Butthurt The Slaughtering Grounds devs try to sue trolls, get taken down from Steam, lol

[Baron Dupek]

This mess awakened old demos of retardation
http://mmofallout.com/james-romine-subpoenas-valve-for-steam-user-details/
tl;dr creators of this filth

want to sue 100 steam users.
Best part? They put their steam names in documentation, which you can change every moment as many times as you want.
YES they are that retarded

 

[gaussgunner]

Never heard of it, but sounds like they're committing digital suicide.

 

[Turjan]

This mess awakened old demos of retardation
http://mmofallout.com/james-romine-subpoenas-valve-for-steam-user-details/
tl;dr creators of this filth
want to sue 100 steam users.
Best part? They put their steam names in documentation, which you can change every moment as many times as you want.
YES they are that retarded

The lawsuit is retarded, yes. However, all your usernames plus changes are documented, and as the subpoena was granted by the court, Valve has to provide the real names behind them. They can certainly identify who made specific posts.

Also, the discussion in the link mentions that one of the sued people is a developer. That's one of the few cases where you can be held responsible.

Let's hope the judge is reasonable.

 

[Metro]

Haven't seen the complaint -- what exactly are they suing for? Emotional damages?

 

[pippin]

Haven't seen the complaint -- what exactly are they suing for? Emotional damages?

Originally the guy tried to delete every video giving a negative review of the game, and now he wants to sue every steam user who gave a negative review of his product.

 

[Metro]

Trying to figure out why a judge would issue a subpoena for Valve to reveal those names when this lawsuit seems to have zero basis. Unless it's some kind of libel argument where he's alleging people are stating lies about the game. But giving an opinion is hardly grounds to sue someone.

Read the link a bit, still doesn't clarify much. 'Personal injury?' Since it's been assigned to a Magistrate Judge it's in federal court but state claims can be heard in federal court when some easy criteria are met (diversity of domicile/location and a claim over X dollars). He's representing himself so not paying attorney fees. Problem is he has to prove his damages. Don't see how that's possible.

 

[pippin]

The guy will probably argue that bad reviews hurt the commercial success of the game, when the game became famous precisely because of those reviews.

 

[Metro]

If that were a legitimate argument Hollywood Studios and AAA publishers would have been suing professional reviewers for decades. But filing the suit doesn't cost him much beyond a hundred or so in fees. Gabe needs to step up here and pull this dude's games off of Steam.

 

[Dexter]

Gabe needs to step up here and pull this dude's games off of Steam.

They did: https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/534z02/steam_pulls_the_slaughterig_grounds_and_all/

http://techraptor.net/content/digital-homicide-suing-100-steam-users-18-million

 

[Astral Rag]

Valve removes Digital Homicide's games from Steam - For "being hostile to Steam customers".

Valve has delisted developer Digital Homicide's games from Steam, including Paranormal Psychosis, Gnarltoof's Revenge, and Krog Wars (pictured above). Yesterday, it came to light that the developer is suing 100 anonymous Steam users for $18 million, in response to comments those users had made about the company and its games on Steam. This comes on the heels of an ongoing lawsuit against critic Jim Sterling—who the developer is suing for $15 million—in response to a YouTube video of his blasting one of their games.

A few hours after the latest lawsuit was discovered, Twitter user lashman noticed that all of Digital Homicide's games had been removed from Steam. You can see evidence of that below, and if you search for those games, well, their store pages are gone. (If you've already bought them, or you purchase Steam keys from elsewhere, you can still install and play the games, however.)

TechRaptor posted a story about the mass delistings a few hours ago, a story that has since been updated with an official comment from Valve's Doug Lombardi, who states that "Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers".

In addition to its released games being delisted, Digital Homicide's Steam Greenlight titles have also been removed. The only trace that remains is the company's community group, which is currently being beset by offensive comments.

Thanks, TechRaptor.

 

[Astral Rag]

Good that they finally stopped selling that particular garbage but they should have just grayed out the Add to Cart button instead of nuking everything.

Also, inb4 Digital Suicide sue Valve

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/digitalhomicides

 

[gaussgunner]

I assume Valve will get the subpoena tossed out. They have ample grounds. Free speech issues, overly broad witch hunt, abuse of the legal system...

If the guy is representing himself, he doesn't have a chance unless he had a successful first career as a lawyer. It's possible, the States being full of unemployed and "recovering" lawyers. But normally self-representation (beyond small claims or traffic court) means "broke and clueless".

 

[Baron Dupek]

 

[TheChickenKing]

Hopefully Valve sticks to their guns and protects their users. I'm not a lawyer/smart person, but this lawsuit seems to have zero basis (I'm surprised a court even issued a subpoena here) and Valve being willing to just hand over the personal info of their users for any old reason would set a bad precedent. Given the pettiness that Digital Suicide is showing here, it's practically court-enabled doxxing.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Who the heck are the digital suicide guys anyway? First time I heard of them. Their website is hilarious as fuck tho.

 

[Infinitron]

Who the heck are the digital suicide guys anyway? First time I heard of them. Their website is hilarious as fuck tho.

Do a search for "The Slaughtering Grounds".

 

[GrainWetski]

Who the heck are the digital suicide guys anyway? First time I heard of them. Their website is hilarious as fuck tho.

Some heroic group of people that tried to do the world a favour by going after some fat cunt named Jim Sterling.

Sadly, they failed and went insane after staring into the abyss that is Jim Sterling.

 

[Baron Dupek]

First i'd like to briefly respond to Doug Lombardi's official statement about Digital Homicide and its owners. I'd like to give some context to his offficial statement "Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers." What has actually transpired was a lack of resolution from Steam in regards to moderation of their platform which might sound like a tough job to do, but coming from a company that brags its profitability per employee is higher than google, it just shows a reckless disregard for for the well being of their community for profits. We submitted numerous reports and sent multiple emails in regards to individuals making personal attacks, harassment, and more on not only us but on other Steam customers who were actually interested in our products. The lawsuit that was submitted in regards to a handful of Steam users has been labeled by the media and now by Doug Lombardi's(a Valve representative) statement as "being hostile to Steam users" in general which is incorrect. The lawsuit recently filed is solely in regards to individuals where no resolution was able to be obtained from Steam to provide a safe environment for us to conduct business. By removing us for defending ourselves against harassment Steam is openly stating you cannot defend yourself from examples like these:

A comment from a steam user who was reported a multitude of times with over 2,000 posts over 18 months and never taken care of for ongoing harassment.

A comment from a steam user who was reported and never taken care of that harassed ongoing.

Here is another user who was flagged and a moderator actually banned someone for disruptive behavior but the original poster wants me to kill myself, mentions my family and has a moderation flag.

When someone bothers you on say a platform like Facebook and you find the need to ban them, the Facebook response after you ban is "Sorry you had this experience" and then that person is removed from being able to post on your page. Steam's stance is what just happened to us. By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family . If I try to defend myself against said actions then I lose my family's income. If it wasn't for 2 years of experience of dealing with Steam on a regular basis, this disgusting stance would seem shocking to me. The only thing that prevented me seeking legal counsel for a long list of breach of contracts, interference with business, and anti-trust issues was the fear of losing my family's income. Since that has been taken away I am seeking legal representation. The case will benefit from a long list of organized documentation of events that have happened over the past 2 years including dates, screenshots, emails, and more on over 100 infractions in need of litigation. Legal counsel interested in our case can contact us at support@digitalhomicide.ninja

tl;dr
Digital Homicide is suing Valve
I run out of popcorn

 

[tormund]

Who the heck are the digital suicide guys anyway?

Major source of Jim Sterling's income.

HoMM 7

Steam Purchases: 42%
Key Activations: 95%

Oh, those naughty, naughty Frenchies.

 

[Astral Rag]

The masters of the elements of the sky have conspired to stop the fecal flinging frenzy that Poo and his clan have been waging war with in the jungle.

Guide Poo Flung Doo through the mysterious world of the elements of the sky. Use the element of dung to defeat the dreaded elder spirits and their masters! Poo is a veritable fecal cannon of great renown. Maximize efficiency by drowning your opponents in urine after each successful take down.

Some opponents take special events to trigger appearance. Multiple bosses per level. Randomized monsters and items.

Don't let Poo lose!

 

[Alienman]

Glad those games are gone from Steam. Now if only the rest of the shovelware devs could sue Valve.

 

[Caim]

So they want to go and sue Valve?

Good luck with that.

 

[Metro]

If his legal brief is written as 'well' as that statement then this shouldn't take too long to laugh out of court. And now he's going to try to sue Valve for breach of contract and anti-trust issues? Good luck with that. Steam is a monopoly! That's why Origin, U-Play, GOG, and other digital platforms exist...

 

[Zewp]

Lol, Steam pulled Digital Homicide's catalog after they decided to sue 100 users. They were warned by Steam last time when they decided to sue Jim Sterling and now they've been shitcanned.

Gamers ranting at game developers is quite a common occurrence these days and nothing to write home about. But developers suing a hundred Steam users? Now that's something.

Digital Homicide Studios never ceases to amaze, not with its games but with its antics toward critics. In March 2016, the indie game developer/publisher filed a $10-million lawsuit against British video game critic Jim Sterling for libel, slander and assault. The amount was later raised to $15 million.

Correction for media mentioning my thing I don't talk about - they bumped it up to $15mil by my last count, it's not $10mil anymore.

— Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) September 16, 2016



Sterling is a known critic of Digital Homicide (DH) and the games it releases. The video game critic noted the various glitches, poor graphics and bad controls, among other problems, of The Slaughtering Grounds, a game that was developed and published by Digital Homicide Studios.

Sterling also accused the game developer of deleting negative user feedback on Steam and banning the users who posted criticisms for its content. DH filed a takedown notice for Sterling's game review video.

Suing 100 Anonymous Steam Users
Sterling's case is dwarfed by the studio's most recent court filing in which James Oliver Romine Jr., Digital Homicide cofounder, is suing 100 anonymous Steam users for $18 million as compensation for "personal injury."

According to documents that were uploaded by YouTuber SidAlpha, the anonymous users getting sued have used handles such as Toon Vlux, Nathos, Jon114 and Drackmore.

A snippet of Romine's complaint that was retrieved by Kotaku shows the DH cofounder's allegations that the listed users have repeatedly attacked him for up to 21 months and have amassed a total of 20,000 postings on Steam, YouTube and social media portals such as Reddit.

TechRaptor reports that Judge Eileen Willett, who is currently assigned to the case, granted Romine with a subpoena for "early discovery," which obliges Valve to identify and reveal the anonymous Steam users.


Valve Pulls Homicide Games Off Steam
Valve can choose to contest the subpoena, but the company is yet to make a statement regarding the matter. However, in response to Digital Homicide's behavior toward Steam users, the digital distribution company decided to remove DH's content from the platform.

"Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers," the company tells Kotaku.

Digital Homicide Responds to Valve, Possibly Another Lawsuit
After Valve released its statement and removed the studio's game, Romine responded by posting in Digital Homicide's landing page.

"By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family. If I try to defend myself against said actions then I lose my family's income. If it wasn't for 2 years of experience of dealing with Steam on a regular basis, this disgusting stance would seem shocking to me,"says Romine. "The only thing that prevented me seeking legal counsel for a long list of breach of contracts, interference with business, and anti-trust issues was the fear of losing my family's income. Since that has been taken away I am seeking legal representation."

Romine claims that he has compiled two years' worth of documentation, emails and screenshots on over 100 infractions.

Since 2014, Digital Homicide has published over 20 games, which include Forsaken Uprising, Temper Tantrum, Devils Share, Galactic Hitman, Krog Wars, Starship: Nova Strike, Winged Knights: Penetration, Withering Kingdom: Arcane War, Wyatt Derp, The Decimation of Olarath, Withering Kingdom: Flurry of Arrows and Operation: Global Shield.

Below is a video showcasing Jim Sterling's critique on Digital Homicide's games.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/1...the-community-for-18-million-devs-respond.htm

Here's the video that originally started the saga off:

 

[Zewp]

If that were a legitimate argument Hollywood Studios and AAA publishers would have been suing professional reviewers for decades. But filing the suit doesn't cost him much beyond a hundred or so in fees. Gabe needs to step up here and pull this dude's games off of Steam.

The bloke's obviously desperate. He's also suing Sterling for $15mil and that case seems to be going nowhere. That's probably why he decided to try suing users. $18mil is about $17.999999mil more than his games made (or will ever make) on Steam. They pushed out something like 20 games in 2 years, all garbage and all unity store asset-fests.

I assume Valve will get the subpoena tossed out. They have ample grounds. Free speech issues, overly broad witch hunt, abuse of the legal system...

All they need to say is that Valve gives devs full control over their game forums and that's the end of it. DH is crying about negative posts and death threats on their forums, while they hold the power (and authority) to just ban those people.