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Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Lord_NeckBeard posted:

I was watching Fart Shitizen off and on from 2012 to 2014, holding off on building a gaming rig for it and never bought any ships. I got married and bought a couple watches to go with my $20 wedding ring with the money I would have spent on a decent gaming pc. My interest was reignited by all the drama that was bubbling up since the summer. I've been lurking for a while on the old thread, after seeing an @dsmart tweet with a link to it, and today's drama finally pushed me over the edge. The old thread and its baby are the most entertaining threads I've ever read on a forum. Here is my goddamn :10bux:

Actually most of us are just here for the recipes.

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Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Rodney-CK posted:

I'm curious if anybody ever thought it possible that CIG played the grey market. They own the jpgs, they could basically create lots of parachute accounts to auction off grey market stuff for tons of profit.

Yes but this would require a level of competency on their part so no.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Voted 5.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Karl_Ramseier posted:

Serious answer:
It's not a question of believe, It is just a game after all. I don't plan to buy any more ships anyway, the package I got is more than enough. I won't sell it either ( can you sell gifted ships? Or get a refund?) in the end I had more fun not playing SC than the 70?$ the package is worth.

Besides for me believing any of those allegations it would need actual facts and evidence.
Until now nothing special happened besides that CIG has the worst community management and PR I ever saw.

This is a serious response.

If you're looking for evidence that things are hosed then it's right in front of you.

The two biggest issues that have happened just this month are Robert's meltdown and also the fact that people are getting refunds from a movie company instead of CIG.

The Escapist article doesn't add much to the story but Robert's verbal diarrhoea should be a story in and of itself. How many CEOs of multimillion dollar companies do you know would spend 8 hours crafting an angry email in response to a negative press article? If CIG was a listed company the stock price would have taken a huge hit since most investors expect a $92+M company to be run professionally.

Having the CEO write 15 pages of batshit crazy and then have their lawyer write an angry letter threatening to sue (all while in the public eye) is the opposite of professionalism and says all you need to know about how management is being run and gives a lot of underlying support to all the rumours floating around. Would you invest your money in a company if the owner was more interested responding to internet trolls and bad press instead of actually making a product and making money off that product? The fact that the Escapist are standing by their article shows that their lawyers have sat down, looked at all the information and sources they used and determined that everything is above board and they'd have an incredibly high chance of winning any potential law suit. They would have settled or issued a retraction if it wasn't the case since nobody wants to go to court.

The other big issue is that some of the refunds aren't coming from CIG. There was a post some pages back where the guy's refund got split between paypal and a credit card with CIG and another company providing the refund. This is a huge red flag that something is wrong with the financials. If CIG can't even afford to refund small amounts of money then that raises serious issues about problems with cash flow and going concern. Either the majority of backer's money has been transferred to a company completely unrelated to the game (and out of the reach of the backers) or CIG is so cash strapped that other companies have had to step in to make sure they don't breach their various ratios for their line of credit. Either way it should be a warning to anyone who still has money in the game.

In all seriousness, go get a refund and spend it on something more useful from other games to giving it to a medical charity and saving lives. All it takes is one email and if the game ever does pick it up, you can always easily buy back in. The whole funding model is based on selling more ships and now that they're still selling all the 'limited edition' ships that they said they wouldn't sell, it's not like you're going to miss out on any particular item.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Let me answer all your moral questions fellow shitposters.

Is Derek justified in going after people who are harassing him?

Yes

Is anyone going to win if he goes after a 19 year old physically and mentally disabled man who spends hundreds of dollars to buy spaceship jpegs?

No

I now return you to your regular song and recipes thread.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

kordansk posted:

We have reached peak armchair. Developers psychiatrists lawyers. What's next?

I am an armchair Ponzi scheme space sim/FPS/MMO game that is fuelled and developed only by your imagination!

Pew Pew Pew

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

MacGyvers_Mullet posted:

Not really, sounds like your company just contracted the cheapest, shittiest CPA firm around, or the firm doesn't value them enough as a client to send you competent people. If an auditor is going in and being that lovely & unwilling to be reasonable, then you are dealing with a really really bad auditor. The autistic weirdos who have no social skills cant cut it anywhere but the worst firms.

There are a lot of weird specialty Federal compliance auditors that have no clue what they're doing and cover it up by just being abrasive and threatening people, though.

Yeah but seriously, if you're an auditor and you have money in this you're a loving idiot and terrible at your job.

A 'fully funded' project that keeps asking for more money? Misses every self imposed release date? Management without any accountability (why yes, having the boss' wife as the head of HR is a great idea) High turnover of all the top level staff? CEO who spends 8 hours writing a batshit insane email? Customers who are getting their refunds through a loving movie company?

There are so many red flags here its insane. This is going to end up as a textbook case of how someone can blow through $94M and the importance of internal controls.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Karl_Ramseier posted:

no sogns of a financially troubled company.

They are taking weeks to do refunds and are splitting the refund amounts between paypal and credit cards. There are also some people who are getting refunded by an unrelated movie company.

No signs of financial trouble at all! :v:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

no_recall posted:

He needs to :frogout:

Oh boy. Karl might be a poo poo poster who has mental issues but he isn't even close to the level of actual Something Awful crazies like Grover or Caro(RIP).

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Derek will return.

https://mobile.twitter.com/dsmart/status/661826916408819712

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

CrazyTolradi posted:

The Dig is the best Lucasarts game ever made. Everything was just done perfectly.

I'm sorry but there was that Indiana Jones game where you got to make a club sandwich and then eat that sandwich. That was the best one.

Games like Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle had nothing as filling.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Lord_NeckBeard posted:

I hope you recover legal bills out of all this, Dr. Smart.

Holy poo poo.

This dumb, mushmouth motherfucker is a minor hollywood producer and the only tail he can get a ring on is his loving intern at this low level production company he's a partner in. A hollywood 4, who apparently has emotional problems. After loving up his movie career, he lucks into a hundred million dollars and uses spacegame dreams and dollars to try to set up a motion capture business and also jumpstart his crazy, not that hot, not that talented over 40 year old wanna be actress's career?

This guy has broken his brain on cocaine. He probably did it in 2006, when he hosed up his movie career.

If this is an LA based mo cap studio that is going to make movie quality performances, I'm thinking it'll take a lot more than the $20 million I've seen thrown around for it. I'm thinking all the companies were used as a way to move assets around to get loans and then spend that on the LA movie operation.

I think the judge will pretty early see that the finances are weird and predispose them to be critical of the project management. This is the time actual auditors come into play. An independent forensic accounting team will be called for. Dr Smart is offering to pay.

The banks hoodwinked into lending to these many different companies will be paying attention to this and demand access to the books.

Dealing with angry creditors will do them in. A bank can call a loan in. All the banks can call their loans in. Credit crunch, mass layoffs, and Chris Roberts is going to jail. Or suicide.

Show me on this picture of a spaceship where the bad man stole your money.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

EminusSleepus posted:

so how did the interview of DS by Krazy Karl went out?

The interview was civil and Derek remains a credit to his people.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

jaegerx posted:

Is seraph going to be talking about using bitcoin to buy kiddie porn at this nambla convention?

Look I may rape 11 year old girls in my family but boy is Chris Roberts a bad bad man.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Romes128 posted:

Karl please post again so this thread can be funny again

As a German auditor, my professional opinion is that Derek Smart is a bad man whose badness is only matched by my love for Star Citizen.

I paid over $5,000 to see you in the 'Verse!

Also my father in law wrote this post.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Loiosh posted:

I think around $1,500 or so including gifts. It's all in the goonswarm google spreadsheet, though not updated for some package upgrades. (For those curious, this is under half of what I've gifted to friends on Steam: )

I consider it a sunk cost at this point. At the moment I'm concerned that CIG may fail, but I would, being honest, like to see them succeed, because I like the idea of the game.

It's not a sunk cost because you can get a refund. If you're concerned that they're going to fail why not get said refund? You can always buy back in if you change your mind.

There is something seriously wrong with the company from the fact that it needs to delay, split and get a third party to pay for refunds to a VC with actually adult money rush to pull it out ASAP.

Go take a holiday or buy some games you can play with your refund or if the money isn't that important to you, go donate it to charity and do something more infinitely useful with it instead of leaving it in the dumpster fire.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

no_recall posted:

Lawsuit starts tomorrow?

right...

RIGHT?

:munch:

Law suits take months and half the time your lawyers are going to be thinking how can I get my batshit crazy client to settle.

So pretty much two weeks! :v:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

D_Smart posted:

Assuming that "batshit crazy client" is yours truly, what's there to "settle"?

Settlements are more than just damages.

Either way if people expect an actual court case, they're going to be waiting a long time even if you decide to go ahead with legal proceedings. Going to court sucks, its highly stressful, time consuming and expensive which is why most lawyers will try to avoid it.

Hav posted:

Only where ordered by a court. Remind me again, what are the grounds for your lawsuit?

I would have assumed that Derek and the other citizens would be suing for a breach of contract and then either getting a refund and/or compelling CIG to open their books to figure out what the hell was going on.

They're a year behind delivery and you could make a pretty convincing case that this game is never going to come out as promised.

Ghostlight posted:

One of my favourite food memories is being out for dinner with a group and someone asked the Australian if she wanted to split a tiramisu and her response was "no, I don't like Japanese food".

But Tiramisu is a really popular and well known dessert in Australia :psyduck:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Is it just me or does the trailer never show more than 4 or 5 seconds of continuous footage from the same scene?

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

MeLKoR posted:



:gary: :qq: :yarg: Pubbie tears nourish my soul.

Keep up the good job guys! I'm off to work now but I'll meet you guys again tonight for another raid. :getin:

Yeah I really liked the run we had yesterday. There's something so satisfying about ganging up on these idiots who spent thousands of dollars and then watching their precious jpegs blow up in their face.

How's that for immersion :smuggo:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

blueberrysmith posted:



Why even try guys.

:smug: Hey maybe you shouldn't be spending rent and food money on a loving jpeg

:reddit: Why are you goons so mean to me with your hilarious sarcastic posting?

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Tortolia posted:

Reading all the spergs projecting their hopes and dreams into Star Citizen really takes me back. It's like the great vaporware MMORPG days of Dawn and Horizons and the like, where communities grew and projected unrealistic game design goals upon pending MMOs and in many cases were strung along by developers taking advantage of a naive fan base. If the games ever did come out they sure as hell were nowhere near what was promised and often were buggy, boring messes like Anarchy Online or Star Wars Galaxies.

Between all of this, the hilarious forums drama, massive quantity of Derek Smart posts, etc..it feels like the early 2000s all over again. Makes me nostalgic for the glory days of Lum the Mad / Slow News Day / Corpnews and all the fun and drama that came from those communities and games.

When this goes belly up, the cult is going to explode in the largest self congratulatory circle jerk before fading back to insignificance. You're going to have a bunch of threads with people consoling each other about how brave they were to burn through their life savings on a bunch of jpegs to take a risk on a life changing project.

Sure I've lost $5,000 I could have spent on my kids education but I learnt valuable life lessons and took a chance. The people who didn't spend any money on this are the real losers for being unsupportive and not daring to dream big.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Games like Battlefield have been doing balanced multi crew vehicle for years where players not driving can still contribute but what CIG is totally innovative because paaaaaarp.

You don't even need to balance it, just let the second or third player control say a lovely drone that can hack communications or repair shields or shoot dudes for minimal damage so that everybody feels like they're contributing.

aleksendr posted:

How long untill they sell NPC with various stats in 5 pack cards, one rare, one uncommon minimum, 4.99$ a piece ? The whales would go nuts over rare "waifu" material NPC cards

I am legitimately surprised that they haven't taken and implemented the worst of mobile F2P gatcha games.

Use real money for a lottery ticket that gets you anything from a paaaaaarp emote to a capital ship!
Use real money to fund a 'bank or magic tech' that allows them access to higher interest or production rates etc!
Use real money and ensure that your gun reloads quicker or do more damage!

It's not a pay to win game, honest. You're just supporting game development.

CIG come hire me to monopolise your game beyond your current model of selling jpegs and dreams to losers.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

It's amazing how close these guys are to being self aware.

The whole thread is full of citizens telling the guy off for being naive and gullible enough to believe what CIG and Chris Robert says.:psyduck:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Bait and Swatch posted:

Just you wait, in 6 years croberts will revolutionize gaming by releasing a counter to player interaction probably
:argh:

What do you think the 10+ hours of unskippable cut scenes were for?

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Romes128 posted:

I'd be willing to bet one of these cultists kills cr in a fit of rage if the game doesn't release or is a pile of hot poo poo. Most likely Ben.

As if these cultists will be deterred by reality.

Look man, Roberts didn't fail us, we failed him by not giving him enough money. We just didn't understand game development. :reddit:

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Martout posted:

ProTip for playing Star Citizen: KILL YOURSELF

This is good for Star Citizen.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

We must secure the existence of our PVErs and a future for our whales.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Mendrian posted:

So wait. The Kickstarter money isn't really money as far as refunds - it's a donation made to CIG rather than funds put towards a project. Okay. But it is money insofar as they get to rent a sweet pad with it and fund their entire company's operation with it. What?

I'm really confused about how Kickstarter money and ship money is being handled wrt CIG. It seems like they're treating it as proceeds at least by the look of their expenses. Don't people usually use Kickstarter to fuel specific, tangible things like material costs? I mean I could see, from a certain perspective, using the ship monies and private donations to pay for their own salaries. It's unethical sure but it's at least vaguely sensible from a particularly avaricious standpoint. But if it were Kickstarter money that would be in total violation to how Kickstarter works.

Most people use crowdfunding to either finance the very beginning or very end of an enterprise. To pay for plastic/mold costs for minis or to pay for servers for games. The idea of starting with what amounts to zero dollars and then renting yourself a nice home in Santa Monica with it is just sort of insane to me. How do these people function without being egged unconscious every time they walk down the street?

There's basically two parts to the money here.

The first is the money coming in from the Kickstarter or ship sales etc. This money isn't technically a donation to CIG from an accounting/tax/legal perspective. It doesn't matter if the money is from kickstarter or the ship sales since they are both money paid in exchange for spaceships. Since they haven't provided the spaceship, it's known as prepaid income which counts as a liability to the company. When they deliver the spaceship then it gets recognised as revenue/proceeds.

The second is the money that CIG has in their bank account. It doesn't matter if they haven't 'earned it yet' or if it came from Kickstarter, their bank loan or ship sales etc, they are a private company and can pretty much do whatever they want with it up to and including paying for Roberts' house and car as part of his employment contract.

As for the refund money, it's more about how strong the consumer protection laws are in your state or country. If you live somewhere without strong consumer protection then their refund policy or terms of service may take priority over your legal rights. If you lived in somewhere like the EU or Australia then their laws override whatever bullshit terms and conditions that they forced on you and CIG would have to refund you even if their ship sales or whatever didn't allow it.

Basically once the money leaves the backers' wallets they can do whatever they want with it which is how we get to

:gary: PAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRP

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

janssendalt posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yLTm8DZ8s4

hey guys

did anyone see this video?

you can almost hear goons crying on the background

You've cut and paste the wrong link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq8ynUq7wM

All the goons died after while watching this.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Nostalgia4Infinity posted:

(Please note, you can not buy this ship for 5 grand on Frontier's website.)

I don't understand this sentence.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

EightAce posted:

Sandi has a far more complex and darker history than has been talked of. She is independantly wealthy and from a rich and privalleged background.
To expand on this however is to enter creepy land.

Yeah it's creepy, it shouldn't be on SA since we're just here to point and laugh. Just keep that stuff on the other forum.

Besides, the questions about Sandi's work and educational history aren't new. From Derek's dox thread You need a Platinum account to view this message

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Whiskey chat from a couple of pages ago.

Unless you're drinking a single cask/barrel, all your whiskey is blended. A single malt just means it comes from a single distillery.

aleksendr posted:

I really have to try a panel of Japanese whiskys someday. I keep hearing they are unique and excellent but i never see them at affordable prices in Canada.

Do you know someone flying in and out of Japan?

Suntory has a store at Narita airport and I normally just get someone to buy it for me there when they're coming home. It's about half to a third of the price of whiskey here.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Crazy_BlackParrot posted:

Yeah, but ever since the story they have been very quiet.
So all in all it removes some credibility about the "vetted" sources.

This is what I really would love to know, why hasn't there been a follow up on their original story? There has happened a lot since that day.

The fact that they didn't remove the story but stood by it (and didn't get sued by RSI or prompt another Croberts meltdown) shows that both Croberts and the Escapist's legal teams still considers the original Escapist article to be credible.

The reason why they haven't done a follow up article is probably the same reason that industry gossip sites (especially financial and legal ones) quickly get shut down. The threat of litigation and defamation is too big for the story to be worth it. The horde of angry commentators aren't really a thing compared to the actual lawsuits that could come. Sure you'd inevitably win but the time and legal cost would far outweigh the page clicks and ad space you'd make.

Besides, half of the stuff that goes through this thread about CIG's employees couldn't be published on any real news site because at the end of the day, it is just employee gossip that nobody outside of this thread or the cult gives a poo poo about.

Roberts being a terrible manager or Sandi using her time to do movies and poo poo aren't really newsworthy stories until the real story (Star Citizen getting cancelled) breaks in which case all these little crazy tales will come out of the woodwork. I mean, have a look at all the insane employee stories of people who use to work at Lehman's or Enron or Anderson that could only come out after the company had collapsed despite everybody in the industry and related media circles knowing about it.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Crazy_BlackParrot posted:

I don't know man, free speech and such..
Also, how is posting articles about facts a reason for a legal battle?

The Red KHARTUUU( whatsitcalled) was sold as a 2 seater with some imaginary gameplay features added to it. This is a fact, What excuse not to use this in an article?
The whole freelancer debacle?
Le starmarine?
The buying of expensive furniture only to be obliterated by the elephant in the room?
The lack of direction/progress?


Its one thing to post articles about in house problems, but these are all valid concerns (and out in the open).
So yeah, I think the escapist has thrown in the towel.

Yeah free speech is great and all but the Escapist is a gaming site, it's about making money, not focused on the journalistic principles of the fourth estate.

I think they've just stopped reporting on it because there's nothing more to say. None of those things you've listed are really big story items that are worth dealing with another Croberts meltdown. Other sites have covered the updates in pretty neutral tones but a $150 spaceship was sold with one seat instead of two or a fat dude sitting on expensive furniture isn't worth reporting on given they've already gotten a target on their back.

What can I say? Lawyers are expensive.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

MedicineHut posted:

Lol. Regular debt then. Debt needs to be repayed though.

Not even Lloyds or RBS would have been reckless enough to offer a loan based on a webpage counter... If this is true then it means that at least someone in the bank industry may have had a chance to look at CIG financials?

What fucks the mind is how on earth a company supposedly inundated in cash needs a loan for operating expenses. Unless of course...

Its actually really common for companies to get a line of credit since it allows you to smooth out cash flow and to pay suppliers and employees when you're having a bad week. Nobody is going to keep $110M in cash just sitting in the piggy bank for a rainy day.

Basically as long as money keeps coming in, the bank is going to be happy to keep lending to you. It's only going to look deeper at your business when something comes up with your ability to service the loan or during a random audit. They don't have the resources to track the progress of every business they loan money to so if everything looks good on paper then it's all good.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Berious posted:

I'm actually surprised they can't.

:gary: "Most crowdfunded thing ever guys.... computers and poo poo... WEB TWO POINT OH"

:homebrew:

What most non finance/accounting/business people don't realise is that you can't claim money you've received as income if you haven't provided the service or good.

What you have here is a company that hasn't made a single product before, constantly misses it's own deadlines, is micromanaged by a man who has a history of missing deadlines and over promising and has a $110M liability sitting in its books.

No wonder they're having problems trying to get more financing.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

lol at the idea that some Goon would give enough of a gently caress about Derek's professional reputation to not just leak anything the moment they figured it out.

Well someone just posted it up on the other thread so there's that.

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
Most of the people here who are saying they have cracked the code are just making it up or just got it through the guy who posted it on the other thread.

I know people are going to bitch to me about Opsec but given the game is almost up, i don't think its that big a deal. For newcomers, SA basically has hidden threads and sub forums that people use for threads that they still want to keep hidden even when the pay wall goes down.

You need mod permission to see these threads and to have platinum activated (which is why all those platinum only links are hidden). It's mainly there to keep out shitizens and the like.

Luckily you can still access the Star Citizen secret subforum here.

There's only one active thread left and Derek is the only one who can grant permission to see and post in it. Just send him a PM asking for him to authorise you.

As for the terrible secret. It's honestly not that big a surprise that people are making it out to be. If you were remotely objective about this project then it was only a matter of time that this happened. You have $110M and nothing to show for it. Anyone still with money in this game shouldn't be surprised that they no longer offer refunds.

I don't want to say too much but the big secret is really in the dates themselves.

Between Derek's talk of going concern, 31 March being the end of Q1 2016 and the UK tax year ending on 5 April, it's not too hard to join the dots even without Beer's message.

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Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007

Quavers posted:

My brain is currently to trying to fathom how the multi-thousand-dollar backers will personally justify their loss of "investment" following the realisation of SC never arriving (for whatever reason).

"well I had $30k of loose change so why not, lol"

"the re-mortgaging and maxing of credit cards is manageable"

"being part of the most-open-development-non-game-ever was worth it"

etc

Adults lose money on things all the time like in the share market or buying a bad car. Losing $30,000 on a video game is totally normal :v:

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