Chris Roberts Responds to Derek Smart

[DragonHeart]

Chris Roberts has responded to Derek Smart and his claims.
Its a long but well constructed response, have a read and enjoy.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14979-Chairmans-Response-To-The-Escapist

Edit: here is The Escapist article https://web.archive.org/web/20151001174332/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/14715-CIG-Employees-Talk-Star-Citizen-and-the-State-of-the-Company?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all

**
Replaced original link to article with an archived version. Don't fall for clickbaits.
Seung

 

[AntiSqueaker]

☐ Not REKT
REKT
REKTangle
SHREKT
REKT-it Ralph
Total REKTall
The Lord of the REKT
The Usual SusREKTs
North by NorthREKT
REKT to the Future
Once Upon a Time in the REKT
The Good, the Bad, and the REKT
LawREKT of Arabia
Tyrannosaurus REKT
eREKTile dysfunction


Also albedo is best girl wtf are you doing dragonheart

 

[DragonHeart]

☐ Not REKT
REKT
REKTangle
SHREKT
REKT-it Ralph
Total REKTall
The Lord of the REKT
The Usual SusREKTs
North by NorthREKT
REKT to the Future
Once Upon a Time in the REKT
The Good, the Bad, and the REKT
LawREKT of Arabia
Tyrannosaurus REKT
eREKTile dysfunction


Also albedo is best girl wtf are you doing dragonheart

I agree, CR absolutely knocked DS out of the water.

And Shalltear Bloodfallen is a pretty little monster that kills people with her pinky, I adore her ^_^

 

[Black Sunder]

Found the perfect clip to go with this letter. Chris is Goku if you didn't figure that out.

 

[Groundstain]

 

[mromutt]

Someone is going hulk :P

 

[JBWill]

That was beautiful. It's been my policy to only drop more money on the game when CIG shows something that impresses me. I think this'll definitely drive me to drop some more cash, though I'll probably wait until after Citizencon either way.

That said, I am somewhat worried that this is just going to wind up snowballing the situation even more. Response like this, as vindicating as they feel, rarely wind up actually being productive - particularly in the face of someone as dedicated to their delusion as DS. I'll be interested to see how the Escapist respond (if they do at all).

 

[NKato]

I like that we have fans of Overlord here. :D

I needed to find my old ray-ban sunglasses for the nuclear blast resulting from CR's smackdown.

 

[Devil Doge]

Target Fucking DESTROYED

 

[JBWill]

The article was updated with another almost even better letter from Ortwin Freyermuth. I'm a pretty big fan.

 

[Ichiru]

Ortwin's response was just beautiful. You could feel the burn in that letter from the other side of the Atlantic. The battle lines have been drawn.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

I gotta say, this thread is starting to make my stomach turn (and no, it's not the alcohol talking). I'm not in support of the Escapist's recent Star Citizen articles. But everyone here seems more than happy to grab their torches and pitchforks and personally see to the end of the Escapist themselves.

The Escapist is a community that I've been a part of for numerous years and is one of my favorite Internet holes-in-the-wall to go to for news and general discussion on gaming, comics, and movies. It's a place that welcomes open discourse on the most polarizing of issues. There are good people both among the general users and within their staff and contributors. Yet people here are so happy to see it destroyed simply because of one (admittedly biased and misinformed) writer of many.

I don't agree with the way they've handled the reports, but I also don't agree with the way it's being discussed here. Already, with the title, it seems everyone is prepared to believe that the Escapist is now suddenly a puppet organized and held by Derek Smart. The idea, and the apparent support of that idea, is frankly appalling. It's slapping a DS sticker on something you don't agree with and beating it like it was a piñata.

 

[DragonHeart]

Quite the development, now we wait and see how The Escapist responds.
They could have just apologized from the beginning stating it was a mistake or oversight, but they had to take it further with a pod cast and another article. Now the bells start to ring, wonder how much panic they are under for the generous 24hours hahaha.

Edit: Everyone makes mistakes, even the best. I could even go as far to say, the journalist was decent in general. However the way the company handled the aftermath, was deserving of such a legal response.

 

[Serious Table]

I don't agree with the way they've handled the reports, but I also don't agree with the way it's being discussed here. Already, with the title, it seems everyone is prepared to believe that the Escapist is now suddenly a puppet organized and held by Derek Smart. The idea, and the apparent support of that idea, is frankly appalling.

You've honestly got to look at this objectively. If you look at it and the facts presented absent of any sort of bias, there's no immediately evident connection to DS (as in, we don't have hard evidence of such yet). What we do have evidence of, however, is the Escapist not only double, but tripling down on libelous and slanderous comments against CIG without any credible source for it.

This is a hole they dug themselves.

 

[Shive]

Just call me Ainz Ooal Gown

 

[Yex]

I gotta say, this thread is starting to make my stomach turn (and no, it's not the alcohol talking). I'm not in support of the Escapist's recent Star Citizen articles. But everyone here seems more than happy to grab their torches and pitchforks and personally see to the end of the Escapist themselves.

The Escapist is a community that I've been a part of for numerous years and is one of my favorite Internet holes-in-the-wall to go to for news and general discussion on gaming, comics, and movies. It's a place that welcomes open discourse on the most polarizing of issues. There are good people both among the general users and within their staff and contributors. Yet people here are so happy to see it destroyed simply because of one (admittedly biased and misinformed) writer of many.

I don't agree with the way they've handled the reports, but I also don't agree with the way it's being discussed here. Already, with the title, it seems everyone is prepared to believe that the Escapist is now suddenly a puppet organized and held by Derek Smart. The idea, and the apparent support of that idea, is frankly appalling. It's slapping a DS sticker on something you don't agree with and beating it like it was a piñata.

Everything aside for the moment:

I was an old fan of the escapist when I was younger. I stopped being a fan of it simply because the site began devolving into a landfill site stuffed with trash. This has escalated considerably since 16 year old me decided it wasn't worth my time.

View counts indicate the site is going down the toilet, hence why I can deduce this is a shared opinion on the interwebs. It's great if you still enjoy it, everyone's entitled to their own flavour of ice cream. Even if it has poop and rusty nails in it :D but people can still call your gross for eating it. Or the vender for selling it.

 

[JBWill]

this thread is starting to make my stomach turn...... everyone here seems more than happy to grab their torches and pitchforks and personally see to the end of the Escapist themselves.

No one was saying anything about taking down the Escapist in this thread.

I'm fully aware that the entire organization of the Escapist is not at fault for a poor article being posted, but the fact remains that they are responsible for what goes up on their site, and they should face any consequences that wind up coming their way as a result of it.

However, despite the threat of legal action from CIG and the things being said by many on Reddit, I think it's INCREDIBLY unlikely that this incident results in any sort of significant lasting effect on the overall Escapist organization or their parent company. I think absolutely worst case they have to post a retraction/apology and pay some sort of fine, and potentially a few people responsible for it getting posted get let go. Articles like this are not unique to Star Citizen, nor are they uncommon - if video game companies (or anyone else for that matter) had the power to bring a site/organization to its knees just because they published a hit piece about them, the internet would be a much quieter place. The image of CR descending from on high and smiting the naysayers with the flaming sword of retribution is a nice one, but it is not one based in any sort of realistic expectation for what will likely come from this whole incident (IMO obviously).

tl;dr I'm not happy to see the Escapist get destroyed (nor do I think it will be), but I always thoroughly enjoy seeing people get called out on their bullshit.

 

[Wolf Lord Caldersson]

No one was saying anything about taking down the Escapist in this thread.

I'm fully aware that the entire organization of the Escapist is not at fault for a poor article being posted, but the fact remains that they are responsible for what goes up on their site, and they should face any consequences that wind up coming their way as a result of it.

However, despite the threat of legal action from CIG and the things being said by many on Reddit, I think it's INCREDIBLY unlikely that this incident results in any sort of significant lasting effect on the overall Escapist organization or their parent company. I think absolutely worst case they have to post a retraction/apology and pay some sort of fine, and potentially a few people responsible for it getting posted get let go. Articles like this are not unique to Star Citizen, nor are they uncommon - if video game companies (or anyone else for that matter) had the power to bring a site/organization to its knees just because they published a hit piece about them, the internet would be a much quieter place. The image of CR descending from on high and smiting the naysayers with the flaming sword of retribution is a nice one, but it is not one based in any sort of realistic expectation for what will likely come from this whole incident (IMO obviously).

tl;dr I'm not happy to see the Escapist get destroyed (nor do I think it will be), but I always thoroughly enjoy seeing people get called out on their bullshit.

Agreed I dont want to see eacapist fail. There are probably good people there that need the money. There is probavlu homest journalist. In this case though the journalist, head editor and legal who allowed the article to be published are all at fault and should be burnt. They have bullshitted themselves into a corner and they deserve what they get. Hopefully escapist learns and keeps to honest reviews and critiques.

 

[Desterion]

Escapist is doubling down. They refuse to admit anything, but seems they're looking to try and take the CIG visit as an out to maybe eventually later update their article to say they didn't see it around them. CIG needs to take that offer off the table and sue them into the ground.

https://archive.is/JLByy

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

I'd like to present an outside point of view of this particular series of events from an experienced lawyer and blogger essentially detailing why this recent litigation might not be in the best interests of CIG:

https://popehat.com/2015/10/04/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-threaten-lawsuits/

I can't really speak one way or the other of the accuracy of it, as I've zero experience with law, but he seems very knowledgeable and if his history is anything to go by he's fairly credible.