Valve Bans Game Publisher After It Sues Players That Gave It Bad Steam Reviews | Hacker News Reader

Valve Bans Game Publisher After It Sues Players That Gave It Bad Steam Reviews

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228 pointsr72135 comments

This is, simply put, a direct result of the Steam Greenlight system.

Since anyone with access to $100 and an asset pack is able to become a self-published con artist, it was only a matter of time before one of these con artists had enough money for a hired gun lawyer to try and silence what they perceive as attacks from users and critics.

The publisher is question is Digital Homicide. Enjoy a bit of the context and backstory below.

(to be viewed chronologically): [1] [2] [3] [4]

1) http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-jimquisition-the-slaughte...

2) http://www.thejimquisition.com/steam-vote-rigging-and-shady-...

3) http://www.thejimquisition.com/digital-homicide-and-the-case...

4) http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-jimquisition-homicide/

Good on Valve for taking action.

He's not even hired a lawyer, his filings are Pro Se, which is why they are full of mistakes that even a novice lawyer wouldn't make.

ah, fair enough.

I remember these guys from way back, when they originally didn't take Jim Sterling's criticism of Slaughtering Grounds very well. I forgot about them until they sued him, then forgot about them again until just now.

It's a fitting end to the story of Digital Homicide.

Completely deserved. Also, ironically enough, done by their own hand.

The "end" of the story is when Digital Homicide drops the lawsuit against Jim Sterling/it is thrown out of court.

Digital Suicide

the funny thing about this is if he filled pro se it reveals that he does not have a corporation because you can not represent a corporation pro se. A corporation is considered its own person by law and the CEO is just an employee and only a bar licensed lawyer can represent another person or legal entity. But if you run your business as a sole proprietorship then there is no separate legal entity just you and you can represent yourself in court

>Digital Homicide

Near-infinite wordplay potential here...

How many heists have been pulled off over video games on kickstarter so far? When will the chickens come home to roost?

Isn't that a bit like asking how many scams have been pulled off in dozens of segments of the $18.5 trillion US economy in general? Consider just the scale of real estate related fraud for example, whether on the consumer side or the commercial developer side etc.

The video game industry is very large. That there would be millions of dollars worth of scams in it annually (of one variety or another), would be entirely expected.

With or without starcitizen?

Almost none? There have been a handful of mismanaged failures, but I can't think of a prominent successful scam. Dollar for dollar, probably 99% of Kickstarter backers of video games get a finished product.

Making a good video game is hard. There have been several instances of Kickstarter-backed games not living up to the potential or being particularly disappointing, but this is also often the case for games funded privately by massive corporations or investors (often far exceeding the funds of a typical Kickstarter project).

Very few instances of willful scams, as far as I know. Probably not any significantly more than other kinds of Kickstarter scams.

Hang on.. so if you say something bad about a company in a forum that's enough for a judge to give that company your name and address?

So if I were to associate my various accounts on forums with a corporation I own then I should be able to get the names and address of all who ever criticized a comment of mine on reddit, yes?

Probably not but still.. wtf?

It doesn't really have anything to do with being a company/corporation. He is filing the lawsuit as an individual, not on behalf of Digital Homicide (which may not even be a corporation). He is suing because of things that were said about him.

some comments where actually pretty rough.

but really most things can't be taken seriously, most of them are kids in anger. they say stupid things a lot of the time, if you take that too serious while developing indie games. than you would need a whole fleet of lawyers.

We need to stop dismissing the shitty attitudes of gamers as "kids in anger", because far more frequently it's actually "adults who should know better".

...or even "kids who should know better".

Yes, if you convince a judge that whatever is it you're looking for these people for, has a minimum amount of merit. You don't even need a company. If you're looking to sue someone, you can ask a judge to compel a third party to turn over any information they have that's material to whatever you're suing for. Like names or other identifying information, or other evidence.

I'm normally a bit wary about platforms such as Steam wielding their power over the marketplace but in this case, I'll be the first to congratulate them!

Bravo! Please keep your store empty of publishers who sue their dissatisfied customers.

I used to share this point of view, especially due to the inability of customers to return faulty games. Now that they allow returns, I'm starting to gain faith in Steam again.

Not necessarily in this case but in general I am more on the side of the one being criticized. There are so many issues with marketplaces and communities like Ebay, Yelp, iTunes and so on. Very little oversight combined with the power to destroy whole businesses.

Ratings can sometimes be bought, fake or resulting from the customer being incompetent or just a dick. It is often times very hard to get rid of them.

I myself currently have an issue on a marketplace where someone owes me money, but I do not really know how to handle it, because the resulting bad rating would probably cost me even more. I asked the platform what to do about the possibly bad review and they just said, they won't do anything about it. So I get suing.

Platforms should take measures that ensure reviews are real and fair, publish rules and have a way to clear violations. Especially in Valves case, since we are talking about children here and you want to avoid them getting sued. Even though being hold accountable and having to think about how your actions affect others is probably a valuable lesson.

Are there any platforms with a policy like what you're suggesting?

I am not sure, you would have to research that. I think I recall articles about Yelp removing fake reviews. I definitely know, that suing over Ebay reviews is a thing. Ebay als has a formalized process.

Better title: Game Publisher Banned By Valve After Suing Players That Gave It Bad Stean Reviews. The original title is ambiguous and can imply Valve is suing the players...

I also assumed the exact same thing! I know the rules state that the title should match, but in this case the original title is really ambiguous.

In a vacuum, there's ambiguity. But that interpretation would mean they think the bad reviews are horribly unfitting and that the game is bad enough to be banned. Which is an interpretation contradictory enough to eliminate itself.

That wording is no less syntactically ambiguous.

Better title: Game Publisher that sued players giving their games bad Steam Reviews has been banned by Valve.

Lawsuits are the continuation of flame wars by other means. -- Carl von Clausewitz (not really)

Ah, Digital Homocide. This sounded like them from the start.

It's been pretty entertaining watching them trying and failing to beat up on people thus far. When they're successful, it's not funny, but when they're beating up on Jim Sterling without a case, or pulling crap that gets them dropped off Steam, it's pretty hilarious. But their continued attempt at beating on Jim is downright comical at this point.

Because he's Jim Motherf#%king Sterling, Son. And the irony embedded in that catchphrase just makes it that much more delicious.

>Because he's Jim Motherf#%king Sterling, Son. And the irony embedded in that catchphrase just makes it that much more delicious.

Most people here probably do not know what either of those things are supposed to mean.

Should I explain? Okay.

Jim Sterling, a critic previously of the Escapist, had a series where he played steam games, and talked about how good or bad they were (I think he selected for bad, but if he didn't, Sturgeon's law was in full effect). One of the games he played was Digital Homocide's The Slaughering Grounds. Needless to say, it was rubbish.

However, Digital Homocide decided that Jim's review was terrible and unfair, and released a video called "Reviewing the Reviewer", which was Jim's video, overlaid with sarcastic, bitter text scrolls. Jim then posted a video of himself laughing at that video, and the situation continued to increase in size until we reach today.

However, in that video by Digital Homocide, amid the bitter sarcasm portraying Jim as an idiot, there was a repeated catchphrase, "Because I'm Jim motherf#%king Sterling, son," Jim thought this was hilarious, and his onscreen persona is that of an egomanic already, so it quickly became Jim's actual catchphrase.

So now you know, which is half the battle.

Thanks for the explanation. Doesn't really sound like irony, though. Just a backfired joke from Digital Homicide.

You know, I think you're right. Dang it. I usually don't make that mistake.

And now they're apparently threatening Valve with legal action in response:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1280358

'Brilliant' move there guys!

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