💼 Careercow Robert / Digital Homicide - The Salty Wannabe Game Dev.

[keksz]

Slightly old, slightly :autism:, slightly cringey, slightly entertaining video about DH. Good overview of everything so far and has some information I haven't seen yet on this thread.

 

[Diggers]

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..

Don't have actual numbers, but someone did a back of envelope calculation.

The Romine Brothers are good, at making new company names.

Toot Loot, 2016
System Shock Media LLC, 2016
ECC Games, 2015 (?)
Digital Homicide Studios LLC, 2014
Pop Up Massacre INC LLC, 2004

Toot Loot is up to the same things that Digital Homicide did on Steam. Mostly I guess.


This Arizona case tells a tale of finances.

J-1401-CV-200800439
Filing Date: 3/11/2008
Category: Civil
LVNV FUNDING, LLC Plaintiff

Spoiler

[SPOILER
5/31/2013 REFERRED TO JUDGE
5/31/2013 ORDER
5/17/2013 MOTION P 1
4/9/2013 FUND: FEES - MISC
3/21/2013 RENEWAL OF JUDGMENT P 1
11/15/2012 APPL/ORDER OF CONTINUING LIEN
11/15/2012 ANSWER FILED: GARNISHEE
11/6/2012 ORD CONT LIEN/GARNISH JUDGMENT

..........
7/27/2009 WRIT OF GARNISHMENT
7/20/2009 APPL WRIT OF GRNSHMNT (22-244) P 1
5/13/2009 CIVIL JUDGMENT
...........
3/11/2008 COMPLAINT FILED OVER NO $
]

"LVNV Funding LLC, ("LVNV") purchases portfolios of both domestic (U.S.) and international consumer debt owned by credit grantors"

The younger brother, Robert Romine, is a handful.
The older brother, just goes through wives like tissue paper. Think of the alimony.

I almost feel sorry for them. Except

Spoiler

[SPOILER
{Unconfirmed} They were gamers on Everquest II, 2007-2009, and pulled a stunt affecting Loads of people. The word spread. They got out of Dodge.
]

Reminds me of their behavior in the last lawsuit.

 

[keksz]

The guy in the video makes a very good point about gaming Steam (no pun intended). Back to the financial issue though, he figures 7k per month as a guess or a minimum of 200k total at least.

I appreciate his math but I don't think someone making this kind of money is likely to sue Steam users for mean comments- much less on the scale of millions of dollars As I've said before Robert sounds like your textbook narcissist and those deal very badly with money. The desperation that comes through in the mere act, not to mention the text of his lawsuit speaks to me of someone in very deep shit.

 

[Diggers]

Robert sounds like your textbook narcissist and those deal very badly with money. The desperation that comes through in the mere act, not to mention the text of his lawsuit speaks to me of someone in very deep shit.

Agree. The audio from post #1 confirms "sounds like" and just plain is.
Not just Robert but James as well. James filed the lawsuits.

James in his 40's and Robert in his 30's.
{Opinion} They never learned self control.

I appreciate his math but I don't think someone making this kind of money is likely to sue Steam users for mean comments- much less on the scale of millions of dollars

One example, easy to find. Established law firm filed "between $100,000 and $200,000" lawsuit against a person who gave them a bad Yelp review. Let's lowball and say they're a multi-million dollar enterprise. Because of a thing called anti-SLAPP, the law firm owes that person and attorney "$26,831.55".

More like them. Why Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation laws exist.

Were there 100 John/Jane Does that would be between $10,000,000 and $20,000,000. Right in the Romine ballpark.

Don't think the Romines were making the money estimated in the video, either. Suppose they were?

Spoiler

[SPOILER
Company computer costs. Running from trivial to hundreds of dollars a month.

James is a minimum triple loser, three divorces. 'That's what she said'.
{Unconfirmed} Unhealthy divorces.
Think of the alimony.

Did he have children? Child support.
Is there a mortgage on the house? Bank payments, utility bills, taxes.
Or has he rented for the last 10-20 years? Monthly rent.
Is his car new? More bank payments.

Robert is married. His court cases may make it hard to find a good job.
{Opinion} Or he's just lazy.
{Unconfirmed} His wife and brother support him.
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Romine had a LVNV filing.
He may still be paying court mandated restitution.

Multiple children. Multiple expenses. Y'all know how that goes.
He has moved from place to place in the same town in Arizona. Rent costs.
Don't know if he now lives with his brother James.
{Unconfirmed} Past and recent computer game fanatic. More fees.
]

Two years of excellent cash flow makes their combined financial issues rear view mirror.
Two years of average cash flow makes their combined financial issues bearable.

Two years of fair cash flow makes their combined financial issues hand to mouth. Yes agree, "desperation" to keep the cash flowing. What happened to good ole 'tough it out'?

Pointless desperation 'cause seasoned businesses and people down play or "suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune"

hands in the air
Please don't Shakespeare me.

Had they showed seasoned maturity.
Had they worked with Steam.
Had they just learned to shut up, Digital Homicide would be on Steam today.

 

[Saitbel46]

Lol, their "studio" is probably their mom's living room. James it's a cheap, lazy bastard, he thinks taking someone to court will make him rich.

Not the whole world will make understand Jim delusional that's he's delusional and throws temper tantrums.

 

[FernandoPooTragedy]

Robert Romine is back and lying and playing the victim again. Apparently no one covered the "accusation of theft" --- the one he did not know about until Jim retracted it.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

Wasn't Jim Sterling the only reason anyone even knew about Digital Homicide?

No, the marketing plans I created made a large following for Digital Homicide.

This fucking cannot be real. Your marketing plan? A plan so brilliant it involved selling games for pennies on the dollar and constantly flooding the New Releases page? To the point where Steam had to change how the New Releases page and how asset flips used it's marketplace? And got you banned from the storefront?

Digital Homicide probably made a bit of cash in it's tenure, I will concede that. (Note, if the ""advertising expenses"" they claim were real then they may have somehow lost money? What the fuck?) Using pre-bought assets and selling a game dirt cheap to make the money back through trading card commissions is pretty ingenious but to act like you're some saintly figure in gaming because of it or that you had a large, loyal following of your own creation is ridiculous. Jim Sterling made Digital Homicide his bitch, and he did it in an entertaining manner. I say this as someone who generally dislikes Sterling, mind you (he has the Moviebob problem of taking seven years to get to the fucking point and I usually don't like his sense of humor). He covered the lolsuit and the games they published in a way that held them accountable and ensured Steam knew their storefront was being used to sell absolute trash.

Was Digital Homicide an "Asset Flipper"?

Contrary to massive amounts of articles and videos on the topic, I never took a complete project and published it under Digital Homicide like it was "my" game. Thousands of hours of development went into the games.

lol bull fucking shit. I've seen 5-hour Indie Game Jam games with more soul in them. If 1000 hours of work actually went into The Slaughtering Grounds somehow each individual letter of the source code was probably typed with the coder's penis head. Nothing in that abortion of a game worked for shit.

Please just stop embarrassing yourselves. Stop trying to reclaim any pride, you lost all of it when you started pumping out literal piles of shit onto Steam.

also archive of article here

 

[TheRedRanger]

Ooh boy, this is gonna be good.
I don't know what the hell is going through Romine's head, but it'll be interesting to see if they've learned anything. Will they have spent this time improving their craft and coming up with a decent game to re-launch themselves? Or have they just been stewing in bitterness over their 'mistreatment' by Jim and Valve?

Place your bets everybody.

 

[Dragapult]

Wtf why would they resurrect this stale dumpfire? I'd figure after years from the Digital Homicide drama they'd have the sense to distance themselves from it; either to makes something of themselves or to increase their chances of running another scam.

Idiots.

Golly, hope it gets worse.

 

[Burmese Rice Farmer]

They haven't backed down yet, I'm somewhat impressed.

Anyway, they've got a weird new incoherent video that basically boils down to being butthurt because they're unsuccessful hacks and don't have fat man Jim gargling their cum

 

[Squidward Tentacles465.]

They are now picking fights with people on Twitter