Star Citizen - media blowout, Chris Robert's new game

Yuo hit the nail on the head here. But I also think the money he. his wife and brother, is making out of this is a very important factor in why this will seemingly never be finished. Nobody knows what the Chairman pays himself, I am sure that people would be aghast if they ever found out.

Well, this has been Chris Roberts MO since the Wing Commander days. Without anyone to oversee him, you see the development hell he's created.

Again, none of this is shocking; I called it as far back as the original kickstarter.
 
Wonder when a pissed whale will manage to obtain the information about how much CR or his wife paid themselves, plus how much they put into external businesses owned by themselves. That would be the soft spot to look, but if they're smart it's very hard to find them.
 
Wonder when a pissed whale will manage to obtain the information about how much CR or his wife paid themselves, plus how much they put into external businesses owned by themselves. That would be the soft spot to look, but if they're smart it's very hard to find them.
Yep, someone should really look into this. As far as I know they have registered a LOT (I think it is north of 30) of different companies that monies can move between, making tracing them extremely difficult. I'm guessing Chris, his wife and brother are on the board of every company, which I guess entitles them to be paid for their services.
 
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In the kick starter didnt he say he put in some of his own money to get it started? Not defending him or anything but I'm thinking he got back his original investment whatever that was.
 
In the kick starter didnt he say he put in some of his own money to get it started? Not defending him or anything but I'm thinking he got back his original investment whatever that was.


Much like every aspect of the accounting of this cluster, we have to take that On Faith (because they had to be taken to court to get any financial feedback). Did he lie, just like he lies about the current status of the game, or that lie about "we have enough money to finish the game"

I'm leaning more on the side of "lied to give people the idea he has enough faith in this business tio invest his own money, while doing no such thing."

I mean, it's not like that has ever happened before, has it?

Max:
The two cardinal rules of producing are one: Never put your own money in the show.
Leo:
And two?
Max:
[yelling] Never put your own money in the show!

Just because you tel the old ladies you're investing your own money doesn't mean you're actually going through with it.

Also, content: yet another space game is shipping before Squadron 42!



Gotta love that Titlecard pun!
 
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Much like every aspect of the accounting of this cluster, we have to take that On Faith (because they had to be taken to court to get any financial feedback). Did he lie, just like he lies about the current status of the game, or that lie about "we have enough money to finish the game"

I'm leaning more on the side of "lied to give people the idea he has enough faith in this business tio invest his own money, while doing no such thing."

I mean, it's not like that has ever happened before, has it?



Just because you tel the old ladies you're investing your own money doesn't mean you're actually going through with it.

Also, content: yet another space game is shipping before Squadron 42!



Gotta love that Titlecard pun!


Uooophff, nice title... small kick in the nads for Cloud Imperium Scammers.
 
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Yep, someone should really look into this. As far as I know they have registered a LOT (I think it is north of 30) of different companies that monies can move between, making tracing them extremely difficult. I'm guessing Chris, his wife and brother are on the board of every company, which I guess entitles them to be paid for their services.
Surprised they've been able to keep the 30 companies under wraps.. that surely would raise eyebrows from even the most captive fanboys.
 
Looks like CR had drained nearly all raised money by 2017. Just read this Forbes article on the disaster that is Chris Roberts (yeah I'm late to the SC party):

Exclusive: The Saga Of 'Star Citizen,' A Video Game That Raised $300 Million—But May Never Be Ready To Play

But most of the money is gone, and the game is still far from finished. At the end of 2017, for example, Roberts was down to just $14 million in the bank. He has since raised more money. Those 100 star systems? He has not completed a single one. So far he has two mostly finished planets, nine moons and an asteroid.

“As the money rolled in, what I consider to be some of [Roberts’] old bad habits popped up—not being super-focused,” says Mark Day, a producer on Wing Commander IV who runs a company that was contracted to do work on Star Citizen in 2013 and 2014. “It had got out of hand, in my opinion. The promises being made—call it feature creep, call it whatever it is—now we can do this, now we can do that. I was shocked.”

“There’s no two ways about it, man. Star Citizen is nuts,” says Jesse Schell, a prominent game developer and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. “This thing is unusual in about five dimensions. . . . It is very rare to be doing game development for seven years—that’s not how it works. That’s not normal at all.”

I like that he at least spent some money, however small, on cool little Star Citizen toys and posters, etc, for himself.
 
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yup i do and i remember going "where the fuck is luke?!" guess hamill knew better. did not know it was CRs baby though but its right there in the credits.
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I never knew they made a movie.

Chris Roberts was a producer or otherwise involved in several movies. Besides Wing Commander (which of course makes sense), some of the bigger films he produced included the crime thriller "Lucky Number Slevin" and "Lord of War", both of which had well known actors and were overall received well by audiences and critics alike. I had no idea that he was involved in these (among smaller or lesser known films) until after Star Citizen, but his film industry connections are a significant reason why he chose such cinematic elements for the game such as performance capture, not to mention the various actors involved with Squadron 42.
 
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Regarding CR's roles in films outside of the comical Wing Commander, they were more than likely pertaining to investing into the production and nothing more.
 
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Fear not, Star Citizen backers!

Chris Roberts has finally created a new road map for SQ42, scheduled for release *checks watch* two years ago

Sorry, more specifically, a road map to the actual road map

While it’s not quite ready, it’s currently top priority on the web team’s current projects. In the immediate future, we plan to deliver the following communications:
  1. Give an explanation of the goals of our new Roadmap and what to expect from it
  2. Show a rough mockup of the proposed new Roadmap
  3. Share a work in progress version of the Roadmap for at least one of our core teams
  4. And then finally transition to this new Roadmap

Whales rejoice!
 
Fear not, Star Citizen backers!

Chris Roberts has finally created a new road map for SQ42, scheduled for release *checks watch* two years ago

Sorry, more specifically, a road map to the actual road map



Whales rejoice!
I want to like this game but man do they make it impossible, whats worse is they are trying to claim that the backlash and articles about it had nothing to do with them suddenly releasing a roadmap for their roadmap and its just a coincidence lol
 
I want to like this game but man do they make it impossible, whats worse is they are trying to claim that the backlash and articles about it had nothing to do with them suddenly releasing a roadmap for their roadmap and its just a coincidence lol

I think, at this point, the only people supporting this 'game' are ones addicted to arbitrary road maps
 
This is like something from The Onion :LOL:

My company recently hosted a company wide meeting to discuss why we spend so much money on meetings.

So yeah; I'm not surprised by a roadmap to a roadmap, it's not that hard to believe.
 
My company recently hosted a company wide meeting to discuss why we spend so much money on meetings.

So yeah; I'm not surprised by a roadmap to a roadmap, it's not that hard to believe.

Not hard to believe, no. But holding up a "Road map to a road map" and using that as a sign of progress? Fucking hilarious.
 
My company recently hosted a company wide meeting to discuss why we spend so much money on meetings.

So yeah; I'm not surprised by a roadmap to a roadmap, it's not that hard to believe.
Not hard to believe, no. But holding up a "Road map to a road map" and using that as a sign of progress? Fucking hilarious.
As Pringle says, it's not that it's hard to believe (and I've seen more than my fair share of corporate bullshit when it comes to this sort of thing), it's that the roadmap to a roadmap is being presented as a sign that they are making progress. On a game that is x years and y millions deep in development, no less!
 
Yeah, the Whales will take any sign of progress and pretend it means they are releasing the game next quarter... and when that gets bumped another 5 years, then they make up excused for "how hard Chris Roberts has it sailing on his private yacht."

Once you're reeled-in, your God Chris can do no wrong...even when he's falling asleep at an official event! That includes continuing to ask for donations.
 
Honestly I'm not sure why anyone is expecting much related to SQ42 info when it, almost by definition, isn't something that can be discussed in depth without giving things away. So I understand people get more antsy about development, but dredging up the "we had it almost done X years back" makes little sense. Its the same way they could have made a "fully complete" version of SC done many times, where "fully complete" was "without a fuckload of game systems and other stuff just chopped out of it or simplified". Older stuff that was "finished" may not, later on, seem up to par compared to newer development so you remake and refresh etc. Anyone who backed early on you realize that the interior of a ship even as small as the 300 series or Constellation has been not just visually, but functionally upgraded - including interior size, scope, features etc... completely, no less than 3+ times so far! The Constellation I walked into my first trip into the Hangar Module has nothing to do was "finished" too by some definition of the word - but its a far cry from the one that I have today!

I'd rather watch the progress of systems in the SC public universe instead. I assume that as things are updated, new systems are added , old stuff is being rehashed or polished up to current levels of experience etc... in parallel, in SQ42 as well.
 
Honestly I'm not sure why anyone is expecting much related to SQ42 info when it, almost by definition, isn't something that can be discussed in depth without giving things away. So I understand people get more antsy about development, but dredging up the "we had it almost done X years back" makes little sense. Its the same way they could have made a "fully complete" version of SC done many times, where "fully complete" was "without a fuckload of game systems and other stuff just chopped out of it or simplified". Older stuff that was "finished" may not, later on, seem up to par compared to newer development so you remake and refresh etc. Anyone who backed early on you realize that the interior of a ship even as small as the 300 series or Constellation has been not just visually, but functionally upgraded - including interior size, scope, features etc... completely, no less than 3+ times so far! The Constellation I walked into my first trip into the Hangar Module has nothing to do was "finished" too by some definition of the word - but its a far cry from the one that I have today!

I'd rather watch the progress of systems in the SC public universe instead. I assume that as things are updated, new systems are added , old stuff is being rehashed or polished up to current levels of experience etc... in parallel, in SQ42 as well.


Ever heard of feature completion dates? You don't have to tell us the name of the location that you worked on today, just thee stepping stone in your SCHEDULE.

You know, that thing Chris has never heard if?

If you actually have a schedule, you can come up with a way to identify each segment of the game to outside investors, without giving away the crucial plot details. Telling us the type of planet, or the type of starsystem (numbered, if you have multiple entries of the same type) wouldn't give away plot details, while being specific enough that you cold actually be held accountable for your planned release date and featture-list

The player-interactions with the story are harder, but again not impossible. You can give each interaction a generic code name (like the name of the location where it occurs on the planet...assuming you have unique bar names for each story point, you don't even have to tie them into the planets they occur on.). Only those truly devoted to the game will figure out any of this before release date (most of the public won't care)
 
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Honestly I'm not sure why anyone is expecting much related to SQ42 info when it, almost by definition, isn't something that can be discussed in depth without giving things away. So I understand people get more antsy about development, but dredging up the "we had it almost done X years back" makes little sense. Its the same way they could have made a "fully complete" version of SC done many times, where "fully complete" was "without a fuckload of game systems and other stuff just chopped out of it or simplified". Older stuff that was "finished" may not, later on, seem up to par compared to newer development so you remake and refresh etc. Anyone who backed early on you realize that the interior of a ship even as small as the 300 series or Constellation has been not just visually, but functionally upgraded - including interior size, scope, features etc... completely, no less than 3+ times so far! The Constellation I walked into my first trip into the Hangar Module has nothing to do was "finished" too by some definition of the word - but its a far cry from the one that I have today!

I'd rather watch the progress of systems in the SC public universe instead. I assume that as things are updated, new systems are added , old stuff is being rehashed or polished up to current levels of experience etc... in parallel, in SQ42 as well.


1. This is a kick-started, publicly backed project so expecting more to be 'given' away is completely acceptable, anything less removes what smidgen of accountability is left for this mess.

2. No one is saying Star Citizen was almost done X years back. People ARE saying that Roberts and SC have, had, and will continue to miss every window and deadline until this projects is wretched forth.

3. Redesigning something completely no less than 3(+!) times really feeds into the Robert's is abusing crowdfunding to feed his habits rather than produce a finished product.

The fact that even this 451 page forum monster is slowing down is imho foreshadowing of the unceremonious, largely cavernous and empty, silent ending that this project will come to sometime in the next decade.
 
Well, this has been Chris Roberts MO since the Wing Commander days. Without anyone to oversee him, you see the development hell he's created.

Again, none of this is shocking; I called it as far back as the original kickstarter.

this post nails it. Looking forward to the 2nd expansion to ED.... which was kickstarted the same time as SC.
 
Honestly I'm not sure why anyone is expecting much related to SQ42 info when it, almost by definition, isn't something that can be discussed in depth without giving things away. So I understand people get more antsy about development, but dredging up the "we had it almost done X years back" makes little sense. Its the same way they could have made a "fully complete" version of SC done many times, where "fully complete" was "without a fuckload of game systems and other stuff just chopped out of it or simplified". Older stuff that was "finished" may not, later on, seem up to par compared to newer development so you remake and refresh etc. Anyone who backed early on you realize that the interior of a ship even as small as the 300 series or Constellation has been not just visually, but functionally upgraded - including interior size, scope, features etc... completely, no less than 3+ times so far! The Constellation I walked into my first trip into the Hangar Module has nothing to do was "finished" too by some definition of the word - but its a far cry from the one that I have today!

I'd rather watch the progress of systems in the SC public universe instead. I assume that as things are updated, new systems are added , old stuff is being rehashed or polished up to current levels of experience etc... in parallel, in SQ42 as well.
Your argument goes out the window when you realize Chris Roberts said 3ish years ago that SQ42 was finished and he had played through it and all that was needed was polishing.

Then nothing was said for 2 years when suddenly CR said he didn't like the way SQ42 played and so was redoing all of it...

They can't even put a teaser trailer together and SQ42 is supposed to be out next year.
 
this post nails it. Looking forward to the 2nd expansion to ED.... which was kickstarted the same time as SC.

To be fair, Chris Roberts is a great idea guy you want to keep around. But those types of people should *never* be given budgeting or scheduling authority.

Your argument goes out the window when you realize Chris Roberts said 3ish years ago that SQ42 was finished and he had played through it and all that was needed was polishing.

Then nothing was said for 2 years when suddenly CR said he didn't like the way SQ42 played and so was redoing all of it...

They can't even put a teaser trailer together and SQ42 is supposed to be out next year.

Ladies and gentleman: Chris Roberts in a nutshell.
 
To be fair, Chris Roberts is a great idea guy you want to keep around. But those types of people should *never* be given budgeting or scheduling authority.



Ladies and gentleman: Chris Roberts in a nutshell.

Freelancer, anyone? Microsoft needs to step in again.
 
I'm sure the game will be released or cancelled in another 451 pages.
Release or cancelation would be too great a shock to the system, as neither condition would be as profitable as perpetual non-release. The abstract and the intangible - hopes/dreams/spacelord power fantasies - are powerful magnets. By never being "released" it can never be judged, reviewed, held accountable, or otherwise verified as more than a snake oil techdemo. "Hey man its in development".

Its like those older women you hear about who send money to scammers in another country, whom they believe are some male model with legit seeming photos and a hard luck story, and that they would be united some day and their love would be true. And this can go on for years despite pleadings from friends or family to look at the red flags.

Hope is blinding.
 
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Release or cancelation would be too great a shock to the system, as neither condition would be as profitable as perpetual non-release. The abstract and the intangible - hopes/dreams/spacelord power fantasies - are powerful magnets. By never being "released" it can never be judged, reviewed, held accountable, or otherwise verified as more than a snake oil techdemo. "Hey man its in development".

Its like those older women you hear about who send money to scammers in another country - in some cases going on for years - whom they believed were some male model with a hard luck story and they would be united some day and their love would be true.

Hope is blinding.
In case it wasn't clear: all said with irony. I'm sure we'll get st4rk complaining for at least another 8 years regardless of outcome.
 
With CR not being seen or heard from at all this year, 500+ employees only being bale to produce minor updates with all major updates being pushed back 6+ months still.... Its going to be interesting to see how the whales and white knights keep justify throwing money at the project.
 
With CR not being seen or heard from at all this year, 500+ employees only being bale to produce minor updates with all major updates being pushed back 6+ months still.... Its going to be interesting to see how the whales and white knights keep justify throwing money at the project.
You know that they will say "Chris needs our support now more than ever!" and put their hands in their pockets yet again. At this stage the sunk costs are so great that they will continue to fund CR until either he publicly gives up on development or SC actually launches.
 
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the backers said no more and CIG lost all income from ship purchases. What motivation would that make? If any. Probably panic on CIG's side. Not wishing bad things on them but it would be interesting to see what would transpire in such an event. (yeah I know its not going to happen)
 
I guess their budget is divided as such:

50% goes to shell companies of CR
20% goes to PR people to write meaningless progress updates that really doesn't reveal anything about the actual progress of the development
20% goes to artists creating sellabe Jpegs of promises
10% goes to the trickle development of features they did not promise originally and nobody has asked for, to keep the hype alive.

Plus I'm still convinced SQ42 is vaporware, there is no game there never was. it was an empty promise they made in 2012 to bait single player gamers not just mmo fans.

It's time to call in Jim Browning to have a look behind the veil of this scam.
 
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