Chairman's Response to The Escapist - Roberts Space Industries
Transmission General NoneContent
English
Greetings Citizens,
UPDATE: The attached demand letter is our formal response to specific, slanderous allegations made in the recent The Escapist article on Star Citizen. Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.
We know that most Citizens are not interested in this drama, and as such we are updating the original notice rather than publishing additional Comm-Link articles. Future updates will occur here rather than in additional sections of the RSI site.
Greetings Citizens,
I have, to date, attempted to stay above the internet drama currently surrounding Derek Smart and his claims about Star Citizen. My feeling has been that it is most important to speak with actions instead of words, and to date I feel that we have done that with the multi crew demo, the launch of the social module and everything else you see here in this space on a daily basis. However, with the publication of today’s article (I can only call it a hit piece) on The Escapist, I believe it is necessary to address the issue directly. In the interests of openness, I am making available right now my correspondence with The Escapist’s managing editor. What follows is his original e-mail to our Director of Communications, David Swofford, and my response, sent to them three hours before their deadline and not included in the piece.
I have to say that I’m incredibly disappointed in all of this. This sort of drama is not what I, or you, signed up for with Star Citizen. Thanks to your support, the project has become bigger than I ever thought possible and there’s no question that opens us up to criticism from anyone looking to make a name for themselves. I know that every company goes through such things, especially with regards to unhappy former employees. It is unfortunate that our open nature makes us a bigger target, and going forward we will do the best we can to refute such baseless accusations. But most importantly, stay tuned to see the actual work we’re doing, which should put any questions to rest.
I will update this piece with a direct response to the article later in the day, but I wanted to go ahead and show you what they left out; hopefully it will calm some nerves now.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
From: Chris Roberts
Sent: 01 October 2015 14:10
To: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
John,
I was quite shocked to see the email that David Swofford forwarded to me filled with a bunch of conjecture, falsehoods and opinions of disgruntled ex-employees enflamed by Derek Smart’s personal quest to destroy Star Citizen.
I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up. We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.
So why is it for you guys? Do you really want to give a platform to Derek Smart? This is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).
Derek has a long history of finding some “big” thing to joust at just to keep himself in people’s consciousness rather than let his games do the talking. We’re not the first project where he has made it his mission to attack. Personally I think it would be much better to use that energy on his own game rather than take this path. He’s managed to rouse up enough attention that sites like yours are reporting his bile like it’s fact. You can’t pretend that the article that you published the other day was anything but a mouth piece for him. It completely repeated his narrative hook, line and sinker and mentioned plenty of out of context material in an attempt to harm the project and my reputation. I just don’t get it. The only person who is famous for being a blowhard, bully, an awful game developer and human being is Derek Smart. Just look up his history over the years. Or see how he treats people who dare to write a bug up on his current “game.” Why aren’t you doing a piece on the state of Line of Defense? Everything he accuses us of doing, he actually does himself! He’s the king of self-projection!
I’m pretty disturbed by your approach to this piece as well as the last piece Escapist published online. Why the rush to publish with or without our comments by noon today? What’s so urgent that you can’t take a little time to actually approach this like responsible journalists and do proper fact checking, get both sides of the story and only publish verifiable claims that have proof? Otherwise you’re just engaging in the same kind of campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that Derek Smart has been actively pursuing every day since he realized that he could get attention by attacking Star Citizen (as he certainly wasn’t getting any for his own game).
I’m also pretty concerned that your reporter on this is compromised and pursuing her own agenda. For someone who is a self-acclaimed Gamer Gate supporter, which last I checked was about ethics in video game journalism, she’s not been behaving or going about her business like an ethical reporter. Lizzy Finnegan appears in this tweet from Bandit@istheguy:
This is directed at a self-avowed feminist. Meantime, Bandit@istheguy is the very same person who started attacking Star Citizen on the day before your reporter wrote her article, tweeting about two people we parted ways with, then following up by retweeting the Escapist article and people who mentioned it…and then finally ending up by doxing myself, my wife and one of my daughters with this sequence of tweets.
“Bandit” is an anonymous account that was created on August 11th of this year and is almost exclusively used to aggressively attack and harass folks seen as enemies to Gamer Gate – the usual targets are all there, as are the usual proponents being retweeted. It’s notable that this account was interacting with and supporting Derek Smart when he was complaining about being blocked and reported as a harasser by two huge GG targets; Randi Harper and Briana Wu, which was another Derek Smart self-announced drama (he loves to play the victim, which he did when we refunded him publically sharing his refund email, claiming we were trying to silence him. We weren’t – we strongly believe in free speech and allow many dissenting opinions on our forums as long as they stay within standards of decency. You don’t keep someone as part of your community who is demanding you run the development differently or else he’ll sue you, especially someone who is plainly using the opportunity to attack Star Citizen for self-promotion).
Derek tweeted @1:15pm on September 24th about us letting go of staff in LA, less than an hour after we had completed the exit interviews of the two employees we were terminating (considering he’s in Florida and we’re in LA it’s not hard to connect the dots on where he got his information from). At 4:01pm “Bandit” starts mentioning people being let go.
If you look at the Twitter history of Liz and “Bandit” they frequently retweet each other’s tweets and generally reinforce each other’s views / opinions. I don’t know Liz’s personal life (nor do I care to) but based on the picture of her in “Bandit’s” tweet it is not a stretch to assume there is either a close relationship between Liz and “Bandit” or they are potentially one and the same. Which kind of calls into question these statements she made on Twitter:
Also retweeted by “Bandit” (as evidenced above).
This would explain her approach to the article, which was to pretty much take everything that Derek Smart claimed and report it without allowing us any opportunity to properly respond. Liz’s first email to David Swofford was at 744pm on the 24th, after which “Bandit,” riding into battle for his/her new friend, and Liz directly referenced Derek Smart’s claims. I didn’t see this until Friday afternoon (David works out of our Austin office, I was in our LA office) after David had a brief and rather irritated exchange with Liz (attached). I replied to him with some comments and concerns expecting David to have the opportunity to go back to Liz to further discuss some points she was bringing up that were clearly just singing out of the Derek Smart hymn book and much to my dismay and disappointment the article had already been published.
Which brings me back to my original point on all this. Why the rush to publish an article without allowing a proper round of fact and source checking? It completely feels like an agenda is being pursued. This is not the journalism that I remember from the Escapist of old. It’s click bait journalism of the lowest standard. It’s pretty ironic that it’s exactly the kind of journalism that Game Gate stands against. I’m also pretty bemused how suddenly Star Citizen and I have become the subject of attacks by a few people who associate themselves with Gamer Gate. I’m a gamer. I am making a game that gamers have overwhelmingly said they want made, to the tune of almost $90M and rising! I believe in ethics in journalism. I also believe in being inclusive to all and not being abusive to people in person or online. I don’t support either side because I believe it’s too polarizing but I believe we can do better, as gamers, as journalists and as human beings.
So why? It can’t be because we don’t buy banner ads and thusly are an easy click bait target for sensationalist pieces. I have to believe that your reporter is telling you she is onto something and you are taking her at face value and not questioning her motives or ethics.
Derek Smart is very adept at doing what he has been doing; spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He always grabs one nugget of a fact and uses that to sell a whole lot of lies and disinformation. He tweets about Star Citizen EVERY DAY. Not once but multiple times. If you read his Twitter stream it comes across as the crusade of a crazy man. He continually blogs about us. He constantly agitates…encouraging people to ask for refunds, report us to the FTC, the FBI and/or their local attorney general. He calls me a liar, a fraud, incompetent and many other names. He has slandered my family members and business partners. He has publically doxed me, sharing the address of my home in LA, pictures of my wife and five year old daughter. He constantly attacks Sandi Gardiner, accusing her of having no qualifications, or experience, that she had other people do her work for her and only has the Marketing position because she is my wife. That is incredibly ironic considering we are the most crowd funded project in history, that she wrote the marketing plan, and single handedly executed it when we were a tiny team – even today she’s the only dedicated marketing person at the company, for a game that has raised almost $90M for its development solely through viral marketing, word of mouth and PR. If you were going to criticize Star Citizen you certainly can fault us for taking longer than everyone wants, which would fall on the development side of the company but not marketing! The icing on the cake is that she has five degrees and speaks five languages, which I am willing to bet makes her a lot more qualified than Derek Smart is!
You have to ask yourself why? What does he have to gain? He didn’t like how I was running Star Citizen? Fine, he has his money back. He has no active claim in the game, nor would I ever want someone like him to be part of our community. I have never met Derek Smart, nor do I ever care to. I have never done anything personally to him. Yet he has continued to wage a FUD campaign on Star Citizen, the company making it and its community since July. He actively tries to destroy the hard work that I and everyone else making the game have put in to this project. He wants to tear down something that close to one million people have put their hopes and dreams into. Is it ego? A sense of self-importance? The fact that he’s getting attention again after being in the wilderness? It’s probably not a coincidence that he’s actively courted the Gamer Gate crowd, while professing to remain neutral since he started attacking Star Citizen. It’s also probably not a coincidence that he’s been using the buzz words “accountability” and “ethics” when attacking us as he knows in today’s internet world, where almost no one actually does the research to find the real facts that hyperbole sticks and people love to tweet an instant response to an attention grabbling statement on Twitter.
Derek Smart publishes blogs where he talks about lawsuits and how’s he going to take us down. He’s going so far as to publically share a letter with some pretty silly requests from his supposed lawyer (he seems unable to sign these letters), regardless of the fact we haven’t received the letter. In his latest blog he linked to a letter from his “lawyer” that was dated September 14th. We only received it yesterday, on September 30th! And it was post marked September 22nd! If you know anything about real legal discourse you would know that it stays behind closed doors. You don’t publish this kind of communication as it will prejudice any possible case. What he is doing is just a publicity ploy to get headlines from journalists who don’t know any better and to worry Star Citizen backers into thinking he’s going to legally give us troubles. And this is exactly his FUD plan – scare enough people, tell enough lies, round up the occasional angry ex-employee to help pour fuel on the fire to give him some semblance of credibility. We are not afraid of Derek Smart. We have nothing to hide and are very confident in our ability to defend ourselves against anything he may try to bring. But my bet is he won’t – he’s full of hyperbole. He claims he’s made over $200M in royalties from his games as recently as a week ago (I don’t think I have to go into why this is a complete lie). He also says frequently that he’s worth over $100M, or that he has two PhDs, or that back in July he was taking out a full page ad in The New York Times to expose us. He says a lot of things to get attention and for some reason people don’t call him on it. You may say, “Well don’t shoot the messenger,” but when the messenger is delivering his own message, then I think it’s perfectly fair to question that persons motives and credibility.
And you know what? If he was a decent person he would state his opinion and then sit back and see if it actually plays out, which at that point perhaps he would be vindicated. Instead he is actively trying to make his prophesy come true, using whatever dirty tricks he can muster. Why?
So he’s trying to put 261 people out of a job and destroy the dreams of almost a million people? For a personal vendetta? To gain some notoriety? Because he’s jealous that people love my games and ridicule his?
I’m just a passionate game developer making the game of my dreams. I am lucky enough to be supported by a huge community of gamers that has contributed a large amount of money to make a game that no publisher would dream of making. We have a very large team, most of which share my passion and dream. Yes, there will always be people who don’t fit in with the work and dedication that the dream demands and some of them will be resentful when they part ways, but I am in this to make something that will stand the test of time, much like Wing Commander has. When reaching for the stars there are bound to be a few bumps and delays on the road. You’ve covered games for a long time. You know that games, especially big complicated ones always have hiccups and are frequently subject to unforeseen delays. We aren’t even at the three year mark of full development (we didn’t open up the first development office in Austin with 15 people until February 2013). Projects of half our scope frequently take four to five years.
We are a very public project and rely on the goodwill of gamers to exist. Having a negative article that includes the views or comments of a small number of disgruntled ex-employees with their own opinions on whether things were run well or not, especially when they will be shielded behind anonymity, could give people an impression of the project and company that is 100% false, especially if we are not part of the story. This would be far more damaging to us than a normal developer or publisher. I know that this kind of material is great for clicks but you also have to remember that we are talking about the jobs of 261 people and numerous contractors. Every time a game studio shuts down every outlet and commenter is quick to lament the state of the game industry. Every time a big public company pushes out a game quickly to make the holiday season everyone laments about lack of ambition and taking the audience for granted. Here you have a 100% gamer funded project on the PC, a platform that almost every publisher ignored or pushed crappy console ports to and you have a game in a genre that everyone said was dead to a level that no publisher would dare to – and you want to harm it? Shouldn’t the press be cheering on these kinds of games? The gamers spoke. They wanted something as big and ambitious as Star Citizen. I will deliver it – I have never in my life worked this hard – including when I was 20 and making Wing Commander. There is a huge group of very talented game developers who all share this vision, who are all working as hard as possible to deliver a game that will make all the backers happy. So I implore you to think twice about going for something that while it may be fun to see Rome burn…isn’t in the best interests of the game, the employees of CIG or the 987,217 members of our community. You may say that if it isn’t true what is the harm but we both know in today’s world that’s not how it works, the truth will be lost behind the click bait headlines and the damage will be done.
In an effort to be complete and also answer the talking points you sent David here are my responses;
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
CR: How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it’s what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn’t make a good game with $200m so I don’t think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it despite the inaccurate rumours perpetuated by Derek Smart.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
CR: What concerns expressed prior to launching the Kickstarter? The small, tight team that put together the KS campaign and worked on the technical demo are all very much still at CIG and none of these people had any doubt. And judging from the record breaking campaign which is the biggest crowd funded project (not just game) in history I would say that there’s a large amount of people that also didn’t have these concerns. So may I ask where did these concerns come from?
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
CR: Is this the FAQ line you’re talking about?
The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences. You will notice that this is saying that we would only be able to deliver Squadron 42, not the bigger game without additional funding. If you refer to the stretch goals you will notice that the base goal was enhanced community content (delivered), alpha dogfighting module (delivered) and Squadron 42 (in progress). That was the base game as described. The full persistent universe and all the extra features like FPS boarding, multiple star systems to visit, extra ships and so on are all stretch goals. As is true with most projects when the scope changes so do the timelines, you can’t build a castle in the same time you would a wood shed no matter how much money or how many people you have. To try to make some kind of narrative about how we promised the game in two years no matter how big the scope grew is false. Could we have shipped a small scale 30 mission game in the old Wing Commander format in two years? Yes, but that’s not the game the community wants or the game we’re building. What we are delivering now, just on the Squadron 42 side is more akin to a huge AAA game that would retail for $60 by itself. The value for money that people are getting for a $40 pledge is pretty crazy.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
CR: All personnel and HR matters are obviously completely private and we can’t comment on this as a matter of principle. As always, there are two sides to each story.
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: No crowdfunding monies are used for any private purposes – these allegations are completely false and defamatory. This is pure innuendo for nefarious purposes and I guarantee that anyone making this claim will be unable to show any proof of it as it simply hasn’t happened. Ever since Wing Commander came out I’ve been lucky enough to be financially independent, driven nice cars and lived in nice houses. That’s due to money earned through royalties, the sale of Origin to Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil to Microsoft and prudent investing. So why are people making a deal about me having these things now? I also find the continued attack on Sandi fairly alarming. Why is she being singled out? Because she’s my wife? A woman? Yes, she’s also an actress and there’s nothing wrong with her also engaging in one of her passions after hours or outside of work. We let employees play games of D&D in our conference room in the evenings or weekends. I don’t see attacks from Derek Smart about how this is a waste of company resources (and it is not his to comment on or judge anyhow).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
CR: The opposite is true. CIG benefited from pre-existing software that Turbulent had developed. Our JV with them allowed us access to cheaper rates and bound an important part of Star Citizen closer to CIG, which are both beneficial to CIG and the backers. Per our agreement Turbulent is of course free to offer their technology to other customers.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
CR: Where does this come from? Has anyone given you examples of “big name” actors or numbers? It’s completely incorrect – we paid appropriate rates for normal VO work for the commercials. Now for Squadron 42 we do have a really great cast, which we will announce in a week from Saturday, but that was one of our stretch goals so it would be a bit rich to accuse us of mismanagement there!
“Squadron 42 will feature celebrity voice-acting including at least one favorite from Wing Commander”
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
CR: Anybody even with minimal knowledge about game development can assess the significant progress by looking at the released modules and the detailed monthly reports from each development studio. We have a massive team, working flat out to build something special for everybody. We feel like we’ve made huge strides and have completed a good portion of the underlying technology that will enable us to make Star Citizen the game that your sources say can’t be made. I don’t know how someone could say with a straight face that they felt “they were making commercials, not a game.” In fact we haven’t had a ship commercial since last year! As an aside the commercials were used as a fun milestone to make sure everyone got the ship to final game quality, and it focused the artists on finishing the work for public consumption, which in turn helps with getting more final assets in the game sooner. It was also a great way to build the lore of the universe of Star Citizen up, which is a universe we intend to continue to expand for many years to come.
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
CR: In every project I’ve done and others I’ve witnessed it’s a very common tendency for people to want more staff to help finish the job. It’s always that way until the game is finally done. Under Erin’s leadership at head of Global Production we’ve re-organized to make things more efficient (which is really what started this flap in the first place) and we are in a hiring mode (which you can see by our open positions) which shows that we are working to address these concerns. We have ten confirmed new hires that will start this month alone and offers out to several more candidates.
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
CR: I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can’t even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more “game” than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone – from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone’s opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this “concern”.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
CR: Where are you getting this from? Have you guys really looked at what you can do right now in the game? You’ve been able to walk around your hangar since August of 2013. I’m pretty sure that was a complete character walking around rather than a mass hallucination. We have multiple characters in the game and are working on a lot more (of which some will be seen at Citizen Con).
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
CR: This is completely false. We’ve actually made public statements to this fact. All Austin employees have been advised of a fairly minimal restructuring where some roles have been moved to LA or Europe for overall team efficiency. The majority of our Texas employees will remain in the Austin studio (indefinitely, by the way). As I’ve mentioned previously we are actually increasing our worldwide headcount in order to complete the game as effectively as possible. I would hope that the backers want us to be constantly trying to increase efficiency and making the hard choices that will benefit the game.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
CR: It’s about making a great game. Crowd funding is just a tool that allows us to do it with freedom that you would not normally have with a traditional publisher. So no it’s always about the game.
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
CR: This is the statement that really makes my blood boil. If any current employee feels this way they should not be working on Star Citizen or at CIG! I suspect these are the words of a few bitter ex-employees trying to stir trouble but I consider it a privilege and an honor to have so many people support myself and the team in making the game of all our dreams. I have nothing but gratitude to our backers for their support and patience and nothing but respect for the CIG team giving their all to make this game. Anyone who doesn’t feel this is welcome to the door, and as you must now realize there have been a few people who haven’t shared the same passion or love and now resent being called out for it.
Ok, there you go.
I would like to point out that ever since I got your email from David I have been working on this response. I worked on this until 5am last night, and a couple more hours this morning in the UK, where I am currently am in preparation for CitizenCon in a week from Saturday. Conservatively it’s taken me about eight hours to write. This is time I could have spent working on the game instead of dealing with a Derek Smart instigated drama. And this is really what annoys me – that his silly rantings occasionally gain traction and pull me away from the very thing I prefer to do and the very thing everyone wants me to do and the very thing Derek Smart accuses me of not doing – FINISHING THE GAME! By constantly tweeting, writing blogs and soliciting journalists in the background to report his “findings” he’s waging guerrilla warfare on my time, the time of other key executives, and the peace of mind of our employees and backers.
I would ask you to think hard about this in the context of what you guys have been considering running with. What do you hope to achieve by running with an article like this? What good do you hope will come out of it? Are you looking to cast assertions on our chance of success? What’s the point of unfounded conjecture and innuendo from biased parties? People say we will not deliver the game we’ve promised. So? Shouldn’t you just let us get on with it? If it falls apart they will be vindicated, if not we will be. I don’t know any other project that gets the level of scrutiny that we get in the development phase. Every day I have to deal with thousands of arm chair CEOs and developers mostly because we are the most open game development project in history. I have no problem with our community having its opinion on various facets of our development but when our openness is used against us by a small number of outside agitators harbouring ill will against us, it becomes incredibly frustrating and detrimental to my ability to deliver the game as promised.
If you guys are willing to do a proper piece then I’m happy to engage. You’re invited to visit all of our four studios, meet the developers making the game and see how we’re building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand. I’ll put my 261, their passion and energy against the complaints of a few disgruntled ex-employees any day. We have backers visit the offices all the time, they all come away with the same impression – that the entire team is dedicated to making the best game possible – if you took the time to research this you will find that it is a common comment and that the “noise” that has been generated is really from a very small number of people and some quite bitter ex-employees.
-Chris
From: John Keefer
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
To: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
Hey David,
After our chat and the initial story ran, we had a bunch of former employees and current employees step up to talk to us about Star Citizen and what is happening with the game. The allegations and concerns are numerous (see below), which gives us a sense of urgency to get this story out there ASAP, ideally first thing tomorrow morning. Note that NONE of these come from Derek but are all internal or formerly internal folks who came to us or agreed to speak with us. We are giving you and Chris a chance to respond before the story goes live. We are willing to wait a very short while to ensure these get answered if possible, but this story will run tomorrow at noon at the absolute latest.
Bullet points from the story:
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
Thanks for your time.
John
UPDATE: The attached demand letter is our formal response to specific, slanderous allegations made in the recent The Escapist article on Star Citizen. Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.
We know that most Citizens are not interested in this drama, and as such we are updating the original notice rather than publishing additional Comm-Link articles. Future updates will occur here rather than in additional sections of the RSI site.
Greetings Citizens,
I have, to date, attempted to stay above the internet drama currently surrounding Derek Smart and his claims about Star Citizen. My feeling has been that it is most important to speak with actions instead of words, and to date I feel that we have done that with the multi crew demo, the launch of the social module and everything else you see here in this space on a daily basis. However, with the publication of today’s article (I can only call it a hit piece) on The Escapist, I believe it is necessary to address the issue directly. In the interests of openness, I am making available right now my correspondence with The Escapist’s managing editor. What follows is his original e-mail to our Director of Communications, David Swofford, and my response, sent to them three hours before their deadline and not included in the piece.
I have to say that I’m incredibly disappointed in all of this. This sort of drama is not what I, or you, signed up for with Star Citizen. Thanks to your support, the project has become bigger than I ever thought possible and there’s no question that opens us up to criticism from anyone looking to make a name for themselves. I know that every company goes through such things, especially with regards to unhappy former employees. It is unfortunate that our open nature makes us a bigger target, and going forward we will do the best we can to refute such baseless accusations. But most importantly, stay tuned to see the actual work we’re doing, which should put any questions to rest.
I will update this piece with a direct response to the article later in the day, but I wanted to go ahead and show you what they left out; hopefully it will calm some nerves now.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
From: Chris Roberts
Sent: 01 October 2015 14:10
To: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
John,
I was quite shocked to see the email that David Swofford forwarded to me filled with a bunch of conjecture, falsehoods and opinions of disgruntled ex-employees enflamed by Derek Smart’s personal quest to destroy Star Citizen.
I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up. We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.
So why is it for you guys? Do you really want to give a platform to Derek Smart? This is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).
Derek has a long history of finding some “big” thing to joust at just to keep himself in people’s consciousness rather than let his games do the talking. We’re not the first project where he has made it his mission to attack. Personally I think it would be much better to use that energy on his own game rather than take this path. He’s managed to rouse up enough attention that sites like yours are reporting his bile like it’s fact. You can’t pretend that the article that you published the other day was anything but a mouth piece for him. It completely repeated his narrative hook, line and sinker and mentioned plenty of out of context material in an attempt to harm the project and my reputation. I just don’t get it. The only person who is famous for being a blowhard, bully, an awful game developer and human being is Derek Smart. Just look up his history over the years. Or see how he treats people who dare to write a bug up on his current “game.” Why aren’t you doing a piece on the state of Line of Defense? Everything he accuses us of doing, he actually does himself! He’s the king of self-projection!
I’m pretty disturbed by your approach to this piece as well as the last piece Escapist published online. Why the rush to publish with or without our comments by noon today? What’s so urgent that you can’t take a little time to actually approach this like responsible journalists and do proper fact checking, get both sides of the story and only publish verifiable claims that have proof? Otherwise you’re just engaging in the same kind of campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that Derek Smart has been actively pursuing every day since he realized that he could get attention by attacking Star Citizen (as he certainly wasn’t getting any for his own game).
I’m also pretty concerned that your reporter on this is compromised and pursuing her own agenda. For someone who is a self-acclaimed Gamer Gate supporter, which last I checked was about ethics in video game journalism, she’s not been behaving or going about her business like an ethical reporter. Lizzy Finnegan appears in this tweet from Bandit@istheguy:
This is directed at a self-avowed feminist. Meantime, Bandit@istheguy is the very same person who started attacking Star Citizen on the day before your reporter wrote her article, tweeting about two people we parted ways with, then following up by retweeting the Escapist article and people who mentioned it…and then finally ending up by doxing myself, my wife and one of my daughters with this sequence of tweets.
“Bandit” is an anonymous account that was created on August 11th of this year and is almost exclusively used to aggressively attack and harass folks seen as enemies to Gamer Gate – the usual targets are all there, as are the usual proponents being retweeted. It’s notable that this account was interacting with and supporting Derek Smart when he was complaining about being blocked and reported as a harasser by two huge GG targets; Randi Harper and Briana Wu, which was another Derek Smart self-announced drama (he loves to play the victim, which he did when we refunded him publically sharing his refund email, claiming we were trying to silence him. We weren’t – we strongly believe in free speech and allow many dissenting opinions on our forums as long as they stay within standards of decency. You don’t keep someone as part of your community who is demanding you run the development differently or else he’ll sue you, especially someone who is plainly using the opportunity to attack Star Citizen for self-promotion).
Derek tweeted @1:15pm on September 24th about us letting go of staff in LA, less than an hour after we had completed the exit interviews of the two employees we were terminating (considering he’s in Florida and we’re in LA it’s not hard to connect the dots on where he got his information from). At 4:01pm “Bandit” starts mentioning people being let go.
If you look at the Twitter history of Liz and “Bandit” they frequently retweet each other’s tweets and generally reinforce each other’s views / opinions. I don’t know Liz’s personal life (nor do I care to) but based on the picture of her in “Bandit’s” tweet it is not a stretch to assume there is either a close relationship between Liz and “Bandit” or they are potentially one and the same. Which kind of calls into question these statements she made on Twitter:
Also retweeted by “Bandit” (as evidenced above).
This would explain her approach to the article, which was to pretty much take everything that Derek Smart claimed and report it without allowing us any opportunity to properly respond. Liz’s first email to David Swofford was at 744pm on the 24th, after which “Bandit,” riding into battle for his/her new friend, and Liz directly referenced Derek Smart’s claims. I didn’t see this until Friday afternoon (David works out of our Austin office, I was in our LA office) after David had a brief and rather irritated exchange with Liz (attached). I replied to him with some comments and concerns expecting David to have the opportunity to go back to Liz to further discuss some points she was bringing up that were clearly just singing out of the Derek Smart hymn book and much to my dismay and disappointment the article had already been published.
Which brings me back to my original point on all this. Why the rush to publish an article without allowing a proper round of fact and source checking? It completely feels like an agenda is being pursued. This is not the journalism that I remember from the Escapist of old. It’s click bait journalism of the lowest standard. It’s pretty ironic that it’s exactly the kind of journalism that Game Gate stands against. I’m also pretty bemused how suddenly Star Citizen and I have become the subject of attacks by a few people who associate themselves with Gamer Gate. I’m a gamer. I am making a game that gamers have overwhelmingly said they want made, to the tune of almost $90M and rising! I believe in ethics in journalism. I also believe in being inclusive to all and not being abusive to people in person or online. I don’t support either side because I believe it’s too polarizing but I believe we can do better, as gamers, as journalists and as human beings.
So why? It can’t be because we don’t buy banner ads and thusly are an easy click bait target for sensationalist pieces. I have to believe that your reporter is telling you she is onto something and you are taking her at face value and not questioning her motives or ethics.
Derek Smart is very adept at doing what he has been doing; spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He always grabs one nugget of a fact and uses that to sell a whole lot of lies and disinformation. He tweets about Star Citizen EVERY DAY. Not once but multiple times. If you read his Twitter stream it comes across as the crusade of a crazy man. He continually blogs about us. He constantly agitates…encouraging people to ask for refunds, report us to the FTC, the FBI and/or their local attorney general. He calls me a liar, a fraud, incompetent and many other names. He has slandered my family members and business partners. He has publically doxed me, sharing the address of my home in LA, pictures of my wife and five year old daughter. He constantly attacks Sandi Gardiner, accusing her of having no qualifications, or experience, that she had other people do her work for her and only has the Marketing position because she is my wife. That is incredibly ironic considering we are the most crowd funded project in history, that she wrote the marketing plan, and single handedly executed it when we were a tiny team – even today she’s the only dedicated marketing person at the company, for a game that has raised almost $90M for its development solely through viral marketing, word of mouth and PR. If you were going to criticize Star Citizen you certainly can fault us for taking longer than everyone wants, which would fall on the development side of the company but not marketing! The icing on the cake is that she has five degrees and speaks five languages, which I am willing to bet makes her a lot more qualified than Derek Smart is!
You have to ask yourself why? What does he have to gain? He didn’t like how I was running Star Citizen? Fine, he has his money back. He has no active claim in the game, nor would I ever want someone like him to be part of our community. I have never met Derek Smart, nor do I ever care to. I have never done anything personally to him. Yet he has continued to wage a FUD campaign on Star Citizen, the company making it and its community since July. He actively tries to destroy the hard work that I and everyone else making the game have put in to this project. He wants to tear down something that close to one million people have put their hopes and dreams into. Is it ego? A sense of self-importance? The fact that he’s getting attention again after being in the wilderness? It’s probably not a coincidence that he’s actively courted the Gamer Gate crowd, while professing to remain neutral since he started attacking Star Citizen. It’s also probably not a coincidence that he’s been using the buzz words “accountability” and “ethics” when attacking us as he knows in today’s internet world, where almost no one actually does the research to find the real facts that hyperbole sticks and people love to tweet an instant response to an attention grabbling statement on Twitter.
Derek Smart publishes blogs where he talks about lawsuits and how’s he going to take us down. He’s going so far as to publically share a letter with some pretty silly requests from his supposed lawyer (he seems unable to sign these letters), regardless of the fact we haven’t received the letter. In his latest blog he linked to a letter from his “lawyer” that was dated September 14th. We only received it yesterday, on September 30th! And it was post marked September 22nd! If you know anything about real legal discourse you would know that it stays behind closed doors. You don’t publish this kind of communication as it will prejudice any possible case. What he is doing is just a publicity ploy to get headlines from journalists who don’t know any better and to worry Star Citizen backers into thinking he’s going to legally give us troubles. And this is exactly his FUD plan – scare enough people, tell enough lies, round up the occasional angry ex-employee to help pour fuel on the fire to give him some semblance of credibility. We are not afraid of Derek Smart. We have nothing to hide and are very confident in our ability to defend ourselves against anything he may try to bring. But my bet is he won’t – he’s full of hyperbole. He claims he’s made over $200M in royalties from his games as recently as a week ago (I don’t think I have to go into why this is a complete lie). He also says frequently that he’s worth over $100M, or that he has two PhDs, or that back in July he was taking out a full page ad in The New York Times to expose us. He says a lot of things to get attention and for some reason people don’t call him on it. You may say, “Well don’t shoot the messenger,” but when the messenger is delivering his own message, then I think it’s perfectly fair to question that persons motives and credibility.
And you know what? If he was a decent person he would state his opinion and then sit back and see if it actually plays out, which at that point perhaps he would be vindicated. Instead he is actively trying to make his prophesy come true, using whatever dirty tricks he can muster. Why?
So he’s trying to put 261 people out of a job and destroy the dreams of almost a million people? For a personal vendetta? To gain some notoriety? Because he’s jealous that people love my games and ridicule his?
I’m just a passionate game developer making the game of my dreams. I am lucky enough to be supported by a huge community of gamers that has contributed a large amount of money to make a game that no publisher would dream of making. We have a very large team, most of which share my passion and dream. Yes, there will always be people who don’t fit in with the work and dedication that the dream demands and some of them will be resentful when they part ways, but I am in this to make something that will stand the test of time, much like Wing Commander has. When reaching for the stars there are bound to be a few bumps and delays on the road. You’ve covered games for a long time. You know that games, especially big complicated ones always have hiccups and are frequently subject to unforeseen delays. We aren’t even at the three year mark of full development (we didn’t open up the first development office in Austin with 15 people until February 2013). Projects of half our scope frequently take four to five years.
We are a very public project and rely on the goodwill of gamers to exist. Having a negative article that includes the views or comments of a small number of disgruntled ex-employees with their own opinions on whether things were run well or not, especially when they will be shielded behind anonymity, could give people an impression of the project and company that is 100% false, especially if we are not part of the story. This would be far more damaging to us than a normal developer or publisher. I know that this kind of material is great for clicks but you also have to remember that we are talking about the jobs of 261 people and numerous contractors. Every time a game studio shuts down every outlet and commenter is quick to lament the state of the game industry. Every time a big public company pushes out a game quickly to make the holiday season everyone laments about lack of ambition and taking the audience for granted. Here you have a 100% gamer funded project on the PC, a platform that almost every publisher ignored or pushed crappy console ports to and you have a game in a genre that everyone said was dead to a level that no publisher would dare to – and you want to harm it? Shouldn’t the press be cheering on these kinds of games? The gamers spoke. They wanted something as big and ambitious as Star Citizen. I will deliver it – I have never in my life worked this hard – including when I was 20 and making Wing Commander. There is a huge group of very talented game developers who all share this vision, who are all working as hard as possible to deliver a game that will make all the backers happy. So I implore you to think twice about going for something that while it may be fun to see Rome burn…isn’t in the best interests of the game, the employees of CIG or the 987,217 members of our community. You may say that if it isn’t true what is the harm but we both know in today’s world that’s not how it works, the truth will be lost behind the click bait headlines and the damage will be done.
In an effort to be complete and also answer the talking points you sent David here are my responses;
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
CR: How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it’s what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn’t make a good game with $200m so I don’t think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it despite the inaccurate rumours perpetuated by Derek Smart.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
CR: What concerns expressed prior to launching the Kickstarter? The small, tight team that put together the KS campaign and worked on the technical demo are all very much still at CIG and none of these people had any doubt. And judging from the record breaking campaign which is the biggest crowd funded project (not just game) in history I would say that there’s a large amount of people that also didn’t have these concerns. So may I ask where did these concerns come from?
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
CR: Is this the FAQ line you’re talking about?
The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences. You will notice that this is saying that we would only be able to deliver Squadron 42, not the bigger game without additional funding. If you refer to the stretch goals you will notice that the base goal was enhanced community content (delivered), alpha dogfighting module (delivered) and Squadron 42 (in progress). That was the base game as described. The full persistent universe and all the extra features like FPS boarding, multiple star systems to visit, extra ships and so on are all stretch goals. As is true with most projects when the scope changes so do the timelines, you can’t build a castle in the same time you would a wood shed no matter how much money or how many people you have. To try to make some kind of narrative about how we promised the game in two years no matter how big the scope grew is false. Could we have shipped a small scale 30 mission game in the old Wing Commander format in two years? Yes, but that’s not the game the community wants or the game we’re building. What we are delivering now, just on the Squadron 42 side is more akin to a huge AAA game that would retail for $60 by itself. The value for money that people are getting for a $40 pledge is pretty crazy.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
CR: All personnel and HR matters are obviously completely private and we can’t comment on this as a matter of principle. As always, there are two sides to each story.
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: No crowdfunding monies are used for any private purposes – these allegations are completely false and defamatory. This is pure innuendo for nefarious purposes and I guarantee that anyone making this claim will be unable to show any proof of it as it simply hasn’t happened. Ever since Wing Commander came out I’ve been lucky enough to be financially independent, driven nice cars and lived in nice houses. That’s due to money earned through royalties, the sale of Origin to Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil to Microsoft and prudent investing. So why are people making a deal about me having these things now? I also find the continued attack on Sandi fairly alarming. Why is she being singled out? Because she’s my wife? A woman? Yes, she’s also an actress and there’s nothing wrong with her also engaging in one of her passions after hours or outside of work. We let employees play games of D&D in our conference room in the evenings or weekends. I don’t see attacks from Derek Smart about how this is a waste of company resources (and it is not his to comment on or judge anyhow).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
CR: The opposite is true. CIG benefited from pre-existing software that Turbulent had developed. Our JV with them allowed us access to cheaper rates and bound an important part of Star Citizen closer to CIG, which are both beneficial to CIG and the backers. Per our agreement Turbulent is of course free to offer their technology to other customers.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
CR: Where does this come from? Has anyone given you examples of “big name” actors or numbers? It’s completely incorrect – we paid appropriate rates for normal VO work for the commercials. Now for Squadron 42 we do have a really great cast, which we will announce in a week from Saturday, but that was one of our stretch goals so it would be a bit rich to accuse us of mismanagement there!
“Squadron 42 will feature celebrity voice-acting including at least one favorite from Wing Commander”
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
CR: Anybody even with minimal knowledge about game development can assess the significant progress by looking at the released modules and the detailed monthly reports from each development studio. We have a massive team, working flat out to build something special for everybody. We feel like we’ve made huge strides and have completed a good portion of the underlying technology that will enable us to make Star Citizen the game that your sources say can’t be made. I don’t know how someone could say with a straight face that they felt “they were making commercials, not a game.” In fact we haven’t had a ship commercial since last year! As an aside the commercials were used as a fun milestone to make sure everyone got the ship to final game quality, and it focused the artists on finishing the work for public consumption, which in turn helps with getting more final assets in the game sooner. It was also a great way to build the lore of the universe of Star Citizen up, which is a universe we intend to continue to expand for many years to come.
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
CR: In every project I’ve done and others I’ve witnessed it’s a very common tendency for people to want more staff to help finish the job. It’s always that way until the game is finally done. Under Erin’s leadership at head of Global Production we’ve re-organized to make things more efficient (which is really what started this flap in the first place) and we are in a hiring mode (which you can see by our open positions) which shows that we are working to address these concerns. We have ten confirmed new hires that will start this month alone and offers out to several more candidates.
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
CR: I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can’t even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more “game” than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone – from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone’s opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this “concern”.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
CR: Where are you getting this from? Have you guys really looked at what you can do right now in the game? You’ve been able to walk around your hangar since August of 2013. I’m pretty sure that was a complete character walking around rather than a mass hallucination. We have multiple characters in the game and are working on a lot more (of which some will be seen at Citizen Con).
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
CR: This is completely false. We’ve actually made public statements to this fact. All Austin employees have been advised of a fairly minimal restructuring where some roles have been moved to LA or Europe for overall team efficiency. The majority of our Texas employees will remain in the Austin studio (indefinitely, by the way). As I’ve mentioned previously we are actually increasing our worldwide headcount in order to complete the game as effectively as possible. I would hope that the backers want us to be constantly trying to increase efficiency and making the hard choices that will benefit the game.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
CR: It’s about making a great game. Crowd funding is just a tool that allows us to do it with freedom that you would not normally have with a traditional publisher. So no it’s always about the game.
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
CR: This is the statement that really makes my blood boil. If any current employee feels this way they should not be working on Star Citizen or at CIG! I suspect these are the words of a few bitter ex-employees trying to stir trouble but I consider it a privilege and an honor to have so many people support myself and the team in making the game of all our dreams. I have nothing but gratitude to our backers for their support and patience and nothing but respect for the CIG team giving their all to make this game. Anyone who doesn’t feel this is welcome to the door, and as you must now realize there have been a few people who haven’t shared the same passion or love and now resent being called out for it.
Ok, there you go.
I would like to point out that ever since I got your email from David I have been working on this response. I worked on this until 5am last night, and a couple more hours this morning in the UK, where I am currently am in preparation for CitizenCon in a week from Saturday. Conservatively it’s taken me about eight hours to write. This is time I could have spent working on the game instead of dealing with a Derek Smart instigated drama. And this is really what annoys me – that his silly rantings occasionally gain traction and pull me away from the very thing I prefer to do and the very thing everyone wants me to do and the very thing Derek Smart accuses me of not doing – FINISHING THE GAME! By constantly tweeting, writing blogs and soliciting journalists in the background to report his “findings” he’s waging guerrilla warfare on my time, the time of other key executives, and the peace of mind of our employees and backers.
I would ask you to think hard about this in the context of what you guys have been considering running with. What do you hope to achieve by running with an article like this? What good do you hope will come out of it? Are you looking to cast assertions on our chance of success? What’s the point of unfounded conjecture and innuendo from biased parties? People say we will not deliver the game we’ve promised. So? Shouldn’t you just let us get on with it? If it falls apart they will be vindicated, if not we will be. I don’t know any other project that gets the level of scrutiny that we get in the development phase. Every day I have to deal with thousands of arm chair CEOs and developers mostly because we are the most open game development project in history. I have no problem with our community having its opinion on various facets of our development but when our openness is used against us by a small number of outside agitators harbouring ill will against us, it becomes incredibly frustrating and detrimental to my ability to deliver the game as promised.
If you guys are willing to do a proper piece then I’m happy to engage. You’re invited to visit all of our four studios, meet the developers making the game and see how we’re building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand. I’ll put my 261, their passion and energy against the complaints of a few disgruntled ex-employees any day. We have backers visit the offices all the time, they all come away with the same impression – that the entire team is dedicated to making the best game possible – if you took the time to research this you will find that it is a common comment and that the “noise” that has been generated is really from a very small number of people and some quite bitter ex-employees.
-Chris
From: John Keefer
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
To: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
Hey David,
After our chat and the initial story ran, we had a bunch of former employees and current employees step up to talk to us about Star Citizen and what is happening with the game. The allegations and concerns are numerous (see below), which gives us a sense of urgency to get this story out there ASAP, ideally first thing tomorrow morning. Note that NONE of these come from Derek but are all internal or formerly internal folks who came to us or agreed to speak with us. We are giving you and Chris a chance to respond before the story goes live. We are willing to wait a very short while to ensure these get answered if possible, but this story will run tomorrow at noon at the absolute latest.
Bullet points from the story:
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
Thanks for your time.
John
German
Liebe Bürgerinnen und Bürger,
UPDATE: Der beigefügte Forderungsbrief ist unsere offizielle Antwort auf die verleumderischen Anschuldigungen, die in dem jüngsten Artikel von The Escapist über Star Citizen erhoben wurden. Normalerweise würden wir dies hinter verschlossenen Türen tun, aber wir hielten es für unerlässlich, unsere Stellungnahme zu veröffentlichen und zu zeigen, wie empört wir über das unverantwortliche Vorgehen von The Escapist sind. Die Verantwortlichen von Defy Media haben uns gebeten, die Veröffentlichung dieses Briefes zu verschieben, aber wir sind der festen Überzeugung, dass die Dinge ohne weitere Verzögerung richtig gestellt werden müssen.
Wir wissen, dass die meisten Bürgerinnen und Bürger nicht an diesem Drama interessiert sind und aktualisieren daher die ursprüngliche Meldung, anstatt weitere Comm-Link-Artikel zu veröffentlichen. Künftige Aktualisierungen werden an dieser Stelle und nicht in zusätzlichen Abschnitten der RSI-Website erscheinen.
Liebe Bürgerinnen und Bürger,
Bis jetzt habe ich versucht, mich aus dem Internet-Drama um Derek Smart und seine Behauptungen über Star Citizen herauszuhalten. Meiner Meinung nach ist es am wichtigsten, mit Taten statt mit Worten zu sprechen, und bis jetzt haben wir das mit der Multi-Crew-Demo, dem Start des Sozialmoduls und allem anderen, was ihr hier täglich seht, getan. Nach der Veröffentlichung des heutigen Artikels (ich kann ihn nur als "Hit Piece" bezeichnen) auf The Escapist halte ich es jedoch für notwendig, das Thema direkt anzusprechen. Im Interesse der Offenheit stelle ich hier meine Korrespondenz mit dem Chefredakteur von The Escapist zur Verfügung. Im Folgenden findest du seine ursprüngliche E-Mail an unseren Kommunikationsdirektor David Swofford und meine Antwort, die ich drei Stunden vor Redaktionsschluss geschickt habe und die nicht in dem Artikel enthalten ist.
Ich muss sagen, dass ich von all dem unglaublich enttäuscht bin. Diese Art von Drama ist nicht das, wofür ich oder ihr euch bei Star Citizen angemeldet habt. Dank eurer Unterstützung ist das Projekt größer geworden, als ich es je für möglich gehalten hätte, und es steht außer Frage, dass wir dadurch der Kritik von Leuten ausgesetzt sind, die sich einen Namen machen wollen. Ich weiß, dass jedes Unternehmen solche Dinge durchmacht, vor allem wenn es um unzufriedene ehemalige Mitarbeiter geht. Es ist bedauerlich, dass unsere offene Art uns zu einer größeren Zielscheibe macht, und wir werden in Zukunft unser Bestes tun, um solche unbegründeten Anschuldigungen zu widerlegen. Aber das Wichtigste ist, dass du dich über unsere aktuelle Arbeit informierst, die alle Fragen aus dem Weg räumen sollte.
Ich werde diesen Artikel im Laufe des Tages mit einer direkten Antwort auf den Artikel aktualisieren, aber ich wollte euch schon mal zeigen, was der Artikel ausgelassen hat; hoffentlich beruhigt das jetzt einige Nerven.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
Von: Chris Roberts
Gesendet: 01 Oktober 2015 14:10
An: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Betreff: Bevorstehender Star Citizen Artikel
John,
Ich war ziemlich schockiert, als ich die E-Mail sah, die David Swofford an mich weitergeleitet hat und die einen Haufen Vermutungen, Unwahrheiten und Meinungen von verärgerten Ex-Mitarbeitern enthielt, die durch Derek Smarts persönliches Bestreben, Star Citizen zu zerstören, entflammt wurden.
Ich weiß, dass du sagst, dass "nichts davon von Derek stammt", aber wir beide wissen, dass das nicht stimmt. Du zitierst in deiner E-Mail genau die Dinge, die er seit Monaten in seinen Blogs und auf Twitter verbreitet. Wenn du möchtest, dass ich dir Links zu genau denselben Behauptungen gebe (die offenkundig UNWAHR sind), kann ich das tun, aber wir wissen beide, dass sie von ihm und den wenigen Leuten stammen, die er um sich geschart hat. Wir sind ein Unternehmen mit 261 Mitarbeitern, verteilt auf zwei Kontinente und vier Entwicklungsstudios. In einem Unternehmen unserer Größe gibt es mit Sicherheit ein paar unzufriedene Ex-Mitarbeiter - das gilt für jede große Organisation - wir haben uns schnell entwickelt und nicht jeder ist ein Superstar oder passt in die Kultur. Wir haben uns in den letzten Jahren von einigen Leuten getrennt, nicht von allen in freundschaftlichem Einvernehmen, und es ist beunruhigend, das Gefühl zu haben, dass es ein einseitiges Stück gibt, das mit Beschwerden von Leuten gefüllt wird, die nicht ohne Grund Teil des Projekts sind. Solange ich Spiele gemacht habe, vor allem bei großen Projekten, war das immer der Fall und das sollte keine Neuigkeit sein.
Warum ist es also für euch? Wollt ihr Derek Smart wirklich eine Plattform geben? Das ist die gleiche Person, die Origin und mir nach der Veröffentlichung von Wing Commander einen Brief geschrieben hat, in dem sie behauptete, wir würden sein Spiel verletzen und wir müssten die Veröffentlichung einstellen, sonst würde er uns verklagen. Wir haben ihm gesagt, dass wir noch nie von ihm gehört haben und viel Glück dabei haben. Er hat uns nie verklagt. Sein Spiel war natürlich der berühmt-berüchtigte Battlecruiser 3000AD, der noch viele Jahre auf sich warten ließ (ich glaube, ich habe vier Wing Commanders ausgeliefert, bevor sein Spiel herauskam).
Derek hat eine lange Geschichte, in der er sich immer wieder mit irgendwelchen "großen" Dingen herumschlägt, nur um im Bewusstsein der Leute zu bleiben, anstatt seine Spiele sprechen zu lassen. Wir sind nicht das erste Projekt, bei dem er es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, anzugreifen. Ich persönlich denke, es wäre viel besser, diese Energie in sein eigenes Spiel zu stecken, als diesen Weg zu gehen. Er hat es geschafft, so viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zu ziehen, dass Seiten wie deine über seine Galle berichten, als wäre sie eine Tatsache. Du kannst nicht so tun, als sei der Artikel, den du neulich veröffentlicht hast, nichts anderes als ein Sprachrohr für ihn. Er wiederholte seine Behauptungen in Bausch und Bogen und erwähnte jede Menge aus dem Zusammenhang gerissenes Material, um dem Projekt und meinem Ruf zu schaden. Ich verstehe es einfach nicht. Die einzige Person, die dafür bekannt ist, ein Angeber, ein Tyrann, ein mieser Spieleentwickler und ein schlechter Mensch zu sein, ist Derek Smart. Schau dir einfach seine Geschichte über die Jahre hinweg an. Oder sieh dir an, wie er mit Leuten umgeht, die es wagen, einen Fehler in seinem aktuellen "Spiel" zu melden. Warum schreibst du nicht einen Artikel über den Zustand von Line of Defense? Alles, was er uns vorwirft, macht er in Wirklichkeit selbst! Er ist der König der Selbstdarstellung!
Ich bin ziemlich beunruhigt über deine Herangehensweise an diesen Artikel und auch an den letzten Artikel, den Escapist online veröffentlicht hat. Warum die Eile, den Artikel mit oder ohne unsere Kommentare bis heute Mittag zu veröffentlichen? Was ist so dringend, dass ihr euch nicht ein wenig Zeit nehmen könnt, um die Sache wie verantwortungsbewusste Journalisten anzugehen und die Fakten zu überprüfen, beide Seiten der Geschichte kennenzulernen und nur überprüfbare Behauptungen zu veröffentlichen, die auch Beweise haben? Andernfalls betreibt ihr die gleiche Kampagne der Angst, Ungewissheit und des Zweifels, die Derek Smart jeden Tag aktiv betreibt, seit er erkannt hat, dass er Aufmerksamkeit bekommt, indem er Star Citizen angreift (denn für sein eigenes Spiel bekam er keine).
Ich bin auch ziemlich besorgt, dass deine Reporterin in dieser Sache kompromittiert ist und ihre eigene Agenda verfolgt. Für jemanden, der sich selbst als Unterstützer von Gamer Gate bezeichnet, bei dem es, soweit ich weiß, um die Ethik im Videospieljournalismus geht, hat sie sich nicht wie eine ethische Reporterin verhalten oder ihre Arbeit gemacht. Lizzy Finnegan erscheint in diesem Tweet von Bandit@istheguy:
Das ist an eine bekennende Feministin gerichtet. In der Zwischenzeit ist Bandit@istheguy dieselbe Person, die am Tag, bevor deine Reporterin ihren Artikel schrieb, damit begann, Star Citizen anzugreifen, indem sie über zwei Leute twitterte, von denen wir uns trennten, dann den Escapist-Artikel und die Leute, die ihn erwähnten, retweetete ... und schließlich mich, meine Frau und eine meiner Töchter mit dieser Folge von Tweets doxte.
"Bandit" ist ein anonymer Account, der am 11. August dieses Jahres erstellt wurde und fast ausschließlich dazu benutzt wird, Leute, die als Feinde von Gamer Gate angesehen werden, aggressiv anzugreifen und zu belästigen - die üblichen Ziele sind alle da, ebenso wie die üblichen Befürworter, die retweetet werden. Es ist bemerkenswert, dass dieser Account mit Derek Smart interagierte und ihn unterstützte, als er sich darüber beschwerte, dass er von zwei großen GG-Zielen, Randi Harper und Briana Wu, blockiert und als Belästiger gemeldet wurde. Das war nicht der Fall - wir glauben fest an die freie Meinungsäußerung und lassen viele abweichende Meinungen in unseren Foren zu, solange sie sich im Rahmen der Anstandsregeln bewegen. Ihr behaltet niemanden in eurer Community, der von euch verlangt, die Entwicklung anders zu gestalten, weil er euch sonst verklagt, vor allem nicht jemanden, der die Gelegenheit nutzt, Star Citizen für seine Eigenwerbung anzugreifen.)
Derek twitterte am 24. September um 13:15 Uhr, dass wir Mitarbeiter in L.A. entlassen würden, weniger als eine Stunde, nachdem wir die Bewerbungsgespräche mit den beiden entlassenen Mitarbeitern abgeschlossen hatten (wenn man bedenkt, dass er in Florida und wir in L.A. sind, ist es nicht schwer herauszufinden, woher er seine Informationen hatte). Um 16:01 Uhr fängt "Bandit" an, Leute zu erwähnen, die entlassen werden.
Wenn du dir den Twitter-Verlauf von Liz und "Bandit" ansiehst, retweeten sie häufig die Tweets des jeweils anderen und bestärken sich gegenseitig in ihren Ansichten und Meinungen. Ich kenne Liz' Privatleben nicht (und es interessiert mich auch nicht), aber anhand des Bildes von ihr in "Bandits" Tweet liegt die Vermutung nahe, dass es entweder eine enge Beziehung zwischen Liz und "Bandit" gibt oder dass sie möglicherweise ein und dieselbe Person sind. Das stellt die Aussagen, die sie auf Twitter gemacht hat, irgendwie in Frage:
Auch von "Bandit" retweetet (wie oben ersichtlich).
Das würde erklären, wie sie an den Artikel herangegangen ist: Sie hat so ziemlich alles übernommen, was Derek Smart behauptet hat, und darüber berichtet, ohne uns die Möglichkeit zu geben, angemessen zu antworten. Liz' erste E-Mail an David Swofford ging am 24. um 19:44 Uhr ein, woraufhin "Bandit", der für seinen neuen Freund in die Schlacht ritt, und Liz direkt auf die Behauptungen von Derek Smart Bezug nahmen. Ich habe das erst am Freitagnachmittag gesehen (David arbeitet in unserem Büro in Austin, ich war in unserem Büro in L.A.), nachdem David einen kurzen und ziemlich gereizten Austausch mit Liz hatte (im Anhang). Ich antwortete ihm mit einigen Kommentaren und Bedenken in der Erwartung, dass David die Gelegenheit haben würde, mit Liz über einige Punkte zu sprechen, die sie vorbrachte und die eindeutig nur aus dem Gesangbuch von Derek Smart stammten.
Das bringt mich zu meinem ursprünglichen Punkt zurück. Warum wird ein Artikel so überstürzt veröffentlicht, ohne dass die Fakten und Quellen überprüft wurden? Ich habe das Gefühl, dass hier eine Agenda verfolgt wird. Das ist nicht der Journalismus, den ich vom Escapist von früher kenne. Das ist Klick-Köder-Journalismus auf niedrigstem Niveau. Es ist ziemlich ironisch, dass es genau die Art von Journalismus ist, gegen die Game Gate antritt. Ich bin auch ziemlich verwirrt, wie plötzlich Star Citizen und ich zum Gegenstand von Angriffen einiger Leute geworden sind, die sich mit Gamer Gate verbinden. Ich bin ein Gamer. Ich mache ein Spiel, von dem die Spieler mit überwältigender Mehrheit gesagt haben, dass sie es machen wollen, und zwar mit einer Summe von fast 90 Millionen Dollar, Tendenz steigend! Ich glaube an ethische Grundsätze im Journalismus. Ich glaube auch daran, dass es wichtig ist, alle einzubeziehen und niemanden zu beleidigen, weder persönlich noch online. Ich unterstütze keine der beiden Seiten, weil ich glaube, dass sie zu sehr polarisieren, aber ich glaube, dass wir es besser machen können, als Gamer, als Journalisten und als Menschen.
Und warum? Es kann nicht daran liegen, dass wir keine Werbebanner kaufen und somit ein leichtes Ziel für Sensationsmeldungen sind. Ich glaube, dass deine Reporterin dir sagt, dass sie auf der richtigen Fährte ist und du sie für bare Münze nimmst und ihre Motive oder Ethik nicht hinterfragst.
Derek Smart ist sehr geschickt in dem, was er tut: Er verbreitet Angst, Unsicherheit und Zweifel. Er schnappt sich immer einen kleinen Fakt und nutzt ihn, um eine ganze Menge Lügen und Desinformationen zu verkaufen. Er twittert JEDEN TAG über Star Citizen. Nicht nur einmal, sondern mehrmals. Wenn du seinen Twitter-Stream liest, wirkt es wie der Kreuzzug eines Verrückten. Er bloggt ständig über uns. Er hetzt ständig... und ermutigt die Leute, Rückerstattungen zu verlangen, uns bei der FTC, dem FBI und/oder ihrem örtlichen Generalstaatsanwalt zu melden. Er nennt mich einen Lügner, einen Betrüger, inkompetent und viele andere Namen. Er hat meine Familienmitglieder und Geschäftspartner verleumdet. Er hat mich öffentlich verleumdet und die Adresse meines Hauses in L.A. sowie Bilder meiner Frau und meiner fünfjährigen Tochter veröffentlicht. Er greift Sandi Gardiner ständig an und beschuldigt sie, keine Qualifikationen oder Erfahrungen zu haben, dass sie ihre Arbeit von anderen erledigen lässt und die Marketingposition nur hat, weil sie meine Frau ist. Das ist eine unglaubliche Ironie, wenn man bedenkt, dass wir das am meisten durch Spenden finanzierte Projekt in der Geschichte sind, dass sie den Marketingplan geschrieben und im Alleingang umgesetzt hat, als wir noch ein winziges Team waren - und dass sie auch heute noch die einzige engagierte Marketingmitarbeiterin im Unternehmen ist, für ein Spiel, das fast 90 Millionen Dollar für seine Entwicklung allein durch virales Marketing, Mundpropaganda und PR eingesammelt hat. Wenn du Star Citizen kritisieren würdest, könntest du uns sicherlich vorwerfen, dass wir länger brauchen, als alle wollen, was auf die Entwicklungsseite des Unternehmens zutrifft, aber nicht auf das Marketing! Das Tüpfelchen auf dem i ist, dass sie fünf Abschlüsse hat und fünf Sprachen spricht. Ich wette, dass sie damit viel qualifizierter ist als Derek Smart!
Du musst dich fragen, warum? Was hat er zu gewinnen? Ihm gefiel nicht, wie ich Star Citizen leitete? Gut, er hat sein Geld zurück. Er hat keinen aktiven Anspruch auf das Spiel, und ich würde nie wollen, dass jemand wie er Teil unserer Gemeinschaft wird. Ich habe Derek Smart nie kennengelernt und möchte ihn auch nie kennenlernen. Ich habe ihm nie etwas persönlich angetan. Dennoch führt er seit Juli eine FUD-Kampagne gegen Star Citizen, das Unternehmen, das es entwickelt, und die Community. Er versucht aktiv, die harte Arbeit zu zerstören, die ich und alle anderen, die das Spiel machen, in dieses Projekt gesteckt haben. Er will etwas zerstören, in das fast eine Million Menschen ihre Hoffnungen und Träume gesteckt haben. Ist es Ego? Ein Gefühl der Selbstherrlichkeit? Die Tatsache, dass er wieder Aufmerksamkeit bekommt, nachdem er in der Wildnis war? Es ist wahrscheinlich kein Zufall, dass er die Gamer-Gate-Gemeinde aktiv umwirbt, während er erklärt, neutral zu bleiben, seit er Star Citizen angegriffen hat. Es ist wahrscheinlich auch kein Zufall, dass er die Schlagworte "Verantwortlichkeit" und "Ethik" benutzt, wenn er uns angreift, denn er weiß, dass in der heutigen Internetwelt, in der fast niemand mehr recherchiert, um die wahren Fakten herauszufinden, Übertreibungen hängen bleiben und die Leute es lieben, eine sofortige Reaktion auf eine aufmerksamkeitsheischende Aussage auf Twitter zu twittern.
Derek Smart veröffentlicht Blogs, in denen er über Klagen spricht und darüber, wie er uns zu Fall bringen will. Er geht sogar so weit, einen Brief mit ziemlich dummen Forderungen seines angeblichen Anwalts zu veröffentlichen (er scheint nicht in der Lage zu sein, diese Briefe zu unterschreiben), ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass wir den Brief nicht erhalten haben. In seinem letzten Blog verlinkte er auf einen Brief seines "Anwalts", der auf den 14. September datiert ist. Wir haben ihn erst gestern, am 30. September, erhalten! Und er war mit dem Poststempel vom 22. September versehen! Wenn du etwas über den juristischen Diskurs weißt, dann weißt du, dass er hinter verschlossenen Türen stattfindet. Diese Art von Kommunikation wird nicht veröffentlicht, da sie jeden möglichen Fall beeinträchtigt. Was er tut, ist nur ein Werbetrick, um Schlagzeilen von Journalisten zu bekommen, die es nicht besser wissen, und um Star Citizen-Unterstützer zu beunruhigen, damit sie denken, dass er uns auf legale Weise Probleme bereiten wird. Und genau das ist sein FUD-Plan - genug Leute zu erschrecken, genug Lügen zu erzählen und gelegentlich einen verärgerten Ex-Mitarbeiter aufzutreiben, der ihm dabei hilft, Öl ins Feuer zu gießen, um ihm einen Anschein von Glaubwürdigkeit zu verleihen. Wir haben keine Angst vor Derek Smart. Wir haben nichts zu verbergen und sind sehr zuversichtlich, dass wir uns gegen alles, was er versuchen könnte, verteidigen können. Aber ich wette, das wird er nicht tun - er ist voller Übertreibungen. Erst vor einer Woche behauptete er, dass er mit seinen Spielen über 200 Millionen Dollar an Tantiemen verdient hat (ich glaube, ich muss nicht näher darauf eingehen, warum das eine glatte Lüge ist). Er sagt auch häufig, dass er über 100 Millionen Dollar wert ist, dass er zwei Doktortitel hat oder dass er im Juli eine ganzseitige Anzeige in der New York Times geschaltet hat, um uns zu entlarven. Er sagt viele Dinge, um Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen, und aus irgendeinem Grund wird er nicht darauf angesprochen. Du sagst vielleicht: "Schieß nicht auf den Überbringer", aber wenn der Überbringer seine eigene Botschaft verkündet, dann finde ich es nur fair, seine Motive und Glaubwürdigkeit in Frage zu stellen.
Und weißt du was? Wenn er ein anständiger Mensch wäre, würde er seine Meinung sagen und sich dann zurücklehnen und abwarten, ob sie sich bewahrheitet, was ihm dann vielleicht Recht geben würde. Stattdessen versucht er mit allen möglichen schmutzigen Tricks, seine Prophezeiungen wahr werden zu lassen. Und warum?
Will er 261 Menschen um ihren Job bringen und die Träume von fast einer Million Menschen zerstören? Für einen persönlichen Rachefeldzug? Um berühmt zu werden? Weil er neidisch ist, dass die Leute meine Spiele lieben und seine lächerlich machen?
Ich bin nur ein leidenschaftlicher Spieleentwickler, der das Spiel seiner Träume entwickelt. Ich habe das Glück, von einer riesigen Gemeinschaft von Spielern unterstützt zu werden, die eine große Summe Geld gespendet hat, um ein Spiel zu entwickeln, von dem kein Verlag träumen würde. Wir haben ein sehr großes Team, von dem die meisten meine Leidenschaft und meinen Traum teilen. Ja, es wird immer Leute geben, die nicht zu der Arbeit und der Hingabe passen, die dieser Traum erfordert, und einige von ihnen werden verärgert sein, wenn sich ihre Wege trennen, aber ich bin dabei, um etwas zu schaffen, das den Test der Zeit bestehen wird, so wie es bei Wing Commander der Fall war. Wenn du nach den Sternen greifst, gibt es zwangsläufig ein paar Unebenheiten und Verzögerungen auf dem Weg. Du berichtest schon seit langem über Spiele. Du weißt, dass Spiele, vor allem große, komplizierte Spiele, immer wieder Schluckauf haben und häufig unvorhergesehene Verzögerungen auftreten. Wir haben noch nicht einmal drei Jahre Entwicklungszeit hinter uns (das erste Entwicklungsbüro in Austin mit 15 Mitarbeitern haben wir erst im Februar 2013 eröffnet). Projekte, die nur halb so groß sind wie wir, brauchen oft vier bis fünf Jahre.
Wir sind ein sehr öffentliches Projekt und auf das Wohlwollen der Spieler/innen angewiesen, um zu existieren. Ein negativer Artikel, der die Ansichten oder Kommentare einiger weniger verärgerter ehemaliger Mitarbeiter enthält, die ihre eigene Meinung darüber haben, ob die Dinge gut gelaufen sind oder nicht, vor allem, wenn sie sich hinter Anonymität verstecken, könnte den Leuten einen Eindruck von dem Projekt und dem Unternehmen vermitteln, der zu 100% falsch ist, vor allem, wenn wir nicht Teil der Geschichte sind. Das wäre für uns weitaus schädlicher als für einen normalen Entwickler oder Verlag. Ich weiß, dass diese Art von Material gut für Klicks ist, aber du musst auch bedenken, dass wir über die Arbeitsplätze von 261 Menschen und zahlreichen Auftragnehmern sprechen. Jedes Mal, wenn ein Spielestudio schließt, sind alle Medien und Kommentatoren schnell dabei, den Zustand der Spieleindustrie zu beklagen. Jedes Mal, wenn ein großes öffentliches Unternehmen schnell ein Spiel für die Weihnachtssaison herausbringt, beklagen sich alle über mangelnden Ehrgeiz und die Selbstverständlichkeit, mit der das Publikum bedient wird. Hier hast du ein zu 100 % von Spielern finanziertes Projekt auf dem PC, einer Plattform, die fast jeder Publisher ignoriert oder für die er beschissene Konsolenportierungen herausgebracht hat, und du hast ein Spiel in einem Genre, das jeder für tot erklärt hat und an das sich kein Publisher herantrauen würde - und du willst ihm schaden? Sollte die Presse diese Art von Spielen nicht bejubeln? Die Gamer haben gesprochen. Sie wollten etwas so Großes und Ehrgeiziges wie Star Citizen. Ich werde es liefern - ich habe noch nie in meinem Leben so hart gearbeitet - auch nicht, als ich 20 war und Wing Commander entwickelte. Es gibt eine große Gruppe von sehr talentierten Spieleentwicklern, die alle diese Vision teilen und so hart wie möglich daran arbeiten, ein Spiel zu liefern, das alle Unterstützer glücklich macht. Ich bitte dich also inständig, zweimal darüber nachzudenken, ob du dich auf etwas einlässt, das zwar Spaß macht, Rom brennen zu sehen, aber nicht im besten Interesse des Spiels, der Mitarbeiter von CIG oder der 987.217 Mitglieder unserer Community ist. Du sagst vielleicht, wenn es nicht wahr ist, was schadet es, aber wir wissen beide, dass es in der heutigen Welt nicht so läuft. Die Wahrheit wird hinter den Klick-Köder-Schlagzeilen untergehen und der Schaden ist angerichtet.
Der Vollständigkeit halber und als Antwort auf die Argumente, die du David geschickt hast, sind hier meine Antworten;
-Angestellte haben angedeutet, dass Star Citizen und alle versprochenen Stretch Goals, "selbst mit einem kompetenten Management", nicht für 90 Millionen Dollar zu realisieren wären.
CR: Woher weißt du oder sie das? Welche Mitarbeiter haben das gesagt und was qualifiziert sie zu diesem Urteil? Ich weiß, dass Derek Smart das gerne sagt, aber er könnte mit 200 Millionen Dollar kein gutes Spiel machen, also glaube ich nicht, dass seine Meinung zählt. Abgesehen davon hat außer mir und ein paar anderen wichtigen Leuten, die Star Citizen leiten, kein Mitarbeiter die nötigen Informationen und den Überblick, um die Kosten des Gesamtprojekts zu beurteilen. Zweitens nutzt das Unternehmen zusätzliche Finanzierungsquellen wie Steueranreize, Marketing- und Produktpartnerschaften, aber darüber sprechen wir aus offensichtlichen Gründen nicht in der Öffentlichkeit. Wir halten immer eine gesunde Bargeldreserve und betreiben unser Geschäft umsichtig auf der Grundlage der eingehenden Einnahmen. Es sollte dir etwas sagen, dass wir entgegen den unzutreffenden Gerüchten von Derek Smart unsere weltweite Mitarbeiterzahl nicht verringern, sondern sogar erhöhen.
-Bedenken über die Planung des Projekts vor dem Start der Kickstarter-Aktion, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit Roberts' längerer Abwesenheit von der Videospielbranche.
CR: Welche Bedenken wurden vor dem Start des Kickstarter-Projekts geäußert? Das kleine, enge Team, das die Kickstarter-Kampagne auf die Beine gestellt und an der technischen Demo gearbeitet hat, ist immer noch bei CIG und keiner dieser Leute hatte irgendwelche Zweifel. Und wenn ich mir die rekordverdächtige Kampagne anschaue, die das größte Crowdfunding-Projekt (nicht nur für ein Spiel) in der Geschichte ist, würde ich sagen, dass viele Leute diese Bedenken auch nicht hatten. Darf ich also fragen, woher diese Bedenken kamen?
2012 hieß es in einer Kickstarter-FAQ, dass die hohen Kosten für die Stretch Goals dazu dienten, den Liefertermin 2014 zu sichern.
CR: Ist das die FAQ-Zeile, die du meinst?
Der Zweck der höheren Stretch Goals ist es, sicherzustellen, dass das Spiel in der beschriebenen Form innerhalb von zwei Jahren fertiggestellt wird. Wir haben vor, das Spiel, das Chris Roberts auf der GDC Online beschrieben hat, trotzdem zu bauen, aber ohne zusätzliche Mittel müssen wir es Stück für Stück umsetzen, beginnend mit Squadron 42, und nicht in einer einzigen größeren Produktion. Mit mehr Geld können wir mehr Schiffe, Systeme, einzigartige Orte, Animationen und Filmsequenzen einbauen. Du wirst feststellen, dass wir ohne zusätzliche Mittel nur Squadron 42 und nicht das gesamte Spiel liefern können. Wenn du dir die Stretch Goals ansiehst, wirst du feststellen, dass das Basisziel erweiterte Community-Inhalte (geliefert), das Alpha-Dogfighting-Modul (geliefert) und Squadron 42 (in Arbeit) waren. Das war das Basisspiel wie beschrieben. Das komplette persistente Universum und alle zusätzlichen Features wie FPS-Boarding, mehrere Sternensysteme, die man besuchen kann, zusätzliche Schiffe und so weiter sind alles Stretch Goals. Wie bei den meisten Projekten ändert sich mit dem Umfang auch der Zeitplan: Man kann nicht in der gleichen Zeit ein Schloss bauen wie einen Holzschuppen, egal wie viel Geld oder wie viele Leute man hat. Die Behauptung, dass wir das Spiel in zwei Jahren versprochen haben, egal wie groß der Umfang war, ist falsch. Hätten wir ein kleines Spiel mit 30 Missionen im alten Wing Commander-Format in zwei Jahren auf den Markt bringen können? Ja, aber das ist weder das Spiel, das die Community will, noch das Spiel, das wir entwickeln. Was wir jetzt mit Squadron 42 abliefern, gleicht eher einem großen AAA-Spiel, das allein schon 60 Dollar kosten würde. Das Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis, das die Leute für eine $40-Zusage bekommen, ist ziemlich verrückt.
-Vorwürfe eines "toxischen" Arbeitsumfelds, einschließlich ignorierter Beschwerden der Personalabteilung gegen Sandi Gardiner (einschließlich Vorwürfen diskriminierender Einstellungsverfahren, Pöbeleien und persönlicher Beleidigungen sowohl bei öffentlichen Meinungsverschiedenheiten als auch im E-Mail-Verkehr).
CR: Alle Personal- und HR-Angelegenheiten sind natürlich absolut privat und wir können uns aus Prinzip nicht dazu äußern. Wie immer gibt es zwei Seiten zu jeder Geschichte.
-Vorwürfe der Misswirtschaft mit Geld, darunter: Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für die Villa des Paares in Pacific Palisades, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privatfahrzeuge, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für private Urlaube, Verwendung von Unternehmensressourcen und Mitarbeitern für die Erstellung von Videos für Filme und Castings (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: Keine Crowdfunding-Gelder werden für private Zwecke verwendet - diese Behauptungen sind völlig falsch und verleumderisch. Das sind reine Andeutungen für schändliche Zwecke und ich garantiere, dass jeder, der diese Behauptung aufstellt, keine Beweise dafür vorlegen kann, weil es einfach nicht passiert ist. Seit Wing Commander herauskam, hatte ich das Glück, finanziell unabhängig zu sein, schöne Autos zu fahren und in schönen Häusern zu wohnen. Das verdanke ich dem Geld, das ich durch Tantiemen, den Verkauf von Origin an Electronic Arts und Digital Anvil an Microsoft sowie durch kluges Investieren verdient habe. Warum also machen die Leute jetzt einen Aufstand, weil ich diese Dinge habe? Ich finde auch die anhaltenden Angriffe auf Sandi ziemlich beunruhigend. Warum wird sie herausgegriffen? Weil sie meine Frau ist? Eine Frau? Ja, sie ist auch Schauspielerin, und es ist nichts dagegen einzuwenden, wenn sie auch nach Feierabend oder außerhalb der Arbeit einer ihrer Leidenschaften nachgeht. Wir lassen unsere Mitarbeiter abends oder am Wochenende in unserem Konferenzraum D&D spielen. Ich sehe keine Angriffe von Derek Smart, dass dies eine Verschwendung von Unternehmensressourcen sei (und es steht ihm sowieso nicht zu, dies zu kommentieren oder zu beurteilen).
-Vorwürfe, eine Joint-Venture-Partnerschaft mit Turbulent eingegangen zu sein und Crowdfunding-Gelder verwendet zu haben, um den weiteren Aufbau der Crowdfunding-Plattform zu unterstützen, die auf der RSI-Website zur Vermarktung an andere Unternehmen genutzt wurde.
CR: Das Gegenteil ist der Fall. CIG profitierte von der bereits existierenden Software, die Turbulent entwickelt hatte. Unser Joint Venture mit ihnen ermöglichte uns den Zugang zu günstigeren Preisen und band einen wichtigen Teil von Star Citizen näher an CIG, was sowohl für CIG als auch für die Geldgeber von Vorteil ist. Gemäß unserer Vereinbarung steht es Turbulent natürlich frei, seine Technologie auch anderen Kunden anzubieten.
-Vorwürfe über "unverantwortliche Ausgaben" von Geld, einschließlich des Einsatzes von "namhaften" Hollywood-Schauspielern für die Voice-Overs der Werbespots, die Einstellung von unerfahrenen "Filmleuten", die für hohe Honorare an bestimmten Aspekten arbeiten, ohne viel Erfahrung zu haben.
CR: Woher kommt das? Hat dir jemand Beispiele von "großen Namen" oder Schauspielern genannt? Das ist völlig falsch - wir haben für die Werbespots angemessene Honorare für normale Sprecher bezahlt. Für Squadron 42 haben wir eine wirklich großartige Besetzung, die wir am Samstag in einer Woche bekannt geben werden, aber das war eines unserer Stretch Goals, also wäre es ein bisschen übertrieben, uns hier Missmanagement vorzuwerfen!
"Squadron 42 wird mit prominenten Synchronsprechern aufwarten, darunter mindestens ein Favorit aus Wing Commander.
-Anschuldigungen, dass der Großteil des Crowdfunding-Geldes bereits verbraucht wurde und nur minimale Fortschritte gemacht wurden. Es heißt, sie hätten das Gefühl, "Werbung zu machen und kein Spiel".
CR: Jeder, der auch nur ein Minimum an Wissen über die Entwicklung von Spielen hat, kann die bedeutenden Fortschritte beurteilen, indem er sich die veröffentlichten Module und die detaillierten Monatsberichte der einzelnen Entwicklungsstudios ansieht. Wir haben ein riesiges Team, das mit Hochdruck daran arbeitet, etwas Besonderes für alle zu entwickeln. Wir haben das Gefühl, dass wir große Fortschritte gemacht haben und einen großen Teil der zugrundeliegenden Technologie fertiggestellt haben, die es uns ermöglichen wird, Star Citizen zu dem Spiel zu machen, von dem deine Quellen sagen, dass es nicht gemacht werden kann. Ich weiß nicht, wie jemand ernsthaft behaupten kann, dass er das Gefühl hat, "sie machen Werbung und kein Spiel". Tatsächlich haben wir seit letztem Jahr keine Schiffswerbung mehr gesehen! Nebenbei bemerkt waren die Werbespots ein lustiger Meilenstein, um sicherzustellen, dass alle das Schiff auf die endgültige Spielqualität gebracht haben. Es war auch eine gute Möglichkeit, die Geschichte des Universums von Star Citizen zu erzählen, das wir noch viele Jahre lang weiter ausbauen wollen.
-Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, dass das Unternehmen für die gestellten Anforderungen unterbesetzt ist
CR: Bei jedem Projekt, das ich gemacht habe, und auch bei anderen, die ich miterlebt habe, ist es üblich, dass die Leute mehr Personal wollen, um die Arbeit zu beenden. Das ist immer so, bis das Spiel endlich fertig ist. Unter Erins Führung als Leiterin der globalen Produktion haben wir uns umorganisiert, um die Dinge effizienter zu machen (das war ja der eigentliche Auslöser für diesen Streit), und wir stellen derzeit neue Mitarbeiter ein (wie du an unseren offenen Stellen sehen kannst), was zeigt, dass wir daran arbeiten, diese Probleme anzugehen. Wir haben zehn feste Neueinstellungen, die allein in diesem Monat beginnen werden, und wir haben mehreren Bewerbern Angebote gemacht.
-Arbeitnehmer sind besorgt, dass Roberts nicht auf die Ratschläge der Leute hört, die während seiner Abwesenheit in der Branche gearbeitet haben, und dass sie Zeit und Ressourcen verschwenden müssen, um etwas Unmögliches zu versuchen, nur um zu beweisen, dass es nicht funktioniert.
CR: Ich habe eine sehr starke Vision für Star Citizen, und deshalb glaube ich, dass wir so viel Unterstützung bekommen haben, wie wir haben. Ich habe keine Zweifel daran, was wir erreichen können. Jetzt, wo die meisten Basistechnologien vorhanden sind, können wir mit dem Meilenstein Large World und MultiCrew ein Spielerlebnis schaffen, das es dir ermöglicht, nahtlos vom Fußgänger in ein voll ausgestattetes Raumschiff mit deinen Freunden einzusteigen, abzuheben, Tausende oder Millionen von Kilometern im Weltraum zu fliegen, dein Schiff in EVA zu verlassen und verlassene Raumstationen oder Wracks zu erkunden, FPS-Kämpfe zu führen, zu deinem Schiff zurückzukehren, Weltraumkämpfe zu führen und zu deiner Heimatbasis zurückzukehren, um die Geschichten deiner Abenteuer mit deinen anderen Freunden zu teilen. Und das alles ohne führende Bildschirme und in einer AAA-Ego-Shooter-Qualität, die du nicht einmal auf einer Next-Gen-Konsole erreichen kannst. Das ist der Kern von Squadron 42 und Star Citizen, den wir weiter ausbauen und mit neuen Inhalten füllen werden, aber schon die erste Version wird mehr "Spiel" sein als die meisten kommerziellen Weltraumspiele. Dass wir nicht auf den Rat von Leuten hören, die in der Branche gearbeitet haben, stimmt nicht. Ich habe ein sehr starkes Management- und Designteam mit großer Erfahrung in AAA-Titeln, die alle zur Entscheidungsfindung des Unternehmens beitragen. Ich höre allen zu - von der obersten Ebene bis hin zu unseren QA-Testern und der Community, die mir ihr Feedback zu Gameplay und Features geben. Mir liegt viel daran, das bestmögliche Spiel zu entwickeln. Das heißt aber nicht, dass ich mit allen Meinungen und Rückmeldungen einverstanden bin. Als Projektleiter bin ich es der Community schuldig, meiner Vision treu zu bleiben und die Dinge auszuwählen, die das Spiel meiner Meinung nach besser machen, was manchmal dazu führen kann, dass die Leute verärgert sind.
-Anschuldigungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass es derzeit keine vollständigen Charakter-Builds für das Spiel gibt.
CR: Woher nimmst du das? Habt ihr euch wirklich angeschaut, was ihr jetzt im Spiel machen könnt? Du kannst seit August 2013 in deinem Hangar herumlaufen. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass das ein kompletter Charakter war, der herumlief, und keine Massenhalluzination. Wir haben mehrere Charaktere im Spiel und arbeiten an vielen weiteren (von denen einige auf der Citizen Con zu sehen sein werden).
-Statements gemacht, dass das Büro in Austin geschlossen wird, wie von den Mitarbeitern verstanden wird.
CR: Das ist völlig falsch. Wir haben diese Tatsache sogar öffentlich bekannt gegeben. Alle Mitarbeiter in Austin wurden über eine minimale Umstrukturierung informiert, bei der einige Aufgaben nach LA oder Europa verlagert wurden, um die Effizienz des Teams zu erhöhen. Die meisten unserer texanischen Mitarbeiter werden im Studio in Austin bleiben (übrigens auf unbestimmte Zeit). Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, stocken wir unsere weltweite Mitarbeiterzahl auf, um das Spiel so effektiv wie möglich fertigstellen zu können. Ich hoffe, dass die Geldgeber wollen, dass wir ständig versuchen, die Effizienz zu steigern und harte Entscheidungen zu treffen, die dem Spiel zugute kommen.
-Anschuldigungen, dass es bei Star Citizen mehr um Crowdfunding als um die Entwicklung eines Spiels ging
CR: Es geht darum, ein großartiges Spiel zu machen. Crowdfunding ist nur ein Werkzeug, das uns die Freiheit gibt, die man bei einem traditionellen Publisher nicht hat. Also nein, es geht immer um das Spiel.
-Mitarbeiter fühlen sich als "Teil eines Betrugs"
CR: Das ist die Aussage, die mein Blut zum Kochen bringt. Wenn ein aktueller Mitarbeiter so denkt, sollte er nicht an Star Citizen oder bei CIG arbeiten! Ich vermute, dass dies die Worte einiger verbitterter Ex-Mitarbeiter sind, die Ärger machen wollen, aber ich betrachte es als ein Privileg und eine Ehre, dass so viele Menschen mich und das Team dabei unterstützen, das Spiel unserer Träume zu entwickeln. Ich bin unseren Geldgebern für ihre Unterstützung und Geduld sehr dankbar und habe nichts als Respekt vor dem CIG-Team, das alles gibt, um dieses Spiel zu entwickeln. Jeder, der das nicht so sieht, ist herzlich willkommen, und wie du sicher schon gemerkt hast, gab es ein paar Leute, die nicht dieselbe Leidenschaft oder Liebe geteilt haben und sich jetzt darüber ärgern, dass man sie herausgefordert hat.
Ok, das war's.
Ich möchte darauf hinweisen, dass ich an dieser Antwort gearbeitet habe, seit ich deine E-Mail von David erhalten habe. Ich habe letzte Nacht bis 5 Uhr morgens daran gearbeitet und heute Morgen noch ein paar Stunden in Großbritannien, wo ich mich gerade auf die CitizenCon in einer Woche am Samstag vorbereite. Konservativ geschätzt habe ich etwa acht Stunden für das Schreiben gebraucht. Das ist Zeit, die ich mit der Arbeit am Spiel hätte verbringen können, anstatt mich mit einem von Derek Smart angezettelten Drama zu beschäftigen. Und das ist es, was mich wirklich ärgert - dass seine dummen Tiraden gelegentlich die Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen und mich von dem ablenken, was ich am liebsten tue, was alle von mir erwarten und was Derek Smart mir vorwirft, nicht zu tun - DAS SPIEL ZU BEENDEN! Indem er ständig tweetet, Blogs schreibt und Journalisten im Hintergrund bittet, über seine "Erkenntnisse" zu berichten, führt er einen Guerillakrieg gegen meine Zeit, die Zeit anderer wichtiger Führungskräfte und den Seelenfrieden unserer Mitarbeiter und Geldgeber.
Ich möchte euch bitten, im Zusammenhang mit eurem Vorhaben gründlich darüber nachzudenken, was ihr eigentlich wollt. Was erhofft ihr euch von der Veröffentlichung eines solchen Artikels? Welchen Nutzen erhofft ihr euch davon? Wollt ihr Behauptungen über unsere Erfolgsaussichten aufstellen? Was bringen unbegründete Vermutungen und Andeutungen von voreingenommenen Parteien? Die Leute sagen, dass wir nicht das Spiel liefern werden, das wir versprochen haben. Na und? Sollten sie uns nicht einfach weitermachen lassen? Wenn es scheitert, werden sie Recht bekommen, wenn nicht, werden wir Recht bekommen. Ich kenne kein anderes Projekt, das so genau unter die Lupe genommen wird wie wir in der Entwicklungsphase. Jeden Tag muss ich mich mit Tausenden von CEOs und Entwicklern auseinandersetzen, vor allem weil wir das offenste Spielentwicklungsprojekt der Geschichte sind. Ich habe kein Problem damit, dass unsere Community ihre Meinung zu verschiedenen Aspekten unserer Entwicklung äußert, aber wenn unsere Offenheit von einer kleinen Anzahl von Agitatoren von außen, die uns etwas Böses wollen, gegen uns verwendet wird, wird es unglaublich frustrierend und beeinträchtigt meine Fähigkeit, das Spiel wie versprochen zu liefern.
Wenn ihr bereit seid, einen richtigen Beitrag zu schreiben, bin ich gerne bereit, mich darauf einzulassen. Ihr seid eingeladen, unsere vier Studios zu besuchen, die Entwickler des Spiels zu treffen und aus erster Hand zu erfahren, wie wir eines der ambitioniertesten PC-Spiele entwickeln. Ich würde meine 261 Mitarbeiter, ihre Leidenschaft und Energie jederzeit gegen die Beschwerden einiger verärgerter Ex-Mitarbeiter eintauschen. Wenn du dir die Zeit nimmst, dies zu recherchieren, wirst du feststellen, dass dies ein allgemeiner Kommentar ist und dass der "Lärm", der entstanden ist, in Wirklichkeit von einer sehr kleinen Anzahl von Leuten und einigen ziemlich verbitterten Ex-Mitarbeitern stammt.
-Chris
Von: John Keefer
Gesendet: Mittwoch, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
An: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Betreff: Bevorstehender Star Citizen Artikel
Hallo David,
Nach unserem Chat und dem ersten Artikel meldeten sich eine Reihe ehemaliger und aktueller Mitarbeiter, um mit uns über Star Citizen und die Vorgänge im Spiel zu sprechen. Die Anschuldigungen und Bedenken sind zahlreich (siehe unten), was uns dazu veranlasst, diese Geschichte so schnell wie möglich zu veröffentlichen, am besten gleich morgen früh. Beachte, dass KEINER dieser Vorwürfe von Derek stammt, sondern dass es sich um interne oder ehemalige interne Personen handelt, die zu uns gekommen sind oder sich bereit erklärt haben, mit uns zu sprechen. Wir geben dir und Chris die Möglichkeit, zu antworten, bevor die Geschichte veröffentlicht wird. Wir sind bereit, eine kurze Zeit zu warten, um sicherzustellen, dass die Fragen beantwortet werden, aber diese Geschichte wird spätestens morgen Mittag veröffentlicht.
Stichpunkte aus der Geschichte:
-Mitarbeiter haben angedeutet, dass Star Citizen und alle versprochenen Stretch Goals, "selbst mit einem kompetenten Management", nicht für 90 Millionen Dollar zu realisieren sind.
Bedenken über die Planung des Projekts vor dem Start der Kickstarter-Aktion wurden geäußert, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit Roberts' langer Abwesenheit von der Videospielbranche.
2012 wurde in einer Kickstarter-FAQ darauf hingewiesen, dass die hohen Kosten für die Stretch Goals dazu dienten, einen Liefertermin im Jahr 2014 zu gewährleisten.
-Vorwürfe über ein "toxisches" Arbeitsumfeld, einschließlich ignorierter Beschwerden der Personalabteilung gegen Sandi Gardiner (einschließlich Vorwürfen über diskriminierende Einstellungsverfahren, Pöbeleien und persönliche Beleidigungen sowohl bei öffentlichen Meinungsverschiedenheiten als auch im E-Mail-Verkehr).
-Vorwürfe der Misswirtschaft mit Geld, darunter: Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für die Villa des Paares in Pacific Palisades, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privatfahrzeuge, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privaturlaube, Verwendung von Unternehmensressourcen und Mitarbeitern für die Erstellung von Videos für Filme und Vorsprechen (Sandi Gardiner).
-Vorwürfe, eine Joint-Venture-Partnerschaft mit Turbulent eingegangen zu sein und Crowdfunding-Gelder verwendet zu haben, um den weiteren Aufbau der Crowdfunding-Plattform zu unterstützen, die auf der RSI-Website zur Vermarktung an andere Unternehmen genutzt wurde.
-Vorwürfe der "unverantwortlichen Ausgabe" von Geld, einschließlich des Einsatzes "namhafter" Hollywood-Schauspieler für die Voice-Overs der Werbespots und der Einstellung unerfahrener "Filmleute", die für hohe Honorare an bestimmten Aspekten arbeiten sollten, ohne viel Erfahrung zu haben.
Anschuldigungen, dass der Großteil des Crowdfunding-Geldes bereits verwendet wurde und nur minimale Fortschritte erzielt wurden. Quellen geben an, dass sie "das Gefühl haben, Werbung zu machen und nicht ein Spiel".
-Die Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, dass das Unternehmen für die gestellten Anforderungen unterbesetzt ist.
-Angestellte sind besorgt, dass Roberts nicht auf die Ratschläge von Leuten hört, die während seiner Abwesenheit in der Branche gearbeitet haben, und dass sie Zeit und Ressourcen verschwenden müssen, um etwas Unmögliches zu versuchen, nur um zu beweisen, dass es nicht funktionieren würde.
-Anschuldigungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass es derzeit keine vollständigen Charakter-Builds für das Spiel gibt.
-Behauptungen, dass das Büro in Austin geschlossen wird, was von den Mitarbeitern so verstanden wird.
-Anschuldigungen, dass es bei Star Citizen mehr um Crowdfunding als um die Entwicklung eines Spiels geht
-Die Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, "Teil eines Betrugs" zu sein.
Vielen Dank für deine Zeit.
John
UPDATE: Der beigefügte Forderungsbrief ist unsere offizielle Antwort auf die verleumderischen Anschuldigungen, die in dem jüngsten Artikel von The Escapist über Star Citizen erhoben wurden. Normalerweise würden wir dies hinter verschlossenen Türen tun, aber wir hielten es für unerlässlich, unsere Stellungnahme zu veröffentlichen und zu zeigen, wie empört wir über das unverantwortliche Vorgehen von The Escapist sind. Die Verantwortlichen von Defy Media haben uns gebeten, die Veröffentlichung dieses Briefes zu verschieben, aber wir sind der festen Überzeugung, dass die Dinge ohne weitere Verzögerung richtig gestellt werden müssen.
Wir wissen, dass die meisten Bürgerinnen und Bürger nicht an diesem Drama interessiert sind und aktualisieren daher die ursprüngliche Meldung, anstatt weitere Comm-Link-Artikel zu veröffentlichen. Künftige Aktualisierungen werden an dieser Stelle und nicht in zusätzlichen Abschnitten der RSI-Website erscheinen.
Liebe Bürgerinnen und Bürger,
Bis jetzt habe ich versucht, mich aus dem Internet-Drama um Derek Smart und seine Behauptungen über Star Citizen herauszuhalten. Meiner Meinung nach ist es am wichtigsten, mit Taten statt mit Worten zu sprechen, und bis jetzt haben wir das mit der Multi-Crew-Demo, dem Start des Sozialmoduls und allem anderen, was ihr hier täglich seht, getan. Nach der Veröffentlichung des heutigen Artikels (ich kann ihn nur als "Hit Piece" bezeichnen) auf The Escapist halte ich es jedoch für notwendig, das Thema direkt anzusprechen. Im Interesse der Offenheit stelle ich hier meine Korrespondenz mit dem Chefredakteur von The Escapist zur Verfügung. Im Folgenden findest du seine ursprüngliche E-Mail an unseren Kommunikationsdirektor David Swofford und meine Antwort, die ich drei Stunden vor Redaktionsschluss geschickt habe und die nicht in dem Artikel enthalten ist.
Ich muss sagen, dass ich von all dem unglaublich enttäuscht bin. Diese Art von Drama ist nicht das, wofür ich oder ihr euch bei Star Citizen angemeldet habt. Dank eurer Unterstützung ist das Projekt größer geworden, als ich es je für möglich gehalten hätte, und es steht außer Frage, dass wir dadurch der Kritik von Leuten ausgesetzt sind, die sich einen Namen machen wollen. Ich weiß, dass jedes Unternehmen solche Dinge durchmacht, vor allem wenn es um unzufriedene ehemalige Mitarbeiter geht. Es ist bedauerlich, dass unsere offene Art uns zu einer größeren Zielscheibe macht, und wir werden in Zukunft unser Bestes tun, um solche unbegründeten Anschuldigungen zu widerlegen. Aber das Wichtigste ist, dass du dich über unsere aktuelle Arbeit informierst, die alle Fragen aus dem Weg räumen sollte.
Ich werde diesen Artikel im Laufe des Tages mit einer direkten Antwort auf den Artikel aktualisieren, aber ich wollte euch schon mal zeigen, was der Artikel ausgelassen hat; hoffentlich beruhigt das jetzt einige Nerven.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
Von: Chris Roberts
Gesendet: 01 Oktober 2015 14:10
An: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Betreff: Bevorstehender Star Citizen Artikel
John,
Ich war ziemlich schockiert, als ich die E-Mail sah, die David Swofford an mich weitergeleitet hat und die einen Haufen Vermutungen, Unwahrheiten und Meinungen von verärgerten Ex-Mitarbeitern enthielt, die durch Derek Smarts persönliches Bestreben, Star Citizen zu zerstören, entflammt wurden.
Ich weiß, dass du sagst, dass "nichts davon von Derek stammt", aber wir beide wissen, dass das nicht stimmt. Du zitierst in deiner E-Mail genau die Dinge, die er seit Monaten in seinen Blogs und auf Twitter verbreitet. Wenn du möchtest, dass ich dir Links zu genau denselben Behauptungen gebe (die offenkundig UNWAHR sind), kann ich das tun, aber wir wissen beide, dass sie von ihm und den wenigen Leuten stammen, die er um sich geschart hat. Wir sind ein Unternehmen mit 261 Mitarbeitern, verteilt auf zwei Kontinente und vier Entwicklungsstudios. In einem Unternehmen unserer Größe gibt es mit Sicherheit ein paar unzufriedene Ex-Mitarbeiter - das gilt für jede große Organisation - wir haben uns schnell entwickelt und nicht jeder ist ein Superstar oder passt in die Kultur. Wir haben uns in den letzten Jahren von einigen Leuten getrennt, nicht von allen in freundschaftlichem Einvernehmen, und es ist beunruhigend, das Gefühl zu haben, dass es ein einseitiges Stück gibt, das mit Beschwerden von Leuten gefüllt wird, die nicht ohne Grund Teil des Projekts sind. Solange ich Spiele gemacht habe, vor allem bei großen Projekten, war das immer der Fall und das sollte keine Neuigkeit sein.
Warum ist es also für euch? Wollt ihr Derek Smart wirklich eine Plattform geben? Das ist die gleiche Person, die Origin und mir nach der Veröffentlichung von Wing Commander einen Brief geschrieben hat, in dem sie behauptete, wir würden sein Spiel verletzen und wir müssten die Veröffentlichung einstellen, sonst würde er uns verklagen. Wir haben ihm gesagt, dass wir noch nie von ihm gehört haben und viel Glück dabei haben. Er hat uns nie verklagt. Sein Spiel war natürlich der berühmt-berüchtigte Battlecruiser 3000AD, der noch viele Jahre auf sich warten ließ (ich glaube, ich habe vier Wing Commanders ausgeliefert, bevor sein Spiel herauskam).
Derek hat eine lange Geschichte, in der er sich immer wieder mit irgendwelchen "großen" Dingen herumschlägt, nur um im Bewusstsein der Leute zu bleiben, anstatt seine Spiele sprechen zu lassen. Wir sind nicht das erste Projekt, bei dem er es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, anzugreifen. Ich persönlich denke, es wäre viel besser, diese Energie in sein eigenes Spiel zu stecken, als diesen Weg zu gehen. Er hat es geschafft, so viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich zu ziehen, dass Seiten wie deine über seine Galle berichten, als wäre sie eine Tatsache. Du kannst nicht so tun, als sei der Artikel, den du neulich veröffentlicht hast, nichts anderes als ein Sprachrohr für ihn. Er wiederholte seine Behauptungen in Bausch und Bogen und erwähnte jede Menge aus dem Zusammenhang gerissenes Material, um dem Projekt und meinem Ruf zu schaden. Ich verstehe es einfach nicht. Die einzige Person, die dafür bekannt ist, ein Angeber, ein Tyrann, ein mieser Spieleentwickler und ein schlechter Mensch zu sein, ist Derek Smart. Schau dir einfach seine Geschichte über die Jahre hinweg an. Oder sieh dir an, wie er mit Leuten umgeht, die es wagen, einen Fehler in seinem aktuellen "Spiel" zu melden. Warum schreibst du nicht einen Artikel über den Zustand von Line of Defense? Alles, was er uns vorwirft, macht er in Wirklichkeit selbst! Er ist der König der Selbstdarstellung!
Ich bin ziemlich beunruhigt über deine Herangehensweise an diesen Artikel und auch an den letzten Artikel, den Escapist online veröffentlicht hat. Warum die Eile, den Artikel mit oder ohne unsere Kommentare bis heute Mittag zu veröffentlichen? Was ist so dringend, dass ihr euch nicht ein wenig Zeit nehmen könnt, um die Sache wie verantwortungsbewusste Journalisten anzugehen und die Fakten zu überprüfen, beide Seiten der Geschichte kennenzulernen und nur überprüfbare Behauptungen zu veröffentlichen, die auch Beweise haben? Andernfalls betreibt ihr die gleiche Kampagne der Angst, Ungewissheit und des Zweifels, die Derek Smart jeden Tag aktiv betreibt, seit er erkannt hat, dass er Aufmerksamkeit bekommt, indem er Star Citizen angreift (denn für sein eigenes Spiel bekam er keine).
Ich bin auch ziemlich besorgt, dass deine Reporterin in dieser Sache kompromittiert ist und ihre eigene Agenda verfolgt. Für jemanden, der sich selbst als Unterstützer von Gamer Gate bezeichnet, bei dem es, soweit ich weiß, um die Ethik im Videospieljournalismus geht, hat sie sich nicht wie eine ethische Reporterin verhalten oder ihre Arbeit gemacht. Lizzy Finnegan erscheint in diesem Tweet von Bandit@istheguy:
Das ist an eine bekennende Feministin gerichtet. In der Zwischenzeit ist Bandit@istheguy dieselbe Person, die am Tag, bevor deine Reporterin ihren Artikel schrieb, damit begann, Star Citizen anzugreifen, indem sie über zwei Leute twitterte, von denen wir uns trennten, dann den Escapist-Artikel und die Leute, die ihn erwähnten, retweetete ... und schließlich mich, meine Frau und eine meiner Töchter mit dieser Folge von Tweets doxte.
"Bandit" ist ein anonymer Account, der am 11. August dieses Jahres erstellt wurde und fast ausschließlich dazu benutzt wird, Leute, die als Feinde von Gamer Gate angesehen werden, aggressiv anzugreifen und zu belästigen - die üblichen Ziele sind alle da, ebenso wie die üblichen Befürworter, die retweetet werden. Es ist bemerkenswert, dass dieser Account mit Derek Smart interagierte und ihn unterstützte, als er sich darüber beschwerte, dass er von zwei großen GG-Zielen, Randi Harper und Briana Wu, blockiert und als Belästiger gemeldet wurde. Das war nicht der Fall - wir glauben fest an die freie Meinungsäußerung und lassen viele abweichende Meinungen in unseren Foren zu, solange sie sich im Rahmen der Anstandsregeln bewegen. Ihr behaltet niemanden in eurer Community, der von euch verlangt, die Entwicklung anders zu gestalten, weil er euch sonst verklagt, vor allem nicht jemanden, der die Gelegenheit nutzt, Star Citizen für seine Eigenwerbung anzugreifen.)
Derek twitterte am 24. September um 13:15 Uhr, dass wir Mitarbeiter in L.A. entlassen würden, weniger als eine Stunde, nachdem wir die Bewerbungsgespräche mit den beiden entlassenen Mitarbeitern abgeschlossen hatten (wenn man bedenkt, dass er in Florida und wir in L.A. sind, ist es nicht schwer herauszufinden, woher er seine Informationen hatte). Um 16:01 Uhr fängt "Bandit" an, Leute zu erwähnen, die entlassen werden.
Wenn du dir den Twitter-Verlauf von Liz und "Bandit" ansiehst, retweeten sie häufig die Tweets des jeweils anderen und bestärken sich gegenseitig in ihren Ansichten und Meinungen. Ich kenne Liz' Privatleben nicht (und es interessiert mich auch nicht), aber anhand des Bildes von ihr in "Bandits" Tweet liegt die Vermutung nahe, dass es entweder eine enge Beziehung zwischen Liz und "Bandit" gibt oder dass sie möglicherweise ein und dieselbe Person sind. Das stellt die Aussagen, die sie auf Twitter gemacht hat, irgendwie in Frage:
Auch von "Bandit" retweetet (wie oben ersichtlich).
Das würde erklären, wie sie an den Artikel herangegangen ist: Sie hat so ziemlich alles übernommen, was Derek Smart behauptet hat, und darüber berichtet, ohne uns die Möglichkeit zu geben, angemessen zu antworten. Liz' erste E-Mail an David Swofford ging am 24. um 19:44 Uhr ein, woraufhin "Bandit", der für seinen neuen Freund in die Schlacht ritt, und Liz direkt auf die Behauptungen von Derek Smart Bezug nahmen. Ich habe das erst am Freitagnachmittag gesehen (David arbeitet in unserem Büro in Austin, ich war in unserem Büro in L.A.), nachdem David einen kurzen und ziemlich gereizten Austausch mit Liz hatte (im Anhang). Ich antwortete ihm mit einigen Kommentaren und Bedenken in der Erwartung, dass David die Gelegenheit haben würde, mit Liz über einige Punkte zu sprechen, die sie vorbrachte und die eindeutig nur aus dem Gesangbuch von Derek Smart stammten.
Das bringt mich zu meinem ursprünglichen Punkt zurück. Warum wird ein Artikel so überstürzt veröffentlicht, ohne dass die Fakten und Quellen überprüft wurden? Ich habe das Gefühl, dass hier eine Agenda verfolgt wird. Das ist nicht der Journalismus, den ich vom Escapist von früher kenne. Das ist Klick-Köder-Journalismus auf niedrigstem Niveau. Es ist ziemlich ironisch, dass es genau die Art von Journalismus ist, gegen die Game Gate antritt. Ich bin auch ziemlich verwirrt, wie plötzlich Star Citizen und ich zum Gegenstand von Angriffen einiger Leute geworden sind, die sich mit Gamer Gate verbinden. Ich bin ein Gamer. Ich mache ein Spiel, von dem die Spieler mit überwältigender Mehrheit gesagt haben, dass sie es machen wollen, und zwar mit einer Summe von fast 90 Millionen Dollar, Tendenz steigend! Ich glaube an ethische Grundsätze im Journalismus. Ich glaube auch daran, dass es wichtig ist, alle einzubeziehen und niemanden zu beleidigen, weder persönlich noch online. Ich unterstütze keine der beiden Seiten, weil ich glaube, dass sie zu sehr polarisieren, aber ich glaube, dass wir es besser machen können, als Gamer, als Journalisten und als Menschen.
Und warum? Es kann nicht daran liegen, dass wir keine Werbebanner kaufen und somit ein leichtes Ziel für Sensationsmeldungen sind. Ich glaube, dass deine Reporterin dir sagt, dass sie auf der richtigen Fährte ist und du sie für bare Münze nimmst und ihre Motive oder Ethik nicht hinterfragst.
Derek Smart ist sehr geschickt in dem, was er tut: Er verbreitet Angst, Unsicherheit und Zweifel. Er schnappt sich immer einen kleinen Fakt und nutzt ihn, um eine ganze Menge Lügen und Desinformationen zu verkaufen. Er twittert JEDEN TAG über Star Citizen. Nicht nur einmal, sondern mehrmals. Wenn du seinen Twitter-Stream liest, wirkt es wie der Kreuzzug eines Verrückten. Er bloggt ständig über uns. Er hetzt ständig... und ermutigt die Leute, Rückerstattungen zu verlangen, uns bei der FTC, dem FBI und/oder ihrem örtlichen Generalstaatsanwalt zu melden. Er nennt mich einen Lügner, einen Betrüger, inkompetent und viele andere Namen. Er hat meine Familienmitglieder und Geschäftspartner verleumdet. Er hat mich öffentlich verleumdet und die Adresse meines Hauses in L.A. sowie Bilder meiner Frau und meiner fünfjährigen Tochter veröffentlicht. Er greift Sandi Gardiner ständig an und beschuldigt sie, keine Qualifikationen oder Erfahrungen zu haben, dass sie ihre Arbeit von anderen erledigen lässt und die Marketingposition nur hat, weil sie meine Frau ist. Das ist eine unglaubliche Ironie, wenn man bedenkt, dass wir das am meisten durch Spenden finanzierte Projekt in der Geschichte sind, dass sie den Marketingplan geschrieben und im Alleingang umgesetzt hat, als wir noch ein winziges Team waren - und dass sie auch heute noch die einzige engagierte Marketingmitarbeiterin im Unternehmen ist, für ein Spiel, das fast 90 Millionen Dollar für seine Entwicklung allein durch virales Marketing, Mundpropaganda und PR eingesammelt hat. Wenn du Star Citizen kritisieren würdest, könntest du uns sicherlich vorwerfen, dass wir länger brauchen, als alle wollen, was auf die Entwicklungsseite des Unternehmens zutrifft, aber nicht auf das Marketing! Das Tüpfelchen auf dem i ist, dass sie fünf Abschlüsse hat und fünf Sprachen spricht. Ich wette, dass sie damit viel qualifizierter ist als Derek Smart!
Du musst dich fragen, warum? Was hat er zu gewinnen? Ihm gefiel nicht, wie ich Star Citizen leitete? Gut, er hat sein Geld zurück. Er hat keinen aktiven Anspruch auf das Spiel, und ich würde nie wollen, dass jemand wie er Teil unserer Gemeinschaft wird. Ich habe Derek Smart nie kennengelernt und möchte ihn auch nie kennenlernen. Ich habe ihm nie etwas persönlich angetan. Dennoch führt er seit Juli eine FUD-Kampagne gegen Star Citizen, das Unternehmen, das es entwickelt, und die Community. Er versucht aktiv, die harte Arbeit zu zerstören, die ich und alle anderen, die das Spiel machen, in dieses Projekt gesteckt haben. Er will etwas zerstören, in das fast eine Million Menschen ihre Hoffnungen und Träume gesteckt haben. Ist es Ego? Ein Gefühl der Selbstherrlichkeit? Die Tatsache, dass er wieder Aufmerksamkeit bekommt, nachdem er in der Wildnis war? Es ist wahrscheinlich kein Zufall, dass er die Gamer-Gate-Gemeinde aktiv umwirbt, während er erklärt, neutral zu bleiben, seit er Star Citizen angegriffen hat. Es ist wahrscheinlich auch kein Zufall, dass er die Schlagworte "Verantwortlichkeit" und "Ethik" benutzt, wenn er uns angreift, denn er weiß, dass in der heutigen Internetwelt, in der fast niemand mehr recherchiert, um die wahren Fakten herauszufinden, Übertreibungen hängen bleiben und die Leute es lieben, eine sofortige Reaktion auf eine aufmerksamkeitsheischende Aussage auf Twitter zu twittern.
Derek Smart veröffentlicht Blogs, in denen er über Klagen spricht und darüber, wie er uns zu Fall bringen will. Er geht sogar so weit, einen Brief mit ziemlich dummen Forderungen seines angeblichen Anwalts zu veröffentlichen (er scheint nicht in der Lage zu sein, diese Briefe zu unterschreiben), ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass wir den Brief nicht erhalten haben. In seinem letzten Blog verlinkte er auf einen Brief seines "Anwalts", der auf den 14. September datiert ist. Wir haben ihn erst gestern, am 30. September, erhalten! Und er war mit dem Poststempel vom 22. September versehen! Wenn du etwas über den juristischen Diskurs weißt, dann weißt du, dass er hinter verschlossenen Türen stattfindet. Diese Art von Kommunikation wird nicht veröffentlicht, da sie jeden möglichen Fall beeinträchtigt. Was er tut, ist nur ein Werbetrick, um Schlagzeilen von Journalisten zu bekommen, die es nicht besser wissen, und um Star Citizen-Unterstützer zu beunruhigen, damit sie denken, dass er uns auf legale Weise Probleme bereiten wird. Und genau das ist sein FUD-Plan - genug Leute zu erschrecken, genug Lügen zu erzählen und gelegentlich einen verärgerten Ex-Mitarbeiter aufzutreiben, der ihm dabei hilft, Öl ins Feuer zu gießen, um ihm einen Anschein von Glaubwürdigkeit zu verleihen. Wir haben keine Angst vor Derek Smart. Wir haben nichts zu verbergen und sind sehr zuversichtlich, dass wir uns gegen alles, was er versuchen könnte, verteidigen können. Aber ich wette, das wird er nicht tun - er ist voller Übertreibungen. Erst vor einer Woche behauptete er, dass er mit seinen Spielen über 200 Millionen Dollar an Tantiemen verdient hat (ich glaube, ich muss nicht näher darauf eingehen, warum das eine glatte Lüge ist). Er sagt auch häufig, dass er über 100 Millionen Dollar wert ist, dass er zwei Doktortitel hat oder dass er im Juli eine ganzseitige Anzeige in der New York Times geschaltet hat, um uns zu entlarven. Er sagt viele Dinge, um Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen, und aus irgendeinem Grund wird er nicht darauf angesprochen. Du sagst vielleicht: "Schieß nicht auf den Überbringer", aber wenn der Überbringer seine eigene Botschaft verkündet, dann finde ich es nur fair, seine Motive und Glaubwürdigkeit in Frage zu stellen.
Und weißt du was? Wenn er ein anständiger Mensch wäre, würde er seine Meinung sagen und sich dann zurücklehnen und abwarten, ob sie sich bewahrheitet, was ihm dann vielleicht Recht geben würde. Stattdessen versucht er mit allen möglichen schmutzigen Tricks, seine Prophezeiungen wahr werden zu lassen. Und warum?
Will er 261 Menschen um ihren Job bringen und die Träume von fast einer Million Menschen zerstören? Für einen persönlichen Rachefeldzug? Um berühmt zu werden? Weil er neidisch ist, dass die Leute meine Spiele lieben und seine lächerlich machen?
Ich bin nur ein leidenschaftlicher Spieleentwickler, der das Spiel seiner Träume entwickelt. Ich habe das Glück, von einer riesigen Gemeinschaft von Spielern unterstützt zu werden, die eine große Summe Geld gespendet hat, um ein Spiel zu entwickeln, von dem kein Verlag träumen würde. Wir haben ein sehr großes Team, von dem die meisten meine Leidenschaft und meinen Traum teilen. Ja, es wird immer Leute geben, die nicht zu der Arbeit und der Hingabe passen, die dieser Traum erfordert, und einige von ihnen werden verärgert sein, wenn sich ihre Wege trennen, aber ich bin dabei, um etwas zu schaffen, das den Test der Zeit bestehen wird, so wie es bei Wing Commander der Fall war. Wenn du nach den Sternen greifst, gibt es zwangsläufig ein paar Unebenheiten und Verzögerungen auf dem Weg. Du berichtest schon seit langem über Spiele. Du weißt, dass Spiele, vor allem große, komplizierte Spiele, immer wieder Schluckauf haben und häufig unvorhergesehene Verzögerungen auftreten. Wir haben noch nicht einmal drei Jahre Entwicklungszeit hinter uns (das erste Entwicklungsbüro in Austin mit 15 Mitarbeitern haben wir erst im Februar 2013 eröffnet). Projekte, die nur halb so groß sind wie wir, brauchen oft vier bis fünf Jahre.
Wir sind ein sehr öffentliches Projekt und auf das Wohlwollen der Spieler/innen angewiesen, um zu existieren. Ein negativer Artikel, der die Ansichten oder Kommentare einiger weniger verärgerter ehemaliger Mitarbeiter enthält, die ihre eigene Meinung darüber haben, ob die Dinge gut gelaufen sind oder nicht, vor allem, wenn sie sich hinter Anonymität verstecken, könnte den Leuten einen Eindruck von dem Projekt und dem Unternehmen vermitteln, der zu 100% falsch ist, vor allem, wenn wir nicht Teil der Geschichte sind. Das wäre für uns weitaus schädlicher als für einen normalen Entwickler oder Verlag. Ich weiß, dass diese Art von Material gut für Klicks ist, aber du musst auch bedenken, dass wir über die Arbeitsplätze von 261 Menschen und zahlreichen Auftragnehmern sprechen. Jedes Mal, wenn ein Spielestudio schließt, sind alle Medien und Kommentatoren schnell dabei, den Zustand der Spieleindustrie zu beklagen. Jedes Mal, wenn ein großes öffentliches Unternehmen schnell ein Spiel für die Weihnachtssaison herausbringt, beklagen sich alle über mangelnden Ehrgeiz und die Selbstverständlichkeit, mit der das Publikum bedient wird. Hier hast du ein zu 100 % von Spielern finanziertes Projekt auf dem PC, einer Plattform, die fast jeder Publisher ignoriert oder für die er beschissene Konsolenportierungen herausgebracht hat, und du hast ein Spiel in einem Genre, das jeder für tot erklärt hat und an das sich kein Publisher herantrauen würde - und du willst ihm schaden? Sollte die Presse diese Art von Spielen nicht bejubeln? Die Gamer haben gesprochen. Sie wollten etwas so Großes und Ehrgeiziges wie Star Citizen. Ich werde es liefern - ich habe noch nie in meinem Leben so hart gearbeitet - auch nicht, als ich 20 war und Wing Commander entwickelte. Es gibt eine große Gruppe von sehr talentierten Spieleentwicklern, die alle diese Vision teilen und so hart wie möglich daran arbeiten, ein Spiel zu liefern, das alle Unterstützer glücklich macht. Ich bitte dich also inständig, zweimal darüber nachzudenken, ob du dich auf etwas einlässt, das zwar Spaß macht, Rom brennen zu sehen, aber nicht im besten Interesse des Spiels, der Mitarbeiter von CIG oder der 987.217 Mitglieder unserer Community ist. Du sagst vielleicht, wenn es nicht wahr ist, was schadet es, aber wir wissen beide, dass es in der heutigen Welt nicht so läuft. Die Wahrheit wird hinter den Klick-Köder-Schlagzeilen untergehen und der Schaden ist angerichtet.
Der Vollständigkeit halber und als Antwort auf die Argumente, die du David geschickt hast, sind hier meine Antworten;
-Angestellte haben angedeutet, dass Star Citizen und alle versprochenen Stretch Goals, "selbst mit einem kompetenten Management", nicht für 90 Millionen Dollar zu realisieren wären.
CR: Woher weißt du oder sie das? Welche Mitarbeiter haben das gesagt und was qualifiziert sie zu diesem Urteil? Ich weiß, dass Derek Smart das gerne sagt, aber er könnte mit 200 Millionen Dollar kein gutes Spiel machen, also glaube ich nicht, dass seine Meinung zählt. Abgesehen davon hat außer mir und ein paar anderen wichtigen Leuten, die Star Citizen leiten, kein Mitarbeiter die nötigen Informationen und den Überblick, um die Kosten des Gesamtprojekts zu beurteilen. Zweitens nutzt das Unternehmen zusätzliche Finanzierungsquellen wie Steueranreize, Marketing- und Produktpartnerschaften, aber darüber sprechen wir aus offensichtlichen Gründen nicht in der Öffentlichkeit. Wir halten immer eine gesunde Bargeldreserve und betreiben unser Geschäft umsichtig auf der Grundlage der eingehenden Einnahmen. Es sollte dir etwas sagen, dass wir entgegen den unzutreffenden Gerüchten von Derek Smart unsere weltweite Mitarbeiterzahl nicht verringern, sondern sogar erhöhen.
-Bedenken über die Planung des Projekts vor dem Start der Kickstarter-Aktion, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit Roberts' längerer Abwesenheit von der Videospielbranche.
CR: Welche Bedenken wurden vor dem Start des Kickstarter-Projekts geäußert? Das kleine, enge Team, das die Kickstarter-Kampagne auf die Beine gestellt und an der technischen Demo gearbeitet hat, ist immer noch bei CIG und keiner dieser Leute hatte irgendwelche Zweifel. Und wenn ich mir die rekordverdächtige Kampagne anschaue, die das größte Crowdfunding-Projekt (nicht nur für ein Spiel) in der Geschichte ist, würde ich sagen, dass viele Leute diese Bedenken auch nicht hatten. Darf ich also fragen, woher diese Bedenken kamen?
2012 hieß es in einer Kickstarter-FAQ, dass die hohen Kosten für die Stretch Goals dazu dienten, den Liefertermin 2014 zu sichern.
CR: Ist das die FAQ-Zeile, die du meinst?
Der Zweck der höheren Stretch Goals ist es, sicherzustellen, dass das Spiel in der beschriebenen Form innerhalb von zwei Jahren fertiggestellt wird. Wir haben vor, das Spiel, das Chris Roberts auf der GDC Online beschrieben hat, trotzdem zu bauen, aber ohne zusätzliche Mittel müssen wir es Stück für Stück umsetzen, beginnend mit Squadron 42, und nicht in einer einzigen größeren Produktion. Mit mehr Geld können wir mehr Schiffe, Systeme, einzigartige Orte, Animationen und Filmsequenzen einbauen. Du wirst feststellen, dass wir ohne zusätzliche Mittel nur Squadron 42 und nicht das gesamte Spiel liefern können. Wenn du dir die Stretch Goals ansiehst, wirst du feststellen, dass das Basisziel erweiterte Community-Inhalte (geliefert), das Alpha-Dogfighting-Modul (geliefert) und Squadron 42 (in Arbeit) waren. Das war das Basisspiel wie beschrieben. Das komplette persistente Universum und alle zusätzlichen Features wie FPS-Boarding, mehrere Sternensysteme, die man besuchen kann, zusätzliche Schiffe und so weiter sind alles Stretch Goals. Wie bei den meisten Projekten ändert sich mit dem Umfang auch der Zeitplan: Man kann nicht in der gleichen Zeit ein Schloss bauen wie einen Holzschuppen, egal wie viel Geld oder wie viele Leute man hat. Die Behauptung, dass wir das Spiel in zwei Jahren versprochen haben, egal wie groß der Umfang war, ist falsch. Hätten wir ein kleines Spiel mit 30 Missionen im alten Wing Commander-Format in zwei Jahren auf den Markt bringen können? Ja, aber das ist weder das Spiel, das die Community will, noch das Spiel, das wir entwickeln. Was wir jetzt mit Squadron 42 abliefern, gleicht eher einem großen AAA-Spiel, das allein schon 60 Dollar kosten würde. Das Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis, das die Leute für eine $40-Zusage bekommen, ist ziemlich verrückt.
-Vorwürfe eines "toxischen" Arbeitsumfelds, einschließlich ignorierter Beschwerden der Personalabteilung gegen Sandi Gardiner (einschließlich Vorwürfen diskriminierender Einstellungsverfahren, Pöbeleien und persönlicher Beleidigungen sowohl bei öffentlichen Meinungsverschiedenheiten als auch im E-Mail-Verkehr).
CR: Alle Personal- und HR-Angelegenheiten sind natürlich absolut privat und wir können uns aus Prinzip nicht dazu äußern. Wie immer gibt es zwei Seiten zu jeder Geschichte.
-Vorwürfe der Misswirtschaft mit Geld, darunter: Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für die Villa des Paares in Pacific Palisades, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privatfahrzeuge, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für private Urlaube, Verwendung von Unternehmensressourcen und Mitarbeitern für die Erstellung von Videos für Filme und Castings (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: Keine Crowdfunding-Gelder werden für private Zwecke verwendet - diese Behauptungen sind völlig falsch und verleumderisch. Das sind reine Andeutungen für schändliche Zwecke und ich garantiere, dass jeder, der diese Behauptung aufstellt, keine Beweise dafür vorlegen kann, weil es einfach nicht passiert ist. Seit Wing Commander herauskam, hatte ich das Glück, finanziell unabhängig zu sein, schöne Autos zu fahren und in schönen Häusern zu wohnen. Das verdanke ich dem Geld, das ich durch Tantiemen, den Verkauf von Origin an Electronic Arts und Digital Anvil an Microsoft sowie durch kluges Investieren verdient habe. Warum also machen die Leute jetzt einen Aufstand, weil ich diese Dinge habe? Ich finde auch die anhaltenden Angriffe auf Sandi ziemlich beunruhigend. Warum wird sie herausgegriffen? Weil sie meine Frau ist? Eine Frau? Ja, sie ist auch Schauspielerin, und es ist nichts dagegen einzuwenden, wenn sie auch nach Feierabend oder außerhalb der Arbeit einer ihrer Leidenschaften nachgeht. Wir lassen unsere Mitarbeiter abends oder am Wochenende in unserem Konferenzraum D&D spielen. Ich sehe keine Angriffe von Derek Smart, dass dies eine Verschwendung von Unternehmensressourcen sei (und es steht ihm sowieso nicht zu, dies zu kommentieren oder zu beurteilen).
-Vorwürfe, eine Joint-Venture-Partnerschaft mit Turbulent eingegangen zu sein und Crowdfunding-Gelder verwendet zu haben, um den weiteren Aufbau der Crowdfunding-Plattform zu unterstützen, die auf der RSI-Website zur Vermarktung an andere Unternehmen genutzt wurde.
CR: Das Gegenteil ist der Fall. CIG profitierte von der bereits existierenden Software, die Turbulent entwickelt hatte. Unser Joint Venture mit ihnen ermöglichte uns den Zugang zu günstigeren Preisen und band einen wichtigen Teil von Star Citizen näher an CIG, was sowohl für CIG als auch für die Geldgeber von Vorteil ist. Gemäß unserer Vereinbarung steht es Turbulent natürlich frei, seine Technologie auch anderen Kunden anzubieten.
-Vorwürfe über "unverantwortliche Ausgaben" von Geld, einschließlich des Einsatzes von "namhaften" Hollywood-Schauspielern für die Voice-Overs der Werbespots, die Einstellung von unerfahrenen "Filmleuten", die für hohe Honorare an bestimmten Aspekten arbeiten, ohne viel Erfahrung zu haben.
CR: Woher kommt das? Hat dir jemand Beispiele von "großen Namen" oder Schauspielern genannt? Das ist völlig falsch - wir haben für die Werbespots angemessene Honorare für normale Sprecher bezahlt. Für Squadron 42 haben wir eine wirklich großartige Besetzung, die wir am Samstag in einer Woche bekannt geben werden, aber das war eines unserer Stretch Goals, also wäre es ein bisschen übertrieben, uns hier Missmanagement vorzuwerfen!
"Squadron 42 wird mit prominenten Synchronsprechern aufwarten, darunter mindestens ein Favorit aus Wing Commander.
-Anschuldigungen, dass der Großteil des Crowdfunding-Geldes bereits verbraucht wurde und nur minimale Fortschritte gemacht wurden. Es heißt, sie hätten das Gefühl, "Werbung zu machen und kein Spiel".
CR: Jeder, der auch nur ein Minimum an Wissen über die Entwicklung von Spielen hat, kann die bedeutenden Fortschritte beurteilen, indem er sich die veröffentlichten Module und die detaillierten Monatsberichte der einzelnen Entwicklungsstudios ansieht. Wir haben ein riesiges Team, das mit Hochdruck daran arbeitet, etwas Besonderes für alle zu entwickeln. Wir haben das Gefühl, dass wir große Fortschritte gemacht haben und einen großen Teil der zugrundeliegenden Technologie fertiggestellt haben, die es uns ermöglichen wird, Star Citizen zu dem Spiel zu machen, von dem deine Quellen sagen, dass es nicht gemacht werden kann. Ich weiß nicht, wie jemand ernsthaft behaupten kann, dass er das Gefühl hat, "sie machen Werbung und kein Spiel". Tatsächlich haben wir seit letztem Jahr keine Schiffswerbung mehr gesehen! Nebenbei bemerkt waren die Werbespots ein lustiger Meilenstein, um sicherzustellen, dass alle das Schiff auf die endgültige Spielqualität gebracht haben. Es war auch eine gute Möglichkeit, die Geschichte des Universums von Star Citizen zu erzählen, das wir noch viele Jahre lang weiter ausbauen wollen.
-Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, dass das Unternehmen für die gestellten Anforderungen unterbesetzt ist
CR: Bei jedem Projekt, das ich gemacht habe, und auch bei anderen, die ich miterlebt habe, ist es üblich, dass die Leute mehr Personal wollen, um die Arbeit zu beenden. Das ist immer so, bis das Spiel endlich fertig ist. Unter Erins Führung als Leiterin der globalen Produktion haben wir uns umorganisiert, um die Dinge effizienter zu machen (das war ja der eigentliche Auslöser für diesen Streit), und wir stellen derzeit neue Mitarbeiter ein (wie du an unseren offenen Stellen sehen kannst), was zeigt, dass wir daran arbeiten, diese Probleme anzugehen. Wir haben zehn feste Neueinstellungen, die allein in diesem Monat beginnen werden, und wir haben mehreren Bewerbern Angebote gemacht.
-Arbeitnehmer sind besorgt, dass Roberts nicht auf die Ratschläge der Leute hört, die während seiner Abwesenheit in der Branche gearbeitet haben, und dass sie Zeit und Ressourcen verschwenden müssen, um etwas Unmögliches zu versuchen, nur um zu beweisen, dass es nicht funktioniert.
CR: Ich habe eine sehr starke Vision für Star Citizen, und deshalb glaube ich, dass wir so viel Unterstützung bekommen haben, wie wir haben. Ich habe keine Zweifel daran, was wir erreichen können. Jetzt, wo die meisten Basistechnologien vorhanden sind, können wir mit dem Meilenstein Large World und MultiCrew ein Spielerlebnis schaffen, das es dir ermöglicht, nahtlos vom Fußgänger in ein voll ausgestattetes Raumschiff mit deinen Freunden einzusteigen, abzuheben, Tausende oder Millionen von Kilometern im Weltraum zu fliegen, dein Schiff in EVA zu verlassen und verlassene Raumstationen oder Wracks zu erkunden, FPS-Kämpfe zu führen, zu deinem Schiff zurückzukehren, Weltraumkämpfe zu führen und zu deiner Heimatbasis zurückzukehren, um die Geschichten deiner Abenteuer mit deinen anderen Freunden zu teilen. Und das alles ohne führende Bildschirme und in einer AAA-Ego-Shooter-Qualität, die du nicht einmal auf einer Next-Gen-Konsole erreichen kannst. Das ist der Kern von Squadron 42 und Star Citizen, den wir weiter ausbauen und mit neuen Inhalten füllen werden, aber schon die erste Version wird mehr "Spiel" sein als die meisten kommerziellen Weltraumspiele. Dass wir nicht auf den Rat von Leuten hören, die in der Branche gearbeitet haben, stimmt nicht. Ich habe ein sehr starkes Management- und Designteam mit großer Erfahrung in AAA-Titeln, die alle zur Entscheidungsfindung des Unternehmens beitragen. Ich höre allen zu - von der obersten Ebene bis hin zu unseren QA-Testern und der Community, die mir ihr Feedback zu Gameplay und Features geben. Mir liegt viel daran, das bestmögliche Spiel zu entwickeln. Das heißt aber nicht, dass ich mit allen Meinungen und Rückmeldungen einverstanden bin. Als Projektleiter bin ich es der Community schuldig, meiner Vision treu zu bleiben und die Dinge auszuwählen, die das Spiel meiner Meinung nach besser machen, was manchmal dazu führen kann, dass die Leute verärgert sind.
-Anschuldigungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass es derzeit keine vollständigen Charakter-Builds für das Spiel gibt.
CR: Woher nimmst du das? Habt ihr euch wirklich angeschaut, was ihr jetzt im Spiel machen könnt? Du kannst seit August 2013 in deinem Hangar herumlaufen. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass das ein kompletter Charakter war, der herumlief, und keine Massenhalluzination. Wir haben mehrere Charaktere im Spiel und arbeiten an vielen weiteren (von denen einige auf der Citizen Con zu sehen sein werden).
-Statements gemacht, dass das Büro in Austin geschlossen wird, wie von den Mitarbeitern verstanden wird.
CR: Das ist völlig falsch. Wir haben diese Tatsache sogar öffentlich bekannt gegeben. Alle Mitarbeiter in Austin wurden über eine minimale Umstrukturierung informiert, bei der einige Aufgaben nach LA oder Europa verlagert wurden, um die Effizienz des Teams zu erhöhen. Die meisten unserer texanischen Mitarbeiter werden im Studio in Austin bleiben (übrigens auf unbestimmte Zeit). Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, stocken wir unsere weltweite Mitarbeiterzahl auf, um das Spiel so effektiv wie möglich fertigstellen zu können. Ich hoffe, dass die Geldgeber wollen, dass wir ständig versuchen, die Effizienz zu steigern und harte Entscheidungen zu treffen, die dem Spiel zugute kommen.
-Anschuldigungen, dass es bei Star Citizen mehr um Crowdfunding als um die Entwicklung eines Spiels ging
CR: Es geht darum, ein großartiges Spiel zu machen. Crowdfunding ist nur ein Werkzeug, das uns die Freiheit gibt, die man bei einem traditionellen Publisher nicht hat. Also nein, es geht immer um das Spiel.
-Mitarbeiter fühlen sich als "Teil eines Betrugs"
CR: Das ist die Aussage, die mein Blut zum Kochen bringt. Wenn ein aktueller Mitarbeiter so denkt, sollte er nicht an Star Citizen oder bei CIG arbeiten! Ich vermute, dass dies die Worte einiger verbitterter Ex-Mitarbeiter sind, die Ärger machen wollen, aber ich betrachte es als ein Privileg und eine Ehre, dass so viele Menschen mich und das Team dabei unterstützen, das Spiel unserer Träume zu entwickeln. Ich bin unseren Geldgebern für ihre Unterstützung und Geduld sehr dankbar und habe nichts als Respekt vor dem CIG-Team, das alles gibt, um dieses Spiel zu entwickeln. Jeder, der das nicht so sieht, ist herzlich willkommen, und wie du sicher schon gemerkt hast, gab es ein paar Leute, die nicht dieselbe Leidenschaft oder Liebe geteilt haben und sich jetzt darüber ärgern, dass man sie herausgefordert hat.
Ok, das war's.
Ich möchte darauf hinweisen, dass ich an dieser Antwort gearbeitet habe, seit ich deine E-Mail von David erhalten habe. Ich habe letzte Nacht bis 5 Uhr morgens daran gearbeitet und heute Morgen noch ein paar Stunden in Großbritannien, wo ich mich gerade auf die CitizenCon in einer Woche am Samstag vorbereite. Konservativ geschätzt habe ich etwa acht Stunden für das Schreiben gebraucht. Das ist Zeit, die ich mit der Arbeit am Spiel hätte verbringen können, anstatt mich mit einem von Derek Smart angezettelten Drama zu beschäftigen. Und das ist es, was mich wirklich ärgert - dass seine dummen Tiraden gelegentlich die Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen und mich von dem ablenken, was ich am liebsten tue, was alle von mir erwarten und was Derek Smart mir vorwirft, nicht zu tun - DAS SPIEL ZU BEENDEN! Indem er ständig tweetet, Blogs schreibt und Journalisten im Hintergrund bittet, über seine "Erkenntnisse" zu berichten, führt er einen Guerillakrieg gegen meine Zeit, die Zeit anderer wichtiger Führungskräfte und den Seelenfrieden unserer Mitarbeiter und Geldgeber.
Ich möchte euch bitten, im Zusammenhang mit eurem Vorhaben gründlich darüber nachzudenken, was ihr eigentlich wollt. Was erhofft ihr euch von der Veröffentlichung eines solchen Artikels? Welchen Nutzen erhofft ihr euch davon? Wollt ihr Behauptungen über unsere Erfolgsaussichten aufstellen? Was bringen unbegründete Vermutungen und Andeutungen von voreingenommenen Parteien? Die Leute sagen, dass wir nicht das Spiel liefern werden, das wir versprochen haben. Na und? Sollten sie uns nicht einfach weitermachen lassen? Wenn es scheitert, werden sie Recht bekommen, wenn nicht, werden wir Recht bekommen. Ich kenne kein anderes Projekt, das so genau unter die Lupe genommen wird wie wir in der Entwicklungsphase. Jeden Tag muss ich mich mit Tausenden von CEOs und Entwicklern auseinandersetzen, vor allem weil wir das offenste Spielentwicklungsprojekt der Geschichte sind. Ich habe kein Problem damit, dass unsere Community ihre Meinung zu verschiedenen Aspekten unserer Entwicklung äußert, aber wenn unsere Offenheit von einer kleinen Anzahl von Agitatoren von außen, die uns etwas Böses wollen, gegen uns verwendet wird, wird es unglaublich frustrierend und beeinträchtigt meine Fähigkeit, das Spiel wie versprochen zu liefern.
Wenn ihr bereit seid, einen richtigen Beitrag zu schreiben, bin ich gerne bereit, mich darauf einzulassen. Ihr seid eingeladen, unsere vier Studios zu besuchen, die Entwickler des Spiels zu treffen und aus erster Hand zu erfahren, wie wir eines der ambitioniertesten PC-Spiele entwickeln. Ich würde meine 261 Mitarbeiter, ihre Leidenschaft und Energie jederzeit gegen die Beschwerden einiger verärgerter Ex-Mitarbeiter eintauschen. Wenn du dir die Zeit nimmst, dies zu recherchieren, wirst du feststellen, dass dies ein allgemeiner Kommentar ist und dass der "Lärm", der entstanden ist, in Wirklichkeit von einer sehr kleinen Anzahl von Leuten und einigen ziemlich verbitterten Ex-Mitarbeitern stammt.
-Chris
Von: John Keefer
Gesendet: Mittwoch, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
An: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Betreff: Bevorstehender Star Citizen Artikel
Hallo David,
Nach unserem Chat und dem ersten Artikel meldeten sich eine Reihe ehemaliger und aktueller Mitarbeiter, um mit uns über Star Citizen und die Vorgänge im Spiel zu sprechen. Die Anschuldigungen und Bedenken sind zahlreich (siehe unten), was uns dazu veranlasst, diese Geschichte so schnell wie möglich zu veröffentlichen, am besten gleich morgen früh. Beachte, dass KEINER dieser Vorwürfe von Derek stammt, sondern dass es sich um interne oder ehemalige interne Personen handelt, die zu uns gekommen sind oder sich bereit erklärt haben, mit uns zu sprechen. Wir geben dir und Chris die Möglichkeit, zu antworten, bevor die Geschichte veröffentlicht wird. Wir sind bereit, eine kurze Zeit zu warten, um sicherzustellen, dass die Fragen beantwortet werden, aber diese Geschichte wird spätestens morgen Mittag veröffentlicht.
Stichpunkte aus der Geschichte:
-Mitarbeiter haben angedeutet, dass Star Citizen und alle versprochenen Stretch Goals, "selbst mit einem kompetenten Management", nicht für 90 Millionen Dollar zu realisieren sind.
Bedenken über die Planung des Projekts vor dem Start der Kickstarter-Aktion wurden geäußert, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit Roberts' langer Abwesenheit von der Videospielbranche.
2012 wurde in einer Kickstarter-FAQ darauf hingewiesen, dass die hohen Kosten für die Stretch Goals dazu dienten, einen Liefertermin im Jahr 2014 zu gewährleisten.
-Vorwürfe über ein "toxisches" Arbeitsumfeld, einschließlich ignorierter Beschwerden der Personalabteilung gegen Sandi Gardiner (einschließlich Vorwürfen über diskriminierende Einstellungsverfahren, Pöbeleien und persönliche Beleidigungen sowohl bei öffentlichen Meinungsverschiedenheiten als auch im E-Mail-Verkehr).
-Vorwürfe der Misswirtschaft mit Geld, darunter: Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für die Villa des Paares in Pacific Palisades, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privatfahrzeuge, Verwendung von Crowdfunding-Geldern für Privaturlaube, Verwendung von Unternehmensressourcen und Mitarbeitern für die Erstellung von Videos für Filme und Vorsprechen (Sandi Gardiner).
-Vorwürfe, eine Joint-Venture-Partnerschaft mit Turbulent eingegangen zu sein und Crowdfunding-Gelder verwendet zu haben, um den weiteren Aufbau der Crowdfunding-Plattform zu unterstützen, die auf der RSI-Website zur Vermarktung an andere Unternehmen genutzt wurde.
-Vorwürfe der "unverantwortlichen Ausgabe" von Geld, einschließlich des Einsatzes "namhafter" Hollywood-Schauspieler für die Voice-Overs der Werbespots und der Einstellung unerfahrener "Filmleute", die für hohe Honorare an bestimmten Aspekten arbeiten sollten, ohne viel Erfahrung zu haben.
Anschuldigungen, dass der Großteil des Crowdfunding-Geldes bereits verwendet wurde und nur minimale Fortschritte erzielt wurden. Quellen geben an, dass sie "das Gefühl haben, Werbung zu machen und nicht ein Spiel".
-Die Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, dass das Unternehmen für die gestellten Anforderungen unterbesetzt ist.
-Angestellte sind besorgt, dass Roberts nicht auf die Ratschläge von Leuten hört, die während seiner Abwesenheit in der Branche gearbeitet haben, und dass sie Zeit und Ressourcen verschwenden müssen, um etwas Unmögliches zu versuchen, nur um zu beweisen, dass es nicht funktionieren würde.
-Anschuldigungen, die darauf hindeuten, dass es derzeit keine vollständigen Charakter-Builds für das Spiel gibt.
-Behauptungen, dass das Büro in Austin geschlossen wird, was von den Mitarbeitern so verstanden wird.
-Anschuldigungen, dass es bei Star Citizen mehr um Crowdfunding als um die Entwicklung eines Spiels geht
-Die Mitarbeiter haben das Gefühl, "Teil eines Betrugs" zu sein.
Vielen Dank für deine Zeit.
John
Chinese
Greetings Citizens,
UPDATE: The attached demand letter is our formal response to specific, slanderous allegations made in the recent The Escapist article on Star Citizen. Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.
We know that most Citizens are not interested in this drama, and as such we are updating the original notice rather than publishing additional Comm-Link articles. Future updates will occur here rather than in additional sections of the RSI site.
Greetings Citizens,
I have, to date, attempted to stay above the internet drama currently surrounding Derek Smart and his claims about Star Citizen. My feeling has been that it is most important to speak with actions instead of words, and to date I feel that we have done that with the multi crew demo, the launch of the social module and everything else you see here in this space on a daily basis. However, with the publication of today’s article (I can only call it a hit piece) on The Escapist, I believe it is necessary to address the issue directly. In the interests of openness, I am making available right now my correspondence with The Escapist’s managing editor. What follows is his original e-mail to our Director of Communications, David Swofford, and my response, sent to them three hours before their deadline and not included in the piece.
I have to say that I’m incredibly disappointed in all of this. This sort of drama is not what I, or you, signed up for with Star Citizen. Thanks to your support, the project has become bigger than I ever thought possible and there’s no question that opens us up to criticism from anyone looking to make a name for themselves. I know that every company goes through such things, especially with regards to unhappy former employees. It is unfortunate that our open nature makes us a bigger target, and going forward we will do the best we can to refute such baseless accusations. But most importantly, stay tuned to see the actual work we’re doing, which should put any questions to rest.
I will update this piece with a direct response to the article later in the day, but I wanted to go ahead and show you what they left out; hopefully it will calm some nerves now.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
From: Chris Roberts
Sent: 01 October 2015 14:10
To: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
John,
I was quite shocked to see the email that David Swofford forwarded to me filled with a bunch of conjecture, falsehoods and opinions of disgruntled ex-employees enflamed by Derek Smart’s personal quest to destroy Star Citizen.
I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up. We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.
So why is it for you guys? Do you really want to give a platform to Derek Smart? This is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).
Derek has a long history of finding some “big” thing to joust at just to keep himself in people’s consciousness rather than let his games do the talking. We’re not the first project where he has made it his mission to attack. Personally I think it would be much better to use that energy on his own game rather than take this path. He’s managed to rouse up enough attention that sites like yours are reporting his bile like it’s fact. You can’t pretend that the article that you published the other day was anything but a mouth piece for him. It completely repeated his narrative hook, line and sinker and mentioned plenty of out of context material in an attempt to harm the project and my reputation. I just don’t get it. The only person who is famous for being a blowhard, bully, an awful game developer and human being is Derek Smart. Just look up his history over the years. Or see how he treats people who dare to write a bug up on his current “game.” Why aren’t you doing a piece on the state of Line of Defense? Everything he accuses us of doing, he actually does himself! He’s the king of self-projection!
I’m pretty disturbed by your approach to this piece as well as the last piece Escapist published online. Why the rush to publish with or without our comments by noon today? What’s so urgent that you can’t take a little time to actually approach this like responsible journalists and do proper fact checking, get both sides of the story and only publish verifiable claims that have proof? Otherwise you’re just engaging in the same kind of campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that Derek Smart has been actively pursuing every day since he realized that he could get attention by attacking Star Citizen (as he certainly wasn’t getting any for his own game).
I’m also pretty concerned that your reporter on this is compromised and pursuing her own agenda. For someone who is a self-acclaimed Gamer Gate supporter, which last I checked was about ethics in video game journalism, she’s not been behaving or going about her business like an ethical reporter. Lizzy Finnegan appears in this tweet from Bandit@istheguy:
This is directed at a self-avowed feminist. Meantime, Bandit@istheguy is the very same person who started attacking Star Citizen on the day before your reporter wrote her article, tweeting about two people we parted ways with, then following up by retweeting the Escapist article and people who mentioned it…and then finally ending up by doxing myself, my wife and one of my daughters with this sequence of tweets.
“Bandit” is an anonymous account that was created on August 11th of this year and is almost exclusively used to aggressively attack and harass folks seen as enemies to Gamer Gate – the usual targets are all there, as are the usual proponents being retweeted. It’s notable that this account was interacting with and supporting Derek Smart when he was complaining about being blocked and reported as a harasser by two huge GG targets; Randi Harper and Briana Wu, which was another Derek Smart self-announced drama (he loves to play the victim, which he did when we refunded him publically sharing his refund email, claiming we were trying to silence him. We weren’t – we strongly believe in free speech and allow many dissenting opinions on our forums as long as they stay within standards of decency. You don’t keep someone as part of your community who is demanding you run the development differently or else he’ll sue you, especially someone who is plainly using the opportunity to attack Star Citizen for self-promotion).
Derek tweeted @1:15pm on September 24th about us letting go of staff in LA, less than an hour after we had completed the exit interviews of the two employees we were terminating (considering he’s in Florida and we’re in LA it’s not hard to connect the dots on where he got his information from). At 4:01pm “Bandit” starts mentioning people being let go.
If you look at the Twitter history of Liz and “Bandit” they frequently retweet each other’s tweets and generally reinforce each other’s views / opinions. I don’t know Liz’s personal life (nor do I care to) but based on the picture of her in “Bandit’s” tweet it is not a stretch to assume there is either a close relationship between Liz and “Bandit” or they are potentially one and the same. Which kind of calls into question these statements she made on Twitter:
Also retweeted by “Bandit” (as evidenced above).
This would explain her approach to the article, which was to pretty much take everything that Derek Smart claimed and report it without allowing us any opportunity to properly respond. Liz’s first email to David Swofford was at 744pm on the 24th, after which “Bandit,” riding into battle for his/her new friend, and Liz directly referenced Derek Smart’s claims. I didn’t see this until Friday afternoon (David works out of our Austin office, I was in our LA office) after David had a brief and rather irritated exchange with Liz (attached). I replied to him with some comments and concerns expecting David to have the opportunity to go back to Liz to further discuss some points she was bringing up that were clearly just singing out of the Derek Smart hymn book and much to my dismay and disappointment the article had already been published.
Which brings me back to my original point on all this. Why the rush to publish an article without allowing a proper round of fact and source checking? It completely feels like an agenda is being pursued. This is not the journalism that I remember from the Escapist of old. It’s click bait journalism of the lowest standard. It’s pretty ironic that it’s exactly the kind of journalism that Game Gate stands against. I’m also pretty bemused how suddenly Star Citizen and I have become the subject of attacks by a few people who associate themselves with Gamer Gate. I’m a gamer. I am making a game that gamers have overwhelmingly said they want made, to the tune of almost $90M and rising! I believe in ethics in journalism. I also believe in being inclusive to all and not being abusive to people in person or online. I don’t support either side because I believe it’s too polarizing but I believe we can do better, as gamers, as journalists and as human beings.
So why? It can’t be because we don’t buy banner ads and thusly are an easy click bait target for sensationalist pieces. I have to believe that your reporter is telling you she is onto something and you are taking her at face value and not questioning her motives or ethics.
Derek Smart is very adept at doing what he has been doing; spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He always grabs one nugget of a fact and uses that to sell a whole lot of lies and disinformation. He tweets about Star Citizen EVERY DAY. Not once but multiple times. If you read his Twitter stream it comes across as the crusade of a crazy man. He continually blogs about us. He constantly agitates…encouraging people to ask for refunds, report us to the FTC, the FBI and/or their local attorney general. He calls me a liar, a fraud, incompetent and many other names. He has slandered my family members and business partners. He has publically doxed me, sharing the address of my home in LA, pictures of my wife and five year old daughter. He constantly attacks Sandi Gardiner, accusing her of having no qualifications, or experience, that she had other people do her work for her and only has the Marketing position because she is my wife. That is incredibly ironic considering we are the most crowd funded project in history, that she wrote the marketing plan, and single handedly executed it when we were a tiny team – even today she’s the only dedicated marketing person at the company, for a game that has raised almost $90M for its development solely through viral marketing, word of mouth and PR. If you were going to criticize Star Citizen you certainly can fault us for taking longer than everyone wants, which would fall on the development side of the company but not marketing! The icing on the cake is that she has five degrees and speaks five languages, which I am willing to bet makes her a lot more qualified than Derek Smart is!
You have to ask yourself why? What does he have to gain? He didn’t like how I was running Star Citizen? Fine, he has his money back. He has no active claim in the game, nor would I ever want someone like him to be part of our community. I have never met Derek Smart, nor do I ever care to. I have never done anything personally to him. Yet he has continued to wage a FUD campaign on Star Citizen, the company making it and its community since July. He actively tries to destroy the hard work that I and everyone else making the game have put in to this project. He wants to tear down something that close to one million people have put their hopes and dreams into. Is it ego? A sense of self-importance? The fact that he’s getting attention again after being in the wilderness? It’s probably not a coincidence that he’s actively courted the Gamer Gate crowd, while professing to remain neutral since he started attacking Star Citizen. It’s also probably not a coincidence that he’s been using the buzz words “accountability” and “ethics” when attacking us as he knows in today’s internet world, where almost no one actually does the research to find the real facts that hyperbole sticks and people love to tweet an instant response to an attention grabbling statement on Twitter.
Derek Smart publishes blogs where he talks about lawsuits and how’s he going to take us down. He’s going so far as to publically share a letter with some pretty silly requests from his supposed lawyer (he seems unable to sign these letters), regardless of the fact we haven’t received the letter. In his latest blog he linked to a letter from his “lawyer” that was dated September 14th. We only received it yesterday, on September 30th! And it was post marked September 22nd! If you know anything about real legal discourse you would know that it stays behind closed doors. You don’t publish this kind of communication as it will prejudice any possible case. What he is doing is just a publicity ploy to get headlines from journalists who don’t know any better and to worry Star Citizen backers into thinking he’s going to legally give us troubles. And this is exactly his FUD plan – scare enough people, tell enough lies, round up the occasional angry ex-employee to help pour fuel on the fire to give him some semblance of credibility. We are not afraid of Derek Smart. We have nothing to hide and are very confident in our ability to defend ourselves against anything he may try to bring. But my bet is he won’t – he’s full of hyperbole. He claims he’s made over $200M in royalties from his games as recently as a week ago (I don’t think I have to go into why this is a complete lie). He also says frequently that he’s worth over $100M, or that he has two PhDs, or that back in July he was taking out a full page ad in The New York Times to expose us. He says a lot of things to get attention and for some reason people don’t call him on it. You may say, “Well don’t shoot the messenger,” but when the messenger is delivering his own message, then I think it’s perfectly fair to question that persons motives and credibility.
And you know what? If he was a decent person he would state his opinion and then sit back and see if it actually plays out, which at that point perhaps he would be vindicated. Instead he is actively trying to make his prophesy come true, using whatever dirty tricks he can muster. Why?
So he’s trying to put 261 people out of a job and destroy the dreams of almost a million people? For a personal vendetta? To gain some notoriety? Because he’s jealous that people love my games and ridicule his?
I’m just a passionate game developer making the game of my dreams. I am lucky enough to be supported by a huge community of gamers that has contributed a large amount of money to make a game that no publisher would dream of making. We have a very large team, most of which share my passion and dream. Yes, there will always be people who don’t fit in with the work and dedication that the dream demands and some of them will be resentful when they part ways, but I am in this to make something that will stand the test of time, much like Wing Commander has. When reaching for the stars there are bound to be a few bumps and delays on the road. You’ve covered games for a long time. You know that games, especially big complicated ones always have hiccups and are frequently subject to unforeseen delays. We aren’t even at the three year mark of full development (we didn’t open up the first development office in Austin with 15 people until February 2013). Projects of half our scope frequently take four to five years.
We are a very public project and rely on the goodwill of gamers to exist. Having a negative article that includes the views or comments of a small number of disgruntled ex-employees with their own opinions on whether things were run well or not, especially when they will be shielded behind anonymity, could give people an impression of the project and company that is 100% false, especially if we are not part of the story. This would be far more damaging to us than a normal developer or publisher. I know that this kind of material is great for clicks but you also have to remember that we are talking about the jobs of 261 people and numerous contractors. Every time a game studio shuts down every outlet and commenter is quick to lament the state of the game industry. Every time a big public company pushes out a game quickly to make the holiday season everyone laments about lack of ambition and taking the audience for granted. Here you have a 100% gamer funded project on the PC, a platform that almost every publisher ignored or pushed crappy console ports to and you have a game in a genre that everyone said was dead to a level that no publisher would dare to – and you want to harm it? Shouldn’t the press be cheering on these kinds of games? The gamers spoke. They wanted something as big and ambitious as Star Citizen. I will deliver it – I have never in my life worked this hard – including when I was 20 and making Wing Commander. There is a huge group of very talented game developers who all share this vision, who are all working as hard as possible to deliver a game that will make all the backers happy. So I implore you to think twice about going for something that while it may be fun to see Rome burn…isn’t in the best interests of the game, the employees of CIG or the 987,217 members of our community. You may say that if it isn’t true what is the harm but we both know in today’s world that’s not how it works, the truth will be lost behind the click bait headlines and the damage will be done.
In an effort to be complete and also answer the talking points you sent David here are my responses;
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
CR: How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it’s what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn’t make a good game with $200m so I don’t think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it despite the inaccurate rumours perpetuated by Derek Smart.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
CR: What concerns expressed prior to launching the Kickstarter? The small, tight team that put together the KS campaign and worked on the technical demo are all very much still at CIG and none of these people had any doubt. And judging from the record breaking campaign which is the biggest crowd funded project (not just game) in history I would say that there’s a large amount of people that also didn’t have these concerns. So may I ask where did these concerns come from?
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
CR: Is this the FAQ line you’re talking about?
The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences. You will notice that this is saying that we would only be able to deliver Squadron 42, not the bigger game without additional funding. If you refer to the stretch goals you will notice that the base goal was enhanced community content (delivered), alpha dogfighting module (delivered) and Squadron 42 (in progress). That was the base game as described. The full persistent universe and all the extra features like FPS boarding, multiple star systems to visit, extra ships and so on are all stretch goals. As is true with most projects when the scope changes so do the timelines, you can’t build a castle in the same time you would a wood shed no matter how much money or how many people you have. To try to make some kind of narrative about how we promised the game in two years no matter how big the scope grew is false. Could we have shipped a small scale 30 mission game in the old Wing Commander format in two years? Yes, but that’s not the game the community wants or the game we’re building. What we are delivering now, just on the Squadron 42 side is more akin to a huge AAA game that would retail for $60 by itself. The value for money that people are getting for a $40 pledge is pretty crazy.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
CR: All personnel and HR matters are obviously completely private and we can’t comment on this as a matter of principle. As always, there are two sides to each story.
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: No crowdfunding monies are used for any private purposes – these allegations are completely false and defamatory. This is pure innuendo for nefarious purposes and I guarantee that anyone making this claim will be unable to show any proof of it as it simply hasn’t happened. Ever since Wing Commander came out I’ve been lucky enough to be financially independent, driven nice cars and lived in nice houses. That’s due to money earned through royalties, the sale of Origin to Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil to Microsoft and prudent investing. So why are people making a deal about me having these things now? I also find the continued attack on Sandi fairly alarming. Why is she being singled out? Because she’s my wife? A woman? Yes, she’s also an actress and there’s nothing wrong with her also engaging in one of her passions after hours or outside of work. We let employees play games of D&D in our conference room in the evenings or weekends. I don’t see attacks from Derek Smart about how this is a waste of company resources (and it is not his to comment on or judge anyhow).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
CR: The opposite is true. CIG benefited from pre-existing software that Turbulent had developed. Our JV with them allowed us access to cheaper rates and bound an important part of Star Citizen closer to CIG, which are both beneficial to CIG and the backers. Per our agreement Turbulent is of course free to offer their technology to other customers.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
CR: Where does this come from? Has anyone given you examples of “big name” actors or numbers? It’s completely incorrect – we paid appropriate rates for normal VO work for the commercials. Now for Squadron 42 we do have a really great cast, which we will announce in a week from Saturday, but that was one of our stretch goals so it would be a bit rich to accuse us of mismanagement there!
“Squadron 42 will feature celebrity voice-acting including at least one favorite from Wing Commander”
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
CR: Anybody even with minimal knowledge about game development can assess the significant progress by looking at the released modules and the detailed monthly reports from each development studio. We have a massive team, working flat out to build something special for everybody. We feel like we’ve made huge strides and have completed a good portion of the underlying technology that will enable us to make Star Citizen the game that your sources say can’t be made. I don’t know how someone could say with a straight face that they felt “they were making commercials, not a game.” In fact we haven’t had a ship commercial since last year! As an aside the commercials were used as a fun milestone to make sure everyone got the ship to final game quality, and it focused the artists on finishing the work for public consumption, which in turn helps with getting more final assets in the game sooner. It was also a great way to build the lore of the universe of Star Citizen up, which is a universe we intend to continue to expand for many years to come.
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
CR: In every project I’ve done and others I’ve witnessed it’s a very common tendency for people to want more staff to help finish the job. It’s always that way until the game is finally done. Under Erin’s leadership at head of Global Production we’ve re-organized to make things more efficient (which is really what started this flap in the first place) and we are in a hiring mode (which you can see by our open positions) which shows that we are working to address these concerns. We have ten confirmed new hires that will start this month alone and offers out to several more candidates.
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
CR: I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can’t even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more “game” than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone – from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone’s opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this “concern”.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
CR: Where are you getting this from? Have you guys really looked at what you can do right now in the game? You’ve been able to walk around your hangar since August of 2013. I’m pretty sure that was a complete character walking around rather than a mass hallucination. We have multiple characters in the game and are working on a lot more (of which some will be seen at Citizen Con).
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
CR: This is completely false. We’ve actually made public statements to this fact. All Austin employees have been advised of a fairly minimal restructuring where some roles have been moved to LA or Europe for overall team efficiency. The majority of our Texas employees will remain in the Austin studio (indefinitely, by the way). As I’ve mentioned previously we are actually increasing our worldwide headcount in order to complete the game as effectively as possible. I would hope that the backers want us to be constantly trying to increase efficiency and making the hard choices that will benefit the game.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
CR: It’s about making a great game. Crowd funding is just a tool that allows us to do it with freedom that you would not normally have with a traditional publisher. So no it’s always about the game.
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
CR: This is the statement that really makes my blood boil. If any current employee feels this way they should not be working on Star Citizen or at CIG! I suspect these are the words of a few bitter ex-employees trying to stir trouble but I consider it a privilege and an honor to have so many people support myself and the team in making the game of all our dreams. I have nothing but gratitude to our backers for their support and patience and nothing but respect for the CIG team giving their all to make this game. Anyone who doesn’t feel this is welcome to the door, and as you must now realize there have been a few people who haven’t shared the same passion or love and now resent being called out for it.
Ok, there you go.
I would like to point out that ever since I got your email from David I have been working on this response. I worked on this until 5am last night, and a couple more hours this morning in the UK, where I am currently am in preparation for CitizenCon in a week from Saturday. Conservatively it’s taken me about eight hours to write. This is time I could have spent working on the game instead of dealing with a Derek Smart instigated drama. And this is really what annoys me – that his silly rantings occasionally gain traction and pull me away from the very thing I prefer to do and the very thing everyone wants me to do and the very thing Derek Smart accuses me of not doing – FINISHING THE GAME! By constantly tweeting, writing blogs and soliciting journalists in the background to report his “findings” he’s waging guerrilla warfare on my time, the time of other key executives, and the peace of mind of our employees and backers.
I would ask you to think hard about this in the context of what you guys have been considering running with. What do you hope to achieve by running with an article like this? What good do you hope will come out of it? Are you looking to cast assertions on our chance of success? What’s the point of unfounded conjecture and innuendo from biased parties? People say we will not deliver the game we’ve promised. So? Shouldn’t you just let us get on with it? If it falls apart they will be vindicated, if not we will be. I don’t know any other project that gets the level of scrutiny that we get in the development phase. Every day I have to deal with thousands of arm chair CEOs and developers mostly because we are the most open game development project in history. I have no problem with our community having its opinion on various facets of our development but when our openness is used against us by a small number of outside agitators harbouring ill will against us, it becomes incredibly frustrating and detrimental to my ability to deliver the game as promised.
If you guys are willing to do a proper piece then I’m happy to engage. You’re invited to visit all of our four studios, meet the developers making the game and see how we’re building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand. I’ll put my 261, their passion and energy against the complaints of a few disgruntled ex-employees any day. We have backers visit the offices all the time, they all come away with the same impression – that the entire team is dedicated to making the best game possible – if you took the time to research this you will find that it is a common comment and that the “noise” that has been generated is really from a very small number of people and some quite bitter ex-employees.
-Chris
From: John Keefer
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
To: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
Hey David,
After our chat and the initial story ran, we had a bunch of former employees and current employees step up to talk to us about Star Citizen and what is happening with the game. The allegations and concerns are numerous (see below), which gives us a sense of urgency to get this story out there ASAP, ideally first thing tomorrow morning. Note that NONE of these come from Derek but are all internal or formerly internal folks who came to us or agreed to speak with us. We are giving you and Chris a chance to respond before the story goes live. We are willing to wait a very short while to ensure these get answered if possible, but this story will run tomorrow at noon at the absolute latest.
Bullet points from the story:
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
Thanks for your time.
John
UPDATE: The attached demand letter is our formal response to specific, slanderous allegations made in the recent The Escapist article on Star Citizen. Normally, we would keep this behind closed doors, but we felt it was imperative to put our statement on record and indicate how disgusted we are with The Escapist’s irresponsible actions. Corporate at Defy Media asked us to delay publication of this letter while investigating, but we feel strongly that the record needs to be set straight without further delay.
We know that most Citizens are not interested in this drama, and as such we are updating the original notice rather than publishing additional Comm-Link articles. Future updates will occur here rather than in additional sections of the RSI site.
Greetings Citizens,
I have, to date, attempted to stay above the internet drama currently surrounding Derek Smart and his claims about Star Citizen. My feeling has been that it is most important to speak with actions instead of words, and to date I feel that we have done that with the multi crew demo, the launch of the social module and everything else you see here in this space on a daily basis. However, with the publication of today’s article (I can only call it a hit piece) on The Escapist, I believe it is necessary to address the issue directly. In the interests of openness, I am making available right now my correspondence with The Escapist’s managing editor. What follows is his original e-mail to our Director of Communications, David Swofford, and my response, sent to them three hours before their deadline and not included in the piece.
I have to say that I’m incredibly disappointed in all of this. This sort of drama is not what I, or you, signed up for with Star Citizen. Thanks to your support, the project has become bigger than I ever thought possible and there’s no question that opens us up to criticism from anyone looking to make a name for themselves. I know that every company goes through such things, especially with regards to unhappy former employees. It is unfortunate that our open nature makes us a bigger target, and going forward we will do the best we can to refute such baseless accusations. But most importantly, stay tuned to see the actual work we’re doing, which should put any questions to rest.
I will update this piece with a direct response to the article later in the day, but I wanted to go ahead and show you what they left out; hopefully it will calm some nerves now.
Chris Roberts
- Chris Roberts
From: Chris Roberts
Sent: 01 October 2015 14:10
To: John Keefer
Cc: David Swofford
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
John,
I was quite shocked to see the email that David Swofford forwarded to me filled with a bunch of conjecture, falsehoods and opinions of disgruntled ex-employees enflamed by Derek Smart’s personal quest to destroy Star Citizen.
I know you say that “none of these come from Derek” but we both know that’s not true. You are quoting the exact same things in your email he has spewed in his blogs and twitter for months. If you want me to give you links to the exact same claims (which are patently UNTRUE) I can but we both know it’s coming from him and the few people he’s rounded up. We are a company of 261 employees spread across two continents and four development studios. With a company our size there will definitely be a few unhappy ex-employees – the same would be true of any large organization – we have built up quickly and not everyone is a superstar or fits in with the culture. We have parted ways with a few people over the past couple of years, not all of them amicable, and it is alarming to feel like there is a one sided piece that will be filled with complaints of people who aren’t part of the project for a reason. As long as I’ve made games, especially on large projects this has always been the case and it shouldn’t be news.
So why is it for you guys? Do you really want to give a platform to Derek Smart? This is the same person who wrote a letter to Origin and me after Wing Commander was out claiming that we were infringing on his game and we had to cease publishing it or he would sue us. We told him we never heard of him and good luck with that. He never sued. His game was, of course, the now infamous Battlecruiser 3000AD that would take many more years to come out (I think I shipped four Wing Commanders before his game came out).
Derek has a long history of finding some “big” thing to joust at just to keep himself in people’s consciousness rather than let his games do the talking. We’re not the first project where he has made it his mission to attack. Personally I think it would be much better to use that energy on his own game rather than take this path. He’s managed to rouse up enough attention that sites like yours are reporting his bile like it’s fact. You can’t pretend that the article that you published the other day was anything but a mouth piece for him. It completely repeated his narrative hook, line and sinker and mentioned plenty of out of context material in an attempt to harm the project and my reputation. I just don’t get it. The only person who is famous for being a blowhard, bully, an awful game developer and human being is Derek Smart. Just look up his history over the years. Or see how he treats people who dare to write a bug up on his current “game.” Why aren’t you doing a piece on the state of Line of Defense? Everything he accuses us of doing, he actually does himself! He’s the king of self-projection!
I’m pretty disturbed by your approach to this piece as well as the last piece Escapist published online. Why the rush to publish with or without our comments by noon today? What’s so urgent that you can’t take a little time to actually approach this like responsible journalists and do proper fact checking, get both sides of the story and only publish verifiable claims that have proof? Otherwise you’re just engaging in the same kind of campaign of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that Derek Smart has been actively pursuing every day since he realized that he could get attention by attacking Star Citizen (as he certainly wasn’t getting any for his own game).
I’m also pretty concerned that your reporter on this is compromised and pursuing her own agenda. For someone who is a self-acclaimed Gamer Gate supporter, which last I checked was about ethics in video game journalism, she’s not been behaving or going about her business like an ethical reporter. Lizzy Finnegan appears in this tweet from Bandit@istheguy:
This is directed at a self-avowed feminist. Meantime, Bandit@istheguy is the very same person who started attacking Star Citizen on the day before your reporter wrote her article, tweeting about two people we parted ways with, then following up by retweeting the Escapist article and people who mentioned it…and then finally ending up by doxing myself, my wife and one of my daughters with this sequence of tweets.
“Bandit” is an anonymous account that was created on August 11th of this year and is almost exclusively used to aggressively attack and harass folks seen as enemies to Gamer Gate – the usual targets are all there, as are the usual proponents being retweeted. It’s notable that this account was interacting with and supporting Derek Smart when he was complaining about being blocked and reported as a harasser by two huge GG targets; Randi Harper and Briana Wu, which was another Derek Smart self-announced drama (he loves to play the victim, which he did when we refunded him publically sharing his refund email, claiming we were trying to silence him. We weren’t – we strongly believe in free speech and allow many dissenting opinions on our forums as long as they stay within standards of decency. You don’t keep someone as part of your community who is demanding you run the development differently or else he’ll sue you, especially someone who is plainly using the opportunity to attack Star Citizen for self-promotion).
Derek tweeted @1:15pm on September 24th about us letting go of staff in LA, less than an hour after we had completed the exit interviews of the two employees we were terminating (considering he’s in Florida and we’re in LA it’s not hard to connect the dots on where he got his information from). At 4:01pm “Bandit” starts mentioning people being let go.
If you look at the Twitter history of Liz and “Bandit” they frequently retweet each other’s tweets and generally reinforce each other’s views / opinions. I don’t know Liz’s personal life (nor do I care to) but based on the picture of her in “Bandit’s” tweet it is not a stretch to assume there is either a close relationship between Liz and “Bandit” or they are potentially one and the same. Which kind of calls into question these statements she made on Twitter:
Also retweeted by “Bandit” (as evidenced above).
This would explain her approach to the article, which was to pretty much take everything that Derek Smart claimed and report it without allowing us any opportunity to properly respond. Liz’s first email to David Swofford was at 744pm on the 24th, after which “Bandit,” riding into battle for his/her new friend, and Liz directly referenced Derek Smart’s claims. I didn’t see this until Friday afternoon (David works out of our Austin office, I was in our LA office) after David had a brief and rather irritated exchange with Liz (attached). I replied to him with some comments and concerns expecting David to have the opportunity to go back to Liz to further discuss some points she was bringing up that were clearly just singing out of the Derek Smart hymn book and much to my dismay and disappointment the article had already been published.
Which brings me back to my original point on all this. Why the rush to publish an article without allowing a proper round of fact and source checking? It completely feels like an agenda is being pursued. This is not the journalism that I remember from the Escapist of old. It’s click bait journalism of the lowest standard. It’s pretty ironic that it’s exactly the kind of journalism that Game Gate stands against. I’m also pretty bemused how suddenly Star Citizen and I have become the subject of attacks by a few people who associate themselves with Gamer Gate. I’m a gamer. I am making a game that gamers have overwhelmingly said they want made, to the tune of almost $90M and rising! I believe in ethics in journalism. I also believe in being inclusive to all and not being abusive to people in person or online. I don’t support either side because I believe it’s too polarizing but I believe we can do better, as gamers, as journalists and as human beings.
So why? It can’t be because we don’t buy banner ads and thusly are an easy click bait target for sensationalist pieces. I have to believe that your reporter is telling you she is onto something and you are taking her at face value and not questioning her motives or ethics.
Derek Smart is very adept at doing what he has been doing; spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. He always grabs one nugget of a fact and uses that to sell a whole lot of lies and disinformation. He tweets about Star Citizen EVERY DAY. Not once but multiple times. If you read his Twitter stream it comes across as the crusade of a crazy man. He continually blogs about us. He constantly agitates…encouraging people to ask for refunds, report us to the FTC, the FBI and/or their local attorney general. He calls me a liar, a fraud, incompetent and many other names. He has slandered my family members and business partners. He has publically doxed me, sharing the address of my home in LA, pictures of my wife and five year old daughter. He constantly attacks Sandi Gardiner, accusing her of having no qualifications, or experience, that she had other people do her work for her and only has the Marketing position because she is my wife. That is incredibly ironic considering we are the most crowd funded project in history, that she wrote the marketing plan, and single handedly executed it when we were a tiny team – even today she’s the only dedicated marketing person at the company, for a game that has raised almost $90M for its development solely through viral marketing, word of mouth and PR. If you were going to criticize Star Citizen you certainly can fault us for taking longer than everyone wants, which would fall on the development side of the company but not marketing! The icing on the cake is that she has five degrees and speaks five languages, which I am willing to bet makes her a lot more qualified than Derek Smart is!
You have to ask yourself why? What does he have to gain? He didn’t like how I was running Star Citizen? Fine, he has his money back. He has no active claim in the game, nor would I ever want someone like him to be part of our community. I have never met Derek Smart, nor do I ever care to. I have never done anything personally to him. Yet he has continued to wage a FUD campaign on Star Citizen, the company making it and its community since July. He actively tries to destroy the hard work that I and everyone else making the game have put in to this project. He wants to tear down something that close to one million people have put their hopes and dreams into. Is it ego? A sense of self-importance? The fact that he’s getting attention again after being in the wilderness? It’s probably not a coincidence that he’s actively courted the Gamer Gate crowd, while professing to remain neutral since he started attacking Star Citizen. It’s also probably not a coincidence that he’s been using the buzz words “accountability” and “ethics” when attacking us as he knows in today’s internet world, where almost no one actually does the research to find the real facts that hyperbole sticks and people love to tweet an instant response to an attention grabbling statement on Twitter.
Derek Smart publishes blogs where he talks about lawsuits and how’s he going to take us down. He’s going so far as to publically share a letter with some pretty silly requests from his supposed lawyer (he seems unable to sign these letters), regardless of the fact we haven’t received the letter. In his latest blog he linked to a letter from his “lawyer” that was dated September 14th. We only received it yesterday, on September 30th! And it was post marked September 22nd! If you know anything about real legal discourse you would know that it stays behind closed doors. You don’t publish this kind of communication as it will prejudice any possible case. What he is doing is just a publicity ploy to get headlines from journalists who don’t know any better and to worry Star Citizen backers into thinking he’s going to legally give us troubles. And this is exactly his FUD plan – scare enough people, tell enough lies, round up the occasional angry ex-employee to help pour fuel on the fire to give him some semblance of credibility. We are not afraid of Derek Smart. We have nothing to hide and are very confident in our ability to defend ourselves against anything he may try to bring. But my bet is he won’t – he’s full of hyperbole. He claims he’s made over $200M in royalties from his games as recently as a week ago (I don’t think I have to go into why this is a complete lie). He also says frequently that he’s worth over $100M, or that he has two PhDs, or that back in July he was taking out a full page ad in The New York Times to expose us. He says a lot of things to get attention and for some reason people don’t call him on it. You may say, “Well don’t shoot the messenger,” but when the messenger is delivering his own message, then I think it’s perfectly fair to question that persons motives and credibility.
And you know what? If he was a decent person he would state his opinion and then sit back and see if it actually plays out, which at that point perhaps he would be vindicated. Instead he is actively trying to make his prophesy come true, using whatever dirty tricks he can muster. Why?
So he’s trying to put 261 people out of a job and destroy the dreams of almost a million people? For a personal vendetta? To gain some notoriety? Because he’s jealous that people love my games and ridicule his?
I’m just a passionate game developer making the game of my dreams. I am lucky enough to be supported by a huge community of gamers that has contributed a large amount of money to make a game that no publisher would dream of making. We have a very large team, most of which share my passion and dream. Yes, there will always be people who don’t fit in with the work and dedication that the dream demands and some of them will be resentful when they part ways, but I am in this to make something that will stand the test of time, much like Wing Commander has. When reaching for the stars there are bound to be a few bumps and delays on the road. You’ve covered games for a long time. You know that games, especially big complicated ones always have hiccups and are frequently subject to unforeseen delays. We aren’t even at the three year mark of full development (we didn’t open up the first development office in Austin with 15 people until February 2013). Projects of half our scope frequently take four to five years.
We are a very public project and rely on the goodwill of gamers to exist. Having a negative article that includes the views or comments of a small number of disgruntled ex-employees with their own opinions on whether things were run well or not, especially when they will be shielded behind anonymity, could give people an impression of the project and company that is 100% false, especially if we are not part of the story. This would be far more damaging to us than a normal developer or publisher. I know that this kind of material is great for clicks but you also have to remember that we are talking about the jobs of 261 people and numerous contractors. Every time a game studio shuts down every outlet and commenter is quick to lament the state of the game industry. Every time a big public company pushes out a game quickly to make the holiday season everyone laments about lack of ambition and taking the audience for granted. Here you have a 100% gamer funded project on the PC, a platform that almost every publisher ignored or pushed crappy console ports to and you have a game in a genre that everyone said was dead to a level that no publisher would dare to – and you want to harm it? Shouldn’t the press be cheering on these kinds of games? The gamers spoke. They wanted something as big and ambitious as Star Citizen. I will deliver it – I have never in my life worked this hard – including when I was 20 and making Wing Commander. There is a huge group of very talented game developers who all share this vision, who are all working as hard as possible to deliver a game that will make all the backers happy. So I implore you to think twice about going for something that while it may be fun to see Rome burn…isn’t in the best interests of the game, the employees of CIG or the 987,217 members of our community. You may say that if it isn’t true what is the harm but we both know in today’s world that’s not how it works, the truth will be lost behind the click bait headlines and the damage will be done.
In an effort to be complete and also answer the talking points you sent David here are my responses;
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
CR: How do you or they know this? Which employees said this and what makes them qualified to make that judgement? I know it’s what Derek Smart loves to say but he couldn’t make a good game with $200m so I don’t think his opinion matters. Outside of that, no employee beyond me and a few other key people who are leading Star Citizen would have the appropriate information and overview to make any judgement about the cost of the total project. Secondly, the company uses additional sources of funding such as tax incentives, marketing and product partnerships, but we do not discuss these issues in public for obvious reasons. We always keep a healthy cash reserve and operate our business prudently based on the incoming revenue. It should tell you something that we are actually increasing our global headcount not decreasing it despite the inaccurate rumours perpetuated by Derek Smart.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
CR: What concerns expressed prior to launching the Kickstarter? The small, tight team that put together the KS campaign and worked on the technical demo are all very much still at CIG and none of these people had any doubt. And judging from the record breaking campaign which is the biggest crowd funded project (not just game) in history I would say that there’s a large amount of people that also didn’t have these concerns. So may I ask where did these concerns come from?
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
CR: Is this the FAQ line you’re talking about?
The purpose of the higher stretch goals is to ensure that the game-as-described is finished in the two year time period. We intend to build the game that Chris Roberts described at GDC Online regardless, but without additional funding we are going to have to do it one piece at a time, starting with Squadron 42, rather than as a single larger production. With more funding we can include more ships, systems, unique locations, animations and cinematic sequences. You will notice that this is saying that we would only be able to deliver Squadron 42, not the bigger game without additional funding. If you refer to the stretch goals you will notice that the base goal was enhanced community content (delivered), alpha dogfighting module (delivered) and Squadron 42 (in progress). That was the base game as described. The full persistent universe and all the extra features like FPS boarding, multiple star systems to visit, extra ships and so on are all stretch goals. As is true with most projects when the scope changes so do the timelines, you can’t build a castle in the same time you would a wood shed no matter how much money or how many people you have. To try to make some kind of narrative about how we promised the game in two years no matter how big the scope grew is false. Could we have shipped a small scale 30 mission game in the old Wing Commander format in two years? Yes, but that’s not the game the community wants or the game we’re building. What we are delivering now, just on the Squadron 42 side is more akin to a huge AAA game that would retail for $60 by itself. The value for money that people are getting for a $40 pledge is pretty crazy.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
CR: All personnel and HR matters are obviously completely private and we can’t comment on this as a matter of principle. As always, there are two sides to each story.
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
CR: No crowdfunding monies are used for any private purposes – these allegations are completely false and defamatory. This is pure innuendo for nefarious purposes and I guarantee that anyone making this claim will be unable to show any proof of it as it simply hasn’t happened. Ever since Wing Commander came out I’ve been lucky enough to be financially independent, driven nice cars and lived in nice houses. That’s due to money earned through royalties, the sale of Origin to Electronic Arts, Digital Anvil to Microsoft and prudent investing. So why are people making a deal about me having these things now? I also find the continued attack on Sandi fairly alarming. Why is she being singled out? Because she’s my wife? A woman? Yes, she’s also an actress and there’s nothing wrong with her also engaging in one of her passions after hours or outside of work. We let employees play games of D&D in our conference room in the evenings or weekends. I don’t see attacks from Derek Smart about how this is a waste of company resources (and it is not his to comment on or judge anyhow).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
CR: The opposite is true. CIG benefited from pre-existing software that Turbulent had developed. Our JV with them allowed us access to cheaper rates and bound an important part of Star Citizen closer to CIG, which are both beneficial to CIG and the backers. Per our agreement Turbulent is of course free to offer their technology to other customers.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
CR: Where does this come from? Has anyone given you examples of “big name” actors or numbers? It’s completely incorrect – we paid appropriate rates for normal VO work for the commercials. Now for Squadron 42 we do have a really great cast, which we will announce in a week from Saturday, but that was one of our stretch goals so it would be a bit rich to accuse us of mismanagement there!
“Squadron 42 will feature celebrity voice-acting including at least one favorite from Wing Commander”
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
CR: Anybody even with minimal knowledge about game development can assess the significant progress by looking at the released modules and the detailed monthly reports from each development studio. We have a massive team, working flat out to build something special for everybody. We feel like we’ve made huge strides and have completed a good portion of the underlying technology that will enable us to make Star Citizen the game that your sources say can’t be made. I don’t know how someone could say with a straight face that they felt “they were making commercials, not a game.” In fact we haven’t had a ship commercial since last year! As an aside the commercials were used as a fun milestone to make sure everyone got the ship to final game quality, and it focused the artists on finishing the work for public consumption, which in turn helps with getting more final assets in the game sooner. It was also a great way to build the lore of the universe of Star Citizen up, which is a universe we intend to continue to expand for many years to come.
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
CR: In every project I’ve done and others I’ve witnessed it’s a very common tendency for people to want more staff to help finish the job. It’s always that way until the game is finally done. Under Erin’s leadership at head of Global Production we’ve re-organized to make things more efficient (which is really what started this flap in the first place) and we are in a hiring mode (which you can see by our open positions) which shows that we are working to address these concerns. We have ten confirmed new hires that will start this month alone and offers out to several more candidates.
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
CR: I have a very strong vision for Star Citizen, which is why I believe we have been backed to the level we have. I have no doubt what we can achieve. Now that most of the base technology is in place we will be able to get with the Large World and MultiCrew milestone a game experience that will allow you to seamlessly go from foot, to boarding a fully realized spaceship with your friends, take off, fly thousands or millions of km in space, exit your ship in EVA and explore derelict space stations or wrecks, engage in FPS combat, return to your ship, engage in space combat and return to your home base to share the tales of your adventures with your other friends. All with no leading screens, all at AAA first person fidelity that you can’t even get on a next gen console. This is the core of the Squadron 42 and Star Citizen experience that we will continue to iterate on and add content to, but even the first release will be more “game” than most commercially released space games. In terms of not listening to the advice of people that have worked in the industry that is not true. I have a very strong executive management and design team with huge experience in AAA titles that all contribute to the decision making of the company. I listen to everyone – from our top level all the way through to our QA testers and community giving feedback on gameplay and features. I care and want to build the best game possible. Now that doesn’t mean I agree with everyone’s opinions and feedback as a project director I owe it to the community to stay true to my vision and pick the things that I think will make the game better which can occasionally lead to people feeling disgruntled, which I suspect is the root of this “concern”.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
CR: Where are you getting this from? Have you guys really looked at what you can do right now in the game? You’ve been able to walk around your hangar since August of 2013. I’m pretty sure that was a complete character walking around rather than a mass hallucination. We have multiple characters in the game and are working on a lot more (of which some will be seen at Citizen Con).
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
CR: This is completely false. We’ve actually made public statements to this fact. All Austin employees have been advised of a fairly minimal restructuring where some roles have been moved to LA or Europe for overall team efficiency. The majority of our Texas employees will remain in the Austin studio (indefinitely, by the way). As I’ve mentioned previously we are actually increasing our worldwide headcount in order to complete the game as effectively as possible. I would hope that the backers want us to be constantly trying to increase efficiency and making the hard choices that will benefit the game.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
CR: It’s about making a great game. Crowd funding is just a tool that allows us to do it with freedom that you would not normally have with a traditional publisher. So no it’s always about the game.
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
CR: This is the statement that really makes my blood boil. If any current employee feels this way they should not be working on Star Citizen or at CIG! I suspect these are the words of a few bitter ex-employees trying to stir trouble but I consider it a privilege and an honor to have so many people support myself and the team in making the game of all our dreams. I have nothing but gratitude to our backers for their support and patience and nothing but respect for the CIG team giving their all to make this game. Anyone who doesn’t feel this is welcome to the door, and as you must now realize there have been a few people who haven’t shared the same passion or love and now resent being called out for it.
Ok, there you go.
I would like to point out that ever since I got your email from David I have been working on this response. I worked on this until 5am last night, and a couple more hours this morning in the UK, where I am currently am in preparation for CitizenCon in a week from Saturday. Conservatively it’s taken me about eight hours to write. This is time I could have spent working on the game instead of dealing with a Derek Smart instigated drama. And this is really what annoys me – that his silly rantings occasionally gain traction and pull me away from the very thing I prefer to do and the very thing everyone wants me to do and the very thing Derek Smart accuses me of not doing – FINISHING THE GAME! By constantly tweeting, writing blogs and soliciting journalists in the background to report his “findings” he’s waging guerrilla warfare on my time, the time of other key executives, and the peace of mind of our employees and backers.
I would ask you to think hard about this in the context of what you guys have been considering running with. What do you hope to achieve by running with an article like this? What good do you hope will come out of it? Are you looking to cast assertions on our chance of success? What’s the point of unfounded conjecture and innuendo from biased parties? People say we will not deliver the game we’ve promised. So? Shouldn’t you just let us get on with it? If it falls apart they will be vindicated, if not we will be. I don’t know any other project that gets the level of scrutiny that we get in the development phase. Every day I have to deal with thousands of arm chair CEOs and developers mostly because we are the most open game development project in history. I have no problem with our community having its opinion on various facets of our development but when our openness is used against us by a small number of outside agitators harbouring ill will against us, it becomes incredibly frustrating and detrimental to my ability to deliver the game as promised.
If you guys are willing to do a proper piece then I’m happy to engage. You’re invited to visit all of our four studios, meet the developers making the game and see how we’re building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand. I’ll put my 261, their passion and energy against the complaints of a few disgruntled ex-employees any day. We have backers visit the offices all the time, they all come away with the same impression – that the entire team is dedicated to making the best game possible – if you took the time to research this you will find that it is a common comment and that the “noise” that has been generated is really from a very small number of people and some quite bitter ex-employees.
-Chris
From: John Keefer
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 12:44 PM
To: David Swofford
Cc: Josh Vanderwall; Lizzy F
Subject: Upcoming Star Citizen article
Hey David,
After our chat and the initial story ran, we had a bunch of former employees and current employees step up to talk to us about Star Citizen and what is happening with the game. The allegations and concerns are numerous (see below), which gives us a sense of urgency to get this story out there ASAP, ideally first thing tomorrow morning. Note that NONE of these come from Derek but are all internal or formerly internal folks who came to us or agreed to speak with us. We are giving you and Chris a chance to respond before the story goes live. We are willing to wait a very short while to ensure these get answered if possible, but this story will run tomorrow at noon at the absolute latest.
Bullet points from the story:
-Employees have indicated that Star Citizen and all of the promised stretch goals, “even with competent management,” could not be made for $90 million.
-Concerns expressed over the planning of the project prior to launching the Kickstarter, namely related to Roberts’ extended absence from the video game industry.
-In 2012, a Kickstarter FAQ indicated that the high cost of stretch goals was in order to ensure a 2014 delivery date.
-Allegations of a “toxic” work environment, including ignored Human Resources complaints against Sandi Gardiner (including accusations of discriminatory hiring processes, vulgarity and personal insults during both public disagreements and email exchanges).
-Accusations of the mismanagement of money, including: using crowdfunding money to pay for couple’s Pacific Palisades mansion, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vehicles, using crowdfunding money to pay for personal vacations, using company resources and employees to create videos for films and auditions (Sandi Gardiner).
-Accusations of entering into a joint venture partnership with Turbulent, and using crowdfunding money in order to assist with the continued creation of the crowdfunding platform that was used on the RSI website to market to other companies.
-Accusations of “irresponsible spending” of money, including the use of “big name” Hollywood actors for voice-overs for the commercials, the hiring of inexperienced “movie people” to work on certain aspects for large fees with minimal to no experience.
-Accusations that the majority of the crowdfunding money has been used, with minimal progress made. Sources state they “feel like they were making commercials, not a game.”
-People feel the company is understaffed for what is being asked of them
-Employees are concerned that Roberts is not listening to the advice of people who have worked in the industry during his absence, and that they will have to waste time and resources attempting something impossible just to prove it would not work.
-Allegations indicating that there are not currently any complete character builds for the game.
-Statements made that the Austin office will be closing, as is understood by employees.
-Accusations that Star Citizen became more about crowdfunding than about making a game
-Employees feel as though they are “part of a con”
Thanks for your time.
John
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Metadata
- CIG ID
- 14979
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- Transmission
- Category
- General
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- Comments
- 1909
- Published
- 10 years ago (2015-10-04T00:00:00+00:00)