The Escapist faces possible legal action over Star Citizen exposé
Cloud Imperium has denied accusations of mishandling funds and workplace discrimination, claims unethical journalistic practice
Cloud Imperium Games is considering legal action against The Escapist, following the publication of an article that accuses the Star Citizen developer of improper and even illegal working practices.
The Escapist's article, which can be found via this link, was based on the testimony of several unnamed sources, all of whom came forward after the publication of another article, titled, "Eject! Eject! Is Star Citizen Going To Crash And Burn?"
The first article explores concerns regarding Cloud Imperium's use of the $90 million it has raised through various crowdfunding channels, and the way Star Citizen has changed and grown since that process first started - specifically some allegedly silent alterations to the game's terms of service.
The much longer second article goes further, with sources accusing CEO Chris Roberts of being "incredibly arrogant" in his pursuit of more funding, despite having, "no concept of what can and can't be done today with that amount of money." It also contains allegation of discriminatory hiring practices against Sandi Gardiner - Cloud Imperium's marketing director and Roberts' wife - including using age and race as grounds to turn down applicants. The articles claims extend to the running of the business, portraying CLoud Imperium as a company, "Bleeding both money and employees."
"The Escapist...stands by its coverage of Star Citizen and intends to continue to investigate the developing story"
Official statement from The Escapist
Cloud Imperium's official response arrived shortly after, in the form of a five-page letter to The Escapist's managing editor, John Keefer, highlighting his legal responsibility for signing off on both the article and a subsequent podcast that discussed the matter further.
Cloud Imperium stated that The Escapist had, "violated the most basic rules and ethics in journalism in failing to properly vet your sources and giving the affected party with an opportunity to refute these ridiculous, highly slanderous and easily disproven allegations." The "deliberate intention" of the article, the letter stated, was "inflicting emotional distress and financial harm" on those involved.
The letter closes with a demand of reparations, including apologies, a retraction and a full investigation into the way the article was researched. Cloud Imperium asked for a response before the end of the working day yesterday (Monday October 5), or it would instigate legal proceedings. Since then, The Escapist has published the following statement:
"The Escapist, notwithstanding Cloud Imperium Games' notice and posting, stands by its coverage of Star Citizen and intends to continue to investigate the developing story. Since publishing our original stories, we have been contacted by, and are currently interviewing, additional sources corroborating a variety of the reported allegations. Additionally, if Mr. Roberts' offer for The Escapist to "meet the developers making the game and see how we're building one of the most ambitious PC games first hand" remains open, we take the opportunity to accept such invitation so as to hopefully provide the public with sufficient information and opportunity to vet such sources' allegations and claims for themselves. We have also communicated the foregoing directly to Cloud Imperium Games."
Considering some of the accusations are state and federal crimes, not doing due-diligence - in the first instance contacting the legal department for comment (not the bloody PR department! wtf? Why would PR respond to allegations of racism?) - is just... It's bad. I mean, just jaw-droppingly amateurish.
Giving 24 hours to respond ("longer than usual since we knew Roberts was currently in the U.K") is pitiful. 24 hours to respond to things that if true are actual crimes? You're setting-up the accused to either fail to respond in-time, or to write something potentially untoward due to a constrained time-limit. People weren't going to die if The Escapist put off publishing this piece for a week, so there was no reason for that deadline.
I sincerely hope The Escapist dies a death because of this. I get that it's people's livelihoods, but this is (in my opinion) kids playing at being journalists. The ramifications are huge, and the editor made a bad-call by not allowing more time and effort to go into the piece.
Of course, there's The Streisand Effect, which considering how small The Escapist is (compared to the papers that will report on the court-case) might actually be more harmful than the piece itself. But, *shrugs*
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 6th October 2015 4:12pm
But tell me something: Even if the financial part was disproven, do you think any company would hire Sandi Gardiner as a VP of Marketing, without any reservations, knowing that CIG hadn't actively tried to disprove the allegations surrounding her in court.
If there's any doubt in your mind about that, then you'll understand why CIG have done what they've done (and will probably do more).
Also, this kind of thing (threatening legal action of libel/slander) happens quite a lot in the world, especially in the UK.
To your wider point of...
I think because it becomes he-said/she-said, which just looks bad (very childish), and doesn't do much. When an article is so badly researched as this one seems (for instance, the writer admitted on Twitter that the "company IDs" she saw were just generic RFID keycards), then what good does brandishing actual evidence do you? Sure, some of the public might care that you disproved some allegations without threatening legal action, but what about everyone else? Fortune 500 companies and senior executives would (I imagine :) ) still have some doubts in their minds.
I would also imagine that there is a certain "making an example" mindset. Trashing a person or company's reputation is a deeply serious thing and it can have long-lasting consequences. So, making the owner of the publication that did the trashing pay large amounts of money, with a grovelling apology that is shown on TV and splashed on front-pages of websites and papers... That's a very real punishment, for a very real crime.
Chris Roberts has demonstrated large pieces of his game, had been open and direct about the status of development, probably more than is wise, I'm sure that hasn't helped perception, but everything seems to be moving forward, and if he needs additional funding, he has a pile of VC he hasn't taken advantage of to tap.
As far as the letter itself, trying to make this a GamerGate thing was also dumb. They're Gaming Hitler, which makes it an attractive strategy, and there are certainly GamerGaters involved, but it just wasn't that polarized - there were plenty of Manly Gaming Men who just wanted to blow up weaklings in space and plenty of non GamerGaters who were just wondering where the game they Kickstarted was. Well now he's made all the hornets angry (or angrier) and gave Smart an own goal.
The whole resoponse really seems like the best thing that could happen for the Escapist since Zero Punctuation. There are still a few decent columnists left from the old days, but mostly they went to crap quite a while ago and stopped being a major source for anything. Now suddenly they're they're right in the middle of biggest, angriest, (okay, dumbest), most active Drama in gaming.
Edit: Oh, and because I like to reference everything, Smart's latest blog entry is where he reveals he gave sources to The Escapist. :)
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 7th October 2015 5:49am
Is there any reason why you feel like you must bring GG up in almost every article you've recently posted in?
Here's your reply comparing you to hitler because we might as well start filling out the rest of the "internet argument" bingo sheet.
https://popehat.com/2015/10/04/in-space-no-one-can-hear-you-threaten-lawsuits/
While the article is obviously agressive in tone, and designed to be provocative, CIG have done themselves no favours by predictably reacting like righteous internet forum dwellers.
This is where I wonder - this seems more wisdom borne of the internet than of actual legal president. From a PR point of view, maybe, but from a legal point of view, I think the less said the better. As the article I linked to above points out... if you genuinely want to persue legal action, you damn well shut the hell up, and hand it over to the real lawyers who won't cry "slander! libel!" and will instead simply build a case and present a court summons.
Serious legal action isn't threatened for dramatic effect before it's persued.
I give you "The simple sword of truth!", Part one, and Part two. Probably the most famous libel case in the UK, and something I've been thinking about ever since The Escapist article broke.
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 7th October 2015 3:43pm
I had an individual who wanted to apprentice under me, but when I gave him homework to even see if he was capable, he didn't do it. It's the job of every journalist to learn the ins and outs of how what they're reporting on works. Hell, when the Xbox BC was announced, all these people told me I was wrong that I said in the past direct emulation was impossible. Sure it took me some thinking and asking questions, but I figured out what they were doing (static binary translation) in a few days. I was then told I was wrong again. A few months later MS admitted that's what they were doing.
People are lazy, and online journalism definately pushes toward "publish and retract later" so you can get the hits. The fact CIG is inviting them down as option one instead of filing and settling shoes what nice guys they are. Not sure Derek will be so lucky, as he's starting to get to Jack Thompson levels. He may be right, but the fact that he keeps making public statements he doesn't back up (nasty emails aren't enough) , due to his alleged need to hold things close for the Feds and such doesn't inspire confidence. The whole thing is starting to smell like Tucker automobiles ;)
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 8th October 2015 3:47pm
I do think, though, that there's two real issues here. One is the allegations about CIG, which if they have any merit whatsoever, should be taken to the relevant US authorities immediately. That these things are being published long before any sort of Federal investigation beggars belief, since the US do not treat these kinds of things lightly.
The other issue (and the main reason I take an interest in this :) ), is the atrocious "journalistic" practices of The Escapist. Regardless of if what is said is true or not, there should be a "punishment" of sort for such awful reporting. I do think the kids are playing journalists, because anyone with a journalism degree would know not to publish a story in this manner, with such poor fact-checking. I mean, I know not to do it, and I don't have a journalism degree. :)
Anyways, after saying in my first comment I was going to keep it brief, I appear to have ranted in a rather madcap fashion. :D Apologies, and no offense meant. :)
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 8th October 2015 4:49pm
All we know for certain is that he's been leading his own personal s**t-stiring campaign, which to me seems like something The Escapist is highly likely to have sought to distance themselves from, given how seriously most of the industry takes anything Derek Smart says.
Can you give an example of 'poor fact-checking' in the original article?
From the link Eric posted in comment 20 above:
As per their 5 page letter, CIG does not use company ID. The author of the article (Lizzy Finnegan) appears to actually confirm this well after-the-fact on her Twitter, when she affirms that what she thought was a company ID was a generic RFID card:
https://twitter.com/lizzyf620/status/650617503450841088
Obviously, one mistake does not nullify all the claims of the article. But considering the ease with which she could've found this out prior to publication, I'm gonna say it's poor fact-checking.
Edit: I want to hasten to add that even if it is poor fact-checking on the part of the author, the buck stops with the editor. I am not wanting to "pile-on" the author of the article.
Edited 2 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 8th October 2015 7:26pm
Now I hear they are backing Gamergate and listening to Derek Smart. Plus ça change...
The whole thing is starting to stink as a hit piece designed by people who don't like Chris Roberts, or DO like Derek. Sure, there might be a disgruntled real ex-employee in the mix, but the fact that many of these reviews are cut and pasted from elsewhere in the site, and share a similar writing style stinks to high heaven.
I have used exactly one "email source" in the past, but I didn't publish virtually anything he told me. Instead I'd use it to springboard asking questions to other people. And virtually everything he told me checked out. And until I had a good half dozen things that checked out, I didn't even deem him credible.