Robotech® RPG Tactics™-License lost, the end is near!

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**Talizvar**

n815e wrote:
This whole thing makes me sad and angry.

Agreed, same feelings here.

Sad:
Obviously the project is very important to Carmen, more so than I had suspected.
I would say there is a bit more at work here than what Kevin's perspective conveys which leads to...

Angry:
Kevin is speaking on behalf of Carmen?
I am feeling he is taking advantage of a VERY tragic circumstance.
Most would say: "Carmen after sending me an apologetic email tried to take his own life shortly after. He did not succeed, our hopes and prayers go with him."
Done.
I am quite upset with that self-serving wall of text masquerading as concern (there is some genuine in there somewhere I hope but he is too busy scolding the backers).
I only have to say that I agree that "everyone is not a bad guy" but when bad people push a person to the point of mental illness I get upset.
I have dealt with narcissists and Kevin is taking no blame in his role in this and he was instrumental in Carmen's predicament.

He is trying to hijack attention away from his victim as far as I am concerned, that is... unforgivable.
Carmen does have my sympathy, since now it is quite obvious he was a victim not a collaborator of Palladium Books.

**Asterios**

ok this message is for those of you who are blaming the backers:
1: go read what was said, sorry while some harsh things were said it was mostly directed at PB and if someone was willing to commit suicide over such comments then they had more serious issues going on (like being misled by a certain game company, or such)
2: also you guys do realize that Kevin's post here essentially destroyed Carmen right? he will now never be able to work in this field or many others since he will be looked at as the guy willing to kill himself over a little pressure, Kevin has essentially destroyed Carmen's life, so cast the blame where it belongs on Kevin, not the backers.
3: I was among the posters who posted to Carmen and here are my posts to him.:

Hello Carmen, for starters let me state your project is doomed to failure, why? nothing to do with PB or RRT but neither of those will be helping you either, but no your project is doomed to failure because of issues you have not taken into consideration which will raises costs considerably for you, furthermore you will be coupled with a low funding amount, compared to actual amount you will need for production and shipping to you. and the fact you are in Canada will hurt you even more. Now I could tell you the factors you are forgetting and I know you are forgetting, but seeing as how you have so much experience in the board gaming world I should not need to tell you, so I won't. Now as to the PB RIFTs IP, wow you actually believe the hype about a dead game with a small following and even smaller support, you would have been better designing your own IP and game, it would have been a lot less of a hassle and less worrisome for you me thinks? As to RRT you know as well as I do PB's out of money, they have debt collectors coming at them out of the woodworks there is nothing to save RRT. and finally Murphy's law is against you, PB got lucky in that they do not have a lawyer among their backers to bring suit against them, now if your project fails to deliver do you think you will be so lucky? would wish you luck but that would be a farce since your project is doomed to failure. especially since in all things you mentioned you failed to mention the one major thing that PB never had either.
oh and Carmen Want to thank you for a big laugh, since the only way you can help with RRT is to give Kevin the money to finish it and that it can only be used on RRT wave 2 and to finish the backers stuff in a timely manner, that is the only way you can help get RRT on track, to even think you can have any sway with Kevin is laughable at best.
oh one last thing Carmen definitely invest in a PR rep because while you think you are meaning well your words do not seem so, you seem disingenuous or even smarmy. in other words you are not helping yourself but harming yourself and any chance of your game funding, and to be honest your best bet is if the game does not fund, since you are ill prepared if it does so. by the way your attempt to douse the flames of ill will among RRT backers has failed and has managed to only fan the flames even more.

now if those sound rude and harsh then got news for you cupcake, you better find a safe space to hide in.
Carmen backed the wrong pony when he decided to do a RIFT's Board Game as his flagship game for his fledgling company. since anything and everything PB touches is destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

**Forar**

Asterios wrote:
now if those sound rude and harsh then got news for you cupcake, you better find a safe space to hide in.

Rick, could you kindly take five minutes and stop being such an donkey-cave?

Because this isn't the fething time or place.

**Asterios**

Forar wrote:
Asterios wrote:
now if those sound rude and harsh then got news for you cupcake, you better find a safe space to hide in.

Rick, could you kindly take five minutes and stop being such an donkey-cave?

Because this isn't the fething time or place.

took more then 5 minutes and shocked by the accusations towards backers over what is mildly offensive at worst, most of the ire was directed at Kevin and PB and RIFTs not Carmen, and yet people are saying people were mean to Carmen, yet ignore the fact that Kevin did far more damage to Carmen then any backer could. true some of the posts by Backers was a bit over the top they were no where near the worse I've seen on those forums or even on these forums. so by Kevin saying it was those posts that drove Carmen to commit suicide, Kevin pretty much destroyed Carmen's chances in the gaming industry which can be very tough and cruel.

and yes this is the time and place for it.

Edit: personally I hope Carmen and his family sue Kevin and his company for that post of Kevin's.

**deleted20250424**

Look, Carmen had other issues that led to this. It wasn't "people said mean gak to me on the internet" that caused it.

I feel bad for the guy and he needs to get help. I hope it works out well for him in the end.

Blaming the backers for someone else's, probably long suffering, mental issues is not someone should do, ever.

**n815e**

Nevermind

**Talizvar**

Sympathy for Carmen I find increasing a great deal for me.
I really did not need to hear about his wife finding him... that is heartbreaking.
I feel he was badly used.
I am sure there is more happening than what was posted in the KS "update".

The update wall of text is rather... numbing... as I think of the audacity of what is said there.
Carmen was suffering from mental illness: what was said is pretty much null and void for Carmen only.
The hand waving and shaming is of incredibly bad taste.

I hope at some point Carmen can find stability and possibly voice his own words of his choosing.
I am... upset that Palladium has elected to be his representative... inappropriately.

I do feel some shame where I had said elsewhere that Carman seemed crazy like a bull in a china shop with his initial postings.
How was one to know how right that was?

**Genoside07**

I had wrote a long post paralleling things said on the RTT Kickstarter comment section.

Here is what i believe..

Running a business is very hard.. And if you can not handle negative feed back from
customers then you might consider doing something else. There was a ton more other issues
that caused Carmen's choice.

I don't think Kevin has read or even cares about the comment section of his own kickstarter.

If project was actually properly planned, this would have no bearing on the project delivery date..
but I foresee another delay because of it.

At the end of the day.. this is business that was paid to produce a product.. not something personal.

**Asterios**

Genoside07 wrote:
I had wrote a long post paralleling things said on the RTT Kickstarter comment section.

Here is what i believe..

Running a business is very hard.. And if you can not handle negative feed back from
customers then you might consider doing something else. There was a ton more other issues
that caused Carmen's choice.

I don't think Kevin has read or even cares about the comment section of his own kickstarter.

If project was actually properly planned, this would have no bearing on the project delivery date..
but I foresee another delay because of it.

At the end of the day.. this is business that was paid to produce a product.. not something personal.

of Course Kevin is just setting up that he cannot work on RRT or much else because of his sorrow for his friend, albeit he will struggle thru to get his Rifts stuff done, if for nothing else then to give his friend hope in that IP.

**Merijeek**

It's also not that unlikely for Simbieda to say:

"In honor of my dear friend, who can no longer do this project, *I PERSONALLY* will take up the project. The demand has been too high for a Rifts(c)(tm)(etc) board game, and I just can't let that go to waste. We owe it to Carmen!"

Basically, the PB version of HG's "Do it for Caaaaaaaaaaaarl!"

**DEZOAT**

WOW!! What day first again I hope Carmen and his family recover from this. I wonder do anyone here have a pic of Carmen. I want to know if he was the one that help me with my stuff when I pick it up at warehouse. I read that update that Kev posted it burns me up . So everyone where do we go from here I know wave 2 is never coming . later

**Asterios**

Merijeek wrote:
It's also not that unlikely for Simbieda to say:

"In honor of my dear friend, who can no longer do this project, *I PERSONALLY* will take up the project. The demand has been too high for a Rifts(c)(tm)(etc) board game, and I just can't let that go to waste. We owe it to Carmen!"

Basically, the PB version of HG's "Do it for Caaaaaaaaaaaarl!"

that too.

**Talizvar**

I was thinking more the line that Kevin should offer to refund the licensing money if Carmen wished, until he was in a better position to act on it. Finances could very likely be a stressor.
Since KS was so public in voicing his concern.
Could someone do me the favor of posing that idea on the KS comments?

**Asterios**

Talizvar wrote:
I was thinking more the line that Kevin should offer to refund the licensing money if Carmen wished, until he was in a better position to act on it. Finances could very likely be a stressor.
Since KS was so public in voicing his concern.
Could someone do me the favor of posing that idea on the KS comments?

I think I posted that, there or was it here?

**evilsmurf**

Theres even a thread about this on 4chan. I didnt think there were any backers there, not sure why.

**Alpharius**

There's a lot in that Robotech RPG Tactics update that really, really shouldn't be in there for public consumption AND even then, there's more detail in there about intensely PRIVATE things then there's been detail about the actual Kickstarter Campaign he's posting in - Robotech RPG Tactics, especially Wave 2.

Sheesh!

**DEZOAT**

I just lost it over RRT KS site. I saw as now 67 like about what happen to Carmen is just piss me off. Kevin was wrong to put that out there for all to see its just wrong.

**Forar**

Oh, that was you?

I think it's less about actually "liking" this, and more a show of support.

Without further information, it's impossible to glean each person's reason for clicking that little button.

I wouldn't worry about it. Frankly, if possible, I would've turned that option off for this particular update.

Though that's not entirely correct, I wouldn't have posted it in the first place, but obviously that ship has sailed.

**evilsmurf**

Alpharius wrote:
There's a lot in that Robotech RPG Tactics update that really, really shouldn't be in there for public consumption AND even then, there's more detail in there about intensely PRIVATE things then there's been detail about the actual Kickstarter Campaign he's posting in - Robotech RPG Tactics, especially Wave 2.

Sheesh!

Thank you.

Emphasis on private. Others who knew did the right thing and kept it to themselves, but oh no, not Kevin.

At least it shows publicly exactly what he thinks of the backers. Even the ones who support him.

**Swabby**

This whole thing, from Carmen's posts to Kevin's reaction is just unprofessional in the extreme. This whole thing is just terrible, and shows that everyone involved on the professional side of this kickstarter is out of their element and incapable of handling the business they are hypothetically involved in.

I don't know what ridiculous sum Carmen had to pay to Kevin to get the IP rights here, but I'm pretty confident that the real source of stress here lies in that number.

I'm sympathetic to Carmen and really his family, but this is so ridiculously unprofessional, none of these people should ever be trusted again in business.

**Asterios**

Well it appears word of Carmen's attempted suicide is spreading thru the internet, Kevin has destroyed Carmen and any future he may have had in gaming and other things, since now he will be known as the guy who attempted suicide under a little pressure from a few comments(according to Kevin's post) and will be considered a liability and a risk, hope he and his family sue the pants off of Kevin and his company.

**Genoside07**

No one here is a jaded internet troll.. we shouldn't even know about the suicide.
This will be Kevins legacy.. Robotech Tactics debacle and spreading the news
of Carmen's personal issues..that the public should have never known.

Kickstarter is a program for business to get backing for projects. Kevin putting something
like that on there instead of information on the project just shows how much work
he has or ever will put into it.

To be honest I would love a meet and greet at Gen Con one year if I could ever make it.

**Elbows**

This entire project and everything it touches continues to turn to crap.

*If* the Carmen situation is true and was accurately described, my condolences. However if that is really the case Carmen has some much more serious issues in his life which need work first.

Secondly, Kevin continues to impress with his level of stupidity. Sharing a lot of that information which could have been handled better, not to mention he could have avoided the heaps of insults included in that status update (toward Carmen).

If I wasn't a jaded, pragmatic donkey-cave I'd assume this would have no further impact, but knowing Kevin I suspect it will, either in the form of extended timelines, diverted "funds", further excuses over production/planning, or time off for "mental recuperation" (on Kevin's part!) etc. Overall, a huge gak show.

**John Prins**

Asterios wrote:
Well it appears word of Carmen's attempted suicide is spreading thru the internet, Kevin has destroyed Carmen and any future he may have had in gaming and other things, since now he will be known as the guy who attempted suicide under a little pressure from a few comments(according to Kevin's post) and will be considered a liability and a risk, hope he and his family sue the pants off of Kevin and his company.

My first response was to wonder where Kevin found the ability to write upwards of 1000 words for an update in a few hours following Carmen's attempt at suicide.

Seriously, folks, who has the mental wherewithal to compose a long form letter when one of their purported friends has just attempted suicide?

**Merijeek**

People, I think we're losing sight of what's important here: Kevin Simbeida is blameless as always.

**jaymz**

I tried to calm things after I found out yesterday to no avail here, on the ks, and 2 fb groups after the post about carmens "medical" issues.

Too many decided to keep gaking on things than just shut up for a couple days.

Kevin however......utter, total, douchebag.

**Merijeek**

Anyone want to bet against me that by the end of the year we'll see Carmen publicly praising Kevin Simbieda and Palladium Books?

**n815e**

Leave Carmen alone.
His career isn't ruined. He can be stronger than ever after this.

Kevin hit the lowest notes in this entire saga with that update.
Rick is right behind him.

**jaymz**

n815e

His career may not be ruined.....Kevin certainly did not do it any favours though.

**n815e**

No, he didn't. But mental health issues don't make a person weak or incapable of succeeding.