The Star Citizen Conspiracy
MEET KEVIN DENT - INDUSTRY DIRTBAG
Internet, meet Kevin Dent. You won’t like Kevin Dent after this.
Kevin is a washed-up (this is being generous) has been, who foolishly thinks people like him; yet most of us who know who Kevin Dent is, either 1) ignore him or 2) talk & laugh behind his back
Kevin Dent is a failure who thinks that name dropping and picking on other high-profile industry people, is a sport. He does it for attention because, well, otherwise nobody pays attention to Kevin.
Kevin Dent has never shipped a product. His only claim to fame is never executing on a mobile project. That’s it. He’s really just a troll. A name dropping troll with lots of LinkedIn contacts.
Kevin is sad about that.
Go online and search for “Kevin Dent”. There’s your answer.
Before we get into how Kevin Dent, in a momentary lapse (he gets those quite often) of judgement, lost his mind and decided to pick on the one person best left alone, let’s set up the background.
Here is a choice statement from Kevin pinned to the top of his feed:
“The indie scene today can be articulated by defining it as the greatest collection of over privileged kids in the history of this industry.”
I am going to let that sink in for a bit.
Do you know why he added the “adorable” to his Twitter name? Because Kevin is a man with zero redeeming qualities. And he knows it. Having been derided so many times, alienated more people in the industry than the Republican party did to their voters, he remains completely isolated. At least from those of us who, well, don’t give a shit about Kevin Dent.
All he does is name drop and is famous for talking up and never executing on a mobile project. That’s it. That’s why Kevin Dent has no industry track record. Nothing.
For an example of how far Kevin Dent will go to attack people - seemingly out of nowhere, let’s take the recent more visible controversies first.
There was an indie dev named Phil Fish. He was awesome, but caustic and a bit unhinged as some would say.
Dent started a beef with Phil Fish, again, out of nowhere. It ended very badly and it played out in full view of the public. Though the digital footprint is there, this piece is not about giving you access to click-bait. But start here.
Then there was that time when Kevin decided to pick on - and attack - Elizabeth. Again, out of nowhere.
Before I forget, Rob Fahey wrote a brilliant opinion piece about “shock jocks” in our industry. You should read it.
Kevin Dent is so horrid and toxic to the industry, that even the very gaming media (yeah, even those corrupt folks) had opted (1, 2) to completely BLACKLIST him from the industry media. I mean, like completely.
Not that I support the use of any such blacklist, but think about this for a moment. And why him? I wasn’t even ON that list. Like, ever. And I’m Derek Smart.
Over the years, he has picked on various high level industry people, including the media. His famous Twitter fight with Jim Sterling is a thing of legend. If you know who Jim is, then you know who prevailed in that one.
I know several industry people who Kevin has dealt with in the past. Not ONE of them - not one - has ANYTHING nice to say about him. Let me repeat that: NOT A SINGLE ONE.
In fact, my Twitter DMs and Facebook messages lit up like a Christmas tree yesterday with discussions about him.
THE SETUP
Here is where it gets interesting. But before I get into that, let me - again - lay some ground work.
Star Citizen is poised to be an epic failure and will soon face an unrecoverable catastrophic collapse, resulting in the loss of over $90m (yes, that would be ninety) in public money from GAMERS.
I have been sounding this alarm since July when I wrote my first blog, Interstellar Citizens, which set off the alarm bells that are ringing even louder today.
My latest blog, Star Citizen - The Long Con, is a condensed version of how we got here
Important to this game, is a thriving Grey market for the sale and purchase of digital goods for a game that, so far, DOES NOT EXIST - and by all accounts - NEVER WILL. At least not as promised.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/
Here are two articles (1, 2) about the Grey market
This Grey market is controlled by the many whales who, collectively have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the game. Some of them have over $30K (!) invested in this game. For digital goods, some concept art - for a game that DOES NOT YET EXIST. Yeah.
MEET WULF KNIGHT - STAR CITIZEN WHALE
One of those bigger whales, is none other than Wulf Knight aka @accelerwraith.
Over $22K+ in the hole
He’s a real peach.
I am not into personal attacks because in my opinion they are a sign of weakness. I am more of a debater. And I rarely swear. There tend to be some exceptions. Like now.
But this despicable excuse for a human being, is the same one who, after being banned from the Star Citizen community, has made it his personal mission to attack anyone - including backers - who even puts together a single sentence that voices dissent against the game.
He is the subject of this expose here. Read that very carefully.
He is also reported to have sent dick pictures to another RSI forum member who then reported it.
I have been told that RSI have KNOWN about this, but took no action. My sources have also explained the entire story to me. And those very pictures are currently around the Internet. He denies it. But of course. Again, RSI forum admins and at least one exec are reported to have known about this. They even had a name for him I have been told….
This is a direct image of a phone conversation from Sept 20th when his crap showed up in my feed.
This is the SA thread (specific post here) where it was discussed when the RSI forum admins refused to take action.
And I have been sent the original emails - complete with headers.
He was supposedly banned from RSI forums. But he apparently denies it, though it appears that he is banned.
This was the same guy who, not knowing how an FOIA works, took an image and posted it online, purporting to “prove” that RSI/CIG were not under FTC investigation. You can read my responses here and here.
And after playing the victim because he didn’t like the fact that I mentioned “depression” in my tweet, he jumped on that.
Later, Sandi Gardner, the co-creator of Star Citizen, tweeted her “support”. According to Topsy, She has since deleted that tweet. If anyone still has the link to an image, please send it to me. I had it, but will need to dig it up and Evernote is acting wonky today.
EDIT: I have written about this clown in my latest Star Citizen blog.
THE KEVIN DENT CONNECTION
So FF to Sun, Oct 4th. I was on Twitter continuing with discussions about my on-going expose into the Star Citizen scam, when this Tweet hit my feed.
Knowing precisely how things would end up, I gave a few responses, then subsequently blocked him. I had no intentions of giving him traffic, nor a platform that only seeks to make himself relevant amid a brewing industry disaster.
What comes next, should surprise nobody who knows who Kevin Dent is, what he does and how he tries to inject himself into whatever he can as he strives for relevance.
I got a few retweets of his personal attacks against myself and the Escapist article and writer.
Let the record show that Kevin Dent, a misogynist pig, also set his sights on Liz, the FEMALE author of The Escapist article. Sound familiar?
So it should come as no surprise when this (1, 2, 3) happened:
Get the connection now?
The thing is that Kevin Dent is a salesman claims to have access to investors. That’s mostly fiction.
However, my thinking is that since word on the street is that they have been shopping around for a bailout, it makes sense that if he’s trying to sell this to investors, pushing down dissent - and bad PR - is a good start. Especially if there are already undisclosed investors involved in this project.
Then with investors convinced it’s a good buy, they put money in it, anyone bringing the deal gets a cut. Here comes Kevin Dent.
The end result is that $90m of gamer money disappears, and along with it, any/all improper conduct. The founders get away with it.
And the end result is something like APB, Hellsgate London or similar. Investors take a tax break on the loss, and amortize it on the back end.
So basically, he’s trying to inject himself into the Star Citizen discourse for personal gain. And what’s the best place to start - besides attacking the opposition? Read on.
THE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD CONSUMERS
This is very simple. There is a movement of high profile Star Citizen whales, doing everything they can to attack, discredit, harass and abuse ANYONE who voices ANY sort of dissent against this game. Including the media.
And here is Kevin Dent advocating for Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take Two, major shareholder in Devy Media, the owner of The Escapist magazine, to kill the Star Citizen story.
And this is an example of precisely why, after so many warning signs that Star Citizen was a disaster in the making, many mainstream media have failed to FOLLOW THE MONEY and investigate this project and it’s founders, particularly Chris Roberts and Ortwin Freyermuth.
Instead, since it has seemingly boiled down to a “Derek Smart v Chris Roberts” fight. And being that I’ve always been the indie outsider who isn’t part of their messed up boys club, the industry - and most media - continue to pick sides. The side that serves their self interest, while IGNORING the fact that over $90m (NINETY MILLION) dollars of GAMER MONEY has all but disappeared without a trace and without a product as promised ever being delivered.
As I mention in my upcoming new Star Citizen blog due out today or tomorrow, MANY in the videogame industry have picked sides. Despite the fact that I am not alone in this fight, I have never had a problem standing alone. And this is one fight that I know - with 100% certainty - that I will win. Why? Because I know that I am right. And personal attacks do NOT faze me.
And when the dust settles, and I have been vindicated, I can go back to doing what I do. That being, building games, not dreams. And with my own money.
