Trials of Ascension, Shady Practices and the Big Crowdfunding Debate

[Post]

I like how he specifically says he doesn't like greedmonger, thinks it's an awful IP but had to try to finish it for the assets. Then goes on to try and say he's doing it for the backers and he's not doing it for the assets. It seems pretty obvious he's doing it to get this reputation of being a great trustworthy guy who is just there to help the community so he can use that reputation (and whatever audience greedmonger may have) for his next thing.

[lawow74]

Cos company! And branding!

Great stuff, ahh, so nice when idiots play along.

Almost forgot: *gives Azrile a cookie*

[dextersmith]

watch the video, skip to 1 hour.

God, this is freakin gold. now Joel is talking about himself being a superhero who is jumping on the titanic trying to save people... while never leaving his couch. A few minutes later on, he says ´we dove into the fire´... such heroes they are.

oh.. this is sad.. This is the guy who was on here talking about his PR and Branding skills.. just listening to him talk... it is just sad.

1:22 it now comes out.. they did this for the assets. People in the chat are asking them about the assets.. This is what I love about these guys, they are too dumb to know they are dumb. The people are walking them in a circle to where they either have to admit they were really stupid for taking over GM, or else, as he is doing, he admits that the main reason he took it over was for the assets. Whomever is typing in that chat, is doing what I did to ToA devs where you just let them dig themselves into their own pile of poo.

At 1 hour mark, he keeps picking or wiping his nose with his hands and it goes right behind his head, knowing he's on cam. Use fuckin' kleenex! He's dirty and gross! That guy offers him money and he couldn't even bother to sit up. Who does a video interview lying down picking boogers? He was so elusive about how much he needed. "Half a mil let's us hire [everyone]"...He said he had these people already.

1h 3min: roflmao!
"Odds of giving lumpy ass on sofa and James look like an idiot, very low!.....I wish you well Mr. Lumpy Man......You kind of laid back like Java the Hut!" Called James Penguin! lol

Joel: Don't invest in ks but gimme gimme.

[Taojnhy]

The amount of money it will take to get things going will be EXPONENTIALLY more than the cost of the license and assets. So, as a businessman, if acquiring the licenses and assets for another game, why on EARTH would I waste the money, time, and negative backlash if I were only in it for the assets? Makes ZERO sense.

well yeah, you can´t just come right out and say that GreedMonger is dead right after you take it over. Give it 3-6 months of forum posts and some sincere anguish.. gather some sympathy for the brave and honorable uphill battle you fought trying to save a tarnished GreedMonger. That way when you start over with GameX that is built with all of the assets the backers of the Geedmonger Kickstarter paid for, you can do so with a clear conscious.

Nobody would devote time and money into a game with GreedMongers reputation unless all that time and money is easily transfered to the real project later on.

New Poll ladies and Gentleman. In what Month will MMOI announce their new project. I am taking 4 months from now.. so that would be August. I still have June as the month when Brax finally announces the end of ToA.

Ah yeah, I thought of that last night, but just forgot to include it in my predictions. Obviously you will be so gut-wrenched about closing down GM and disappointing all the fans that as a sign of goodwill ( and for PR and branding) you will give all the Kickstarter backers of GM a copy of the real game you are developing. psst.. you already missed the boat though, Gloria Victis, a game without the same lead developer and without the same community manager already offered up their game free for people who backed GreedMonger KS.

Honestly, nobody is going to give you a free pass on this. James is the one who got most of the KS money in the form of all that software Jason bought for him, including the new computer. James is the one who got the $4000 paypaled to his mother´s account. As soon as you switch games, people are going to know that the KS money from GM went for things being used to build the new game.

And just to be fair, this is not at all a bad plan
1. Dump the tainted company name
2. Make a new company, build up goodwill and branding for the new company
3. Dump the tainted game name
4. Built up a new game using the goodwill you built up using the new company

Nothing at all wrong with any of that. The only flaw in your plan is that in step #4, you still have incompetent and inexperienced people trying to build a MMORPG being lead by a nobody who doesn´t know they are incompetent and inexperienced.

You can have all the software Jason bought, you can have all the goodwill of the community, but you are still just backtracking to where GM was back in 2012.

Man, Azrile nailed this one to the wall.

[Kyanion]

heh they didn't even wait 3-6 months though

[Taojnhy]

heh they didn't even wait 3-6 months though

Okay, okay, Az nailed it to the wall, but not on the stud.

- - - Updated - - -

1h 3min: roflmao!
Called James Penguin! lol

Nah; he was referring to the guy on the right end of the list who's DarKPenguiN from the RPGCodex thread.

[Azrile]

They haven´t actually cancelled GM yet.. just some discussion in the 2nd hour of a video that nobody saw but us. I know they are reading this, so I will give them some advice. There is no reason at all to cancel GM yet, there is no reason at all to announce the new game yet. Just keep playing the game where you talk in the forums like you are developing GM and how heartfelt and warm you feel about being superman and rescuing them from the titanic, meanwhile make sure all the work you are doing is for the new game. There is no benefit to tell anyone about the new game or announce the death of GM.

[Taojnhy]

I want to know more about that Pfo person (the "foreign" guy from Africa) in the video; that guy was absolutely hysterical.

Pfo: "You not sit forward! You kind of lay back like Jabba Hutt! Sit up! Pretend that you interested in conversation!"

(Hagel adjusts his position so that he is no longer reclining and now sitting up on the couch)

Hagel: What you say doesn't affect me in the slightest.

[Azrile]

I want to know more about that Pfo guy (the "foreign" guy from Africa) in the video; that guy was absolutely hysterical.

from the first hour, all I know is that he donated $600 to the original kickstarter for GM and has been a longtime follower.

The quotes above from when Tubby was posting here.. just freaking hilarious now.. he called himself a businessman? Then he goes on a video and says he needs to break up mailing out the t-shirts because he can´t afford to do them all this month? It is less than 100 t-shirts...

They also still have not created the actual company. MMOI does not exist except in their own heads.. Maybe Joel can´t afford the $50 to incorporate. Guys, I have some good news and some bad news.. We have now finally incorporated MMOI.. but the bad news because of the money we spent doing it, we will not be able to mail out any t-shirts until next month when we get our disability checks.

For those curious about the beginning of Proctor´s gameplay.. this is UMA, it is a Unity add-on that allows you to create humanoids and allows them to be altered at runtime. Basically you can use it as your character creator system for your players, or you can use it yourself to make NPCs ahead of time. Proctor used the absolute basic edition of UMA with no modifications whatsoever..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_dnHLcFDes and here is the free download from the asset store https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/35611

[Post]

I want to know more about that Pfo person (the "foreign" guy from Africa) in the video; that guy was absolutely hysterical.

In the very end he said he didn't even support the game. I almost kinda felt like it was Azrile TBH lol.

[Taojnhy]

In the very end he said he didn't even support the game. I almost kinda felt like it was Azrile TBH lol.

Well, Azrile's told us before that he doesn't live in the U.S....hm...Africa definitely isn't in the U.S.

Oh, damn son.

Nah, I don't think it was Azrile, but that would have been amazing if it was.

[Azrile]

haha. That guy said in the first hour he donated $600 to the original KS.

Also, I believe that Google Hangout was held 3 days ago, and posted to youtube 3 days ago. I never knew about it until today when someone mentioned it in this thread. Also, I am American, I just live in a lot of different countries. I also have about as plain of an american accent as possible. Although it would be fun to do an Abu-accent ( from the Simpsons).

Really though, I stay away from these games other than this thread. I don´t have my own account on their forums or post in their youtube or facebook pages. Nobody will believe me, but I honestly don´t like trolling other games.

[Post]

haha. That guy said in the first hour he donated $600 to the original KS.

Yeah he did, then at the end he said he didn't even support the game and "have a nice life". I figured he was just bullshitting when he said 600, or maybe not who knows.

[Azrile]

Yeah he did, then at the end he said he didn't even support the game and "have a nice life". I figured he was just bullshitting when he said 600, or maybe not who knows.

I think it was more just the realization of who was making the game and the 0% chance it ever gets made. Appleton was a great salesman, and his idea to limit land, and then have backers ´buy´ land in advance was pretty smart in a scammy sort of way. It created this entire air of ´limited supply, get in early´... In the beginning there were a lot of greedy backers who thought they could just flip the property for a big profit ( what Appleton was telling them) and then there were people who just thought the game could actually be fun.

But fast forward 4 years, and you have Proctor and Joel on video, picking boogers and wiping them in their hair.. and just a horrible looking game and both guys with 0 business sense. Even people who were very sympathetic to them said there was no way in hell they were making the game.

[Taojnhy]

Even people who were very sympathetic to them said there was no way in hell they were making the game.

This is something I saw in the last twenty minutes of the video that makes me twitch:

They're trying to convince Hagel that GM is never going to be made, so why not dump the IP and go work on something else?

They seem to all very conveniently forget a crucial factor: Proctor. It's not like Appleton wrote a single line of code for GM, so why exactly do they seem to think GM won't get made, but MMOI's next IP should be fine?

[Deleted]

hahaha, that 'West African Guy' is fucking amazing

[Azrile]

This is something I saw in the last twenty minutes of the video that makes me twitch:

They're trying to convince Hagel that GM is never going to be made, so why not dump the IP and go work on something else?

They seem to all very conveniently forget a crucial factor: Proctor. It's not like Appleton wrote a single line of code for GM, so why exactly do they seem to think GM won't get made, but MMOI's next IP should be fine?

Theories...
I think they want to go after Appleton, but if GM is still in development, they can´t.
or
They overestimate what Proctor has already done and think that on a more limited project, he will be able to complete something. It is why I brought up UMA. The only thing Proctor has done so far is installed Atavism and UMA. He spent a lot of time messing around with character customization, and then a lot of time at the end building.. but those are just UMA and Atavism. There was nothing in that video that was anything he actually did. A very ugly and generic world, and some type of mob that moved without using proper animations, and which completely ignored the player character.

[Maddoc]

"Let it goooooo, LET IT GOOOOO!

10/10 would watch again.

[dextersmith]

In the very end he said he didn't even support the game. I almost kinda felt like it was Azrile TBH lol.

I didn't think he would have after pointing out those 2 are nobodies who are unrealistic. I'm glad he told them, sit up and act like you're interested. I thought it was Azrile too. Did Lumpy play Fat Bastard in Austin Powers?

[NotADevAlt]

I didn't think he would have after pointing out those 2 are nobodies who are unrealistic. I'm glad he told them, sit up and act like you're interested. I thought it was Azrile too. Did Lumpy play Fat Bastard in Austin Powers?

And then Hager was whining after while straining to sit up: I didn't know my posture mattered!

C'mon dude, you claim to be a businessman and you can't even make yourself look the least bit professional and presentable?

Admittedly I only watched snippets here and there, but it seemed that Proctor was noticeably absent/quiet throughout the video. Did he have anything of substance to say or was he too busy running his ugly default character around his ugly default unity world?