Star Citizen - Chris Roberts, lots of spaceship porn, lots of promises

[dsmart]

How do you feel about CR’s brother receiving approximately $310,000 last year (excluding bonuses or perks) for his directorship in F42?

Do you not think that that seems quite high? Obviously it isn’t fraud, does it not seem like nepotism though?

Yes it’s very high. In fact, he is the highest paid Director of a video game company in the UK. And that’s an actual fact. And the fact that he took a 22% pay increase in 2016, having not even shipped a fucking game, is even more worrisome.

And if Erin is making $300K, how much do you think Chris, Sandi, Ortwin, Nick et al are making for being part of the friends and family program?

When you consider that the F42-UK studio has NO reason to exist, other than because Chris wanted his family and friends to benefit from this project, it’s even worse. And it’s the largest of the four studios; which is why they are burning through almost $24M a year, for a project that’s averaging $30M a year from crowd-funding.

[dsmart]

I have a section on my forum for the discussion of the on-going GamesCom train-wreck. Today’s update.

[Ryan_Kelly]

How do you feel about CR’s brother receiving approximately $310,000 last year (excluding bonuses or perks) for his directorship in F42?

Do you not think that that seems quite high? Obviously it isn’t fraud, does it not seem like nepotism though?

Nepotism isn’t the issue so much as the amount itself is. Erin Roberts is probably the best thing that happened to the project in terms of leadership, for what it’s worth:

The brothers took a step back and saw that while there were production problems for the company as a whole, “rating it on who was delivering, the UK was being much more consistent,” Chris Roberts tells me. He took a closer look at how Erin was running the UK studio and realised how rigidly the team adhered to their production schedule, and how closely the production staff tracked the developers’ work. While Foundry 42 was a new studio, the core team of developers had all worked together for years making Lego games at TT Fusion. “They did so many of them […] they had to be super organised,” Roberts explained. “Sometimes they had six months to do something.”

Roberts mandated that all the CIG studios would adopt the UK method. It wasn’t a decision taken well by everyone: “The ship pipeline was run out of LA at first and then it just wasn’t working and the UK was frustrated, so we moved it over to the UK, and then the folks in LA felt like they had been demoted, and they were upset with that,” says Roberts. “There was some fallout, some people left.” Erin Roberts became responsible for CIG production globally and CIG hired a lot more producers to cope with the finer detail scheduling Erin’s system required.

Inside the Troubled Development of Star Citizen

I can understand if you think the pay is too high, though.

[Leinad]

It’s funny how obsessive you are about other people’s obsessions. I mean at this point you must have spent an enormous amount of time (and thus money) on Star Citizen, making this whole thing pretty ironic.

[dsmart]

Erin Roberts is probably the best thing that happened to the project in terms of leadership, for what it’s worth:

How do you figure that, exactly? How has his involvement benefited the game when after 6 years and $156M they still don’t have a Beta, let alone a vertical slice of either game? Please explain your logic to me.

[dsmart]

It’s funny how obsessive you are about other people’s obsessions. I mean at this point you must have spent an enormous amount of time (and thus money) on Star Citizen, making this whole thing pretty ironic.

Which part bothers you the most? Please let me know, so that I can do it some more.

[kedaha]

I can understand if you think the pay is too high, though.

That is fairly delusional. £142k per year puts you in the top 1% of earners in the UK, and Erin is on twice that. His CV before CIG consists of 14 years of forgettable lego games.

It isn’t a matter of ‘thinking’ his pay is too high, his pay is objectively far higher than he would ever receive in an open job market. You really aren’t doing yourself any favours in being a reasonable counterpoint to all the naysayers when you come out with nonsense like that. First you tried to argue that he wasn’t receiving that much and then you try to argue that it isn’t actually that much. You’re quite clearly goalpost moving.

The Star Citizen project took in $36million in 2016. Almost 1% of the entire money taken in by the project went to one Director in their UK subsidiary - and you think that that’s reasonable.

[wilykat]

@dsmart I don’t have an account on your site to post there, but you know http://www.dereksmart.com/forum/index.php?topic=76.msg2922#msg2922 is a poorly executed photoshop, right? The post reads as if you think it’s real.

[dsmart]

I don’t have an account on your site to post there, but you know http://www.dereksmart.com/forum/index.php?topic=76.msg2922#msg2922 is a poorly executed photoshop, right? The post reads as if you think it’s real.

Of course I know it’s a 'shop. I even posted the original image :) We actually have an entire section for Star Citizen memes.

[wilykat]

ok. I’m not enough of a frequenter of your forums to have a feel for the level of non-signaled sarcasm you guys use, but I appreciate it :)

[Leinad]

This is again ironic because it seems SC is constantly doing it to you. As someone who isn’t really involved all that much in this whole thing I get the usual “fanboys” and “haters” such a project creates but you are certainly a special kind of egomaniac behaviour (and this isn’t even internet hyperbole).

[KevinC]

Surely you can see how a project such as Star Citizen would cause a lot more passion/angst from someone in Derek’s position than the typical internet hater, though?

What Star Citizen is purporting to do has obviously been Derek’s passion for bulk of his life, not to mention his business/income/whatever. People tend to get a lot more involved with topics the closer they hit to home.

[Ryan_Kelly]

How do you figure that, exactly? How has his involvement benefited the game when after 6 years and $156M they still don’t have a Beta, let alone a vertical slice of either game? Please explain your logic to me.

My logic is based on the reporting in the Kotaku UK article, which I thought was clear enough.

First you tried to argue that he wasn’t receiving that much and then you try to argue that it isn’t actually that much. You’re quite clearly goalpost moving.

I wasn’t disagreeing with you about the amount, nor did I argue that it isn’t actually that much.

His CV before CIG consists of 14 years of forgettable lego games.

Including one that Tom gave a 5/5

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/03/20/the-triumphant-nakedness-of-lego-city-undercover/

[kedaha]

I wasn’t disagreeing with you about the amount, nor did I argue that it isn’t actually that much.

My apologies, I didn’t realise that you trying to explain how good Erin has been for the project wasn’t you trying to downplay how much he was being paid. Nor pointing out that one of the Lego games he was studio director for received 5/5 from Tom Chick. And suggesting that his payout was actually split between 3 people wasn’t disagreeing with how much he was paid either.

“I can understand if you think the pay is too high though” is about as strong an implication that you feel differently.

As I said, there’s a difference between being a positive counterpoint and being disingenuous via goalpost shifting and hiding behind implications.

1% of total revenue (not expenditure) for the entire SC project went to a single director in a single subsidiary. That isn’t 1% of salaries, that’s 1% of total revenue. That is absolutely scandalous, particularly as it’s guaranteed he’s being paid less than Chris or Ortwin. Probably Sandi too. Maybe more. A company with multiple offices and over 400 employees pays 1% of its revenue to one employee who happens to be the brother of a founder.

That would be like Take 2 paying Sam Houser an $18million yearly salary, only Sam Houser had a track record as a studio director for small Nintendo Switch games and in 3 years working for the company had finished zero projects.

[dsmart]

This is again ironic because it seems SC is constantly doing it to you. As someone who isn’t really involved all that much in this whole thing I get the usual “fanboys” and “haters” such a project creates but you are certainly a special kind of egomaniac behaviour (and this isn’t even internet hyperbole).

I see that you have no clue how I got involved, or why.

ps: And that’s got nothing to do with the fact that having spent the better part of three fucking DECADES curating and supporting this genre, that ass-clown, shows up, makes promises he can’t keep, tried to vilify me, while actively running a scam that has so far stripped over $156M from the very people in the genre I have spent a lifetime curating. So yeah, as they say, ignorance is bliss.

[dsmart]

What Star Citizen is purporting to do has obviously been Derek’s passion for bulk of his life, not to mention his business/income/whatever. People tend to get a lot more involved with topics the closer they hit to home.

Precisely. A lot of people who know me, “get” it. Aside from the fact that Chris and his Shitzen posse who are fighting a proxy war for him, are the ones who keep testing my resolve.

[dsmart]

My logic is based on the reporting in the Kotaku UK article, which I thought was clear enough.

Clearly, you’ve lost it.

[dsmart]

1% of total revenue (not expenditure) for the entire SC project went to a single director in a single subsidiary. That isn’t 1% of salaries, that’s 1% of total revenue. That is absolutely scandalous, particularly as it’s guaranteed he’s being paid less than Chris or Ortwin. Probably Sandi too. Maybe more. A company with multiple offices and over 400 employees pays 1% of its revenue to one employee who happens to be the brother of a founder.

That would be like Take 2 paying Sam Houser an $18million yearly salary, only Sam Houser had a track record as a studio director for small Nintendo Switch games and in 3 years working for the company had finished zero projects.

Yes. And that’s precisely why I have been writing about the nepotism side of this. That aside from the fact that Chris has blown through $75M (of $156M) on a single studio which he built for his brother. A studio which, 6 years later, has yet to ship a SINGLE game.

The only time we will get to know how much the other 8 people in the friends & family program gained from this project, is when the lawsuits start flying. And you bet your last Dollar that it will all be made public.

[Ryan_Kelly]

I didn’t realise that you trying to explain how good Erin has been for the project wasn’t you trying to downplay how much he was being paid. Nor pointing out that one of the Lego games he was studio director for received 5/5 from Tom Chick.

It was merely my response to you pointing out that he’s Chris Roberts’ brother, and you pointing out his CV before CIG. Which is the point I was making: you have a stronger argument that the pay is too high for anyone in his position rather than arguing that he is uniquely unqualified.

And suggesting that his payout was actually split between 3 people wasn’t disagreeing with how much he was paid either.

Now it feels like you’re being disingenuous, since my entire conversation with you occurred after I learned that was not the case.

[Ryan_Kelly]

How do you feel about CR’s brother receiving approximately $310,000 last year (excluding bonuses or perks) for his directorship in F42?

Also, this part of your post slipped past me, but doesn’t remuneration include bonuses and benefits?