That is not relevant. There are so many cases of well-connected and supposedly respectable people doing really bad stuff that you shouldn't take this as too much of a pointer.
Not disagreeing with the fact that they were nice people, but there's a bit of a "boiled frog" problem.
I once had a flatmate who tried killing herself (having to drag someone over a balcony 5 floors up wasn't a great way to start a Saturday morning). It took me very much by surprise. However, looking back on the situation, there were a lot of signs that things were deteriorating. Oddly enough it also including lying about financial issues which ended up coming back to bite me very hard. I didn't notice what would have become clear to someone looking in.
Being on the inside of a slowly deteriorating situation is often not obvious, and people on the outside saying "hold on, this is looking a bit suspicious" may well have a point.
Just my 2 cents on this aspect.
FWIW ex-flatmate is now fine, before anyone asks!
While this observation is correct the other way around is also valid IMO. It mostly depends on your stance to anything. As you mention a flatmate trying to commit suicide I had a neighbor who was a paranoid schizophrenic. I did know him but I didnt really consider him a "friend". 2 years into living next door he obviously decided to stop taking his pills which included drastic behavior changes and an outward aggression. All very sudden and not understandable. The thing is...people on the outside didnt notice a thing about him because he tried to "blend in" most of the time. It was usually when I met him alone or during nighttime that his condition would flare. I called the police on him several times because he went on a rampage screaming and breaking things just next door at 3 am. My landlord disregarded the issue because he told me "I was speaking to him and he seemed fine to me". Me on the other hand had a valid base to compare from so I knew something was off but I didnt know what.
So on the morning when I found a bloody knife on my doorstep (his aggression usually seemed to be directed at me for some reason) I made a formal complaint and he was carried away in an ambulance the same day. His apartment was a battle field and he obviously cut himself mumbling to himself when the police officers opened his door with a masters key. I dont know what would ve happened, if he would ve killed himself under halicunations or worse, attacked anybody else.
The point is that it took somebody on the inside to recognize somethings wrong in that case but maybe thats because he wasnt a friend of mine and after a while, when he became annoying and kept waking me up in the middle of the night I grew a bit frustrated with him or rather....less friendly.
Now CiG seems to try its best to appear healthy and strong...at the top of its game and the natural charisma CRoberts has supports him in that. He certainly wont have a problem convincing people who dont know the details or chose to willingly believe him. Change your stance to skeptical tho and suddenly you notice things standing at odds. Mostly CiG and the fanboys claims/praise and reality as shown in various life streams. this goes for a lot of things. Dont take the funding tracker for granted but question the source and suddenly perspective changes. By now we
know that the second number....amount of accounts is not presenting unique backer accounts but includes free-fly accounts, multiple accounts and does NOT include terminated accounts so it always going up and is a bloated number, not representing the SC community. YET you have people to this day claiming that SC has a community of 2+ million people disregarding facts deciding to continue living the dream. Compare Star Citizens development cycle to other games on the market and you notice drastic differences in progression and other things. Even if you adjust your expectations to allow for more time something doesnt feel right. One of the most drummed up reasons for delays and long development times was according to CRoberts the goal to "get it right on the first try" or to "make it perfect". The timespans involved pans out....just not the results.
After 7 years of active development and observing this project it rather comes across like CiG simply stumbles along from month to month. While in previous years they could bridge half a year with a single video people have become restless many expecting some kind of result for this amount of money and time. And suddenly CiG is forced to increase the frequency with which to publish marketing gigs. Gonna have to keep the hype up and the nerves calm.
In Star Citizen it really comes down to how you are standing toward it. If you "want" to believe the promises and feel the urge to "protect" the project against so called haters your resistance level to obvious red flags will be very high. You will disregard major events as "unimportant". The same goes for the other side of course. Depending on past experiences you will "want" the project to fail and you will blow up minor events to appear critical. People on the outside dont have the facts to participate in any meaningful way but it seems that the overall public reaction to Star Citizen is negative by now judging the amount of ridicule and surprise at how "little" there is after this kind of development duration and cost. More and more articles bring Star Citizen to the publics attention in a negative way (many people dont know it even today but read about it getting the "worst business model" etc).
Now sinking several hundreds or even thousand dollars into this project over the years will change your perception also. It doesnt make you an automatic "crazy" or "fanatic" but your view will be biased based on the desire to see a valid return value for your investment.
So its a bit more complex then being on the "inside" or "outside" or if you are an invested backer or just a guest to the whole thing. "Having been with SC from the start" is neither a requirement nor a step-up for somebodies opinion. Lots of factors are involved. Me....I m going the "easy" route and judge somebodies involvement or qualification to comment on the quality of his/her posts. Common sense, logical thinking, accepting actual events, translated experience and a normed standard across all similar projects to compare from.
