Cloud Imperium VP of Marketing Sandi Gardiner, best known to gamers for her role as one of Star Citizen’s most recognizable faces thanks to her stewardship of the long-running Around the Verse series (not to mention her marriage to Chris Roberts), told fans this afternoon that she was taking what appears to be a temporary leave of absence from social media as a result of an ongoing harassment campaign organized against her.
Due to ongoing online targeted harassment, I am taking a break from social media
— Sandi Roberts (@SandiRoberts42) August 11, 2016
Star Citizen fans and pretty much all other decent human beings have rallied behind her on Reddit and Twitter.
You’re probably wondering whether everyone’s favorite Internet Warlord is involved, given his history with the game and the Gardiner/Roberts family in particular, but he’s denied it, and the CIG camp hasn’t elaborated yet. Regardless, this won’t mark the first time that Gardiner’s been singled out by Star Citizen’s aggressive detractors; last fall, her name was dragged through the mud by a gaming website that claimed it had dredged up an anonymous former employee willing to anonymously accuse Gardiner of racism and workplace discrimination, an actual crime. At the time, CIG expressed outrage over what it classed as defamation and threatened legal action. To date, none of the anonymous claims published has been proven.
