Quote from: ggroy;626062Oh we're so pretty
Oh so pretty we're vacant

I always liked that one.

Quote from: wmarshal;626023My grievance is both injury and the insult added to it. The $167 I gave is the injury I'm experiencing so long as James continues to shirk his commitments.

$167 pledged towards Dwimmermount.... wow. And there were 72 other pledgers around, or above that level. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised... the guy is/was a prolific, respected, and notorious blogger. But he hasn't had an extensive track record of publishing a great deal of material over the past... 3-4 years?

Admittedly, I tossed $100 towards Traveller5 and Horror on the Orient Express, apiece. But I felt that they were relatively 'safe' investments considering the publishers involved.

Quote from: Gib;626064I always liked that one.

And we don't care!

Quote from: Gib;626061Somebody asked upthread about why Raggi isn't feeling the heat, I think it is because he never shuts up. Hell, if you want to know about his divorce, he's got a module that covers it.

Perhaps all those loudmouths on late night television and talk radio, were on the right track all along when it comes to PR.  

Quote from: Gib;625875If the producer fufills their end of the deal it will never be an issue. People fuck up, and fucked up shit follows.

It very much can be an issue even with products that deliver, unfortunately. Development of a project goes in a direction some backer doesn't personally like and suddenly it's like they've personally been ripped off and they start throwing fits and making demands like somehow their $20 entitles them to creative control of the project.

Jim might owe you a product, but he doesn't owe you $50,000.  I'm just saying maybe dialing down the rhetoric a little lower than "impugning the man's entire character and attacking his family life." We're starting to get very near to personal threat territory in this thread, and that's disgusting no matter what he's done or his reasons for it.

Oh say can you see,
where they mocked me a week ago?
they are gallantly defending
my points now.

Quote from: J Arcane;626073Jim might owe you a product, but he doesn't owe you $50,000.  I'm just saying maybe dialing down the rhetoric a little lower than "impugning the man's entire character and attacking his family life." We're starting to get very near to personal threat territory in this thread, and that's disgusting no matter what he's done or his reasons for it.

You should probably directly address the posters whose activity has made you uncomfortable.

Quote from: Gib;626084You should probably directly address the posters whose activity has made you uncomfortable.

Eh.  That would require me to go back and actually read this piece of shit again, and that doesn't really benefit me or anyone else.

I think I'd rather watch Festen again than actually comb through this thread for all the times someone has attacked the man personally or overidentified with the funding total.

Quote from: Zachary The First;625878. . . ome communication is better than none.

It dawned on me that the message came from behind the G+ firewall - intended only for his most loyal and forgiving fans, it would seem.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;626095It dawned on me that the message came from behind the G+ firewall - intended only for his most loyal and forgiving fans, it would seem.

That goes to show how ineffective of a barrier the G+ firewall really is.

These days if he really wanted something resembling a semi-effective "firewall", he would have been better off communicating on the telephone with such loyal forgiving fans.

Quote from: ggroy;626098That goes to show how ineffective of a barrier the G+ firewall really is.

These days if he really wanted something resembling a semi-effective "firewall", he would have been better off communicating on the telephone with such loyal forgiving fans.

Sort of.  I feel confident that anyone who replied to the post with "Hey before you disappear again could you process my refund?" would have been dog-piled.

Quote from: econobus;626013Feel free to dissect my obtuseness...So we can shout down the people with grievances and be happy. Or we can learn from their grievances. I'd rather do the latter, but then, I'm a Dwimmermount backer and have a say, right?

I wasn't trying to shut you down.  I wasn't even talking to you directly, you are making an assumption that I'm attacking the people who are complaining, I am not.  So there's nothing more to be said between us.

Quote from: wmarshal;626023My grievance is both injury and the insult added to it. The $167 I gave is the injury I'm experiencing so long as James continues to shirk his commitments. The idea that James could wind up keeping most of the 50k while failing to meet his responsibilities to the backers and his business partners, and that I ever had anything to do with it is the insult.

I'm not entirely sure under legal process you can sue for the insult part.

Quote from: wmarshal;626023As for the will of the other backers I will try to get a feel for where they are at, but I will also present to them the argument that it is time to proceed with legal action if that is indeed possible, and try to convince them to join in the action. Maybe most of them currently say they're happy because they don't know what their options are.

Some have hinted that I'm (or nerds in general) not serious about this. I can only state that I am serious about this. I'm not here to just throw insults at James or mock him like some have. I don't have a site like YDIS to get entertainment value out of tearing James down. I'm not cursing and trying to pick a fight with any of James' defenders. (He sure doesn't seem to have earned such loyalty, but it is certainly yours to give.) I apologize if my use of GSS has offended some, and I will try to refrain from using GSS any more in this discussion.

I'm not necessarilly loyal to James--I think he's in the wrong at least by closing off communications, though I think there are unusual circumstances involved.  I was more concerned with the following aspects:

If it turns out you are in the minority in fan opinion, I hope you consider that in your decision to sue.  If, say, only 12 people agree with you and a few thousand are willing to wait, you would accept it.  I have no problem with making your case, I just hope if it doesn't turn out what you would like you'd accept it, and not just dismiss people who disagree with you as having GSS or being dumb, as well as be aware of those consequences.  At the same time, I respect the amount you are owed and understand why it would reach your boiling point by now.

Beyond that--I'll be surprised if you can get a class action suit.  In the US, Federal Class Actions have a minimum value of 5,000,000.00 for them to be open, which is 100 times what the sum of  the Dwimmermount Kickstarter had taken in.  State law may vary, but it gets messy if you're suing a Canadian citizen...

So it seems as if Game Stockholm Syndrome is hitting the usual suspects.

James posting, self serving as it is, adds fuel to the fire that we all need to better understand him, and have sympathy for him. No where does he apologize or even mention Dwimmermount. Nothing about the lack of communication post Kickstarter closing. Nothing about his no processing of refund requests. But, according to the GSS (Gamer Stockholm Syndrome) sufferers we need to give him the milk of kindness. Dwimmermount is never going to see the light of day.

The thing is, if Jim came out from the start people would be understanding. The fact that he does not address, and have not address his inability to deliver refunds to those who have asked for them (I have gotten at least 10 emails from backers who have shown me their emails to Jim) should raise a red flag.

I am sorry, in the real world, even if you have a job, you owe it to your employer to keep them in the loop as to what is going on. The fact that he cut all communication with Tavis & Co. should raise a red flag.

Yet, in the end, those, like us, who dare to look behind the curtain are the assholes.

And, before someone tosses at me James' track record of being a "professional writer." The reason is simple, Jim the Scam never sticks to anything. I’ve listed it once, but here it is again:

1. Fourth Millennium announced with much flourish. A little Google Search:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?319002-Whatever-happend-to-Fourth-Mi…


http://roguegamesblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/in-which-richard-shares-h…

2. Thousand Suns? A game he professes great love for, and of which he did not support let alone do anything with. The Revision took forever, and all of his promised projects have not materialized.

3. Petty Gods. This is the biggest scam. He has all the art and writing. He says as much on his blog. It has been two years, and still nothing. Why the hell not? He has no problems begging for free game goods on his blog. Free art. Free writing. Why the heck not beg for some free layout help?

4. Megadungeon.net — don’t even go to the URL, it is not there anymore. Remember when he got sand in his vagina about Cook’s stupid Dungeon a Day thing? And James makes all these proclamations that the shit should be free? Yeah, I do too (http://roguegamesblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/rogue-games-bids-you-to-e…). Where the hell is it, and the content that once was there? What, this cannot be right? James would not do something like this? Well he seemed pretty happy here (http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/megadungeonnet.html).

He can never finish anything, and in the case of Petty Gods, carry anything out.

But then sometimes I wonder…how if all of this:

My Feeble Skills

Progress

Getting There

Table of Contents

The Goblinoids of Dwimmermount

Thinkin’ ‘bout Dwimmermount

The Clerics of Dwimmermount

Yet Jim's the victim. Those who dare question the believability of the situation are the assholes. Whatever. It is pretty sad that Jim hides behind a limited G+ posting, and no update as of now, or apology, has been given to backers of his "historical megadungeon."

That's right, Gamer Stockholm Syndrome does not exist.

IRWS

Quote from: I run with scissors;626145And, before someone tosses at me James' track record of being a "professional writer." The reason is simple, Jim the Scam never sticks to anything.

Unless he's bigger than Stephen King or J.D. Salinger, it sounds like he would have been dropped (or fired) by publishers for failing to deliver on too many writing contracts.  Editors don't seem to like unreliable contracts who can't meet deadlines.