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Games under Ouya's "Free the Games" fund on Kickstarter looking suspicious

N

Neuromancer

Member
Putting aside the site name for a moment, fanboysanonymous has a good piece on the subject:

As of the time this article was written, Gridiron Thunder's Kickstarter has raised $78,000 from 127 backers. However, if we add up the number of backers purchasing tier rewards, even the nine backers at the $300 level, the single backer at $500, we see that 110 backers raised just $5,068. This of course leaves 17 mystery backers having contributed about $72,000-- a cool $4,235 per head. For a free to play football game on a console that still hasn't gotten out all of its own tier rewards to its backers.
Click to expand...
What's worse, the second sham Kickstarter that hopes to help free the games executes its subterfuge even more poorly. With 710 backers, Elementary My Dear Holmes' Kickstarter reached its $50,000 goal. While this initially seems more legitimate than Gridiron Thunder, a quick perusal of their list of backers reveals dozens upon dozens of clearly fraudulent backers. It appears Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, the Mona Lisa, and the city of Adelaide all backed this prestigious Ouya title.

Also among the backers are a number of celebrities such as Iron Chef Cat Cora, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and, most heinously, a woman who has been reported as missing since 2011.

I wish I was making the last part up.
Click to expand...
It's not clear who is most at fault here: the game developers who perpetrated the scams and are claiming money more legitimate efforts desperately need, or Ouya, who are in essence allowing themselves to get scammed by two incredibly transparent schemes. But, this is the same company who are forced to backpedal on a regular basis, be it an ill-advised commercial or any of their various Twitter gaffes. The same company who secured over 8 times their own Kickstarter funding goal, who still required $15 million more, who still haven't gotten all of their backer rewards out, and who are now giving away over $100,000 to a couple of scams. Either way, gamers lose.
Click to expand...
http://www.fanboysanonymous.com/2013/08/ouya-to-pay-out-serious-bucks-to-two.html#.Uh47pBush8F
 
L

LordCanti

Member
Neuromancer said:
Putting aside the site name for a moment, fanboysanonymous has a good piece on the subject:




http://www.fanboysanonymous.com/2013/08/ouya-to-pay-out-serious-bucks-to-two.html#.Uh47pBush8F
Click to expand...

It's incredible how blatant the second one is. It's like they didn't even try. Does this count as fraud? If Ouya isn't behind it, they're the ones that would have to match the pledges that weren't made in good faith. They should be issuing statements about how they don't condone this sort of thing and that it wasn't them...and they should be issuing them soon.
 
V

Vamphuntr

Member
YianGaruga said:
This is one person from the list of fake people

Nj5RV67.png

HQXvnUB.png


What the fuck
Click to expand...

Okay. This is disgusting and shameful. Playing with missing people's pictures to fund a Kickstarter. Scammers reached a new low on Kickstarter.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
I don't know that it's against Kickstarter's TOS to use fake profile names, but it sure looks shady here given how many of these backers have fake names and how much money they've given. The missing woman is particularly egregious.
 
T

Tripon

Member
Vamphuntr said:
Okay. This is disgusting and shameful. Playing with missing people's pictures to fund a Kickstarter. Scammers reached a new low on Kickstarter.
Click to expand...

What likely happened is that the people running the botnet used random images and names on the internet to create fake profiles. So there are bound to be instances like using an image of a missing person.

It is scummy to the 10th degree though.
 
L

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
We've seen the controversy around the games and we'd love if you would let the community know a couple of things:
  1. We've heard our community's concerns and appreciate their interest in OUYA not being scammed.
  2. OUYA has not contributed monetarily to these two games or any other games participating in the FreeTheGames fund program.
  3. As of now and as far as we know at this point both Gridiron Thunder and Elementary My Dear Holmes comply with our rules and regulations so we will be moving forward with funding. If that changes, we will let you know as we always do.
  4. We really just want to support game development while bringing great content to OUYA - this was our full intention with the Free The Games fund and we hope that spirit is embraced.
Click to expand...
Source.
 
B

Boerseun

Banned
OUYA is officially closing their eyes on any potential fraud or funding issue. They tell us to shut up and rejoice with them for the coming a new OUYA game (it's been a long time)
Click to expand...

Well this is dumb. There are new OUYA games coming out just about every day. The platform has proven extremely popular with start-ups and lower budget devs. And yes, it has its bad games, but at the same time OUYA has delivered more than its fair share of exclusive gems.
 
D

Dingotech

Member
4.We really just want to support game development while bringing great content to OUYA - this was our full intention with the Free The Games fund and we hope that spirit is embraced.
Click to expand...

No you're not supporting game development at the moment, you're officially supporting SCAM artists.

I guarantee these guys take the money and run, or at least throw up a piss poor attempt at a 'game' and never bother with it again.
 
Y

YianGaruga

Banned
Stet said:
There's no way the Ouya team will just give away a hundred grand to save face...is there?
Click to expand...

OUYA doesn't care because it brings them a bit of publicity. They already wrote off the money as marketing expenses.
Kickstarter won't care because money.
Everyone else will forget about it because it's OUYA.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
TheExodu5 said:
Honestly, I'm starting to think the lag is inherent to Android. Super Hexagon is unplayable on Android phones due to input lag.
Click to expand...

Uh, no it's not. I beat everything up to Hyper Hexagonest on my Galaxy S3. Input lag on Android devices is absolutely a case-by-case thing and not inherent to the system itself.
 
M

mclem

Member
Vamphuntr said:
Okay. This is disgusting and shameful. Playing with missing people's pictures to fund a Kickstarter. Scammers reached a new low on Kickstarter.
Click to expand...

To be fair (and I really don't want to be!), they probably weren't aware who it was; I suspect they just did an image search for the name and generated the account picture from that.
 
M

mclem

Member
Remk said:
The Ouya team cant be this stupid, can they?

But hey, a fool and his money...
Click to expand...

I think it's less "being that stupid", and more - if we take it at face value - not really seeing a get-out clause. According to their terms, these projects are indeed doing things correctly, so they may believe they have no legal argument to deny them the money.

That said, it's worth highlighting that creating false backers to fund your project is against KS's T&Cs, so perhaps they were expecting Kickstarter to have stepped in before now.
 
J

jack.

Banned
This guy seems kind of nuts

Creator Sam Chandola about 1 hour ago
And so I wake up... and read so much. I don't even know how to start responding. So let me start by telling a story.
Once upon a time, there were a bunch of game developers who struggled quite a lot and were able to start a small game studio. They were super excited about it and started developing a few small games. They had tons of ideas in their head as to what they could do, but it wasn't an ideal world and funding was sparse. But they were very hard working and always on the lookout for ways to make games that people would love.
Then one day, one of them read an article that said a publisher would double funding they would be able to raise on a crowdfunding website. They jumped, they yelled, and they got all excited. This was it! This was what could help them make a great game. Was this worth investing time, resources and effort in? Hell, yes! So they put together a pitch video and planned out a campaign. They even decided to spend money on advertising the campaign. Their game was about a famous detective with a huge, existing community, so they were confident they could reach out to them to get a lot of backing.
And then when everything was ready, the campaign went live. The first backer gave $15. The second gave $25. Things were looking up. They were ecstatic. The campaign creators were sending personal messages to every backer. They were active in many forums around the internet talking about the game, and checking those forums five times a day to reply to anyone who might have a question. The campaign got some traction, and the donations started coming in. This excited the creators even more - and they started spending even more money on paid advertising for the campaign. Something or the other was working. They were overjoyed.
Then this particular campaign got a fantastic review in a very, very big gaming website. And that day, the donations skyrocketed! The devs were ecstatic! At this rate, they could even consider some stretch goals!
Then one day, someone raised some allegations around their backers. They said money was artificially being pumped into the campaign to make it look more awesome than it is. "Ridiculous!" said the devs. They had worked hard to plan, create, execute and market this campaign. There was no foul play at hand on their end. But as the allegations continued, some more people in the community said the same thing. So the devs, having nothing to hide, said alright! We'll do whatever is in our power to solve this. We'll write to the publisher, we'll write to the crowdfunding website, and we'll even write to the payment agency. So they wrote to the publisher, they wrote to the crowdfunding website, and they even wrote to the payment agency. All three of them told them that they were not doing anything wrong and that they should continue promoting the campaign.
They went back to their community and told them what the response was. Some people cheered for them, others were even more disgruntled. Meanwhile, the string of negativity almost brought their campaign to a standstill. Some of the people egged them on to do more. So the devs said, ok we will do more. We'll go back to the people we talked with before and see if they can be pressed for further action. Some people cheered on that as well, and yet some were still disgruntled. They called for the campaign to be cancelled and relaunched without the publisher's support. The devs ran the numbers, and that was unfeasible and could lead to considerable losses for their little studio. So they said that while that's not something we can do, rest assured we will push for action.
And all this while, the devs were spending a huge part of their time, energy, and efforts into talking to their community, to journalists and to set the record straight. Some of them had lives and families outside of work that they completely ignored because it was being suggested - directly or indirectly - that they were behind some foul play and they wanted to be clear and prove it otherwise. And then there were allegations that even if the devs were not directly involved, someone else was pumping them up - perhaps the publisher, perhaps the Knights Templars - and that the devs should do everything possible to find out who they were. And you know what? The devs said, ok. On their end, they could only reach back to the three musketeers mentioned before. And they were willing to do that.
But alas, even that was not sufficient for some. This was really, really disheartening for the devs. And then everything they were doing in their campaign was grumpled upon. Why is that reward in this tier? Why did you get more funding one day and less another? Why did you use these words instead of those? Why do you like bacon for breakfast?
A small realization began to appear to the devs. Perhaps... perhaps it was not possible to please everyone all the time. Perhaps, despite their best efforts, some would never ever be happy.
And so the devs said, you know what, we'll do everything possible on our end. We're doing more than anyone else has done throughout this whole mess, but if some still have concerns that we are not doing enough, maybe we should leave them alone. Is that the right way to go? There was doubt. They didn't really know. But they were trying their best and some people were very under-appreciative of that fact.
And so the devs decided they would be transparent as always and do whatever they could about the matter, but that they would start spending their energy on the game that they wanted to build - the reason this all started in the first place. That that would be their ultimate tribute in the matter. Some people would be happy, some people would be sad. There was already a lot of damage done. There were still a lot of critics, but the focus now had to shift on those who were still supporting them, supporting the project, and supporting the campaign.
The End.
Click to expand...
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
jack. said:
This guy seems kind of nuts
Click to expand...
It's super weird. I wish instead of wasting time on the story (that isn't much of an allegory) he'd directly address the issue. Also anyone find any news articles where he talked to press about it?

I find it really unlikely he has no idea where all these fake backers came from. Really unlikely.
 
W

wildfire

Banned
Well this is the first time I feel embarrassed for funding the Ouya project. They really need to pull their heads out of their asses.
 
E

El Sloth

Banned
There seems to be quite the juicy story hiding in here.


I hope the Ouya people realize that by pretending everything is fine that they seem complicit in this.
 
R

RE_Player

Member
I don't want to say I told you so buy from day 1 the Ouya looked shady as hell. Instead of putting $100 or more to these scam artists people should have just upgraded their PCs for better emulation and games.
 
E

ev0

Member
So how does this work exactly?

If I have an idea for a game called "Box", where the goal is to move the box from the left side of the screen to the right, and I make it Ouya exclusive, and put it on Kickstarter and use 50k of my own savings to secretly fund it across several fake accounts... Because that just seems way too easy to do (not that I plan to)
 
D

darkwing

Member
ev0 said:
So how does this work exactly?

If I have an idea for a game called "Box", where the goal is to move the box from the left side of the screen to the right, and I make it Ouya exclusive, and put it on Kickstarter and use 50k of my own savings to secretly fund it across several fake accounts... Because that just seems way too easy to do (not that I plan to)
Click to expand...

sounds like it could work
 
T

Tripon

Member
ev0 said:
So how does this work exactly?

If I have an idea for a game called "Box", where the goal is to move the box from the left side of the screen to the right, and I make it Ouya exclusive, and put it on Kickstarter and use 50k of my own savings to secretly fund it across several fake accounts... Because that just seems way too easy to do (not that I plan to)
Click to expand...

You would have to get OUYA to approve your game for their fundraiser campaign. But other than that, you'd be good to go.
 
J

Jimrpg

Member
Boards of Canada said:
I've said it, time and again, but Julie Uhrman is a nudnik. Poor business woman.
Click to expand...

i remember the intial ouya advertising video on KS with julie uhrman, which turned me right off on the machine.

ouya just feels like a massive scam from top to bottom.

all games are free to play? or u just mean there's a demo version... what a joke.

the ouya is no better than one of those cheap china sega genesis knockoffs.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
http://kotaku.com/accused-kickstarter-scammers-we-are-not-scamming-anyb-1224503476

Earlier in the week, the developers of upcoming Ouya exclusive Gridiron Thunder faced allegations that their Kickstarter was a scam, something they tell Kotaku is simply not true.P

Looking to discuss accusations that their game was little more than a ruse geared towards securing funding from Ouya under a new exclusivity funding scheme, I spoke with MogoTXT's Andrew Won, who told me that "our game development is going very well", and that "We are not scamming anybody and we are not going anywhere"

In response to questions about how exactly such a small game with such a limited showing was able to secure its funding so quickly, Won says "We have some generous donors owing to our Silicon Valley backgrounds and relationships with the sports community." Asked whether he was aware of, or was investigating the claims of falsified backer accounts contributing to his game's campaign, he claims "To the best of our knowledge, we do not have a problem with falsified contributions. But there has been no violation of any KickStarter or Ouya rule."

Another source of criticism of Gridiron Thunder's project page was the fact it showed screenshots containing actual NFL branding, an area that would surely raise the ire of both the league and its main gaming license-holder, Electronic Arts. "We have rights under both a number of different license agreements and also under the First Amendment to display certain images, scores, news, stats and other content within our games and other properties", Won says.

Which seems absolutely crazy, but hey, that's a problem for the team and their lawyers to face.

As for the general accusations that the game is a scam simply out for Ouya's money, Won emphatically refutes them, promising that not only will the game be completed, but that it'll be completed within a matter of weeks.

Are we scamming Ouya? No. Ouya will have an awesome football game in the Ouya store in just a few weeks. Our hope is that Gridiron Thunder will help attract a mainstream user base for the Ouya that will help grow the installed based of consoles and increase the ecosystem to benefit all Ouya-focused game developers.

Are we scamming the people who signed up for a copy of Gridiron Thunder on KickStarter? No. They are going to receive a great game that will get better and better over the course of the football season.

So who are we scamming exactly? No one. No one is being hurt in any way.​


None of this of course settles the issue of where exactly all those fishy backer accounts came from, but if Won is promising that his team will have the game ready in "just a few weeks", we won't have long to find out just how serious a Kickstarter campaign this has been.
Click to expand...


I like how they think they can dodge copyright issues by claiming that they have rights under the first amendment.
 
G

GuitarAtomik

Member
ZealousD said:
http://kotaku.com/accused-kickstarter-scammers-we-are-not-scamming-anyb-1224503476

Are we scamming Ouya? No. Ouya will have an awesome football game in the Ouya store in just a few weeks. Our hope is that Gridiron Thunder will help attract a mainstream user base for the Ouya that will help grow the installed based of consoles and increase the ecosystem to benefit all Ouya-focused game developers.

Are we scamming the people who signed up for a copy of Gridiron Thunder on KickStarter? No. They are going to receive a great game that will get better and better over the course of the football season.

So who are we scamming exactly? No one. No one is being hurt in any way.
Click to expand...

I like how they think they can dodge copyright issues by claiming that they have rights under the first amendment.
Click to expand...

Funny how they also completely dodge the fake backers issue.
 
D

duckroll

Member
"We have rights under both a number of different license agreements and also under the First Amendment to display certain images, scores, news, stats and other content within our games and other properties", Won says.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling when this is all over, he's going to have to change his surname to Lost. :(
 
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