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

[MrTibbs]

Across all their studios, CIG have 65 positions available. How many people are already working on this game?

https://cloudimperiumgames.com/jobs

[rhamorim]

Derek implied that a lot of CIG employees/contractors seem to be leaving at this point, many in critical positions, so it’s natural to see open positions since CIG will be looking for replacements.

Derek also suggested that CIG is seen nowadays as a bit of a joke in the dev community, which makes it difficult for them to find suitable replacements at the price range they’re inclined to pay.

To me it sounds plausible at the least. I’m a software developer myself, and from what I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t touch CIG with a 10-parsec pole.

[Aceris]

That’s absolutely untrue. They’ve developed an incredibly sophisticated whale detection and exploitation system, AND an E3 level vertical slice of bullshit.

[dsmart]

Me as well.

Which brings me to: @dsmart Reading all of the forums associated with this game must be time-consuming on a massive scale.I mean, this thread right here is where I get all of my news for it. I simply don’t have time to do all of the reading that you must be doing (not to mention all of the writing you do). How do you manage to find the time to make a living in the midst of all of this?

I for one am grateful for your contributions both here and in your blog (which I haven’t read in its entirety I must admit, though I do try to keep up somewhat through your links here). But geez, really. How do you manage it? Seriously. It must be akin to a full-time job at this point.

Well, first, I am semi-retired (like, seriously). Second, I do most of my social media nonsense during my down time (e.g. during long game compile/link cycles) or at certain (e.g. gym) periods. Plus, with mild autism and my anxiety issues, I don’t get out much. So it’s not like I’m out in the world doing normal and awful things like mingling with people when I could be within the safe confines of my space writing, playing video games, or climbing a hill too far in some online discourse or another.

[dsmart]

From my lazy personal observation, and Derek’s much more in depth posts my assumption is that that they don’t have shit to release period.

Like that 5 years, hundreds of employees in half a dozen countries have amounted to basically an E3 level vertical slice of bullshit.

That’s basically it. All of it.

[dsmart]

It’s not a job, it’s a calling.

To be honest, I would’ve been bored and moved on since late 2015 if Chris Roberts and his clan didn’t decide to make it personal, thus picking a fight with the one guy who never saw a hill he didn’t want to die on.

I have very strong convictions about a lot of things, but I tend not to obsess over them. Things that I perceive as a direct attack against me, my family, or my work on the other hand, well, those of you who know me, know that for me the line is clear and present - and nobody gets to cross it with impunity.

[dsmart]

Derek implied that a lot of CIG employees/contractors seem to be leaving at this point, many in critical positions, so it’s natural to see open positions since CIG will be looking for replacements.

Derek also suggested that CIG is seen nowadays as a bit of a joke in the dev community, which makes it difficult for them to find suitable replacements at the price range they’re inclined to pay.

To me it sounds plausible at the least. I’m a software developer myself, and from what I’ve seen so far, I wouldn’t touch CIG with a 10-parsec pole.

It’s not just plausible, it’s a fact. They’ve been losing top talent, replacing them with inexperienced people who can’t get to hit the ground running fast enough, and who don’t even understand the potpourri their predecessors left behind. It is the bane of EVERY software development project. Once you start losing key people, it exponentially increases the risk of failure. The only thing saving the UK and German studios is that work is harder to find over there, than here in the US. But I know some of the guys at both studios who have left and either gone to neighboring studios, or just ended up being remote contractors for US or Asian studios.

It is absolutely astonishing that $164 million later, the project is still in pre-Alpha, has no game loop (I kid you not, these are my notes on the latest patch that just went out) whatsoever. I mean, seriously, LOOK AT THIS!!!

I have never asked nor encouraged anyone to even believe 10% of what I’m writing. All everyone has to do is sit back and watch how it all plays out. And since I wrote the first blog in July 2015, the hilarious thing is that it has ALL played out EXACTLY as I predicted that it would. That is what scares me the most because there is absolutely no way that I would have thought that almost 2.5 years later, I would be writing this instead of playing the game.

The project is irretrievably FUBAR, all thanks to the incompetence of Chris Roberts. A group of gullible people gave the guy who has literally FAILED at EVERY SINGLE PROJECT he touched since being kicked out of the industry following the Freelancer fiasco, millions of Dollars to build two games. Neither of which he has built. Instead, him and his family and friends have not only got rich from it, but they stand no chance of ever delivering anything.

[mok]

Success or Failure, the level of collection for the project has been and continues to be way above and beyond anything else out there. What exactly is it the Roberts has tapped into to cause this? Was it right place right time? Are there global economic or social reasons? Or industry movements? How did this nearly $200 mil collection come to be?

[midnight.mangler]

Selling dreams makes money anytime anywhere. There have been snake oil salesmen since the dawn of time.

[MisterMourning]

At this point Star Citizen is basically the video game version of Scientology. There are the TRUE BELIEVERS and everyone else just kind of looks at them worriedly.

It’s the old story of the con. Con artists sell hope. People will believe things with no evidence, or even with incredible evidence against it, because they want something to be true. Despite knowing the old saying about wishing in one hand, people will go through incredible feats of mental gymnastics based solely on hope.

On the plus side, I can count on this thread to entertain me once a month or so. For years to come, because the inevitable disaster of a game release or lawsuit or both will be fun to follow.

[Leinad]

and you think you are everyone else? ^^
This thread has in general too much hyperbole, fueled by someone like dsmart who has his own cult. I don’t get why people can’t discuss this game more rationally. All this “con” talk makes valid criticism just look stupid because it gets mixed with the crazy nutjob stuff and in the end it’s just two very extreme groups throwing mud at each other. Though to me it seems most of this is anyways not about the game anymore, it’s about the ego of people and who was “right” or “wrong” when making predictions about SC.

[BrianRubin]

I really don’t think you understand the…let’s say emotional investment some of us have had in this…product…

[Perky_Goth]

it gets mixed with the crazy nutjob stuff and in the end it’s just two very extreme groups throwing mud at each other.

A lot may be speculation, but then there’s the simple fact (among many other damning ones, mind) that 160M$ later they don’t even have an engine that could remotely do what they want.

[mok]

Selling dreams makes money anytime anywhere. There have been snake oil salesmen since the dawn of time.

Yeah, but Snake Oil or Holy Water, this project has backing unlike any other before or after, not double or triple, but by a factor of 100 or so. He tapped into something… would love to know what it is.

[MisterMourning]

I’m going to go ahead and be just fine with my assertion that if it isn’t a con it certainly has an astonishing number of similarities to one. I acknowledge that the remote possibility exists that even though it gives every outward appearance of being a con, it is in fact an earnestly utterly failed effort to use nearly infinite money to create a video game.

[dsmart]

and you think you are everyone else? ^^

This thread has in general too much hyperbole, fueled by someone like dsmart who has his own cult. I don’t get why people can’t discuss this game more rationally. All this “con” talk makes valid criticism just look stupid because it gets mixed with the crazy nutjob stuff and in the end it’s just two very extreme groups throwing mud at each other. Though to me it seems most of this is anyways not about the game anymore, it’s about the ego of people and who was “right” or “wrong” when making predictions about SC.

Clearly you have no clue what you’re talking about, if you think that’s all this is about.

[dsmart]

I’m going to go ahead and be just fine with my assertion that if it isn’t a con it certainly has an astonishing number of similarities to one. I acknowledge that the remote possibility exists that even though it gives every outward appearance of being a con, it is in fact an earnestly utterly failed effort to use nearly infinite money to create a video game.

It’s totally a con. And there’s ample evidence.

[Aceris]

I actually think it didn’t start as a con any more than any other project that overpromises and underdelivers does. The egotists at the helm were sure they deserved the inflated salaries they were paying themselves and their closest friends - after all they were “visionaries”.

Initially selling jpegs was simply a way to raise more money for the development effort - but at that point:

1. Their inflated salaries and self-worth depends on the continuation of the project.
2. Which depends on selling jpegs
3. Which depends on the project appearing to not be a complete disaster area.
4. Which requires them to go beyond marketing into actual lying about the state of the project.

Did they ever reach the point where they realised they were running a con which would in the end serve only to enrich them at the expense of backers and never produce a worthwhile game? Maybe. But once you’ve been lying to people for years for what you think are good reasons in many ways it’s easier to carry on justifying it to yourself somehow than to stop.

Maybe I am just naive and this was a cynical moneymaking scheme from the beginning. Maybe the original plan was to raise a few hundred thousand to a few million, make a half hearted effort to slap a game together, and ride off into the sunset.

[dsmart]

I actually think it didn’t start as a con any more than any other project that overpromises and underdelivers does. The egotists at the helm were sure they deserved the inflated salaries they were paying themselves and their closest friends - after all they were “visionaries”.

Initially selling jpegs was simply a way to raise more money for the development effort - but at that point:

Their inflated salaries and self-worth depends on the continuation of the project.
Which depends on selling jpegs
Which depends on the project appearing to not be a complete disaster area.
Which requires them to go beyond marketing into actual lying about the state of the project.

Did they ever reach the point where they realised they were running a con which would in the end serve only to enrich them at the expense of backers and never produce a worthwhile game? Maybe. But once you’ve been lying to people for years for what you think are good reasons in many ways it’s easier to carry on justifying it to yourself somehow than to stop.

Maybe I am just naive and this was a cynical moneymaking scheme from the beginning. Maybe the original plan was to raise a few hundred thousand to a few million, make a half hearted effort to slap a game together, and ride off into the sunset.

I agree with all of that. I have also written in several blogs that I don’t believe it started out as a con/scam. It just evolved into one at the point that they realized they had tapped into a bunch of gullible fools who would keep giving them money in exchange for lofty unattainable insurmountable goals.

[Don_Quixote]

Honestly, as someone who’s way outside this thing (don’t even own a PC gaming machine) but vaguely reading this thread, this is the way it seems to me, too. That’s why ‘it’s all a con’ didn’t really resonate with me. It may kind of fit the definition of one now, if you squint sideways at it, but it certainly didn’t start as one.