So after reading the piece by Chris Roberts, I was interested to read the piece that it actually points to.
If you are inclined, here is the article:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/features/14715-CIG-Employees-Talk-Star-Citizen-and-the-State-of-the-Company
After having read it, I was compelled to write a response. If they are claiming to be journalists, I think they should be held to the same standard.
Here is what I posted:
What's actually sad, is that I had never heard of Lizzy Finnegan nor the Excapist before this article. I read the piece because like most involved in the Star Citizen community, I was concerned of the allegations presented by Derek Smart.
Unfortunately, his posts were beligerant at best and did not have a level of competency I would hope would be necessary in making such important allegations. It is fun for me to read though. Unfortunately, your article is no better(and you are decidedly not Derek Smart) and doesn't give any more information nor credence to his posts. I understand the annonymous sources may seem to the Escapist to add a certain air of importance. Unfortunately, it is simply regurgitating on a topic that Chris Roberts and CIG cannot comment on since it is actually against the law and unethical for them to do so specifically. It is low hanging fruit for the Escapist to comment on this but I'm sure they have the right to "report" it. However, they have not given any further information as to the effective claim that Star Citizen is in fact defrauding its donors. This is the point of the article, if I am not mistaken and to this date, I have not read anything purporting to that accertion.
Having even a cursory look at the actual content provided by CIG, it would be easy to refute many of the accusations provided in your article however this has not been done and more over it seems that you have chosen not to. Asking for comment from CIG is a poor substitute for actually investigative journalism which your article seems to think itself to be. If this journalistic work had been done, further additional investigation could look at the people making these allegations and whether or not they are actually a good and credible source for this article. As a reader, I would have been actually interested in reading this. Further, it is clear that quotes from anonymous employees are important and is journalistic standard however when claiming that a particular project cannot be executed on an anonymous "industry veteran" is laughable. How are your readers supposed to know if this person has any validity as an industry veteran giving credence to the anonymous assertions made by ex-employees, alledgedly. This is not something that a reader can verify so having different quoteable sources in your article to support your accertion in all the more important. This was not done.
This either makes Lizzy Finnegan seems like either she is incompetent or on a defaming campaign and as a writer, that is not a very good position to be in, as a publication even less so. This is reaffirmed by the fact that she isn't clear on what an OpEd is as the OpEd she is pointing to early on does not share a particular opinion nor is she familiar with reasons why it is most important to include verifiable sources along side anonymous ones and how you should include both in a piece.
Further, I would think that as a journalist, the writer would also be concerned about having at least the perseption of being impartial on a subject. With the little I have seen so far of Lizzy Finnegan's work, this doesn't seem to be the case.
Since the first mentions for me of Lizzy Finnegan's work and the Escapist was in the Chris Roberts letter mentioned in this piece (I do not know of their other work but as with everything), the first impression is the most important one. As it is, my impression of the Escapist is not a very good one. I will not be interested in viewing any further content from this site as it has added nothing to this issue. If I want to read a defaming campaign, I will read Derek Smart. This is actually the one thing he seems to be good at from what I can tell.
Admitedly, I wouldn't really call myself a gamer because until Star Citizen, I was utterly not involved in games nor had I purchased any AAA games in about 5 to 7 years. I did play Ipad games though here and there, I can't lie. This might seem like my opinion does not matter but this should be your most important concern as well as your advertisers. If someone like me is this interested in a game, it is because it is a unique project and is important to report on and there is a high likely hood that there is propably a greater amount of people looking for unbiased information in this regard than just another defaming article. However, Lizzy Finnegan and the Escapist has chosen to defame this project. This might be something to think about when you consider your advertisers and the loss of opportunity from me and other readers like myself. Since your piece is decidedly not unbiased, you are actually loosing in the long run because you will be known as a provider of unreliable information and further calls into question your previous work as well.
It is ironic that Lizzy Finnegan and the Escapist have written and published this piece about a company alledgidly acting in an ethical matter. From my perspective, it is your own conduct that seems questionable.