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Videogames Industry forms coalition to fight lootcrate crisis.

Odesu

Odesu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,546
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":

KENNETH TRAN
Kenneth is the cofounder of Incuvation Games, known as the publisher of Nemexia. He has worked as a manager for Company of Heroes: Online, CrimeCraft, and GONG! Online. He currently serves on the steering committee of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), business and legal SIG.

JACK WEGRICH
Jack is a professional community manager for indie games. He has worked as a community manager for Zozbot, Eco, and Nemexia. Collectively, he has overseen tens of thousands of players across multiple game genres.

RILEY WORCESTER
Riley is an accounting and tax professional who has worked for several large accounting firms. He holds an MBA in taxation and was president of California State Fullerton's MBA Association.

MICHAEL LUXION
Michael is the founder of Paralux Interactive. Previously he was a games producer for Pokemon the Trading Card Game. Before that, he was a games journalist for e-sports organization Championship Gaming Series.

BRYAN HASKELL
Bryan is currently a project manager at ESL, the world's largest esports company. Before this he was a producer Brandissimo! for title NFL Rush Zone. He also worked for Activision as the live operations lead on Call of Duty Elite.

DANIEL DOAN
Daniel is the co-founder of Black Shell Media, LLC and the founder of Black Shell Games. He has shipped over 1.5 million copies of his games with over 65 titles on Steam. He also has amassed over 370,000 followers on social media.

JONATHAN PEREZ
Jonathan is the vice president of MultiverseGames, Inc. which produces educational mobile games. He is also vice president of Incuvation Games, publisher of Nemexia. He started his career as a QA tester for Activision.

TION BRUTON
Tion is a games localization expert currently working for CIRCLE Entertainment LTD on Nintendo and Playstation games. Tion was credited as the translator for Final Re : Quest, and started out as a QA tester for Santa Monica Studio.
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So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see, but is, SURPRISE, a partner of Kenneth Tran's
The founder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!) EDIT: Seems like a was a little too well-meaning here: Seems like Daniel Doan was once an indie developer, but focuses now on "growth hacking" and "viral marketing" which seems to translate to asking for money from small developers to spam on Twitter about their game.
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

4 of those 8 people are business partners, one of them has no links to the video game industry at all and there doesn't seem to be a single woman present in their "leadership".

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
 
Last edited:
OrdinaryPrime

OrdinaryPrime

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,042
At the very least, if all this publicity companies like EA to publish percentages like PES 2018 has for its random components, it will be a plus.
 
Wink784

Wink784

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,208
This is shady. Can't even proofread their first official press release. Hopefully some real journalists will investigate who these people (think they) are.
 
Shock32

Shock32

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,682
MCD250 said:
Would be keen to know who these "high level industry experts and influencers" are. Not that we ever will, I suppose.
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AOS4image4.gif
 
Stone Ocean

Stone Ocean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,582
Oh, now you wanna try to regulate? When there's a chance it might hurt your bottom line?

Boo fucking hoo
 
Com_Raven

Com_Raven

Brand Manager
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
1,103
Europa
SilentRob said:
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":



So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see
The funder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!)
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thanks, I was starting to think I was the only one who even bothered to read up on his and find out more before grabbing the "greedy execs want to defend lootboxes"-pitchfork.
 
Odesu

Odesu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,546
weemadarthur said:
So is .ga the code for the country Georgia?
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Ha, i didn't even notice that.

Nope. That's...Gabun. Yup. This all seems legit as hell.

BowieZ said:
The lengths to which people will go to preserve their luxurious cash cow lifestyles.
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Stone Ocean said:
Oh, now you wanna try to regulate? When there's a chance it might hurt your bottom line?

Boo fucking hoo
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WarMacheen said:
aaannnnd, fuck off with this. An outside entity needs to step in to keep large corporations from preying on consumers.
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Literally a few posts above you, guys...I can already see the AlphaOmegaSins of this world just completely losing their mind about this because they didn't read past headlines either...
 
WarMacheen

WarMacheen

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
3,549
aaannnnd, fuck off with this. An outside entity needs to step in to keep large corporations from preying on consumers.
 
enzo_gt

enzo_gt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,299
Y'all still hung up on the word gambling?

Getting caught in these semantics is exactly what a lobbying organization like this preys upon: gamers continually making somewhat warranted comparisons to gambling when the practice of loot boxes does decisively differ from gambling in tangible ways. Making the comparison to gambling the focus of the argument isn't really helping, and is providing the pubs/devs with the argumentative leverage they need to (and probably will successfully) argue that it's not gambling, as opposed to focusing on the predatory reward feedback loops that in their own unique context are dangerous and have great potential for harm. But if the point of contention is whether it's gambling or not, might as well hang it up now.
 
weemadarthur

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,608
SilentRob said:
Ha, i didn't even notice that.

Nope. That's...Gabun. Yup. This all seems legit as hell.

.
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I admit, I've had trouble keeping up with certain African countries name changes, but I don't remember ever even hearing this country name before.

However, I'm sure the USA will fall in line when this organization is truly up and running.
 
nib95

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
SilentRob said:
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":



So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see, but is, SURPRISE, a partner of Kenneth Tran's
The founder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!)
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

4 of those 8 people are business partners, one of them has no links to the video game industry at all and there doesn't seem to be a single woman present in their "leadership".

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You're doing better journalism than actual journalists working for many gaming news outlets lol.
 
Bear

Bear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,894
So now we have faux governmental lobbying organizations instead of people just not buying the damn game. Ok.
 
FrakEarth

FrakEarth

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,277
Liverpool, UK
So based on what we've found about who is behind this, nothing to worry about as yet..

but.. "lobbying group to prevent government intervention" would be an accurate way to describe efforts like this. I can't think of a single instance where self regulation has been proven to really work and prevent greed or malpractice. I'm sure there are one or two instances out there somewhere, but at the end of the day - you don't want the fox in charge of the hen house.

The best medicine we have is the shock everyone - as a gaming populace - gave EA over Battlefront II. They're still going to do very well, but it's clear from their actions that their resolve has been shaken, as has their potential profit from the whole endeavour. There's nothing wrong with GAAS, but when those service models start to become milked to the point of impacting the fun of the product, we should call shit out for what it is and influence people in the direction of better, more fun products.
 

Deleted member 888

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,361
SilentRob said:
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":



So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see, but is, SURPRISE, a partner of Kenneth Tran's
The founder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!)
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

4 of those 8 people are business partners, one of them has no links to the video game industry at all and there doesn't seem to be a single woman present in their "leadership".

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

i9Z4egW.gif
 
weemadarthur

weemadarthur

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,608
I think this thread could really use a title update based on the infomation users have gathered.

OP, if you agree, you can report your own OP post and type a new title request. Those tend to get handled very quickly.
 

Deleted member 888

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,361
MatPiscatella said:
Seriously?
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It's a light-hearted comment Mat, no need to take it personally.

Either way, why would you expect consumers to be all that excited about anyone working on the stats, figures and investment side of the industry to be championing themselves as "neutrals"? So called consumer groups or coalitions like this are pretty biased if they get loaded up by members of organisations with invested interests. Like the NRA being on the forefront of talking about guns.

This wouldn't really be how you make gamers feel like the industry is going to self-regulate. PEGI and the ESRB already made it clear they're taking a backseat to the debates going on around gambling/monetization with paid RNG, hence why Governments are getting involved.
 

Deleted member 2785

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,119
Audioboxer said:
It's a light-hearted comment Mat, no need to take it personally.

Either way, why would you expect consumers to be all that excited about anyone working on the stats, figures and investment side of the industry to be championing themselves as "neutrals"? So called consumer groups or coalitions like this are pretty biased if they get loaded up by members of organisations with invested interests. Like the NRA being on the forefront of talking about guns.
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Why would you assume this is real?
 

Deleted member 888

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,361
MatPiscatella said:
Wait. You think this is real?
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When I originally made that comment, possibly. Based off of "We are a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers". It also game from Gamasutra which is usually a pretty reputable site based more on the industry on-goings, than reviews and previews. Posts from the likes of https://www.resetera.com/goto/post?id=1467667#post-1467667 only came about afterwards.

Gamasutra probably should reflect on why they ran this without more investigation.

It looks like complete nonsense now, yes. No real industry folks or organisations involved.
 

MCD250

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,057
MCD250 said:
Would be keen to know who these "high level industry experts and influencers" are. Not that we ever will, I suppose.
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Click to shrink...

SilentRob said:
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":



So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see, but is, SURPRISE, a partner of Kenneth Tran's
The founder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!) EDIT: Seems like a was a little too well-meaning here: Seems like Daniel Doan was once an indie developer, but focuses now on "growth hacking" and "viral marketing" which seems to translate to asking for money from small developers to spam on Twitter about their game.
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

4 of those 8 people are business partners, one of them has no links to the video game industry at all and there doesn't seem to be a single woman present in their "leadership".

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Shock32 said:
AOS4image4.gif
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Well, the GIF is definitely appropriate.
 
Durante

Durante

Dark Souls Man
Member
Oct 24, 2017
5,074
SilentRob said:
OK, seriously, is every single outlet just quoting the press release by saying this organisation consists of "high level industry experts" without actually knowing who that's supposed to be? Because so far, all of this seems amateurish and shady as hell. One of the first things I see when I click on their Twitter account is their founder Kenneth Tran talking about how he ran a Ragnarok Online private server onceand a weird Tweet that just says #lootgate Gamers Under Fire. This is literally just some dude going "Hey, we represent video games now", without saying who "we" is supposed to be and while utterly ignoring the organisations that are already in place in the US to do exactly that.

Ah, foundthis page detailing their "Steering Comittee":



So we got:
The cofounder of a publisher of a 3 year old browser game,
The community manager of that very same game (huh!)
An accountant with no connection to the video game industry as far as I can see, but is, SURPRISE, a partner of Kenneth Tran's
The founder of Paralux interactive whose only credit seems to be an unsuccessful kickstarter of Sportball Manager
A employee of the ESL
An indie Developer of a few pretty cool games back in 2015 (finally!) EDIT: Seems like a was a little too well-meaning here: Seems like Daniel Doan was once an indie developer, but focuses now on "growth hacking" and "viral marketing" which seems to translate to asking for money from small developers to spam on Twitter about their game.
The other cofounder of the publisher of the already mentioned 3 year old browser game (huuuuuuuh)
A localization expert

4 of those 8 people are business partners, one of them has no links to the video game industry at all and there doesn't seem to be a single woman present in their "leadership".

Yeaaaaah. I'm gonna go ahead and stary weary of this one.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heh.

Well done.
 
GamerForever

GamerForever

Member
Oct 27, 2017
391
Self regulate: what a joke, they will try too keep politics out of the game industry but its to late, at least in Europe. Loot boxes needs to be perma banned across the board, period.

Expose these suckers Jason
 
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