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Star Citizen 40K AUD / $27K backer whale gets refund!

Reports are coming in that an Australian backer has managed to get a large refund from CIG. No word yet if he got the full amount refunded.

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byu/Br0wnH0rn3t from discussion
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This is the same backer who, after the Goons found CIG creating disparaging tags for its backers, found a tag in his CS account; amid accusations by Shitizens of doctored images.

You can read more about that here: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1soosem

So if you are in Australia (and I would guess New Zealand too) and want your money back, GO GET IT!!!

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This poll was deleted after only 64 votes. Draw your own conclusions

[dsmart]

Another day, yet another art plagiarism accusation at CIG

You can read it over here http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sop7eb

It has been that kind of week for CIG. 

It all started with the disparaging tagging of backers in their Zendesk CS system:http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1soosem

The latest plagiarism fiasco involves actor Ian Somerhalder. 

The privateer concept image created by Rob Mckinnon for CIG is of the actor 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0813812/

An image which, like the Banu ship in yesterday’s fiasco, was used to sell yet another JPEG concept ship 

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/12976-Aurora-Sale-Thanks

An image which CIG then plastered a copyright notice (see lower right corner of screen) on

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/xtdzzbsiamwidr/source/SC_PRIVATEER_OPTION_001_FRONT_RM.jpg 

Here is the composite comparison: http://i.imgur.com/PxxZVga.jpg

In case you missed the previous plagiarism festivities from earlier this week:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sop5hj

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sop3k1

Make no mistake, contractor commissioned art or not, CIG is 100% liable for this stuff because it is their responsibility to vet and approve of any assets used in any form; especially in a commercial “for profit” venture. And no, this is not Fair Use; so just ignore all those nutjobs on Reddit who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

This is CIG. There’s always more; and it’s always worse. 

 

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LOL!! Well, the Citizencon 2015 limited edition poster they sold (!) also used stock art (1, 2, 3). Look for White shirt guy. He’s in the center to the back, under a tree. And it’s got a Hilton logo in it as well.

[dsmart]

Star Citizen devs caught in yet ANOTHER plagiarism scandal…

So this morning I wrote up an article about CIG artists using stock image assets without permission or purchase. 

You can read about that here: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sop3k1

Well, it looks like more evidence of them doing this elsewhere has now surfaced. This time, the Strike Vector (another game) logo, appears in a concept image for one of the ships in the game.

This is the original page from Google cache: http://goo.gl/kDaFgz

The two images with 404 links on the above page are the originals which used to be here:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/merchantman/Merchantman

Once this news surfaced today – again dug up by Goons (who else?) – CIG removed the image.

More proof (animated GIFs) here:

http://i.imgur.com/swe70nZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rQj0NHV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/38bbXHU.gif

This is CIG. There’s always more; and it’s always worse.

For the record, this is a company that around 500K backers gave $115 million to make a game and which, five years later, neither has a vertical slice, nor 10% of what was promised in Oct 2012 to be delivered in Nov 2014. It is now 18 months past due and CIG have, thus far, refused to not only provide financial accountability for the project, and refunds, but continue to delete forum threads, and ignore emails from backers who are seeking these things promised in the ToS that CIG constructed.

UPDATE: It is even in a set of art assets sent to media

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Reporting to the BBB is just a matter of record keeping, and notification. The more people report it, the lower their BBB rating.

For those of you seeking refunds and/or financial accountability, we have something in the works and which is going to be announced soon (now that the May 31st deadline has come and gone). Once I know more, I will post about it.

In the meantime, save any/all communications sent to/from CIG/RSI, your CIG account information showing items owned, amounts paid etc.

[dsmart]

I created a Twitlonger post with my latest findings.

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No sooner did one CIG controversy end, and another one appears. This time, plagiarism. My sides.

UPDATE: Looks like the image owners are on the case; which explains the scrubbing.

So over the weekend, the customer service brain trust at CIG were caught disparagingly tagging backers in their Zendesk CS backend. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1soosem

The dust hasn’t even settled on that one yet, and last we checked, the CS site was still offline and being sanitized.

So, less than 24hrs ago, someone noticed that the image used by CIG to peddle the latest Buccaneer JPEG ship concept – for which they raised almost $500K – was based off artwork used without permission. btw, that’s for an image – of a ship – that is yet to be created – for a game that doesn’t exit, and never will.

Anyway, the post by an artist first appeared on mmorpg.com

http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/452023/tutorial-how-you-make-promo-artwork-for-spaceship

Rapidly, others jumped in to prove that the image was in fact sourced elsewhere.

http://i.imgur.com/bDMtapr.gif

http://i.imgur.com/GorQW1L.gif

Then the CIG damage control kicked into full gear – again – even as Goons got involved and once again, came across a cliff they simply couldn’t resist jumping over. And so jump it was.

First, it was reported to the image owners. Because why not?

http://i.imgur.com/cfL7R7o.jpg

Naturally, an argument broke out on Sandi’s Facebook page where the image first appeared. 
Amid the usual Shitizens denying everything, blaming (http://i.imgur.com/Ab9gfLg.jpg) Goons for doctoring the image and fighting a proxy war for CIG – like they usually do – it was clear that the image in question had been used and doctored.

http://i.imgur.com/Xz8VH5D.png

Less than a few hours of the social media frenzy, the original Facebook page (above) where Sandi first posted the Buccaneer image, was taken down. Since it is her page, she obviously took it down. 

https://www.facebook.com/215475438505750/photos/a.429027047150587.107566.215475438505750/1049223538464265/?type=3&theater

But of course, as these things go, there’s a screen cap. There’s always a screen cap. Always.

http://imgur.com/pvBNDmm

They also scrubbed it from the RSI website:

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/ships/drake-buccaneer/Buccaneer

Here’s the Google cache of that page. If you scroll left, the “show floor” block is where it used to be:

https://goo.gl/BWdgxr

..and is now a 404 page after being scrubbed

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/media/1a1di25lu5rh1r/source/Presentation-Bucc02-Sandi-Version.jpg

But there’s always an archive. Always:

http://imgur.com/a/cAtlV

They scrubbed it from the Pinterest page. If you click on the thumbnail, it goes to the 404 page on RSI server where the original resided.

https://uk.pinterest.com/foxhavendesigns/star-citizen-buccaneer/

They scrubbed it from the RSI forum post where it was first posted

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/330945/sandi-is-the-new-drake-showgirl

They also scrubbed the video segment where – again – Sandi was thanking the CIG artist, Jim Martin, for the work. Again, someone already had it extracted and archived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9qgrOmopTQ

Which brings me to the part where Goons do what Goons do best in the never-ending quest for lols….

http://i.imgur.com/oMl6vAQ.png

This is the part where you ask yourself this. Why would a CIG artist do something like this? How hard is it to create a female model. Oh wait! Considering that five years and $115 million later, there are still no female models in Star Citizen, not to mention the Godawful character models in the game (and in Squadron 42), this probably makes sense. 

Companies buy and use stock footage all the time. So normally this won’t be a big deal. But it is. Why? Well scroll up and read it all again. That’s why.

This is CIG. There’s always more; and it’s always worse. 

It’s the culture. 

And backers gave them $115 million to make a video game; even as the wife of the CEO and a best marketing exec since she was a leetle gurl, continues to pursue a failed film career while taking a large paycheck from CIG and shooting said movies on company premises – paid for with backer money.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1soosn4

The E.L.E is in full swing. These small meteors are just a distraction. It’s only a matter of time now. And Goons will be right there on the ground floor when that final asteroid (trust me, it’s coming – fast) hits. 

http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/

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