
But I know that they have been giving refunds to some and not to others.
For a person that I know, they told that "because he pledged very earlier, they couldn't refund him" that was their argument
Keep in mind that many people including myself thought Darkfall wouldn't be made either. It was in development for a while, but still came out.
Yes, but just like Star Citizen will be, Darkfall was a mere sliver of what they claimed they were bringing. There are still archives of articles talking to devs where they promised so much, yet they delivered so little.
P.S.
Darfkall was still fun and I played until they shut it down, but if they had delivered HALF of what they promised, it would have never even shut down at all.
I remember the run-up to the release of Darkfall as well: just prior to the actual "release", AV went and heavily edited the feature lists for things DF was supposed to have as opposed to actually had. They deleted about half the list, as I recall.
And what they released was a buggy and exploit riddled mess almost unrivaled in MMO history.
I wonder if history will repeat itself with SC, if it even makes it to release as a coherent single product.
Who actually believes a word of what Derek Smart has to say? That right there is reason enough to call this entire thread Chicken little BS and forget about it. Which is what I intend to do now.
Seriously, if you are going to start a "The Sky is Falling" thread please at least use a reliable, intelligent source.
He is one of the best person to talk about this development and its possibilties, considering that he spent a lot of years trying to developer similar games and also have knowledge about what they are doing.
Why don't you read the thread, or all website news which reported this post of Derek. I see more people agreeing than disagreeing with him, even that coming with disclaimer like: 'I hate the guy, but he is right'
Everything he's made has been laughably bad. He can't envision success as he's never attained it.
This thread is a gold mine of information when it is necro'd four to five years from now after this game is released and the game turns out to be a shell of what what was originally promised. Because make no mistake about it ... a shell of what was promised is exactly what this game will turn out to be. It will be hilarious to see all of these fanboys and backers screaming at the top of their lungs, whining and crying about class action lawsuits and how they were ripped off. No one will feel sorry for you when this prediction comes to fruition. You were warned. And instead of heading the friendly warnings and advice, you instead chose to follow the false messiah while all the while lambasting and dismissing the well-intentioned messengers. When it happens take your pounding and move on quietly. For you will have deserved the trash that you ultimately receive for being the blind sycophant fanboys that you proved yourself to be during its predictable development.
Could I borrow that crystal ball you are using? Just saying. If you can really see that far into future. How about sharing something useful with the crowd. Could you rub that crystal ball and tell me. Should I stick with my Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 2011 or go ahead and grab the 2015 model? If I keep the 2011 should I instead get a newer Toyota Corolla to replace my 2009 one? Should I drop down to only 1 car? Is it going to rain tomorrow? How late will my meeting run over? When's the world going to end?
Sharing something useful? I think that's been tried. In fact, isn't that what this and dozens of other similar threads have been all about? It's not anyone else's fault that you chose to ignore the obvious writing on the wall. The ignorant, naive, and gullible is what great scams are made of. That said, using a little common sense goes a long way sometimes. How is that for useful information? Doubt it will be enough for the likes of you and the rest of the SC fanboys.
So is that a no or yes on the new Jeep? Come on just look into the crystal ball real fast.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
In War - Victory. In Peace - Vigilance. In Death - Sacrifice.
"So I really do hope and pray that RSI can pull this off, because if someone like me, with all my experience and expertise on this very same subject, and who has spent half a lifetime trying, can’t do it without sacrificing something (visual fidelity, performance, scope etc) in the process, and they, with all this money and star talent can’t do it either; then it’s safe to say that it simply can’t be done. At least not in our lifetime."
****
So basically what he says is ... "I could not do it , so no one can ...."
We will see.
Have fun
Indeed pretty much what I read..... I couldn't do it......., CE3 engine bad bad and ignores the fact that they have modified it so much it's not really ce3 anymore. Dunno but green eyed monster perchance?
Anyways time will tell.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
So is that a no or yes on the new Jeep? Come on just look into the crystal ball real fast.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
You ever heard about the profession of Advisory? They are in basically all the areas of several different business. They basically evaluate about a certain kind of business and give you the best path, plan to follow and give you a higher probability of success.
We could classify these professionals in levels like 1 to 10, were 10 is highest pro and 1 is a trainee in the matter.
To see that Star Citizen is going to flop, you just need to go deep in the career... A level of 0.00001 of the skill of insight and you see.
Not really a magic my friend. It's called... brain.
This thread is a gold mine of information when it is necro'd four to five years from now after this game is released and the game turns out to be a shell of what what was originally promised. Because make no mistake about it ... a shell of what was promised is exactly what this game will turn out to be. It will be hilarious to see all of these fanboys and backers screaming at the top of their lungs, whining and crying about class action lawsuits and how they were ripped off. No one will feel sorry for you when this prediction comes to fruition. You were warned. And instead of heading the friendly warnings and advice, you instead chose to follow the false messiah while all the while lambasting and dismissing the well-intentioned messengers. When it happens take your pounding and move on quietly. For you will have deserved the trash that you ultimately receive for being the blind sycophant fanboys that you proved yourself to be during its predictable development.
Could I borrow that crystal ball you are using? Just saying. If you can really see that far into future. How about sharing something useful with the crowd. Could you rub that crystal ball and tell me. Should I stick with my Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 2011 or go ahead and grab the 2015 model? If I keep the 2011 should I instead get a newer Toyota Corolla to replace my 2009 one? Should I drop down to only 1 car? Is it going to rain tomorrow? How late will my meeting run over? When's the world going to end?
Sharing something useful? I think that's been tried. In fact, isn't that what this and dozens of other similar threads have been all about? It's not anyone else's fault that you chose to ignore the obvious writing on the wall. The ignorant, naive, and gullible is what great scams are made of. That said, using a little common sense goes a long way sometimes. How is that for useful information? Doubt it will be enough for the likes of you and the rest of the SC fanboys.
So is that a no or yes on the new Jeep? Come on just look into the crystal ball real fast.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
Edit: I'll be nice to you because if anything, I feel sorry for you. Which is why I am posting in this thread trying to help you and those like you.
"So I really do hope and pray that RSI can pull this off, because if someone like me, with all my experience and expertise on this very same subject, and who has spent half a lifetime trying, can’t do it without sacrificing something (visual fidelity, performance, scope etc) in the process, and they, with all this money and star talent can’t do it either; then it’s safe to say that it simply can’t be done. At least not in our lifetime."
****
So basically what he says is ... "I could not do it , so no one can ...."
We will see.
Have fun
Indeed pretty much what I read..... I couldn't do it......., CE3 engine bad bad and ignores the fact that they have modified it so much it's not really ce3 anymore. Dunno but green eyed monster perchance?
Anyways time will tell.
No... You cut the phrase to make your argument.
If they don't cut something, the game can't be made... that's what he is saying.
But then, he adds, that the problem is also in the marketing approach, who attacked publishers and others by this exact reason of cutting things or delivering unfinished business and so on, making people buy stuff and having to cut their details or who knows more later, in other words, and if they cut something, to finally release, would happen an outrage, and without cutting they won't be able to make it UNDER cry engine 3, and in no way they will able to change and maintain and update the things as long as the thing evolves and cry engine (core) evolves too... the thing will be a mess after mess... and that's what we have seen from the start... this exact situations happening.
Everything he's made has been laughably bad. He can't envision success as he's never attained it.
If you go the right and there is a hole, and you fall into that hole, as long as you did not die yet, you would be able to alert people by screaming or something, when you felt that they were in the exact direction of the hole that you put yourself.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
Often times you'll find that people are more concern about letting scums who are free to do their scams rather than the fool that gives them the money (not saying that this is a scam, I'm just pointing out that you are misjudging the intention of others).
You gotta start looking it outside of your own self. They are not trying to convince the fool, they are trying to warn the unawares.
It is like if there is a pot hole that you can't see, most sensible ppl will warn others even if they are people that they don't know, instead of letting them walk into it (unless that person is a real bastard who likes to watch other ppl suffer).
Who actually believes a word of what Derek Smart has to say? That right there is reason enough to call this entire thread Chicken little BS and forget about it. Which is what I intend to do now.
Seriously, if you are going to start a "The Sky is Falling" thread please at least use a reliable, intelligent source.
He is one of the best person to talk about this development and its possibilties, considering that he spent a lot of years trying to developer similar games and also have knowledge about what they are doing.
Why don't you read the thread, or all website news which reported this post of Derek. I see more people agreeing than disagreeing with him, even that coming with disclaimer like: 'I hate the guy, but he is right'
Everything he's made has been laughably bad. He can't envision success as he's never attained it.
I think he's earned around $100 million so far in his lifetime. People do buy his games, and while I hadn't heard of him or his games before this thread, a little google reading and it's clear that the ideas he pitches are very very similar to a lot of what people constantly ask for on this site.
I honestly don't particularly care what Mr. Smart has to say, it's really no different than listening to Angry Joe or some other random internet voice, at the end of the day people are only going to listen to opinions that resemble their own so they can further justify their own ideas.
Keep in mind that many people including myself thought Darkfall wouldn't be made either. It was in development for a while, but still came out.
Yeah we waited 8+ years almost for that crap. 90% of what they said wasn't in the game. STILL isn't in the game. That sure does sparks hope for SC.....wait, it doesn't.
Hate to tell everyone that drop any money into SC, but you've been had. This game will never be anything you've hope for, even if it releases.
Roberts is the reason Star Citizen is riding high. He's also the reason it will probably fail to deliver what he's promised. Though the guy sure can sell his vainglorious imaginings. If Roberts had his way, he'd still be in Hollywood though. Star Citizen came about only after his career cratered there.
As one co worker of his put it, 'He always believes what he's saying, no matter how it relates to reality'. He can certainly spin the Vision, but there's no telling if it is even vaguely possible.
"I honestly thought Chris was done with games," ex-Origin colleague Warren Spector told me, "he became a movie guy a long time ago, something he told me was one of his ambitions pretty much the first day I met him. But if he was going to make a game, he wouldn't bother unless it was ambitious. Like all the Origin alumni the appeal of the impossible is part of Chris's make-up."
(from usgamer.net interview/article)
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
"So I really do hope and pray that RSI can pull this off, because if someone like me, with all my experience and expertise on this very same subject, and who has spent half a lifetime trying, can’t do it without sacrificing something (visual fidelity, performance, scope etc) in the process, and they, with all this money and star talent can’t do it either; then it’s safe to say that it simply can’t be done. At least not in our lifetime."
****
So basically what he says is ... "I could not do it , so no one can ...."
We will see.
Have fun
Indeed pretty much what I read..... I couldn't do it......., CE3 engine bad bad and ignores the fact that they have modified it so much it's not really ce3 anymore. Dunno but green eyed monster perchance?
Anyways time will tell.
No... You cut the phrase to make your argument.
If they don't cut something, the game can't be made... that's what he is saying.
But then, he adds, that the problem is also in the marketing approach, who attacked publishers and others by this exact reason of cutting things or delivering unfinished business and so on, making people buy stuff and having to cut their details or who knows more later, in other words, and if they cut something, to finally release, would happen an outrage, and without cutting they won't be able to make it UNDER cry engine 3, and in no way they will able to change and maintain and update the things as long as the thing evolves and cry engine (core) evolves too... the thing will be a mess after mess... and that's what we have seen from the start... this exact situations happening.
What does cutting anything have to do with this? Look at the title you used.
I think the game will be made cuts or no cuts, and that smart fellow and yourself just sounds like a bunch of sour grapes but like I said time will tell and I will be happy to come back in this thread and say neener neener neener.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
So is that a no or yes on the new Jeep? Come on just look into the crystal ball real fast.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
You ever heard about the profession of Advisory? They are in basically all the areas of several different business. They basically evaluate about a certain kind of business and give you the best path, plan to follow and give you a higher probability of success.
We could classify these professionals in levels like 1 to 10, were 10 is highest pro and 1 is a trainee in the matter.
To see that Star Citizen is going to flop, you just need to go deep in the career... A level of 0.00001 of the skill of insight and you see.
Not really a magic my friend. It's called... brain.
Does not take much brain to be an Advisor.
You interview the employees of a company about what would be best for the company. Basically ask them what they told their boss those last 5 years. Then YOU tell their boss exactly the same thing. Because someone outside the company said it, it suddenly transformed into gospel and has to be implemented. If the boss would have listened to his employees in the first place (CIP, continual improvement process), he would have gotten the same result and would not have to spend a lot of cash (often millions of bucks) on an advisor or a pack of them.
Then you as advisor add a lot of excel files and powerpoint presentations you stole from your previous customers and give it to your new customer so he can recycle it. You are often so lazy that you do not even cut out the logo and data of the old company before you hand it over to the new customer.
Then you add some industrial sector benchmarks (which may or may not be true) and call them the Holy Grail that needs to be achieved.
Be sure to sprinkle a lot of buzzwords into your reports and use a green or blue laserpointer instead of a red one, because all those peons only use the cheaper red laserpointers.
Rinse. Repeat.
From what i have seen of the Star Citizen team, they do not need such an Advisor. Because contrary to the Advisor, they have a REAL job.
Crystal Ball ....does he get his jeep now ? Or does he not ? Should be a trivial task for our crystal ball diviner that seems to be intimately familiar with the future, especially with the future (or doom) of Star Citizen.
Everything he's made has been laughably bad. He can't envision success as he's never attained it.
If you go the right and there is a hole, and you fall into that hole, as long as you did not die yet, you would be able to alert people by screaming or something, when you felt that they were in the exact direction of the hole that you put yourself.
As he dug that hole himself, those people alerted by his screams will just laugh at him, instead of feeling warned.
Especially if he dug several of those holes in a row and feel into every one of them.
Those people will just hop over his holes and reach their goal unharmed. Because they are more smart than "Smart". Just took them a bit longer.
"I honestly thought Chris was done with games," ex-Origin colleague Warren Spector told me, "he became a movie guy a long time ago, something he told me was one of his ambitions pretty much the first day I met him. But if he was going to make a game, he wouldn't bother unless it was ambitious. Like all the Origin alumni the appeal of the impossible is part of Chris's make-up."
"But what makes me, personally, confident that Star Citizen will deliver is the fact that the man at the helm, the Mancunian by way of California, gets feedback like this from game development legend Richard Garriott: "Chris is a rare, truly brilliant game designer. I was always shocked to hear his first pitches for a new game. While myself and others would labor to reach a good idea, and then need large amounts of time to refine it, Chris would often show up with a game design far more clear and powerful than I have experienced with anyone else before or since. The clarity and power of his ideas means that Chris also attracts strong talents to be around him. This works as a virtuous feedback cycle, helping to keep his creations and his teams top notch."
Quote (Chris Roberts on negative feedback)
"Of course with feedback comes... shall I say 'negativity'. Roberts chuckles when I bring it up: "As long as you don't get bent out of shape that not everyone loves all of your ideas, then you're okay," he says, "You're never going to get that, it's impossible. I can't get six people to agree on where to go to lunch, so how am I going to get 500,000 people to agree on exactly how the flight model needs to be? It ain't going to happen. Especially on the internet."
There is a detailed Warren Spector interview where he also talks about his work with Chris Roberts.
"Wing Commander and Bad Blood were done with Chris Roberts. There, I really was mostly a producer. I mean, Wing Commander was totally Chris's game. TOTALLY. I worked with him on schedules and packaging, managed outsourcing of art, dealt with documentation, argued with him when he wanted to push too far on the design side (winning about 3 out of 10 arguments!). I did design and implement one mission sequence, but that's it, design-wise. Bad Blood was made while Chris was focused on Wing Commander so Jeff George and I were the main guys. He handled most of the creative and I dealt with the production there, too."
Whats interesting is his opinion on Tony Zurovec, Star Citizen's Director for the Persistent Universe, another top name in the CIG team.
Quote ( Warren Spector)
"Crusader? My role on Crusader was mostly to make sure the game got made. The director on that project, Tony Zurovec, was in my business unit at Origin and he came to me with such a clear vision of the game I HAD to find a way for him to make it. Honestly, I didn't quite get it, but when you see passion like Tony's you get out of the way and let great things happen. I supported Tony in whatever way he needed – production, creative, team management, whatever."
Those are people i would listen to rather than people who think they are Smart.
Don't care either way but due to the size of this project it could shake the way crowdfunding (is allowed to) work(s).
What started out as support to alternative indie ideas and devs has seen an influx of established studios making big budget projects with capital raised in a way they have precious little responsibility to investors that are, to compound the issue, also waaaay less "well informed" that your average publisher, venture capital fund and the like.
It's a slippery slope of a neigh fraudulent mess, even if (especially because?) the misleading is by and large gamer hype self-inflicted. If this behemoth implodes spectacularly the sheer media exposure and money involved might very well prompt added regulations of the whole thing... and who's to say it'd be unwarranted at that stage.
Comments
Speaking of this, for years the lovers of the cash grabbing and delays have been saying that the "Kickstarter pitch" was a minor game and that the "scope changed" and only because that they did not achieve the end of 2014 release date promised. And that they just put that date thinking in a minor game.
So, here's the proof that shows that this is far to be true, even that LATER, even Roberts after probably listening the "good" excuse of the fans, started to repeat that himself.
But here's the fact. When the crowd-funding campaign ended, CR wrote a post (both in KS and in its comm-links):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/352301
If you read it from the start, you will see confirmation that the game was funded and would be delivered with "Exceeded goals" and phrases lke "The Battle is Over", etc.
Pay attention to this. This was wrote when they had 6.2 million dollars from backers and had achieved all the Stretch Goals below that mark, including player Bengal and so many others. They promised a single-player campaign as never before and so on. Which made you have certainty that it definitely would have a variety of ships and capital ships and so on (that they "revealed" in later stretch goals).
One little but funny thing that PROVES how they lie in their reports is this:
We will also be launching new sections which have been in the works for some time: the Galactapedia
"In the works for some time". And look to the context. Clearly implies something that is about to be released. I checked today, 3 years later... Nada.
But that was not my point here. What I noticed was this:
We can't thank you enough for everything you've done for this project. Please see the next update on 'The Pledge' for our promise to you. The next two years are going to be incredible for all involved and we're thoroughly happy that all of you are along for this exciting ride.
I got some people claiming that the text of the original campaign was thought and created to make a minor game that would include Squadron 42 only... WRONG! If you read the text there you will see Squadron 42 and PU.
I got others saying that "scope raised" and blablabla... or showing ships that improved on graphics along the time... WRONG... those earlier ships were shown as earlier footage and said that would improve along the road, the improvements were to be expected... and by the time that they wrote this letter, they had achieved the stretch goals, the bigger ones, who actually could be considered as "raising the scope".
Later additions were stated in letters by Chris Roberts that were just "reveals" of things that they would do, or things that not necessarily would come in the day one.
So, if you followed me right, you see that after the scope raised, they were targetting, and hyping people about a release in the 2 year time period.
What that makes them? Make your choice... Incompetent or liars?
And what about this:
"Our intention has always been to make Roberts Space Industries YOUR site. It's not a public advertisement for the game; it's a private community for those who are making the game happen. We want your input on what we're doing and we want to share our plans with you; the occasional passer-by doesn't concern us. The plan was initially to immediately switch on a wall that would allow only you, our backers, to access features like the Comm-Link and the Spectrum Dispatches."
If its not a bait-and-swtich, a false ad, to make people rush to pledge, I don't know anymore what could be.
Hey, it's your money. You keep giving them all the time they need. This is bad for the rest of us gamers though because it is sending the wrong message to future developers and potential future crowdfunding projects. i know many gamers have always been of the position for developers to take their time and get it right. This position, however, is a bad one to adopt from a business perspective for the reasons stated in my post. Rarely does giving card blanche for anything every work out as intended. Checks and balances must be implemented. This is why everyone has a boss. In this case, the boss (crowdfunding backers) are being much too lenient with their expectations. Although it is expected because no one person is in a position of leadership to speak for the group, the dynamic of it all does not bode well for the project.
Can you prove that? I mean. You said "the vast majority".
Can you bring the poll where those 900k voted "YES, take as much time as you need"?
Or... the 900k posts, one at least, for each individual backer, where they answered and then in the sum of the yes and no, the vast majority said YES?
You don't need to tell people that youa re going to like Star Citizen. Everyone knows here that you are going to lvoe SC and will say that the wait was worthy even if it ends to be nothing more than a Hyper Vanguard IV (that by the way, was the only good thing that they released so far).
Who actually believes a word of what Derek Smart has to say? That right there is reason enough to call this entire thread Chicken little BS and forget about it. Which is what I intend to do now.
Seriously, if you are going to start a "The Sky is Falling" thread please at least use a reliable, intelligent source.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
The guy might be a troll, a failure, whatever, that I can agree with. But one thing's for sure: reading that made me fill my FTC report in hope that I get my money back. I pledged over 200$ almost 2 years ago and by now I am beyond sick of seeing those guys CONSTANTLY advertising sale after sale after sale of ships and even friggin' CONCEPT ARTS but barely have any actual gameplay/game/universe/whatever to show... And to sell ships for constantly more and more money is getting disgusting by now (what what the last big one, 2000-3000$ a pop? What a farce....).
Enough with the goddamn money milking and constantly focusing on selling stuff to people that is not even passed alpha stage yet: I for one do not support Star Citizen anymore, they seriously deviated WAY too much since the beginning (original idea/pitch is like 1/10th of what they have in mind now) and it seems to be only about money now and nothing else. I want mine back, I filled my FTC complain in hope I get it back (which I doubt), and am no longer a believer of the train wreck called Star Citizen. They bit off more than they can chew and it's spiraling out of control slowly but surely...
Haters gonna hate, agree or not, say what you want, I don't care: I don't believe in that farce anymore, regret throwing money at them thanks to my childhood memories of Wing Commander, and just want my cash back. I highly really doubt they can deliver anything remotely close to that universe they keep promising at this point before 2025+....
He is one of the best person to talk about this development and its possibilties, considering that he spent a lot of years trying to developer similar games and also have knowledge about what they are doing.
Why don't you read the thread, or all website news which reported this post of Derek. I see more people agreeing than disagreeing with him, even that coming with disclaimer like: 'I hate the guy, but he is right'
Good call. I did my own too.
Maybe you can try to ask CIG too for the refund.
Their default answer is to show you the TOS (they are shady after all), that has not a lot of meaning, because they changed the deal unilaterally without your approval, probably. Like "expanding" the game. You did not ask for Star Citizen X. That would be something that they should make later, with the money from sales, not making you wait for that, because they decided to do that (in fact, that's the tale, we can argue that they just decided to make more cash grabbing using the ship sales that they promised to stop on release and the "scope raised" is just a poor excuse, to delay even more)
From there, you can show to them all the bait-and-switch instances that mislead you to buy the game and require that based on the law that they are obligated to follow but did not.
If they still deny, in case of FTC contacting you, probably you will have even more material to prove their bad faith attitude on business with emails... Like myself, that have an email with Ben Lesnick lying in my face about something, even today, saved in my inbox, for whatever moment that I decide to use in my favor.
I also have another one, with the own Chris Roberts stating that he would give the refund to any person that wasn't 100% with him. His words. A prove that I also have in my inbox until today.
But I know that they have been giving refunds to some and not to others.
For a person that I know, they told that "because he pledged very earlier, they couldn't refund him" that was their argument
LoL
I remember the run-up to the release of Darkfall as well: just prior to the actual "release", AV went and heavily edited the feature lists for things DF was supposed to have as opposed to actually had. They deleted about half the list, as I recall.
And what they released was a buggy and exploit riddled mess almost unrivaled in MMO history.
I wonder if history will repeat itself with SC, if it even makes it to release as a coherent single product.
Everything he's made has been laughably bad. He can't envision success as he's never attained it.
So is that a no or yes on the new Jeep? Come on just look into the crystal ball real fast.
People so concerned about what other people are doing with their money. Makes you wonder. Is it concern or just flat out jealousy. Starting to think it's the latter.
In War - Victory.
In Peace - Vigilance.
In Death - Sacrifice.
Indeed pretty much what I read..... I couldn't do it......., CE3 engine bad bad and ignores the fact that they have modified it so much it's not really ce3 anymore. Dunno but green eyed monster perchance?
Anyways time will tell.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
You ever heard about the profession of Advisory? They are in basically all the areas of several different business. They basically evaluate about a certain kind of business and give you the best path, plan to follow and give you a higher probability of success.
We could classify these professionals in levels like 1 to 10, were 10 is highest pro and 1 is a trainee in the matter.
To see that Star Citizen is going to flop, you just need to go deep in the career... A level of 0.00001 of the skill of insight and you see.
Not really a magic my friend. It's called... brain.
Edit: I'll be nice to you because if anything, I feel sorry for you. Which is why I am posting in this thread trying to help you and those like you.
No... You cut the phrase to make your argument.
If they don't cut something, the game can't be made... that's what he is saying.
But then, he adds, that the problem is also in the marketing approach, who attacked publishers and others by this exact reason of cutting things or delivering unfinished business and so on, making people buy stuff and having to cut their details or who knows more later, in other words, and if they cut something, to finally release, would happen an outrage, and without cutting they won't be able to make it UNDER cry engine 3, and in no way they will able to change and maintain and update the things as long as the thing evolves and cry engine (core) evolves too... the thing will be a mess after mess... and that's what we have seen from the start... this exact situations happening.
If you go the right and there is a hole, and you fall into that hole, as long as you did not die yet, you would be able to alert people by screaming or something, when you felt that they were in the exact direction of the hole that you put yourself.
Often times you'll find that people are more concern about letting scums who are free to do their scams rather than the fool that gives them the money (not saying that this is a scam, I'm just pointing out that you are misjudging the intention of others).
You gotta start looking it outside of your own self. They are not trying to convince the fool, they are trying to warn the unawares.
It is like if there is a pot hole that you can't see, most sensible ppl will warn others even if they are people that they don't know, instead of letting them walk into it (unless that person is a real bastard who likes to watch other ppl suffer).
I think he's earned around $100 million so far in his lifetime. People do buy his games, and while I hadn't heard of him or his games before this thread, a little google reading and it's clear that the ideas he pitches are very very similar to a lot of what people constantly ask for on this site.
I honestly don't particularly care what Mr. Smart has to say, it's really no different than listening to Angry Joe or some other random internet voice, at the end of the day people are only going to listen to opinions that resemble their own so they can further justify their own ideas.
Yeah we waited 8+ years almost for that crap. 90% of what they said wasn't in the game. STILL isn't in the game. That sure does sparks hope for SC.....wait, it doesn't.
Hate to tell everyone that drop any money into SC, but you've been had. This game will never be anything you've hope for, even if it releases.
Roberts is the reason Star Citizen is riding high. He's also the reason it will probably fail to deliver what he's promised. Though the guy sure can sell his vainglorious imaginings. If Roberts had his way, he'd still be in Hollywood though. Star Citizen came about only after his career cratered there.
As one co worker of his put it, 'He always believes what he's saying, no matter how it relates to reality'. He can certainly spin the Vision, but there's no telling if it is even vaguely possible.
"I honestly thought Chris was done with games," ex-Origin colleague Warren Spector told me, "he became a movie guy a long time ago, something he told me was one of his ambitions pretty much the first day I met him. But if he was going to make a game, he wouldn't bother unless it was ambitious. Like all the Origin alumni the appeal of the impossible is part of Chris's make-up."
(from usgamer.net interview/article)
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
What does cutting anything have to do with this? Look at the title you used.
I think the game will be made cuts or no cuts, and that smart fellow and yourself just sounds like a bunch of sour grapes but like I said time will tell and I will be happy to come back in this thread and say neener neener neener.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Does not take much brain to be an Advisor.
You interview the employees of a company about what would be best for the company. Basically ask them what they told their boss those last 5 years. Then YOU tell their boss exactly the same thing. Because someone outside the company said it, it suddenly transformed into gospel and has to be implemented. If the boss would have listened to his employees in the first place (CIP, continual improvement process), he would have gotten the same result and would not have to spend a lot of cash (often millions of bucks) on an advisor or a pack of them.
Then you as advisor add a lot of excel files and powerpoint presentations you stole from your previous customers and give it to your new customer so he can recycle it. You are often so lazy that you do not even cut out the logo and data of the old company before you hand it over to the new customer.
Then you add some industrial sector benchmarks (which may or may not be true) and call them the Holy Grail that needs to be achieved.
Be sure to sprinkle a lot of buzzwords into your reports and use a green or blue laserpointer instead of a red one, because all those peons only use the cheaper red laserpointers.
Rinse. Repeat.
From what i have seen of the Star Citizen team, they do not need such an Advisor. Because contrary to the Advisor, they have a REAL job.
Crystal Ball ....does he get his jeep now ? Or does he not ? Should be a trivial task for our crystal ball diviner that seems to be intimately familiar with the future, especially with the future (or doom) of Star Citizen.
Have fun
As he dug that hole himself, those people alerted by his screams will just laugh at him, instead of feeling warned.
Especially if he dug several of those holes in a row and feel into every one of them.
Those people will just hop over his holes and reach their goal unharmed. Because they are more smart than "Smart". Just took them a bit longer.
Have fun
That article has a lot of other noteworthy quotes
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/chris-roberts-star-citizen-profile
Quote (article author):
"But what makes me, personally, confident that Star Citizen will deliver is the fact that the man at the helm, the Mancunian by way of California, gets feedback like this from game development legend Richard Garriott: "Chris is a rare, truly brilliant game designer. I was always shocked to hear his first pitches for a new game. While myself and others would labor to reach a good idea, and then need large amounts of time to refine it, Chris would often show up with a game design far more clear and powerful than I have experienced with anyone else before or since. The clarity and power of his ideas means that Chris also attracts strong talents to be around him. This works as a virtuous feedback cycle, helping to keep his creations and his teams top notch."
Quote (Chris Roberts on negative feedback)
"Of course with feedback comes... shall I say 'negativity'. Roberts chuckles when I bring it up: "As long as you don't get bent out of shape that not everyone loves all of your ideas, then you're okay," he says, "You're never going to get that, it's impossible. I can't get six people to agree on where to go to lunch, so how am I going to get 500,000 people to agree on exactly how the flight model needs to be? It ain't going to happen. Especially on the internet."
There is a detailed Warren Spector interview where he also talks about his work with Chris Roberts.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9190
Quote ( Warren Spector)
"Wing Commander and Bad Blood were done with Chris Roberts. There, I really was mostly a producer. I mean, Wing Commander was totally Chris's game. TOTALLY. I worked with him on schedules and packaging, managed outsourcing of art, dealt with documentation, argued with him when he wanted to push too far on the design side (winning about 3 out of 10 arguments!). I did design and implement one mission sequence, but that's it, design-wise. Bad Blood was made while Chris was focused on Wing Commander so Jeff George and I were the main guys. He handled most of the creative and I dealt with the production there, too."
Whats interesting is his opinion on Tony Zurovec, Star Citizen's Director for the Persistent Universe, another top name in the CIG team.
Quote ( Warren Spector)
"Crusader? My role on Crusader was mostly to make sure the game got made. The director on that project, Tony Zurovec, was in my business unit at Origin and he came to me with such a clear vision of the game I HAD to find a way for him to make it. Honestly, I didn't quite get it, but when you see passion like Tony's you get out of the way and let great things happen. I supported Tony in whatever way he needed – production, creative, team management, whatever."
Those are people i would listen to rather than people who think they are Smart.
Have fun
Don't care either way but due to the size of this project it could shake the way crowdfunding (is allowed to) work(s).
What started out as support to alternative indie ideas and devs has seen an influx of established studios making big budget projects with capital raised in a way they have precious little responsibility to investors that are, to compound the issue, also waaaay less "well informed" that your average publisher, venture capital fund and the like.
It's a slippery slope of a neigh fraudulent mess, even if (especially because?) the misleading is by and large gamer hype self-inflicted. If this behemoth implodes spectacularly the sheer media exposure and money involved might very well prompt added regulations of the whole thing... and who's to say it'd be unwarranted at that stage.