Originally posted by JStrike 

It seems that due to diminished traffic on the official forums, news articles on other sites are taking precedence. Any negativity surrounding the game/company is also directed at the community because it says 'CME doesnt care about its community' by proxy.

This is a great reply.

Now for some legit questions:

• Why is it so hard to answer a simple yes or no question like, "Are your employees missing any paychecks?"

When the first story about CME employees not getting paid broke, Kevin Ballantine said:

"At Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, we have always been upfront with the media and our fans that we are a start up. Like many start ups, we face the same cash-flow issues that all pre-revenue companies face. We have maintained a core of dedicated investors, but the new economic realities are forcing us to seek out additional sources of funding and that's what we're doing."

Rather than answer with a simple yes or no, he chose the euphemism of "cash-flow issues." Fans took that as a sign that TTH was making it all up out of some sense of spite over what is usually called "the beta key fiasco." Even when Steve Williams (Aruspex) posted his blog about not getting paid, people thought it was all an elaborate hoax (the most elaborate ever staged to impede the development of the savior of MMOs).

• Why is it so hard to clearly answer a question about whether or not Gary Whiting is behing MMOGULS?

When the MMOGULS story broke, Tim Jensen fed this statement to tkksnow:

"Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME) and its subsidiaries (including Firesky) are not affiliated with MMOGULS and there is no contractual relationship between these entities. MMOGULS does not have any license or contractual rights with Stargate Worlds or any of the other products currently in development by CME."

This answer does clearly state that no contracts existed at the time, but it completely evades this issue of connections from the top of the pyramid (if you will excuse the term).

• Again, why does every answer to a question have to be so indirect?

When Khestral was pressed on whether or not screens he has been posting were from this year, he never said they were only that he

"used the wrong tag plate"

If the screens really were from 2009, it would have been so easy to give an unequivocable answer, like, "These screens are 100% from 2009, but I used the wrong tag plate." Of course, if they were really from 2008, then he answered truthfully.

• Why ban Mershu on the official forums rather than prove her wrong?

If Mershu is an evil, lying bitch when she says her husband has gone 4 months without pay from CME, why not prove her wrong? Tell us about how all employees are getting paid. Why ban her from the forums WITHOUT proof that she is lying unless she is telling the truth?

_______

Feel free to copy these questions and answer them into the SGW official forums with your status clearly indicated to show the world. This is your chance, man: shoot down ALL of the rumors right now.

1. Tell us that everybody is getting paid on time
2. Tell us that MMOGULs was never the official plan for SGW from the boss (not from the lowly developers who have no say)
3. Tell us when you will start the next beta
4. Tell us when the game will be finished

Unless you're happy with Lisentia, supremeaaron, Loheat, Asrayel, and xxxRetsopmi as your only subscribers, you need to start marketing your game and reaching out to potential customers. And if you EVER want my money (meager contribution though it may be), you need to prove to me that MMOGULs either is NOT owned by Gary Whiting or that he will never see a penny of my money.

THE END

Edited for a few spelling errors.

We call those diplomatic answers, they are designed to make you wonder what the man in the suit is saying while someone dressed all in black is cleaning out your computer and jacking your safe. If it's a yes or no answer, and they give you one of those you can usually bet that it is the worse possible of the two choices.

Hi Pugla,

1) We haven't been paid in a long time--over four months as of this Friday. I don't think we've ever denied that. And no, "Khestral" hasn't been paid either, despite what someone here said. If we were silent about it, frankly it's because all of the people who usually handle all the forums and public relations left some time ago.

I made it a priority this week to try and share some information--good or bad--so you would know the truth about what's going on here. It's far less mysterious than the silence may have made it seem.

The employees who are left aren't looking for your sympathy, though of course well-wishes are always appreciated. We all know the risks and are big boys and girls. And if we do manage to get the game out and you folks like it, we of course will be rewarded for sticking it out, so that's what's in it for us.

2) MMOGULS was never the official plan for anything directly related to CME. Gary Whiting does own MMOGULS and CME, and if he makes money on one it's certainly his perogative to support the other with *his share* if he decides to do so. Whether you care for him or not, Gary has put everything he owns into the company and is the most passionate person in the world about SGW.

Moguls did originally show SGW and other internal projects at their presentations. I know because some of them went up on Youtube. But they also showed World of Warcraft and other games. We at CME asked them to stop showing our projects because we felt it would be seen exactly as you've seen it, and it would imply an official relationship since Gary was involved with both. But an MLM gaming site is not illegal and no different than Amway or Avon from a business perspective, as far as I know. And if it ultimately proved to be a "pyramid scheme" rather than a legitimate MLM, those behind it would be prosecuted, I'm sure.

How it all works I'm not privvy to--MLMs are definitely not my cup of tea either--and as I said before we have no official involvement with them whatsoever. We don't know the people who work there and they don't know us.I beileve some of our artists did a few pieces for their website at one point, but that was before I was involved with that group, and those people are gone now. We also had some people do some freelance work for them way back in March, I think.

3) I have no idea when we'll start the next beta. We have to solve our financial issues and re-hire staff to finish the excellent work that Dan Elggren, Chris Klug, Howard Lyon, Demetrius Comes, and all the rest of the SGW team put into the game. Some of the original SGW folks are left, but a good number of us who are still here were working on other projects previously. There's no doubt that means a significant delay at best.

4) See #3. But marketing is our least concern right now. I understand you need more information than you've been getting, and I'll do my best, but our problems are far deeper for the moment and we're working hard to solve them.

I understand I need to answer these questions on the SGW forums as well--I just don't know my way around over there very well yet--but I will. I don't have a "red name" yet either so people probably wouldn't believe I was real if I posted without it.

I also have an email interview with "JStrike" that I'll post here and on the SGW forums when I finish it.

I'm happy to continue asnwering any reasonable questions you have.

Thanks,

Shane

_______

Feel free to copy these questions and answer them into the SGW official forums with your status clearly indicated to show the world. This is your chance, man: shoot down ALL of the rumors right now.

1. Tell us that everybody is getting paid on time
2. Tell us that MMOGULs was never the official plan for SGW from the boss (not from the lowly developers who have no say)
3. Tell us when you will start the next beta
4. Tell us when the game will be finished

Unless you're happy with Lisentia, supremeaaron, Loheat, Asrayel, and xxxRetsopmi as your only subscribers, you need to start marketing your game and reaching out to potential customers. And if you EVER want my money (meager contribution though it may be), you need to prove to me that MMOGULs either is NOT owned by Gary Whiting or that he will never see a penny of my money.

THE END

 

I appreciate the reply. If you are who you say you are, this is the best, most honest communication anyone from CME has given anybody.

I want to be clear about something; I feel as if I have been lied to. Not by you just now, but by half answers. When I get attacked repeatedly on the official forums for expressing my cocern about the fate of the game since employees are not getting paid and tkksnow only hands me spin about not discussing payroll issues, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I will post more when I confirm your identity. Yes, I understand my questions are very hostile. I want hard and straight answers. I appreciate your candor.

In my appreciation for Shane answering some question, I offer my apology to Khestral concerning questioning his paycheck,

I think that's a candidate for his new sig, yes?

Also I've got a prediction of where Gary may be next summer. Incase you didn't know an UNAS is a creature in SG-1, so clean those naughty thoughts! ;)

Now come on people we need some serious photoshopping here!

Here's one that I thought some of the hardcore FanOri might use as a sig. Although not SGW art, this is about CME and I feel that this image brings up the last one year on the official forums better than anything I could create,

Nuf said!