LOL. My wife can't stand Sandi. Says that she wants to be the queen bee, and she doesn't even know a thing about the game, really..
She did a good job training customer service, but I see the issue with her that :
1. Chris and Sandi hid that they were married. They should not have. It makes an issue out of something that doesn't need to be.
2. Sandi should have been removed from operations early or immediately. Having your wife there can affect Chris's judgement despite any efforts to remain objective - it just does and pollutes the chain of command
3. She went/goes above her authority as PR, she seems to do everything and clear jurisdictions is necessary in business. You don't want people taking shortcuts through the chain of command.
I just want a good game, but as with all businesses, there are internal politics galore that sometimes introduce pain for all involved, and it is a very young company.
Edit : Escapist Podcast Summary
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... ng-Podcast- FTC hit card game, due to failing to deliver on promises in campaign, involved in class action and FTC sided with consumers, determined that they had obligations, did not fulfill promises and had to compensate.
- Gravely concerning that failed projects cause collateral damage on other projects that they become worse that preordering.
- SC looks like it could be a catastrophic failure with 1 million backers
- Lizzy featured, stated backers have tends of thousands "invested".
- Looks and sounds awesome but that is all it will be.
- 90 million raised to to continuing crowdfunding post kickstarter
- DS posted blog posts (long ones) DS predicted firings because Austin office closing, and people leaving drew attention of Lizzy to possible legitimacy of DS posts leading to her starting an investigation.
- What struck lizzy was the changes to the terms of service which entirely changed structure of refund, release date
- Went from 18 months to delivery, yet it was Nov. 2014, and in 12 months from that you are entitled to a refund. The anticipated release date changed to 2016 and 18 months of that, so cut out people of refunds for next month which they should have been entitled to a refund.
- Original delivery date Nov. 2014, Feb terms of service new refund date MAY 2018.
- Major concern s- if you miss games delivery date by more than a few weeks esp. if you don't tell, anyone who wanted game and doesn't want it any more should have a refund due to a failure to meet an agreement.
- Liz checked for release date on website and IT WAS GONE or buried very hard to find, nothing was coming out.
- Inclusion of completion date mentioned in terms of service was up on Friday when the story went up last week and is now gone/buried. Seems deliberately obscured and dodgy marketing at best. (11:45 in).
- Wikipedia 2017 release date. Different websites have different dates.
- Images of original release date is Spring 2015 release of FPS, Fall 2015 SQ42 1st episode, Commercial launch 2016. And THAT is not kickstarter, but due to feature creep.
- Firings Concerning. Was 11,000,000 stretchgoal if the office is shut. People pledged for that office, what is going on with that?
- Some people are under definite impressions it is closing. Worth watching.
- Some people hate DS, smarmy bastard confirmed. But just being an asshole means facts can still be correct. DS personal attacks do not change the facts. Just because he pointed at the facts does not make it wrong. You don't need to like someone to recognize the truthfulness of the statement/s (15:00).
- (Lizzy) careful with sources and ensures that she worked around him. Any info she provided linked to document had second source that was corroborating it. Even with that, article was detached. It was amazing to see people being even unwilling to look at link because DS was linked to this.
- Suggests some people don't want to believe it as people had sinked $1000 in it. As of now, Liz has additional comments from sources all corroborating and bunch of new information (17:20).
- Still money pouring in feeding into this. Latest ship could be seen as DLC for $900. Community Manager there struggles with understanding the "excess selling off the inventory" of LTI ship that did not sell originally.
- As sources were anonymous, credibility is discussed. 1 anon. is interesting, but generally dismissed as crackpot. 2 Anon telling the same thing compelling as a matter of interest. Liz has 9 sources. 6 not anon. to Liz., 3 unknown to liz other than confirmed relationship to project. Liz confirmed true almost certainly happening. 9 could be considered lawsuit material.
- Could they be communicating amongst themselves. Name had been spread to get in touch with her, unsure what contact before then, none were speaking specifically to each other, though one had passed her name on.
- The idea that they had gotten together, concocted the story and then come to her with falsehoods is not at any point something that was conceived as reasonable, probable or possible. The impression Liz had is that they felt quite guilty about their role there. People from different offices involved.
- Liz got a lot of specific, independent stories personal to each one. There was a LOT of information that was intimate and personal that was even more concerning that what she had shared.
- Barebones essential on what everyone should know is:
1. Allegations of mismanaging money (top) (CR/Gardiner paid for with company money, cars/leases and vacations with company money. Platform developed with Turbulent to make money with crowdfunded money being injected.
2. Reports of how employees are being treated
Irresponsible spending of money also mentioned. Hollywood A class actors for commercials for instance and 4 months of shooting with FULL A class actors again, unnecessary and something sources were concerned with.
- Point 1 (money mismanagement) is the public interest element of this story and the most concerning from her perspective. Embezzlement.
- Sources reporting COMPLETING entire sections of the game and CR would say "Why don't we try something different?" Utter disregard for advice of people who have been in the industry for 12 years non stop. They would tell him "No, this is not going to work, that is not possible, don't do this" but he would spend six months doing something just to prove that it is possible. It wasn't, then they would have to go back and redo it (26:18).
- Issue does not really need opinions, if this is proven, if CR and wife leased items with crowdfunding money there is no other word for embezzlement and a crime in the US. Unless CR has political connections, SC could set a good precedent for holding people accountable.
- What crowdfunding needs is an example, and CR could be it.
- Escapist views the Austin studio shudown as money problems.
- Gradual layoffs seems to be the technique ("eliminating unnecessary positions"). Terms being used are significant layoffs. 10 people = a department, not restructuring. PR is excellent from CIG and utter lack of people looking closely at the situation.
- A lot of jobs listed at the jobs all pulled (available 2 weeks ago, not now). People paid for that office to ramp up production.
- 2012 kickstarter said that higher cost of stretch-goals is to ensure that they would still make the game by 2014.
- Prior to KS, there was development occurring.
- CR was out of industry not sure what he could do with money and technology / CR may have thrown a figure out there without knowing what would be required or how to spend it.
- General commentary of CIG startup at kickstarter
- Studios take time to gear up, people can't work together immediately and affect production, assumption naive.
- Mistakes were made, circumstantially CR's movie studio was sued by Kevin Costner for millions - promised movie going ahead, then not. Breach of contract.
- CR compared to Tim Schafer who ends in in position where something takes forever to take.
- Liz - You can't sell me a car, then decide to make it a flying car and then not give to me because it's now a flying car.
- Many C issues raised fall under FOI act as matters are in the public interest.
- Internal environment bad - Liz - Personal insults very publicly, HR complaints and reports useless and HR was reporting to people that were doing it. Needs to be external HR department perhaps.
- Insults included questioning manhood, sexuality, race, competency all in a public setting. Some people became physically ill while working there due to the stress of it all.
- Discriminatory hiring practices also mentioned.
- Toxic work environment is toxic to project. Spending time worrying about how to word an email to your boss telling him that his ideas are stupid and not able to be implemented, that is hours of work time that could have been spent working on something feasible.
- The idea that employees were fearful of telling boss what they thought about the basic plans / If you can't say "I, the person doing this work think that this is unfeasible" and then have stress and fear that you will be targeted in a public email for questioning, it steps beyond management issue and goes into mental health and bullying territory.
- Commentary - CR/TS have previously been in charge, but never in charge of companies. Taking someone who has always had a publisher go free, and remove the control and this can happen.
- Hiring practices - Multiple people reported this and had been taken to HR. Sandi when advising people on hiring was to check education if too long ago not to call for an interview as they are over 40, protected and harder to fire.
- Incident where someone came in and not hiring her, she's a black girl. Other ones such as she has a hairy "you know" Liz struggled to include as it was so offensive.
- Read stories in links below.
- One area where people were uncertain is whether it is coming out, just that it may not come out with this company.