To be blunt, who gives a flying fuck who you or anyone else is? You people don't get to decide if it's okay to share other people's information against their will. Especially not when you're doing it for such petty and insulting reasons as in this thread. Jesus. Your choice not to use a handle or keep your personal information private is yours to make, just like everyone else's.

"Bottom line is that if they want their name out there, they wouldn't be using a handle, would they?"

That's actually exactly the sort of policy statement I was looking for. So...Thanks!

It's sometimes confusing for the general poster because, heck, the fact that we're having this conversation at all was the result of non-public information being posted to kick off thread #1. Everything since then has more or less fed off that.

Damn. Foiled again.

Slow down there, cowboy.

One: I posted (and removed) ketjak's name. I see your original point and that's why I removed it, but chill out on the hostility. He uses the same handle attached to his real name all over the place, like on printed books where he's credited. If you worked in the movie industry and credited yourself as Bob "Dr. Funkenstein" Smith and I posted "hey, Dr. Funkenstein is Bob Smith", I'm not really revealing much of anything that isn't already public knowledge.

Two: What petty and insulting reasons? I don't have anything against ketjak and if I've posted anything petty or insulting about him, feel free to point it out. Because I would certainly apologize.

Sorry, I didn't mean to hide - I didn't realize someone wouldn't Google "ketjak" since I've Googled just about everyone else. I just post in my forum ID 'cuz that's what I've been doing for a while now.

Yes, I am Phil DeLuca. Yes, I co-founded IMR and Battlecorps. I was the "Operations Director" for the launch phase; I was friends with the Colemans and the Bills and had experience developing software and they granted me percentage for designing the site and running the team responsible for launch as well as some other work.

No, I have not given hard information about the situation to anyone on these boards. There have been accusations that I have been feeding Jennifer and Frank information, but a) Jennifer has more information than I do and b) I haven't met Frank before, though we flamed each other on ENWorld a few years back, IIRC. Frank won't recall, it wasn't big by any standards.

No, I have not gone to any authorities yet, I am an optimist. No, I have no desire to be an IMR managing member or director as I don't have the time to fix this and I am not willing to give up a job in the electronic game industry for a salary dependent on Topps' goodwill toward IMR.

No, I have not lied or exaggerated. Neither am I a lawyer or accountant, just someone who engages in business without deception for fraudulent purposes.

Yes, I am frustrated at this wholly avoidable situation because actions that could have been taken to fix the problem were not. No, I am not "angry." I do come across that way, but I'm not. For the record, I have been angry precisely three times about this:

1. when I saw the list of "draws"
2. when I created a couple of graphs showing the draws over time and the draws on a daily basis
3. when it became clear that the managing members and directors were using a cat's paw to discredit me among the owners, and that paw had a little easily-discovered kitty litter on it I found when looking for his bibliography (in a world of Google...)

That's how I am involved in this.

- Ket

One more note - Jason Hardy and Stephen McQuillan are doing superb jobs under what I can only imagine to be incredibly difficult circumstances. I imagine their work days are strange, but keeping away from the business decisions is wise in this case. They seem to be toeing the straight and narrow and doing what's right for the product lines and IMR, as well as keeping the community informed when they ask questions. Don't give them grief, please, and understand when one of them cannot or will not answer a question. I've been in their roles (though not like this...) and I have a lot of empathy for both of them.

- Ketjak

You're one of the exhausting wall-of-texters who went on at incredible length about how the 3rd edition D&D Fighter was balanced as-is against the Wizard, Cleric, and Druid. Why would I forget that? You're one of the reasons I despaired of finding intelligent conversation on EnWorld and stopped reading or posting there.

-Frank

Something I'm sure the posters on EnWorld are eternally grateful for.

DeLuca....Deluca...

You used to publish a magazine with Herb Barents way back in the day, didn't you? I think I still have a copy or two of that 'zine around.

By the by, what's a "draw"?

Clutch

Bull that should have been in Orange !!!!

@Tiger Eyes : We will miss you ! and I would love to see that belly ring

As an introduction, I've spent 20 years in the information security / information warfare arena. I've worked in and out of Government, as well as other industries. I have no relationship to Shadowrun other than having been a fan, player, and GM since 1989 when I bought the first Shadowrun book at a local gaming store. I own just about every book published since then.

One of the companies I worked for specialized in searching the "dark" internet. Believe me when I tell you, the linkages that can be made, and the information to be found, are there. Believe me when I also say, I have no doubt that TOPPS is aware of what happens here.

As for this whole situation. Personally, I hope that CGL can make it forward. A change to another company would be more painful than fixing CGL, and my hope is that the new procedures that are in place and have been mentioned by Jason will eventually fix this situation.

The question is, besides the short term operational changes, how is the long term behavior or structure of the current senior management going to change? I would guess that it is the answer to this question that will determine if TOPPS renews the license, and that will tell us everything we need to know. If the license is renewed, then CGL managed to convince TOPPS to give them a chance and showed them a path forward that fixes this.

-M&P

Money spent or expenditure.

Account withdrawals. Loren Coleman has been taking a lot of trips to the ATM.

-Frank

Well said Frank.

Nope. For two reasons, one simple, one slightly less so...

1) Simple: I'm not a mod. So no more orange text for me.

2) Not so simple: Even if I was a mod, no one on Dumpshock is under any obligation, by the ToS or anything else, to reveal their real name. So I have no authority to tell someone they have to do something like that.

This was just a bit of a rant on my part. One or two folks have been indirectly coy about their identity and their affiliations with CGL. And Frank keeps shotgunning accusations without backing it up with a source. He's gotten some details correct, he's gotten some wrong, and he's made a lot of assumptions that he states as fact. But until something is corroborated by a trusted source (aka, someone who would actually know what they're talking about), they're just rumors and speculation.

Bull

I was impressed by one of the last postings Cain made in this previous thread, where he said it what he had put out there was his opinion. For me, there is fact and truth, to quote Professor Jones "Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

Too many people do not understand the difference between fact and truth.



Rest in peace.


As for the CGL situation...

Imagine a group of people assembling, each being handed a red button, that if pressed would detonate an explosive that would destroy a vault filled with the potential to repay them that which they are owed. Do they give into the emotions, anger and the hurt of being betrayed or do they see if there is a chance to rectify the situation?

The existence of this thread answers that question.

Ok then sorry my bad

ShadowTalk, then.

What the? How the? Hey! I was there..

Actually, I don't think anyone from Posthuman has said anything about non-payment of royalties. While there are still some royalty issues that still need to be resolved, our reasons for leaving are primarily based in other factors.

Interestingly enough, you just described my career,except for the out of gov't part; mine has been entirely within the gov't.

He's confusing Fisty with Eidolon there too, since Edio was the one running around with the Fear the Boot crowd.

We have yet to get Fisty out to GC. But we have hopes that one of these years...

Bull

Ok, let's see here, if I've got this right, the guy in question, "commingled" company money with his personal accounts.

Then, had a $650,000 house built.

The "company coffers" are now short cash to the tune of $700,000 to $800,000?

....

....

....

Am I the only one here that is thinking there has to be a direct parrelle between the fact that the missing money is just over what the dude paid for his mansion?

We now have an individual that has come forward with his own name, not hiding be hind a handle, that says he's put together charts showing frequent draws from the accounts attributed to the accused?


The end result being that the company doesn't even have enough to totally pay it's own writers and is having to sit and work out payment scheuldes, to try and get already printed books back on shelves, and hopefully net enough profit to publish the next few books?

.... And the accused is sitting in a $650,000 house, using COMPANY funds to pay for his lawyer, to defend himself for taking money FROM the company???


Wow.

You really should check the very first post.

Well he's not entirely wrong. I was running around in boots. It was just at boot camp.

So yeah , dinner would have been nice.

Incidentally, I thought about coming up to say 'hey', but leave days were few and precious at the time.

Really, I don't see how the confusion is even possible. I'm much better looking than eido. Just look at his icon! What the hell is that a weird close up of his eye!? Seriously!
Now bring your attention to your left. See those large, majestic ears? Cute little button eyes? Soft , warm coat, and sharp, shiny teeth? Who wouldn't love a smile like that.

Ahh quite right. I only joined at the start of the third thread. Roughly 53 pages back. Reading the first post, (( 4 threads back now)) Does indeed say alot of what i just typed.

Freak. Any chance of you making Gen Con this year?

Pretty much. Except the letter that was sent out to the freelancers says that he's owned up to his actions (Even if it's prettied up with phrases like "co-mingled"), that the company is working out a deal with him to make reparations, and that steps were taken to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. This also implies there's no lawyers involved, outside of any ones that may be involved to draft up agreements for repayment and the like.

<shrug>

Bull

Unlikely. I keep wasting my money on crazy crap like kids and groceries and drek like that. I'm worthless. Try asking the wife though. She really wants to go.

But let me know if you make it down for ComicCon in July. I'll buy.

That's why I closed it down and opened a new thread, linking all the others. Trying to make it a little bit easier to reference and find something in this heap.

We must get together and compare notes some time.

A house, which =rumor= has it is not finished in a housing market that has seen a dramatic downturn. If you are hinting that it has untapped reserves to be drawn upon.

With all the topics we've had in this thread (not just directly related to the CGL situation), you could have a long index. Just off the top of my head we've covered:

• Roles and Responsibilities of the Game Designer
• Personality quirks of several Dumpshock posters
• Identities of several notables
• How freelancing works
• General corporate governance and structure
• The RPG industry
• Issues behind several people leaving CGL
• Speculation on Shadowrun's future
  
  and my favorites
• Lone Star Cop's mounting Unicorns
• Tiger Eyes and her Magical Belly Button Ring

Plus a whole lot of other stuff. Not bad for a few days work, eh?

-M&P

Fair enough, I admit that I could easily be reading too much into the word "similarly". Actually, I want to applaud you on Posthuman's message discipline. In addition to having the absolute best tagline for breaking with the publisher ("just resleeve"), you and Adam have been extremely good about keeping negotiation-related information close to the chest without sounding like you're in severe trouble or that you are deliberately stonewalling fans or feeding them bullshit.

Going back through it, you've actually dropped less public information than WildFire or Catalyst. But since all of it has been conversational in tone and free of "spin" (in that the statements have been crafted to both be literally true and to imply things that are literally true), I expect a fair amount of good will to flow your way at the end of this. When you compare the press releases you've made to the ones coming from Randall it really is night and day. When books got held up because of non-payment to freelancers and withheld copyright, he released a statement that Catalyst had not lost the license with Topps (?). I mean, that statement was true, but getting the story that freelancers had pulled copyright required picking through an internet flame war to find freelancers confirming that fact themselves. On the other hand, your own public statements that you're talking to other publishers and will be able to give release dates after those negotiations are over is simple, to the point, and successfully assuages fear.

Thank you Rob. I sincerely mean that. Yours has been a very good example of how to keep cards to the chest without without actually treating the public, your public, like mushrooms.

-Frank

I'd considered hunting through the various sections and throwing up links, but to be honest, I simply didn't have the constitution (and you know, a life to live). Thanks for the recap. It looks so nice and neat when you put it like that. Nothing like the 50 pages of madness it appears to be at first glance.

Find a SCIF somewhere, and I will meet you there....

The last one has been by far the most interesting.

I believe they mentioned underwear shopping as well at one point.

The GenCon meet&greet at Victoria's Secret, if i am not mistaken?

Y'know what's work? Spin.

Y'know what I'd rather do than spin something? Other work.

Some crappy stuff happened, so we'll do what we can do to fix it and continue Eclipse Phase with as little interruption as possible. The important thing isn't what lousy things happened (and at this point, who knows if anyone's "scorecard" is accurate...) but that Eclipse Phase will have a bright future.

And now, to repost something from the BattleTech boards, to demonstrate in part why I feel the future is so bright:

One of the things that Posthuman Studios is going to do is be very upfront about sales figures, expenses, etc. So I'll start with this: we wanted Catalyst to sell EP at $10-15 for the PDF. They argued against it, and basically said "You'll need to sell twice as many copies in order to make the same amount of money." We said "Okay. If we don't sell twice as many copies of the PDF as (CatalystCoreBook) did in PDF in 18 months, you can take the difference in dollars out of our royalties."

Less than six weeks after the PDF was available (and this was after we seeded the PDF to bittorrent ourselves -- anyone could have it for free, legally), we broke that mark. This meant that we had made the same amount of money, *and* we had the PDF in the hands of at least twice as many people!

A few months after that, Catalyst lowered their prices on all core books, and announced that Leviathans would be Creative Commons-licensed as well. And the first print run of Eclipse Phase sold out, also.

So, there will be a quick resleeve, and on with the future!

I would like to add, the layout is great in EP... sadly I find core books much harder to fully appreciate in PDF form.

Love my physical copy though, and I feel it was more than worth it to spend the money on the combo pack to support you guys.

And Hermit, yeah, that's what it was. My mind goes blank from time to time.

Nice one, congrats on the sales Adam.

Just noticed from a battlecorps thread that the battletech IWM mini's have disapeared from the online cat. I've no idea if this is due too a glitch or, and given what has been said on here, probably more likely a lack of payment to IWM from CGL.

This is the best thing I've heard in the last 4 threads on the CGL subject.

Thanks, Adam.

I wish post human wold buy SR. Obviously, PostHuman is pretty damn good at managing game production. (and I really wish you could still do the layout on the books. Guess that's just a personal thing on my part.)

Despite the fact that someone implied that *I* was trying on lingerie, I actually missed this. I'm not certain if I should be glad or disappointed, knowing what the majority of the Dumpshockers at GC look like.

Now, if Adam were trying it on...

Bull

Bull You're a damned Tease!
After you flat turn down being miss January in Naked Dumpshock calendar you go and pull something like this...
you're breakin my heart man.

The Posthuman crew is top-notch. I have nothing but respect for them, both for how they've acted during this whole mess and also because they just put out a damn good product. And Adam's post just took that respect up a peg. Because, really, all I ever expected out of Catalyst were good books and a good working relationship. I think the former happened. The latter, not so much. And to echo ketjak's post, I absolutely do not blame the developers for that. The developers I worked with all did their jobs well and were great to work with. I never got to work with Jason, but seriously, he's gone above and beyond his duty as a line developer the past few weeks on this forum and others. CGL's management should take some notes. Try talking to your freelancers some time. And maybe talking to your customers. Both freelancers and customers appreciate that. And they appreciate honesty too.

Spin, you are absolutely right! (I know, having me agree with you gives a warm fuzzy that lasts all about...wait where did it go?)

I think that you are really onto something with your PDF approach. Not just the price point but you have done some very cool things with layers in PDFs. Market resistance to PDFs is melting more and more, accelerated by the closing of so many game stores across the US. You have a game store that is open 24/7 you can take a look at a brief sample of the product, no print costs, no warehousing fees, no inventory to carry on your books for tax season. Combine that with a handful of companies that are making remarkable progress with carbon nanotubes for screens and we might actually end up with a PDF reader that is the actual size (8 1/2" by 11") of a book that has long battery life, supports full color, and is under $100!

When I first started working in gaming it cost $300 to make a color plate the last I heard that price had dropped to around $6 and POD was followed by people. Technology is one of the areas that the government has not stuck their fingers in so deeply and it really shows. It has been said that if the free market was allowed to operate freely in the car industry as per the computer industry we would have cars that go 1000 miles on a thimbul of gas and would cost less $6K, I almost consider that to be a fact!

And don't forget the iPad.


The same free market that brought us the SUV? We could have had such cars, only the free market saw fit to shelve them. There are more forces that work against ideal market liberalism than the state. Cartels and oligopolies, for instance. The Computer industry is what it is because ...

Well, wait. If cars were like computers ...

It's true, I -- and Eclipse Phase -- make for pretty pretty princesses.

I was going to post something along the lines of "Why do so many conversations come around to how pretty Adam is," but then I realized, how could they not?

Jason H.