If you're talking about their
infamous article, the only mention of Derek Smart that I know of comes from Chris Roberts' response rather than the article itself.
They (the Escapist staff) talked about Mr. Smart during the podcast that addressed this article, released at the end of that tumultuous week. In it they said that while he can be a "smarmy bastard" a lot of what he had predicted regarding employee layoffs, etc. were turning true and that he "was the impetus" that eventually saw the article come to light. As a note, predicting layoffs isn't terribly amazing in the chaos that is the game industry, particularly so when Mr. Smart apparently has said that he gets the odd piece of inside information/office gossip from some employees; at that point it's not really predicting anymore, but he may spin it into something to perpetuate the belief that he's some kind of gaming Nostradamus (if these "predictions" are true
surely his other ones surrounding the game will be true too).
Sure, the article wasn't built as a spotlight for Mr. Smart to throw around more claims, but for those following his madness his influence - indirect though it may be - was clearly felt in it. Certainly didn't help matters that apparently these stories the Escapist ran with in the article had been shopped around to other news sites but said sites deemed them as not credible enough.
I do agree that any general criticism or doubt will be swiftly deflected as just the rants of another "Derek Smart cultist" (this stuff was happening before the Escapist) but that's what happens when you rile up already riled up fanboys; look to other games here on Gaf for the same sort of responses to criticism.
/my $0.02 (because the rest of my money went to this game
)
We'll hit $100 million next week, no matter what. Nothing stops this train.
Of course
this was predicted back in January; Mr Roberts's evil plan is all coming together...