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Greed Monger Cancelled; $100,000+ in Kickstarter Funds Unaccounted For
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Actually, I think this is excellent. Maybe at least some people harve learnt their lesson, and will stop forking out money on all kinds of shady projects.
Well, it's only been three days, and James Proctor is now claiming that he's already/still working on Greed Monger (again):
I've added you to MMOI's Discussion. I thought I had added everyone from our QA Discussion but I guess I hadn't. So anyways the Original GM IS dead. However since the Original GM was nothing more then a list of features (No Lore elements or Story really other then what Jason had up in his mind) the concept, ideas, and features that made up GM still very much live on and are being implemented at this time. I really am not at liberty to discuss any specifics here but just know MMOI is still very much ticking. We will fill you in about everything in our Skype Discussion. We are also looking to add more team members to our QA Team.
Can't seem to make his mind up from day to day, and the story continues to change.
First he didn't have funds for Greed Monger, so he was closing it down.
Then he was going to make a Zombie Survival Game, but quickly abandoned the idea when people found it was a Unity Store Asset game. Mind you, he purchased the assets with $40 he claimed he didn't have to continue developing Greed Monger or to send the t-shirts to backers.
Then he claimed he was going to make mobile apps for income.
Now, suddenly, he has the funds to remake the entire GM IP and continue developing it, while seeking more members for his QA team for testing GM!
Marvelous.
When is the Google Hangout?
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
There is no Google Hangout...
Pretty plan and simple... GM is dead. We shut it down. Like you guys have told me to do we will be back when we have something to show. Until then it's really been fun and I wish you guys all the best success in whatever you guys do!
Company Owner
MMO Interactive
Then why did you just claim to be reworking the GM IP and seeking more QA members to test it?
Guess you already decided that mobile apps are too time consuming to develop?
I never said we were still working on the GM IP... GM was nothing more then a list of features and ideas with no coherent lore or backstory except for what Jason kept up in his brain. Those Features can very easily be implemented into ANY IP. Since Day 1 of taking over GM and through the whole process of shutting down GM I have made it very clear that our commitment is to the backers and we would be back when the time was right to honor GM's KS Pledges. GM's IP is dead... We shut it down... The Features and Ideas that made GM is still very much alive and will be carried on as part of our commitment to the KS Backers.
And no trust me we are still very much doing at least 1 Mobile Game. 1 of our Programmers has a strong point in Mobile Game Development and we intend on utilizing the strengths of every team member we have.
Company Owner
MMO Interactive
You make some good observations.
As far as I can tell your "company" consists of yourself and Mr. LumpyMan. You have no funding. You cannot even afford to send T-Shirts out. You cannot possibly think that anyone here will believe when you talk about now suddenly having a team of programmers...
James, you said your goodbyes. You said you would not be back until you had something to show.
That lasted for maybe 5 minutes. Please go. Do something tangible that demonstrates something beyond a highschool term project.. and THEN come back and show us!
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
So it's not even you developing the game?
Surprise.
Guess it's better that way, though. Maybe this game will have a working score tracker.
Roflmao, holy shit dude o_O; You keep shooting yourself on the foot.
“GM was nothing more then a list of features”
A 100,000$ worth list of features mind you.
“Those Features can very easily be implemented into ANY IP.”
Maybe, by people who know what they are doing, with is obviously not the case of any of you.
“The Features and Ideas that made GM is still very much alive and will be carried on as part of our commitment to the KS Backers.”
No, they won’t, because you guys are just a bunch of little kids pretending to go to the moon in a spaceship made of card boxes, besides forum posts you won’t get anything else made.
“And no trust me…”
Yeah, good luck with that now mate.
“we are still very much doing at least 1 Mobile Game”
Of course you are, a MMO, a zombie survival, mobiles games, anything else? How about you finishing that “prototype” of a game that takes less than one hour to program? (space invaders clone)
In that case can I have 20 bucks too.
You could always head down to your local store and bum change out front, just an idea.
You know I offered $250 to the person who would start a case against Appleton. So far noone has been in contact. Don't you think your bucks are better spend going after him?
Criminals shouldn't walk away with $100k, you can do something about it.
you don't think KS management knows that if you let people post anything ... that is just what they will do to scam for money?
That is why i won't give KS projects a dime.
Sorry, but I don’t get your point.
Of course the people behind the Kickstarter knows that some people will use this to scam others, so what? It’s not like they can do much about it. Still, what do you suggest for them to do?
Put a contract in place? Change the operations of KS? Don't start something that will enable fraud in the first place?
A thousand things ... if they want to make their money off fraud ... they better be able to stand the heat.
Your ISP has people downloading copyrighted material right now. They know some people are doing this. If "they want to make their money off" illegal behavior they better be ready to stand the heat.
This is a silly argument to make.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
LOL! "Don't start something that will enable fraud", haha xD Tell that to our maker =P
Srly now, tell me, how deep is knowledge about the legislation? Have you properly read Kickstarter EULA? I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know jackshit about neither, but if I had to take a guess, I would say that if it was only THAT easy, there wouldn’t be this kind of issues.
Either way, I don’t really think that’s the problem. Thing is, they can’t really prove that someone is actually lying about their projects, there are multiple reasons for projects to fail even after being fully backed, Kickstarter as clear warnings about the risks that backers take and even suggest you doing your research before backing up ANYTHING.
This case was pretty obvious, none of the people behind it had real experience in gaming industry, it was a bunch of no ones who never accomplished shit at all and they wanted to develop a MMORPG with is the hardest genre to develop, especially with a 100,000$ budget, eck, I even dare to say you didn’t even needed to research shit at all, you just need a little common sense ~ yet people backed them anyway regardless.
There is a similar case as Greed Monger, called Trials of ascension, also a bunch of people with ZERO game experience “developing” a MMORPG, when they attempted their first Kickstarter they didn’t even had a single person able to code, yet that didn’t stop them from requesting 800,000$, obviously it didn’t got too far, therefore they made a website “Store”, selling in-game items and services (for a game that didn’t even exist), calling them “donations” with “rewards”, that they supposedly used to hire someone to develop a “technical demo” that they used to attempt another Kickstarter of 600,000$ or so…. I, among another number of people warned their backers about what was most likely going to happen, we were called “trolls” and liars among other shit, many of them ended up regretting it when they started realizing that the “developers” behind it were full of shit and the project isn’t going anywhere.
TL;DR: “a fool and his money are soon parted”.
Why do we need to answer what Kickstarter needs to do to prevent fraud?
How about a first step is to let them return the 5% they earn on each failed project. I bet you once they actually lose money on failed projects they will put in place a lot of checks.
I am missing important things on the kickstarter pages as well. An open system where people can thumb up and down the project. Is it enough to only show what money comes in? All these people on these forums that "knew from the start this project was going to fail" shouldn't they have had a voice on the page, as much as the people who become backers. Crowd sourcing isn't that giving a platform for the pessimists as much as the optimists?
A third requirement should be is monitoring. Why, even today there is not a single message on the Greed monger kickstarter page showing that the project has failed and shutdown? I believe that shows there's zero responsibility done by Kickstarter themselves. If I was Kickstarter I would have added a big flashing text in neon letters 2 months ago that ownership of the greed monger IP had changed.
Simple points.
Great markup, you even removed my paragraph breaks
Where exactly did I say that Kickstarter needs to get involved in the management of the project?
You specifically suggest that Kickstarter refund their fee if a creator's project failed. You also suggest that Kickstarter enforce some sort of monitoring and requirements for status posts. If Kickstarter's ability to keep their fees were tied to the success of the project, there's no way in the world they wouldn't be involved in the management of the project. Also, requiring status updates from the creators is a form of passive management. Again, Kickstarter could really care less if creators succeed or fail; they provide guidelines for how a project might be successful, but they have no interest in enforcing those guidelines, any more than creators are compelled to follow them.