I know this was months ago but I'm dragging it up because i want to point out just how fucking incompetent they are. Pop quiz, what's 2 + 3? If you said 5, you are smarter then Digital Homicide. They also fucked up adding 2 + 4 + 5, which is 11 and not 10. The total they printed is 800,000 less than the sum, so Jim should feel happy that there's a rounding error in his favor.
For whatever reason, AZCentral ran a story about him today.
Free speech or criminal harassment? Arizona game maker sues online commenters for $18M
After asking for help and being turned away by the FBI and the Yuma County Sheriff's Office, a video-game developer in Yuma has sued in federal court over what he calls relentless online harassment that has lasted more than 1 1/2 years.
Brothers James and Robert Romine founded Digital Homicide Studios LCC in Arizona in 2014 and have since created more than 60 small PC games.
He actually made a YouTube account called The No-BS Gamer and commented endlessly on any and all negative DH videos, including many of Jim Sterling's videos. He sometimes said shit trying to hide his identity like, "lol Forsaken Uprising is fucking trash," and in a comment not long after would say something heinous like, "I would rather be playing Deadly Profits than something shitty like Fallout 4." He would argue that nobody had any proof of their lying and cheating antics, though it was well documented that they were asset flipping, rigging Greenlight votes, trying to sell their shit games under a thousand different aliases, etc.
He eventually made it so obvious that he was either Robert or James Romine that he memory holed the account out of existence taking down all comments with him.
When he did the interview with jimquisition, I almost felt bad for the guy. Sure, he was flipping shit, and his arguments against critics were pretty weak- but hey, I'd be mad too if my games were getting railed by the jimquisition fandom. It was understandable. I figured he might be good for a laugh, but didn't have enormous potential.
Now that he's suing people who leave mean comments, his potential has grown exponentially
A wonderful, cute version of the second Digital Homicide lawsuit.
Discussed the Digital Homicide sage with my super-worm-app colleague and she asked, brothers? What do they sound like? Pointed her to the Youtube video, Jim Sterling Vs Digital Homicide Interview. Yesterday she asked another odd question; she's not related to them. Was the older brother, divorced 7 or 6 years ago? Answer, ah, don't know, ah why do I care??
James Oliver Romine, Jr, or "James Romine, 46", from article "Free speech or criminal harassment? Arizona game maker sues online commenters for $18M." Thank you seagull.
Son-of-a-gun.
Divorce 2009.
Marriage 2003.
Divorce 2002.
Marriage 1999.
Divorce 1993.
??
Wonder why that woman slapping game from Digital Homicide exists? Let me know if you do.
Do Not look up his brother, or you will need brain bleach.
Let's start with a story.
The Romine Brothers said Digital Homicide LLC is finished,
The End?
Horror movie classic, 'it's dead' followed by "It's Alive!"
Digital Homicide, it's sock puppet(s), game descriptions, and sock company(ies), remain on Steam. http://archive.is/WrM2p
The privacy protected domain tootloot.com, http://archive.is/UUodx created July 2016, redirects to www.digitalhomicide.ninja.
"Site Owned And Operated By Robert Romine - Any Referrals Or Paid Advertisements Are Paid To The Owner Of The Site"
"Thank you for picking up some free steam games here on the site."
Digital Homicide never closed.
Digital Zombiecide anyone?
Wonderful fellow, James Oliver Romine, Jr.
Goes through (at least) three acrimonious divorces, and creates the Digital Homicide woman beating game "Six Nights At Suzie's."
[SPOILER
Mr. Romine's attitude toward his (at least) three ex-wives, 0:07-0:17?
Digital Homocide's game,
SIX NIGHTS AT SUZIE'S - Beat All Of The Blood Out Of Women
]
{Unconfirmed} Used gamer tag "Xagain", in 2008-2009.
[SPOILER http://archive.is/iRP0o
{Unconfirmed} On one multi-player game, the brothers angered a large number of gamers. The brothers were ostracized. The brothers said, those were all lies, and, ah, horrible nasty things afterwards.
Sound familiar?
]
For something less ick, remember the Romine Brothers -1, dropped multi-million dollar lawsuit? That was bad. Behind the scenes, it was worse. James 'I'm not a lawyer' Romine resorted to practices used by copyright trolls, https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls.
“Incidentally, I, (DemonSwordGames aka Donovan Jackson) received a demand letter (abeit a vague one) where in James Tries to seemingly extort information and/or money out of me. Claiming that he would much rather reach a settlement.
It would be a cold day in hell ofc before I gave James any money or information (especially personal information) as I have done nothing wrong, and by his own admittance; because i have a game on the steam store, he wishes to pursue legal action against me in particular.
I am actually assuming that the entire thing was a scare tactic, where DH's actual goal was to silence any negative criticism."
Does any rational person think the Romine Brothers sent only one settlement letter?
Tis odd that both lawsuits,
Romine v. Stanton
James Oliver Romine Jr v. Jane/John Doe 1 through 100
have James Romine as the only plaintiff. The Romine Brothers allege damage to their company, Digital Homicide LLC, and themselves. But these are sole plaintiff lawsuits. It's like, instead of Apple v. Samsung, it's Tim Cook v. Samsung. Why not lawsuits 'Digital Homicide LLC v. *' or 'James Oliver Romine Jr & Robert Romine v. *'?
Maybe Junior does not want the public spotlight on his younger brother Robert Romine? Putting a name on a lawsuit, invites investigation by legal teams and the public.
{Unconfirmed} Used gamer tag "Tenadore", in 2008-2009.
The Arizona newspaper article "Free speech or criminal harassment? Arizona game maker sues online commenters for $18M" http://archive.is/z9Skc
states “James Romine, 46” and “Robert Romine, 36”.
That's birth years 1970 and 1980, more or less.
There are multiple PUBLIC court records of one "Robert Thaddeus Romine"/"Robert Romine" of **, Arizona, of the appropriate age.
Is this "Robert Romine", a very uncommon name in Arizona, of Digital Homicide LLC?
You make the call.
ROBERT THADDEUS ROMINE
Birth Date **/1980
Address **, AZ **
Court cases:
J-1401-FE-9900459
S-1400-CR-9900418
M-1441-TR-2002003330
S-1400-ML-200700880
The short versions below. Detailed records available through the .gov link.
Case Number: J-1401-FE-9900459
If you do not want to use brain bleach, do not click J-1401-FE-9900459 Spoiler.
[SPOILER
Title: STATE VS ROMINE. ROBERT T
Category: Criminal
Court: Yuma Justice
Judge: HON RICHARD W DONATO
Filing Date: 5/7/1999
Disposition Date: 5/21/1999
1 Count SEXUAL CONDUCT WITH MINOR
OTHER DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE
1 Count CUSTODIAL INTERFERENCE
TRANSFER - CHANGE JURISDICTION
5 Counts BURGLARY 2ND DEG
TRANSFER - CHANGE JURISDICTION
]
Case Number: S-1400-CR-9900418
"Libel Proof"?
[SPOILER
Title: ST VS ROBERT R. ROMINE
Category: Criminal
Court: Yuma County Superior
Judge: HON PHILIP HALL
Filing Date: 5/24/1999
Disposition Date: 9/2/1999
1 Count CUSTODIAL INTERFERENCE
COURT DISMISSAL
5 Counts BURGLARY 2ND DEG
GUILTY
8/31/2004 PET MODIFY TERMS OF PROBATION
8/31/2004 ORDER MODIFYING TERMS OF PROB
8/11/2000-8/26/2004 PYMT: RESTITUTION
10/7/1999-8/27/2004 AUTH: RESTITUTION
9/8/1999 CONDITIONS OF PROBATION
9/2/1999 PROBATION
9/2/1999 JAIL/PRISON
]
This is case J-1401-FE-9900459 refiled, more or less. The "R" is sloppy paperwork.
Case Number: M-1441-TR-2002003330
Insurance must be through the roof.
[SPOILER
Title: ST OF AZ VS ROMINE
Category: Traffic
Court: Yuma Municipal
Judge: None
Filing Date: 5/6/2002
Disposition Date: 5/16/2002
1 Count NO LEGIBLE DRIVER LICENSE IN POSSESSION
COMPL DISMISSED BY COURT
]
Case Number: S-1400-ML-200700880
Nothing to see here.
[SPOILER
Title: ROMINE/*
Category: Civil
Court: Yuma County Superior
Judge: N/A
Filing Date: 7/9/2007
Disposition Date: 7/9/2007
MARRIAGE LICENSE ISSUED
]
The Romine Brothers want to know why they aren't respected, for their efforts..........
A review of Romine v. Stanton By A Lawyer.
Really, he's a competent lawyer. With a pleasant self-deprecating sense of humor.
{Opinion} Which is more than can be said for the unintentionally funny Romine Brothers.
Live Stream - Digital Homicide v. Jim Sterling lawsuit update
by Leonard French
Nov 7, 2016
Mr. French is appropriately dressed, at least to level the of competence James Oliver Romine Jr. shows in his lawsuit.
{Insert laugh track here}
A retrospective video on Digital Homicide just popped up on my YouTube recommendations- nothing worth sharing because the video is just half an hour of voice over gameplay and not really entertaining but it did bring up a question for me which doesn't seem to have been properly discussed up to this point: how the fuck did DH games get greenlit into Steam?!
I'm not much of a Steam gamer so I'm hoping you kiwis can help me understand. I know for a while now Valve has stopped curating games and just lets the community run the greenlight process on its own. Also I know that DH has provided people with free keys to incentivese more votes (which is clearly forbidden by Valve). What bothers me is that I see great games struggle to get greenlit sometimes, I can't understand how so many of these shitty titles got through from a single company, even if they acted under different sockpuppet names
The entire point may be moot now that DH has been banned from Steam but I keep hearing lately that the quality level on Steam is getting very low so hopefully this is a relevant question to bring up.
The entire point may be moot now that DH has been banned from Steam but I keep hearing lately that the quality level on Steam is getting very low so hopefully this is a relevant question to bring up.
A retrospective video on Digital Homicide just popped up on my YouTube recommendations- nothing worth sharing because the video is just half an hour of voice over gameplay and not really entertaining but it did bring up a question for me which doesn't seem to have been properly discussed up to this point: how the fuck did DH games get greenlit into Steam?!
I'm not much of a Steam gamer so I'm hoping you kiwis can help me understand. I know for a while now Valve has stopped curating games and just lets the community run the greenlight process on its own. Also I know that DH has provided people with free keys to incentivese more votes (which is clearly forbidden by Valve). What bothers me is that I see great games struggle to get greenlit sometimes, I can't understand how so many of these shitty titles got through from a single company, even if they acted under different sockpuppet names
The entire point may be moot now that DH has been banned from Steam but I keep hearing lately that the quality level on Steam is getting very low so hopefully this is a relevant question to bring up.
While I'm not a Steam gamer, I believe that the reason DH still managed to get games greenlit is because of Steam trading cards. People would buy (or receive since DH handed out keys for votes like candy) a game like Wyatt Derp or whatever and sell the cards (which DH got a percentage of for each card sold) and use the money from selling them to buy other games.
However, as I mentioned, I don't have a Steam account and everything I've said here I heard from Digital Homicide videos, so I may be completely wrong here.
A retrospective video on Digital Homicide just popped up on my YouTube recommendations- nothing worth sharing because the video is just half an hour of voice over gameplay and not really entertaining but it did bring up a question for me which doesn't seem to have been properly discussed up to this point: how the fuck did DH games get greenlit into Steam?!
I'm not much of a Steam gamer so I'm hoping you kiwis can help me understand. I know for a while now Valve has stopped curating games and just lets the community run the greenlight process on its own. Also I know that DH has provided people with free keys to incentivese more votes (which is clearly forbidden by Valve). What bothers me is that I see great games struggle to get greenlit sometimes, I can't understand how so many of these shitty titles got through from a single company, even if they acted under different sockpuppet names
The entire point may be moot now that DH has been banned from Steam but I keep hearing lately that the quality level on Steam is getting very low so hopefully this is a relevant question to bring up.
They basically offered free copies of their games for votes
So whilst individual sales to a hit they could flood steam with crap and push "value" by bundles
A retrospective video on Digital Homicide just popped up on my YouTube recommendations- nothing worth sharing because the video is just half an hour of voice over gameplay and not really entertaining but it did bring up a question for me which doesn't seem to have been properly discussed up to this point: how the fuck did DH games get greenlit into Steam?!
Like the others do, give away free steam keys for greenlight votes. How do those russian meme games and other garbage get up to saleable state? Well by giving allot of people keys for free if they vote for the game.
Yes Steam hates and if steam finds out your game might be kicked off. But how many games are found out?
I'm not much of a Steam gamer so I'm hoping you kiwis can help me understand. I know for a while now Valve has stopped curating games and just lets the community run the greenlight process on its own. Also I know that DH has provided people with free keys to incentivese more votes (which is clearly forbidden by Valve). What bothers me is that I see great games struggle to get greenlit sometimes, I can't understand how so many of these shitty titles got through from a single company, even if they acted under different sockpuppet names
The entire point may be moot now that DH has been banned from Steam but I keep hearing lately that the quality level on Steam is getting very low so hopefully this is a relevant question to bring up.
The system isn't perfect. YES once steam finds out a "publisher" is gaming the system they are taken out. ONCE... that can take a while.
There are allot of russian "publisher" that have terrible games. That buy up or just pirate assets and flip them for some money. They use the same system, offer games for free just to get it through greenlight.
And then they try to get as much money as possible from their crappy product. Then soon enough someone notices just how crappy it is. Depending on the situation it can be either quickly removed or take a while.
Usually the most fun is in the forums. Just go there and if your read allot of complaints about an abandoned game that doesn't runs or crashes. Or more interresting people pointing out asset flips.
The brothers are different in that they didn't paddle 1 product but many crappy products. So for they seemed on the radar of steam as an actual half decent developer. Actually being active. Unlike those russian meme makers.
And steam wouldn't have mind that the brothers kept clearing out the forum. No troubles...
It was that they wanted to start a lawsuit against steam users that pretty much pushed the final buttons.
You can get away with allot on steam. You can have crappy products, you can clear up any thread on the forum pointing out just how terrible your product is.
This makes me wonder how much money they could have made with this entire scam if they couldn't even sell their games to start with during greenlight. I guess if you're a rogue Russian developer then a few dollars on Steam can actually mean a lot due to exchange rates but aren't these brothers American?
Maybe they were unemployed and thought this was better than nothing instead of trying to pursue a career with an actual future. Maybe they actually thought they were doing good stuff. Both are likely judging from the :autism: we've seen from them.
Anyway I'd sure like to see some sales figures. I really hope their scam wasn't paying off but I may be too naive..
Actually they used multiple fronts as well from what I've seen on Jimquisition videos.. which lends credence to the "known scam" theory. Why else would you go through that trouble?
Actually they used multiple fronts as well from what I've seen on Jimquisition videos.. which lends credence to the "known scam" theory. Why else would you go through that trouble?
I forget that part, when someone does so many things it is hard to keep up. What was their defense again "using trade names"
Maybe just maybe if the brothers would have accepted the critique and actually IMPROVED the games they made.
Well we might just hope too much right. The first game an indie developer makes tends to be rough. Unless that developer goes through allot of testing. These brothers don't even know the meaning of the word testing.
Actually they used multiple fronts as well from what I've seen on Jimquisition videos.. which lends credence to the "known scam" theory. Why else would you go through that trouble?
Obviously i cant guess what they were thinking but my theory was after the "value bundles" scam failed their plan was to exploit youtube drama to be the next "so bad its good" clickbait hit.
Greenlight is full of "devs" who have shit fits over the slightest thing and i cant imagine its all legit.
Some of its gotta be troll bait to draw in idiots to see how awful the final product is.
Then its a case of playing the name to unlock the steam trophies as "badges of honour" which some people even trade for real money.
I just think they choose poorly trying to milk drama from jim and let everything esculate way to far.
I haven't seen one but I didn't listen to the entire hour-and-a-half of two autists talking to each other in that interview. (Sorry Sterling fans but he was already being called a dumbass 10 minutes in, any sane person would have left then and there instead of putting up with the verbal abuse)).
To be honest it could have been a case of them branding into new names after they completely ruined the DH trademark after the whole fiasco. anyway it's pretty shady no matter how you cut it.
I'm pretty sure Robert is your textbook pathological narcissist- it's all there: the sense of entitlement, the temper tantrums, the lack of sense of responsibility (at one point he even blamed Sterling for not turning off the terrible music that came with the game so he could hear the game's audio cues- what?!). Anyone who knows about NPD cares to agree or disagree with me?
I'm pretty sure Robert is your textbook pathological narcissist- it's all there: the sense of entitlement, the temper tantrums, the lack of sense of responsibility (at one point he even blamed Sterling for not turning off the terrible music that came with the game so he could hear the game's audio cues- what?!). Anyone who knows about NPD cares to agree or disagree with me?
We can always way for Darksydephil's insight in this case. Of course Phil shows just how little he knows of the world, he probably didn't get the whole Digital Homicide. Not to mention he doesn't do PC games.
A shame, DSP might have had deep insights.
You probably have a point, just how he Robert acts seems quite unfit a business owner. How many business owners blame their clients? And how many more SUE their clients.
