Chris Roberts investors don't want to hold him accountable. There should've been a class action against him long ago.
My take is that he is a talented game visionary, but not necessarily a operational leader.
Lots of people seem to be like this.
It's not that they are bad people, but they assume making a game is easier than it is, and when the schedule slips they can't meet their commitments.
Some (like former Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling who wasted a ton of Rhode Island seed funding on a failed gaming company) could be excused for not understanding the industry, but one might argue that Roberts should have known better. I mean, after all he has been in this industry his entire career.
That said, just because someone is a talented programmer, or has good ideas for games does not mean they are a good project manager.
I guess this is jut a longwinded way of saying that I don't think that Chris Roberts is defrauding anyone, I think he is just the wrong person for the day to day operational leadership of an effort.
Years ago the management philosophy book du jour was called the "Strengthsfinder". It suggested we had gotten it wrong all along when we focused on improving on things we are weak at. It suggested that we instead should focus on what we are good at, and try to hire people to help us with the things we are not good at.
Roberts needs to get himself one or a few solid day to day operational managers and/or project managers to help map out what it takes to get the project to conclusion and then execute on it.
Lets not forget that back in the day John Carmack was much like Chris Roberts. He coined the phrase "when it's done" when asked when Doom or other games would be released. He was able to actually finish those projects though.
