Chris Roberts on Wikipedia

D

Dougly

Spaceman
I was browsing Wikipedia the other day, and I found this article on Chris Roberts.

One part of the article, in particular, caught my attention:

During the production of Wing Commander III and its sequel, Roberts admitted that he owned original, store-bought copies of every porn film that Ginger Lynn Allen starred or performed in, and that his being a fan of her performances was what inspired him to cast Allen in the interstitials for both games. According to several Origin Systems staff members, this led to some problems during the production of Wing Commander IV, as Roberts apparently began attempting to court Allen. His efforts unsuccessful, Roberts attempted to have Allen removed from the project, only to be overridden by company founder [[Richard Garriott]. Garriott reportedly realized the true nature of the situation, and informed Roberts that he'd overstepped his authority. Allen reportedly was unaware of anything other than Roberts "chasing her like a lovesick puppy".
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Does anyone know if this story is accurate? I suppose it could be... But the fact that no sources are cited for it makes me somewhat suspicious.
 
It makes for a very funny story in any case... I'd heard nothing about it before. The phrase "original, store-bought copies" has me suspicious, though. No one in their right mind talks like that. Even I don't pay that much attention to detail.
 
Well, I'm sure the part about Richard Garriott preventing Chris Roberts from removing her from Wing Commander IV must be true, given how important she is in that game's story :p.


Also, a few months ago, I read on Wikipedia that Adolf Hitler was born in a small American town near the Canadian border. The entry's been fixed now, but that tells you just about everything there is to know about how reliable Wikipedia is. It's a fine source if you want to find out about magnetic induction or something, but it's a little worse when it comes to biographies and anything else that people get emotional about.
 
Wikipedia is for masochists who like to get slapped upside the head by the people who know better. :p
 
I agree, it seems to be a made up story. As for wiki in general, I find it pretty good, but then again I don't look for biographies on there unless it was about some ancient Roman politician or something. Also I haven't found many wikis without sources or valid links.
 
Dougly said:
Does anyone know if this story is accurate? I suppose it could be... But the fact that no sources are cited for it makes me somewhat suspicious.
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Do you even have to ask?

Prior to any video shoot for Wing Commander 4, Rachel's role in the script was already reduced to a one-line cameo, and it was never filmed. The Wikipedia entries about Wing Commander are horrible.
 
Originally Posted by ChrisReid
Prior to any video shoot for Wing Commander 4, Rachel's role in the script was already reduced to a one-line cameo, and it was never filmed.
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Yeah, the reference to WC IV stood out. I thought that perhaps it was a typo, and they meant to say WC III.

Originally Posted by meisdavidp
It makes for a very funny story in any case
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I'm not sure I agree. It kinda makes Chris Roberts look like a dick, which is why I was concerned about it.

If it's not true, it shouldn't be in there. I know not to take Wikipedia too seriously, and I'm sure almost everyone else here does as well... But I'm always a bit afraid that there are people out there who don't know enough to take Wikipedia articles with a grain of salt.

In any event, if nobody here has ever heard about it, I'm sure it's not true.
 
Dougly said:
It kinda makes Chris Roberts look like a dick.
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Anyone who's seen Roberts in interviews (or emailed him or met him!) knows that he's the furthest thing from a dick.
 
In Wikipedia's defense, it's just like any other encyclopedia. If you take any article at face value without checking references, you're just blindly believing what you read.

If a Wikipedia article has no references or citations, then for Pete's sake treat it as disreputable. Likewise, any wikipedia article that has decent references and citations can be treated as reputable.
 
In Wikipedia's defense, it's just like any other encyclopedia. If you take any article at face value without checking references, you're just blindly believing what you read.
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That's *not* like any other encyclopedia. If I cite a professionally researched secondary source which is somehow flawed, then the onus is on that researcher and not on me. Citations don't exist to allow everyone to redo the same research over and over, they exist so you can figure out what went wrong and who is at fault (otherwise no one would cite secondary sources at all; we'd just keep redoing the same initial research and citing the same primary sources).

The topic at hand: the history for the IP that added the 'trivia' about Chris Roberts suggests that it's an Austin-erea user... which means that it may well be a former Origin employee repeating a story he heard or was present for. It certainly does feel more like company gossip than a random internet smear.

Unless it's actually Richard Garriott, though, it's doubtful that much of it is more than speculation -- because no one else would be privy to the private interaction between the two highest ranking people in the company. As others have pointed out, it's also factually inaccurate -- GInger Lynn wasn't in Wing Commander IV. Of course, all of that removed, the trivia amounts to "Chris Roberts had a crush on Ginger Lynn".

... and who didn't?

It would be nice if it was cited, because it's an interesting story if it's true... but we can't ever know. This is why it would be great to do an Origin living history project, as referenced in a recent thread. That should have been the domain of Joe's museum... but maybe we need to take over while doing something like that is still possible.
 
Nomad Terror said:
In Wikipedia's defense, it's just like any other encyclopedia.
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Just like any other encyclopedia that's run by a gaggle of teenagers instead of a staff of professionally trained writers, historians and subject matter experts.
 
That's not the only questionable material in that either. Some grammatically challenged individual added:
Roberts currently helping NC Soft in the design of their latest game.
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And he cites this as a source:
http://www.corpnews.com/node/121

That article mentions nothing about Roberts working for NCsoft and Roberts has nothing to do with Spacetime studios IIRC. There are a bunch of ex-originites at spacetime who have a *publishing deal* with NCsoft for what looks like a Wing-Commander-ish MMO. It's possible Erin Roberts might be connected somehow though as far as I can tell he's working at embyonic studios along with Paul Hughes and some others. http://www.embryonicstudios.com/

Roberts is still over at Ascendant Pictures, Currently in eastern Canada prepping to start filming either this week or next a movie called Outlander. Chris Roberts is a producer and Howard McCain is Directing. And also the American Knight movie has dropped off the radar for the time being (possibly due to financing being not in place yet for that project) so its hard to say what's happening there without talking to Mr. Roberts himself.
 
Yes... a lot of people assume that when a game/news article mentions a team that includes former Wing Commander developers that it means the entire group. This couldn't be further from the truth, although there were a few exceptions that probably caused this misconception -- the number of people who went over to DA at once, the number of people who went from Privateer Online and the number of people who went from Ultima Online II to NC Soft.

Still, as AD says, this is not accurate -- Chris Roberts doesn't work for NC Soft.
 
ChrisReid said:
Just like any other encyclopedia that's run by a gaggle of teenagers instead of a staff of professionally trained writers, historians and subject matter experts.
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Just because wikipedia is open for anyone to edit does not mean that articles are not contributed to and reviewed by experts on the subject matter.

That being said, even these groups of people you mentioned can be wrong and can disagree on a topic. Wikipedia is the ultimate form of peer review and is a great example of how an increased number of eyes and hands on an article increases the thoroughness and accuracy of the article. Likewise, articles that do not see as much attention usually are not very thorough or accurate.

Maybe I am a more experienced peruser of Wikipedia, but the Chris Roberts article with its lack of references just screams "take this with a grain of salt" to me.

Besides, if you find the info to likely be incorrect or too assumptuous, you can always change it. :>
 
Wikipedia is the ultimate form of peer review
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No, it isn't -- this is empty Lunix jerk rhetoric, a clear example of people taking a term that has nothing to do with their project because they think it sounds smart.

The Wikipedia isn't a form of peer review at all. When you submit an academic paper for peer review, it's actually reviewed by the acknowledged, accredited experts *before* publication. The Wikipedia does none of this -- it publishes without any sort of review at all, and it in no way shape or form guarantees that your writing will be reviewed by experts.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
No, it isn't -- this is empty Lunix jerk rhetoric, a clear example of people taking a term that has nothing to do with their project because they think it sounds smart.

The Wikipedia isn't a form of peer review at all. When you submit an academic paper for peer review, it's actually reviewed by the acknowledged, accredited experts *before* publication. The Wikipedia does none of this -- it publishes without any sort of review at all, and it in no way shape or form guarantees that your writing will be reviewed by experts.
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Even still, Wikipedia isn't completely without merit. It's not meant to be a definitive source, but it's great for casual reading. I'm suprised someone from here hasn't fixed the entry for Wing Commander.
 
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