History TroubledProduction / Other

* ''Unwilling Service'', a ''{{VideoGame/Pokemon}}'' fanfic series currently spanning three simultaneous fics, barely managed to see four chapters between 2011-14 before author Economy (formerly [=McKnight=] and then [=SeaRover1986=]) declared it dead. He revived it in May 2016, to take his focus off of another project that wasn't going anywhere, but while he managed to put out a chapter for each of the three fics in quick succession, his beta-writer, Helder Luis Baruffi[[labelnote: also known as...]]videokillah, Eczel Strata, djdsm89995, H-Man, unorthodox_du[[/labelnote]], encountered one problem after another, especially in light of a burglary in October that year, which required him to move back in with his family and endure a hectic lifestyle. Economy continued to hold out on him until he caved in and revealed how he really felt about the story. Things didn't fare much better when the author took to Upwork, and the resulting frustration led to increasing animosity between him and Helder, whom he had also been friends with for over a decade; most people who proposed to take it up either failed to understand what he expected of them (even after getting his original beta to summarize what he did before), went silent, had to back out, or lost interest by the time he got back to them after putting them on hold in favor of those before them. This spanned three attempts before he pulled the plug early in last said attempt and even wrote something on his blog that he retracted upon being called out, but which still led their friendship into a bitter multi-month decline. Even the two and only freelancers who actually did follow through with a chapter or so eventually stopped responding to his messages, leading him to Freelancer instead when he posted the project one last time on Upwork, contacted multiple other Freelancers recommended to him, and had the project taken down for content violations. At this point, Economy has already decided just to commission outright for an initial draft of the whole story instead. (And that wasn't a decision he made lightly; originally, he planned for the project to be some kind of personal game for himself, especially regarding his plans for the Pal Park and both of the Battle Frontiers, having once loved the actual games but since realizing one thing after another about them that rubbed him the wrong way.)

* ''Unwilling Service'', a ''{{VideoGame/Pokemon}}'' fanfic series currently spanning three simultaneous fics, barely managed to see four chapters between 2011-14 before author [=SeaRover1986=] (formerly [=McKnight=]) declared it dead. He revived it in May 2016, to take his focus off of another project that wasn't going anywhere, but while he managed to put out a chapter for each of the three fics in quick succession, his beta-writer, someone calling himself Jake, encountered one problem after another, especially in light of a burglary in October that year, which required him to move back in with his family and endure a hectic lifestyle. The author continued to hold out on him until he caved in and revealed how he really felt about the story. Things didn't fare much better when the author took to Upwork, and the resulting frustration led to increasing animosity between him and his former beta-writer, whom he had also been friends with for over a decade; most people who proposed to take it up either failed to understand what he expected of them (even after getting his original beta to summarize what he did before), went silent, had to back out, or lost interest by the time he got back to them after putting them on hold in favor of those before them. This spanned three attempts before he pulled the plug early in last said attempt and even wrote something on his blog that he retracted upon being called out, but which still led their friendship into a bitter multi-month decline. Even the two and only freelancers who actually did follow through with a chapter or so eventually stopped responding to his messages, leading him to Freelancer instead when he posted the project one last time on Upwork, contacted multiple other Freelancers recommended to him, and had the project taken down for content violations. At this point, Rover has already decided just to commission outright for an initial draft of the whole story instead. (And that wasn't a decision he made lightly; originally, he planned for the project to be some kind of personal game for himself, especially regarding his plans for the Pal Park and both of the Battle Frontiers, having once loved the actual games but since realizing one thing after another about them that rubbed him the wrong way.)
** [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Jamie]] (now [[Anime/TheLegendOfThunder Jimmy]]) having muscles sparked a major dispute towards the end of 2012. The author asked Jake at least three times not to buff him up, which he ignored as he proceeded just to do things his way and then tell him to redo the relevant scenes himself. He did redo some of them after being called out for his disobedience, but not before justifying himself first and arguing with him, and even then, there were still some things left that only muscles could explain (which he only managed to get rid of years later by having someone else do the whole chapter over). Eventually, this was one of the few things he cited when asked multiple times to cite what he came to hate about the story itself.
** There is also the issue of the [=PokeWalker=], one of Rover's favorite aspects of a pair of games that Jake very outright ''hates'' to this day.
** As for the two authors' relationship, it's been dead in the water since February 2018. While Jake's bailout marked the beginning of the end between them, actual tensions began when Rover stated a refusal to help him with any of ''his'' fanfiction until he deliver a make-up assignment of some sort. It was not long after that Rover got some answers out of Jake regarding what he actually hated about the story, but even when he offered concessions on two such aspects, things went nowhere from there in terms of winning him back, which led Rover to believe that he just wanted to be catered to and to do whatever he'd damn well please and was now being a poor sport over not having had his way through and through to begin with. Soon thereafter, Rover offered Jake a break from it all, but then impulsively demanded more answers about the situation, going on to tell him on his blog to go fuck himself when he thought he was ignoring him, before he revealed he was actually on a family trip and decided right then and there that that was it. Starting with a botched apology in response, things went on and off for months, and seemed to take a better turn for their friendship itself when Rover offered at least not to talk about his fetishes or [[Anime/LuckyStar a certain show Jake also hates]], before deciding to let more time go by before he'd express his actual issues outside of but related to Jake's departure. Only a month went by as Rover proceeded to elaborate in a [=WordPad=] file meant for much later on, before he broke down and expressed the toll such a thing was taking on his mental health, at which point Jake urged him, more out of guilt and despair than frustration, just to forget about him altogether.
*** And to begin with, [[https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/720094.html as Rover went on to post onto his blog:]]

* Scottsdale Galleria in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale went through this very quickly. It opened in 1991 as an upscale mall featuring an IMAX theater, an aquarium, and all sorts of other amenities. However, originally planned anchor store I. Magnin backed out, leaving the mall with no major department store (not that it mattered, since I. Magnin went out of business soon afterward). Also, the S&L crisis had gutted Phoenix's real estate market, and the nearby Scottsdale Fashion Square expanded, luring away potential tenants. After only two years, the mall was foreclosed on and largely closed except for the theater and a TGI Friday's, while plans were drawn up to turn it into a sports complex. These plans failed, as did plans to turn it into a planetarium and a museum. Scenes from ''Film/TankGirl'' were also filmed in the complex during its long period of abandonment. It was finally converted to offices at the TurnOfTheMillennium.

* Oviedo Mall, formerly Oviedo Marketplace, in the UsefulNotes/{{Orlando}} suburb of Oviedo. The mall opened to great fanfare in 1998 with department stores Dillard's and Gayfers, Major tenants included a movie theater, Bed Bath & Beyond, and "superstore" locations for both FYE and Foot Locker. However, its small size and poor freeway access meant that it never got above 80% occupancy. Also, the Gayfers anchor underwent several changes within the first few years: Dillard's bought out the Gayfers chain only seven months after the mall opened, so their store was sold to Parisian. This lasted only two years due to the store's unfamiliarity in the market, so it was hastily converted to Burdines in 2000 -- only for Burdines to sell to Macy's in 2003. However, Sears joined as a third anchor in 2000. Occupancy continued to dwindle as shoppers preferred other, larger, and easier to access malls nearby. In addition, many of the other key tenants left as well: FYE closed its large store due to record stores falling out of favor, Foot Locker left as it began to phase out its superstores, and Bed Bath & Beyond moved out because its store was too large, ultimately becoming a gym. One large space originally intended for a restaurant was never even tenanted until a Paul Mitchell cosmetology school opened there in 2012. Finally, the Macy's was one of the locations that the chain closed in 2017.

** Mark Oshiro, of ''Blog/MarkDoesStuff'' fame, also was in the event as both panelist and moderator. After the clusterfuck finished, he wrote a post in his blog where, while he claimed that he didn't realize how bad the thing was while it was running, it was because he was constantly running panels (so he didn't see the drama and the clusterfuck evolve). Furthermore, he was the only invitee accustomed to paying for his own expenses, this con not being the exception, so he didn't got involved into the payment drama pointed above.

* ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' ran into this problem in 2016 and the first half of 2017. The main driving cause was CreativeDifferences, with the co-authors (specifically [=VoxAdam=], [=Sledge115=], and [=JedR=]) clashing with the head writer [=Redskin122004=] over the direction of the story and characterizations. The main points of contention stemmed from the depiction of Queen Chrysalis[[note]]Red wanted to portray her as a more sympathetic WellIntentionedExtremist whereas Vox and Sledge wrote her closer to the CardCarryingVillain she was in canon[[/note]], the fate of [[BigBad Queen Celestia]][[note]]Red planned to have her be [[spoiler:eaten by [[TheManBehindTheMan Tirek]]]] as the stepping stone to the final climactic battle of the story; Vox, however, found the plan to be callous, especially since [[spoiler:Celestia had clearly been brainwashed and corrupted by Tirek]], and tried to write in a scene where Luna expressed the desire to save her, only for Red to express the belief the sentiment was a waste[[/note]], and an incident in which the story's protagonist Marcus would've been forced to shoot a pregnant woman in the heat of battle[[note]]Jed explained he and the other writers were fine with the deed itself but did not like how Red had no intention of having Marcus face [[KarmaHoudini any sort of blowback or consequences]] for this action[[/note]]. These creative disagreements soon spilled over into becoming personal disagreements. As Sledge and another co-author, Kizuna Tallis, explained in their own recollections on the matter, the 2016 US Presidential Elections in particular further drove a wedge between the rest of the group and Red, with the former expressing worry and disapproval over Donald Trump's campaign and win and the latter dismissing (if not outright mocking) their concerns. These problems came to a head in May 2017, where an explosive argument between Red and the other writers over the direction of the last story arc culminated with both sides [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere deciding they had enough and threw in the towel]], with [[WeUsedToBeFriends an acrimonious split]] to top it off. Since then, Red has taken a long break from writing to collect his thoughts (as much of his behavior at the time had been caused by an especially severe case of CreatorBreakdown) while the other writers decided to launch a ContinuityReboot titled ''Fanfic/{{SPECTRUM}}'' and start over fresh.

** ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' took time out of their tour only to find out that they were not going to be paid or have their travel expenses reimbursed as agreed upon, and responded by saying ScrewThisImOuttaHere. Attendees were forced to wait in a conference hall for over an hour before being told, with their compensation being one extra hour in a (pathetically small) ball pit. Those who purchased tickets for the cancelled event were also told they would not be refunded as the rules were changed ''during the con'' to prevent this. Within hours, the image of the ball pit in an empty hall became infamous for symbolizing the complete catastrophe that was the entire convention, and ball pits by themselves have since become a punchline that even ''other cons'' have referenced.

** Extremely poor organization during the convention itself: cartoonist [=GingerHaze=] was forced to moderate her own panel when her intended moderator didn't show up, and ''hotel mints'' were offered as rewards for events being held. Security was also poor, with a member of 4chan's /pol/ board being able to walk in without identification and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkoypI0yjrQ film]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_edLlqeAA1g the event]] with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJs-mbwuFVU impunity.]]

** Despite all this, construction was forced through to the very end both because Lotte Group staked so much into the building and because an abandoned construction project of this scale would have been a propoganda coup for North Korea.

* Another for Boston was the site of the former flagship store for Filene's in Downtown Crossing. After Filene's was torn down the property was bought by Vornado Realty Trust of New York with a plan to build a 39 story tower consisting of a hotel, restaurants, stores and residences. But then the project ran out of money in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, leaving the original Filene's facade halfway standing as a shell of its former self and a gaping hole right in the middle of one of the busiest sections of the city. After an ugly tug-of-war between the developers, Mayor Thomas Menino and city officials that went on for years the city finally revoked their permit in 2012 and another firm took over and began construction in 2013 of a 60 story building that was eventually finished in 2016, renaming it the Millennium Tower.

* Piëch had another one of those with Volkswagen Phaeton. Intended to thrust VW above Mercedes-Benz and BMW in terms of luxury, it was built with Piëch's demands in mind. Most famously, it was supposed to be capable of being driven all day at 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) with an exterior temperature of 50 °C (122 °F) whilst maintaining the interior temperature at 22 °C (72 °F) (even though its top speed was limited to 250 kph and this kind of driving would require frequent refueling stops). This led to delays and development costs going out of control. Ultimately, customers were largely unwilling to look beyond the VW badge and styling too reminescent of the mass-market Passat, which led to sales lower than expected (which was bad news, considering even with sales expected by Volkswagen the Phaeton project would fail to break even). In later years, it became somewhat of a CultClassic for being as luxurious and more rare than its counterparts while being very inconspicous and relatively cheap (since new Phaetons depreciated very steeply).

** It's possible the fallout from the con even helped kill the entire [=SuperWhoLock=] fandom, or at the least made it undesirable to publicly claim affiliation with it, as people began to notice after the con that the presence of the fandoms on the site dropped considerably. While there were likely other factors at play such as SeasonalRot for all three shows and the long breaks between seasons for ''Sherlock'' and ''Doctor Who'' [[note]]also, Matt Smith had just left ''Who'' to be succeeded by the considerably less [[MrFanservice fangirl-friendly]] Peter Capaldi[[/note]] -- see [[http://phantomrose96.tumblr.com/post/146802889137/agriff11-phantomrose96 here]] for further analysis on these issues -- Dashcon seems to have been the turning point.

** The summer music festival also collapsed. No bands were reportedly booked and Elijah Wood, the supposed celebrity guest, didn't show up. Also, the organizers donated money to help the festival go on (one donated $800 from their college fund) but the check to the park still bounced.

* The American Dream Meadowlands megamall in East Rutherford, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, part of the vast Meadowlands Sports Complex that includes [=MetLife=] Stadium (home field of the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague New York Giants and Jets]]) and the Meadowlands Arena (former home of the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague New Jersey Devils]] and the then-[[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation New Jersey Nets]]), was first proposed in the early '00s by the Mills Corporation as the Meadowlands Xanadu, described as "a new standard for bringing lifestyle, recreation, sports and family entertainment offerings together in one location." This would be no ordinary mall -- it would have an [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL-sized]] UsefulNotes/IceHockey rink, a minigolf course, an indoor water park and theme park, an twelve-story, 800-foot indoor ski slope, a 26-screen movie theater with an outdoor lounge overlooking Manhattan, a concert hall, an aquarium, a Ride/{{LEGOLAND}} Discovery Center, and to top it all off, the Pepsi Globe, a 287-foot-tall Ferris wheel. [[http://www.gq.com/story/five-billion-dollar-new-jersey-mega-mall-american-dream-meadowlands This profile]] in ''GQ'' describes it as something "ripped from the pages of Creator/DavidFosterWallace's dystopian novel ''Literature/InfiniteJest''." The project was announced in 2002 and ground was broken in 2004, with expected completion in two years. [[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/does-america-still-want-the-american-dream/409804/ It's still under construction]] as of this writing, with the $5 billion that has been sunk into it making it the most expensive retail project in history.

** As of now, the mall finally has an opening date: [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2019/07/03/the-long-delayed-american-dream-mega-mall-finally-has-an-opening-date/#6880abcd1cb0 October 25, 2019.]] Many have come to view the American Dream Meadowlands as one of the biggest boondoggles in New Jersey's history, its equivalent of the Big Dig given how much public money in the form of loans, bonds, and tax breaks has been given to the developers, especially given how many malls already exist in northern New Jersey. Five separate state governors[[note]]Jim [=McGreevey=], Richard Codey, Jon Corzine, Chris Christie, and Phil Murphy[[/note]] have overseen the project, and it has become a joke akin to ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' or ''[[Music/GunsNRoses Chinese Democracy]]'' within the state, such that Terrence T. [=McDonald=], a reporter for the ''Jersey Journal'', [[https://twitter.com/terrencemcd/status/1034504487845679104 suggested on Twitter]] that a future New Jersey governor will be saying that "voters elected me in [[DevelopmentHell 2077]] to get this thing done and we're just about there."

* In 2018, Florida International University in University Park, Florida erected the FIU-Sweetwater [=UniversityCity=] Bridge over Tamiami Trail in order to connect the campus to the town of Sweetwater, where many students lived, after a student was run over and killed trying to cross the busy road. Just five days after it was put up, the bridge collapsed and killed six motorists. [[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-bridge-collapse-fiu-florida-state-university-project-behind-schedule-over-budget-updates-2018-03-20/ Subsequent investigation]] revealed that the bridge had been subjected to multiple delays and cost overruns that produced one of these.

** Problems began in late 2016, when the Florida Department of Transportation requested that they move the bridge's northern pylon in order to allow for future widening of Tamiami Trail. The pylon was moved 11 feet to the north, a change that raised the cost of the project by over $600,000 and, more importantly, required revisions to the plans. Even seemingly minor changes can invite errors if every last detail is not accounted for when making these changes, and a number of engineers who looked at the collapse said that a change of this sort was ill-advised, with Robert Bea, an emeritus engineering professor at UC-Berkeley, saying that moving the pylon further out, causing it to support more weight, may have caused it to flex. Video of the collapse showed that it started on the north end of the bridge, the side whose pylon had been moved.

* The World Trade Center Transportation Hub, built to replace various rapid transit stations around the World Trade Center that were destroyed on 9/11, has been dubbed one of the world's most expensive train stations, or the world's single most expensive station, for its massive reconstruction cost of approximately $4 billion. It came in 10 years later than originally projected and [[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/nyregion/the-4-billion-train-station-at-the-world-trade-center.html?_r=0 overbudget]]:

** Australian-based developers LJ Hooker acquired the land for Forest Fair Mall in the mid-1980s. The site, on the north side of the beltway, was originally slated to have just Bigg's (a local supercenter chain), which LJ Hooker chose to be an anchor to a massive 1.5 million square foot mall -- the second largest in the state at the time, despite being only a few miles from the existing Tri-County and Northgate malls. The other anchor stores were to be Higbee's (based out of Cleveland) and four other upscale regional department stores (Bonwit Teller, B. Altman and Company, Parisian, and Sakowitz) that LJ Hooker bought controlling interest in, just to force them into the mall. Right as the first phase of the mall opened in 1988 (comprising Bigg's and twenty other stores), Higbee's canceled their plans, so B. Altman was hastily moved to their space and Elder-Beerman (based in nearby Dayton) took B. Altman's original spot. Even before the mall opened, many analysts felt that the four upscale department stores that Hooker had purchased were poor choices, due to both their unfamiliarity with the market (Bonwit Teller and B. Altman were both based in New York City; Parisian in Birmingham, Alabama; and Sakowitz in Houston) and the more blue-collar demographics of the neighborhoods around the mall. In addition, Tri-County Mall added a second level and another department store at this point. Despite the cards being stacked against it, Forest Fair fully opened in 1989, featuring such lavish tenants as an Australian brewery, the first licensed day care center in a US shopping mall, a huge arcade/entertainment center called Time Out, and a sprawling food court.
** Hooker also rebuilt the aging Richland Mall in Columbia, South Carolina into a similarly opulent megamall, which also failed out of the gate; most of it ended up becoming a Verizon call center which later closed. They developed smaller, discount-oriented malls anchored by Bigg's in Denver and Louisville, both of which were equally fruitless and promptly redeveloped into more conventional strip malls. Megamalls were also planned in Orlando, Tampa, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Atlanta, but none came to fruition. The poor planning brought Hooker into bankruptcy in 1990, only six months after the mall's opening, taking B. Altman, Sakowitz, and Bonwit Teller along with it (Parisian survived largely unscathed, and ended up mostly selling to Belk in 2006). Hooker quickly withdrew from the States, and the CEO who brought on their ill-fated US expansions was ousted. Naturally, with the big department stores already gone, the mall also lost most of its flashy specialty tenants.
** A group of lenders took over the mall, and managed to attract a few new tenants, including Cincinnati's first Kohl's in the former B. Altman. After another owner took over in 1996, the mall seemed to be on an upswing, particularly when the closure of Parisian made way for a Bass Pro Shops. Many of the new tenants at this point were outlet and big-box stores, such as Burlington Coat Factory, Off Fifth (the outlet division of Saks Fifth Avenue), Babies "R" Us, and Guitar Center. In 2002, it was sold again to Mills Corporation, a company known for developing similar discount malls throughout the country. They renamed the property Cincinnati Mills to fit their ThemeNaming and held a grand reopening in 2004. While it was initially successful, its sheer size and market saturation made it hard to keep filled. Also, the gradual decline of the retail sector after the TurnOfTheMillennium wiped out many anchor tenants such as Media Play, Steve & Barry's, Bigg's, and Elder-Beerman -- while also doing a number on both Tri-County and Northgate. Mills itself was financially struggling (and under scrutiny by the SEC) by the time it sold most of its portfolio to Simon Property Group, the largest mall company in the US, in 2007.
** Simon quickly passed the mall on to a series of other developers, none of whom seemed interested in doing anything to it. In the midst of all this, the theaters closed and even Burlington Coat Factory (historically notorious for maintaining stores in "dead malls") moved to a new location. Also leeching away tenants and foot traffic were newer outdoor malls to the north in Hamilton (Bridgewater Falls), Liberty Township (Liberty Center), and Monroe (Cincinnati Premium Outlets). Later developers had grandiose plans to add an ice rink and a Candlewood Suites hotel that never materialized. Bass Pro Shops also proposed to move out of the mall as early as 2013 in favor of a new store in nearby West Chester Township, but the chain's merger with Cabela's (which also has a store in West Chester) stalled those plans. The mall, with no internal guidance and nothing replacing its vacated anchor stores, withered away to nearly nothing by TheNewTens, leaving a [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/fanofretail/albums/72157657378955661 hulking, pristine, yet ghostly behemoth]] with only ''five'' tenants as of 2018: Bass Pro Shops, Kohl's, a gym, an arcade, and a children's play place. Despite this, a Christian media company out of Nashville expressed interest in converting part of the mall to office and studio space.

** As for the two authors' relationship, it's been dead in the water since February 2018. While Jake's bailout marked the beginning of the end between them, actual tensions began when Rover stated a refusal to help him with any of ''his'' fanfiction until he deliver a make-up assignment of some sort. It was not long after that Rover got some answers out of Jake regarding what he actually hated about the story, but even when he offered concessions on two such aspects, things went nowhere from there in terms of winning him back, which led Rover to believe that he just wanted to be catered to and to do whatever he'd damn well please and was now being a poor sport over not having had his way through and through to begin with. Soon thereafter, Rover offered Jake a break from it all, but then impulsively demanded more answers about the situation, going on to tell him on his blog to go fuck himself when he thought he was ignoring him, before he revealed he was actually on a family trip and decided right then and there that that was it. Starting with a botched apology in response, things went on and off for months, and seemed to take a better turn for their friendship itself when Rover offered at least not to talk about his fetishes or [[Anime/LuckyStar a certain show Jake also hates]], before deciding to let more time go by before he'd express his actual issues outside of but related to Jake's departure. Only a month went by as Rover proceeded to elaborate in a [=WordPad=] file meant for much later on, before he broke down and expressed the toll such a thing was taking on his mental health, at which point Jake urged him, more out of guilt and despair than frustration, just to forget about him altogether. And to begin with, [[https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/720094.html as Rover went on to post onto his blog:]]

** [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Jamie]] (now [[Anime/TheLegendOfThunder Jimmy]]) having muscles sparked a major dispute towards the end of 2012. The author asked Jake at least three times not to buff him up, which he ignored as he proceeded just to do things his way and then tell him to redo the relevant scenes himself. He did redo some of them after being called out for his disobedience, but not before justifying himself first and arguing with him, and even then, there were still some things left that only muscles could explain (which he only managed to get rid of years later by having someone else do the whole chapter over). Eventually, this was one of the few things he cited when asked multiple times to cite what he came to hate about the story itself. There is also the issue of the [=PokeWalker=], one of Rover's favorite aspects of a pair of games that Jake very outright ''hates'' to this day.
** As for the two authors' relationship, it's been dead in the water for months now. While Jake's bailout marked the beginning of the end between them, actual tensions began when Rover stated a refusal to help him with any of ''his'' fanfiction until he deliver a make-up assignment of some sort. It was not long after that Rover got some answers out of Jake regarding what he actually hated about the story, but even when he offered concessions on two such aspects, things went nowhere from there in terms of winning him back, which led Rover to believe that he just wanted to be catered to and to do whatever he'd damn well please and was now being a poor sport over not having had his way through and through to begin with. Soon thereafter, Rover offered Jake a break from it all, but then impulsively demanded more answers about the situation, going on to tell him on his blog to go fuck himself when he thought he was ignoring him, before he revealed he was actually on a family trip and decided right then and there that that was it. Starting with a botched apology in response, things went on and off for months, and seemed to take a better turn for their friendship itself when Rover offered at least not to talk about his fetishes or [[Anime/LuckyStar a certain show Jake also hates]], before deciding to let more time go by before he'd express his actual issues outside of but related to Jake's departure. Only a month went by as Rover proceeded to elaborate in a [=WordPad=] file meant for much later on, before he broke down and expressed the toll such a thing was taking on his mental health, at which point Jake urged him, more out of guilt and despair than frustration, just to forget about him altogether. And to begin with, [[https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/720094.html as Rover went on to post onto his blog:]]

** Like the Voskhod spacecraft, the ''Soyuz 1'' capsule was designed as a Rube Goldbergian death trap. (For example, unlike Apollo, traveling from the orbiter to the landing craft required a spacewalk.) When cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was called in to inspect the capsule, he found ''203 structural deficiencies'' and recommended that the program be postponed. He was rebuffed by the Soviet higher-ups.

** Afterwards, it became apparent that, as a fundraiser, Hands Across America had almost completely failed. Once the large amounts of money spent on the promotion were accounted for, only $15 million was raised for charity, coming in far short of the $50 million that Kragen was hoping for. However, it ''did'' succeed in raising awareness for the cause of homelessness, such that it has been [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/remembering-hands-across-america/2018/05/14/8674e312-41c5-11e8-ad8f-27a8c409298b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.547525e969c7 credited]] with leading to the passage of the [=McKinney=]-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, which provided a billion dollars a year for the funding of programs to help the homeless.

** In 2016, Creator/{{Universal}} bought out Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. This presented a problem, since the theme park was going to be [=DreamWorks=]-themed, and Universal, which already operates [[Ride/UniversalStudios its own theme parks]] on the East Coast, had little interest in cannibalizing its business by supporting a competitor, causing them to pull out of the project. Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} subsequently [[http://pix11.com/2016/09/15/giant-nickelodean-theme-park-coming-to-new-jersey/ acquired the rights]] to the mall's theme park, hoping to create a new Nickelodeon Universe location like the one at the Mall of America. (The water park, however, would remain [=DreamWorks=]-themed, as Universal isn't in the water park business.)

* The American Dream Meadowlands megamall in East Rutherford, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, part of the vast Meadowlands Sports Complex that includes [=MetLife=] Stadium (home field of the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague New York Giants and Jets]]) and the Meadowlands Arena (former home of the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague New Jersey Devils]] and the then-[[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation New Jersey Nets]]), was first proposed in the early '00s by the Mills Corporation as the Meadowlands Xanadu, described as "a new standard for bringing lifestyle, recreation, sports and family entertainment offerings together in one location." This would be no ordinary mall -- it would have an [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL-sized]] UsefulNotes/IceHockey rink, a minigolf course, an indoor water park and Creator/{{DreamWorks|Animation}} theme park, an twelve-story, 800-foot indoor ski slope, a 26-screen movie theater with an outdoor lounge overlooking Manhattan, a concert hall, and to top it all off, the Pepsi Globe, a 287-foot-tall Ferris wheel. [[http://www.gq.com/story/five-billion-dollar-new-jersey-mega-mall-american-dream-meadowlands This profile]] in ''GQ'' describes it as something "ripped from the pages of Creator/DavidFosterWallace's dystopian novel ''Literature/InfiniteJest''." The project was announced in 2002 and ground was broken in 2004, with expected completion in two years. [[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/does-america-still-want-the-american-dream/409804/ It's still under construction]] as of this writing, with the $5 billion that has been sunk into it making it the most expensive retail project in history.

** In 2016, [=DreamWorks=] Animation was bought out by Creator/{{Universal}}. Since that studio already operates [[Ride/UniversalStudios its own theme parks]] on the East Coast, it had little interest in cannibalizing its business by supporting a competitor, and pulled out of the project. Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} subsequently [[http://pix11.com/2016/09/15/giant-nickelodean-theme-park-coming-to-new-jersey/ acquired the rights]] to the mall's theme park, hoping to create a new Nickelodeon Universe location like the one at the Mall of America.
** As of now, construction is projected to be complete in June 2019. Many have come to view the American Dream Meadowlands as one of the biggest boondoggles in New Jersey's history, its equivalent of the Big Dig given how much public money in the form of loans, bonds, and tax breaks has been given to the developers, especially given how many malls already exist in northern New Jersey. Five separate state governors[[note]]Jim [=McGreevey=], Richard Codey, Jon Corzine, Chris Christie, and Phil Murphy[[/note]] have overseen the project, and it has become a joke akin to ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' or ''[[Music/GunsNRoses Chinese Democracy]]'' within the state, such that Terrence T. [=McDonald=], a reporter for the ''Jersey Journal'', [[https://twitter.com/terrencemcd/status/1034504487845679104 suggested on Twitter]] that a future New Jersey governor will be saying that "voters elected me in [[DevelopmentHell 2077]] to get this thing done and we're just about there."

** [[https://twitter.com/zephyrnok/status/647795107203186689 The image]] ('''[[NotSafeForWork NSFW]]''') of an attendee wearing a diaper at [=RainFurrest=] went viral.

** By the final night, the Hilton had become exasperated to the point of threatening con-goers eviction over single noise complaints. They later sent [=RainFurrest=]'s organizers a letter announcing [[PersonaNonGrata their refusal to ever host the con again]]. Other hotels from Seattle to Bellingham responded similarly, the event's infamy now spreading like wildfire. They had also received letters which Trapa -- one of the event founders -- suggested were from the same person who left the diapers atop the cars.

** [[https://twitter.com/zephyrnok/status/647795107203186689 The image]] ('''[[NotSafeForWork NSFW]]''') of an attendee wearing a diaper at [=RainFurrest=] went viral. Worst still, reportedly others were walking around with

** One of the con board members was Thai Nam Pham, who was [[https://www.theroot.com/it-be-your-own-people-on-universal-fancon-and-the-perv-1825481924 allegedly connected]] with several failed conventions, Pride Con and what might be Akihabara Con, both of which played fast and loose with backer money. Pham's Linked In profile at one point listed one of his tasks on the board as "collaborate with finance team to ensure event is within budget", which [[CaptainObvious it was not]].