Star Citizen – General Discussions

[MDrake SC]

Please don’t scare me. I do not want to be in a theater with those types of people. They cray cray.

[MDrake SC]

This post adds more fun, with info from the goons and is a partial reply to Hotsauce ShoTYME’s post #2184, and Derek’s post of #2183.

Illfonic said something big big big in a newsletter. “We had some massive setbacks after our unexpected departure from our work on Star Citizen. When that happened, some of our resources we had on Revival had to be trimmed.” Derek hinted it some time ago, and now we get additional confirmation. A forum thread made its way to CIG, and Jared shuts it down. Illfonic is definitely pissed, and CIG have to clean up the self made mess.

Derek’s posted article about being banned offsite, led to a follow up article from the fine folks at INN. The article was written by Killbotvii and Dolvak. Don’t forget, Dolvak is the guy that threatened to ruin Derek’s career, and after picking a fight, Dolvak deleted all of his older reddit posts and history. He is the moderator of the SC reddit. In the INN article, we have “It claims that BeerfortheBeerGod decided to speak to Sandi about his perma-banning, which there would be no problem with. Except that there’s no legitimate proof that such a conversation happened. All that it’s included in the article is a link to an anonymous pastebin.” Dolvak and INN are such corrupted folks. Who knows what kind of perks or favors they get for being pro CIG. Or maybe they are just the same idiots that can’t accept reality.

It’s pretty damn sad that actual customers are doing everything possible to keep this scam going. Derek says something is coming in “2 weeks.” The problem is that “2 weeks” is some sort of meme and I ain’t Goon enough to know more than 2 meanings.

[lir big]

huhu, and with a bit of another luck he’s going to make a trilogy of it.
Ok jokes aside, these guys are really scary indeed but all extremists are. Now we have to watch them ,  because when Scamizen crashes down they’ll still be unleashed and vociferous.

[J HOW]

Have been following Star Citizen for a very long while, admittedly not backing the project but rather looking with interest at how it was progressing.  Normally wouldn’t post here however it does look in this instance that Derek Smart does have several valid points.  For clarity would like to explain why he may be on the mark about employment at CIG.

Will caveat now that this is my personal opinion based on my experiences. They could be completely off the mark.  No malice intended or indeed making any waves.  It may be that my experience was a one off, however the more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense based on what Derek Smart has said.

I had applied for a role within CIG before the media storm, the escapist article and before a lot of what we see now.  Being in the gaming industry at large albeit in a very small way compared to some developers.  Applied online for a role in CIG, which frankly did not expect a response, at the time I was looking for work so thought it would be worth a shot.  Applied and got a response from HR, then received a call asking for follow up questions.  Initially they said they would wait for interview if they were interested, great I thought.  I then received a second call on the more technical aspects, things were going quite well!  About two weeks later is when things went a bit pair shaped when I spoke to one of the managers who seemed to imply on how oddly I spoke English.  At the time it was “sorry”, “pardon”, “could you repeat that”, now my English may be accented but normally everyone can understand me.  Had a conference call based on my technical capabilities, now it was the choice of words which seemed to imply heavily on following instructions and if I could communicate with the team.  I asked a lot of questions on their server setup, their architecture and their support services as you do, in that call it seemed to be focusing on what I could do from my technical understanding until some follow up questions on my language skills.  After that I heard nothing and of course did not get any position.  This may come across as sour grapes however even at the time I noticed it seemed to play heavily throughout the conference call on my language skills – which are fine by the way.  Something just seemed “off” about the whole experience.

I had thought that was the end of it, and ended up in employment at another gaming company.  Now this is where it gets weird, directly after the media storm, escapist article CIG did contact my references – even though I didn’t get a job after the interview process.  This was several months later so have no idea why they asked for them without asking me first.

Now not sure if that relates to Derek’s understanding of HR at CIG.  For the references I assumed they had simply made a mistake, but the conference call itself seemed very odd.

[MDrake SC]

@ J HOW

You applied to CIG around August or September? Did you apply to a specific office or region? If it was for the LA office, was it a woman who contacted you at some point? Was it a woman who questioned your language skills?

Based on what we know, Sandi Gardiner (the CEO’s wife) is active in many jobs at CIG’s LA office, especially with regards to hiring. She is a major target to follow due to the allegations made in the Escapist articles, as well as the recent replies in the email with Beer (customer). From the Escapist, “[Sandi] would write emails with so much profanity. She would call people stupid, retard, faggot. Accuse men of not having balls. And she was incredibly hostile to other female employees.”

Basically, Beer’s email with Sandi confirmed the profanity and her tendency to insult others. As well as “Sandi is very jealous. She has to be the queen bee at the company.” Too many things in the Escapist article have proven to be true.

I may be bashing on Sandi too much, but it is for good reasons. I think you lucked out finding and getting a job elsewhere.

[dsmart]

So yesterday I was invited to a stream discussing the latest Sandi fiasco (1, 2) in which emails showed insight into how she regards and demeans the people working on this project. At some point, after talking about the on-going Star Citizen fiasco, I simply lost it and just let it rip.

And this is the section about Wulf Knight aka @accelerwraith

[dsmart]

Since people keep asking me about this, I have excerpt it from my blogs. There is also a forum thread detailing the surreptitious ToS changes.

HOW TO REPORT A PRODUCT TO THE FTC

First, read the FTC bulletin, Getting Your Money Back

If you feel that you have been misled when you backed the Star Citizen project after Oct, 2012, and you want a chance to get your money back, the FTC has setup a special department that deals with crowd-funding complaints. You can fill out this form. Then select “Internet services, online shopping, or computers” then “Online shopping”. You can read more about that over here.

Cloud Imperium, LLC
12322 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
http://robertsspaceindustries.com
[email protected]
Tel: 310-275-1300

All Robert Space Industries / Cloud Imperium Games offices.

You can also use this as your summary. Edit as-needed:

“Cloud Imperium Games has collected in excess of $100 million in crowd-funding money by selling game related items of varying value from $10 all the way up to to $15,000.

The game was promised to be delivered in Nov of 2014. However, thus far, only about 10% of the content they promised and received money for, have been delivered. Also, they have since vastly increased the scope of the project from what was previously promised; and they have gone on the record admitting to this.

They also changed the original Terms Of Service which would have required them to provide full refunds and financial accounting for the project if they failed to deliver by the promised Nov 2014 date. This change extended the term from Dec 2015 to May 2016.

They continue to raise money for the project despite never having met a single promised milestone.

After previously removing some features promised and which most backers were in favor of when they backed the project, they continue to remove features from the project, just reducing the value of the project. As recently as January 2016, they removed a key module, Star Marine, which was heavily promoted from the start of the project in 2012.

Like a lot of other customers,  when I requested a refund, they denied it. They claim that a recent 2.0 tech demo which they released in a buggy and incomplete fashion in Dec 2015 (exactly when the original accountability term in the ToS was to be in effect), constitutes a substantial release of the promised game. Given how much is missing from it, that claim is patently false and they are using it as an excuse to actively deny refunds. This despite the fact that they promised two games; Star Citizen and Squadron 42. And as of now, we haven’t received any part of the second game.

And in a typical fashion, Squadron 42, which was part of the project, has recently been split and now being sold separately to the general public.”

Note that even if you are not a backer of this project, make no mistake, you have every right to call into question anything you suspect is tantamount to consumer fraud of any kind. That’s why there are numerous resources online for specifically that purpose. And you don’t have to be a backer or whistle-blower to do it. The FTC goes after companies all the time. Here is an entire public listing of their efforts and remedies.

Direct from the FTC:

The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. Stipulated orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

Also, the Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) is a California statute that seeks to protect consumers against unfair and deceptive business practices. It identifies various unlawful practices in the sale or lease of goods or services to a consumer, including:

1. Misrepresenting the source, certification, origin, or quality of goods and services;
2. Advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised;
3. Representing that a transaction has or involves rights, remedies or obligations that it does not have or involve, or that are prohibited by law;
4. Representing that the consumer will receive a rebate, discount or other economic benefit, if the earning of the benefit is contingent on an event occurring after the transaction; or
5. Inserting an unconscionable provision in the contract.

[lmax]

I follow this mess  on SA (and listened to the round table) live.

Now finding the Matilda thing fascinating.  Keep up the good fight.  They are a toxic bunch given what was written in the chat logs.

All the best.

 

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