But the buyer will be angry with me, and will even keep questioning my competency, ethics, morale and character but UNLESS i deliver the product to him he has every right to call me a scammer.
And I will ask you again.
CIG has done plenty that they should be questioned about.
But where is the **fraud**?
They are raising money by crowdfunding.
They are open about their objectives.
They have acknowledged that their original vision can't be delivered - because it has grown since the original Kickstarter.
They have not provided a release date and are very open about the fact that their product is currently in Alpha and hence subject to delays.
What are they doing wrong? They are giving release dates for Alpha patches which, by their nature, are subject to delays. That is unprofessional, IMO. But then, other companies would not be allowing Alpha access at this stage. But CIG needs to because this is part of what feeds their funding model. There are signs of bad management, poor communication and wasted funds/time/resources. With their stretch goals and extra funding, CIG transitioned away from the original game to a vision that is more akin to an actual MMORPG.....transitioned away rom a simplistic Wing Commander successor to a game more akin to WoW or SWTOR.
In short, transitioned into a game type that could requires hundreds of millions and the better part of a decade to develop rather than keep their original vision which was much more achievable.
So - I will ask again - where is the fraud? You say this is a scam? Where is the money going? Is it going into game development? Yes. It appears it is. Is it being siphoned off? Doesn't appear to be.
CIG are raising money, being upfront about the risks involved, and using that money as the backers intend. They are developing the game that they have promised. So there is no intent or action that seems to compromised fraud. A game that should take years and tens of millions to develop IS taking years and tens/hundreds of millions to develop.
Now - the crowdfunding model can be criticised for aspect such as its lack of accountability. CIGs marketing leaves a lot to be desired. CIG and Chris Roberts have made plenty of poor decisions, wasted a fair amount of time and money, and arguably should have more progress to show than they currently do. If the info we have is even partially correct, Chris Roberts appears to be a poor manager and even a bit out of touch with modern methods of development. CIG continuing to provide release dates which it misses is unprofessional and at best, undermines confidence. At this stage of development, they should almost not be announcing releases until after such releases are ready.
But none of that, nothing that CIG has ever said or done, constitutes fraud or makes this a scam.
As for your example...
CIG promised to make a game. They also promised to make custom tools to develop that game. Their stretch goals which were funded also changed the scope and scale of the game.
They have produced demoes, they have created their tools, they have improved and worked on their engine.
Have they misinformed their backers? Kept facts hidden? Deliberately misrepresented information and facts the players need to know? Are engaged in deliberate fraud?
Maybe they are - but so far, there is no evidence of it. Just a few people engaged in the time honoured practise of mud slinging.
So far, it looks like CIG are developing the game. It looks like they are making progress. It looks like they are making mistakes doing so. But the game is still coming along. The features that were promised are being added. Slowly, but they are being added.
CIG are taking money on the promise that they will develop a game. The money is being used to develop the game. And with 400 Devs and 4 sites, it is easy to see where even $30 million a year could be spent. Is this a scam? Is this fraud? Because so far, it just looks like mudslinging.
