Quote from: amacris;625286Would it be worth an attorney's time to sue James Mal for $50,000? Almost certainly not, unless James has wealth far in excess of the average American squirreled away (and I don't have any reason to think that).

Has he declared bankruptcy in the relatively recent past? If he has, then it probably would be worth it.  That is, assuming it's a good case (and I am not convinced it is).

you distasteful breadheads, tut tut

Quote from: Settembrini;624888What kind of man is this?
 
1) Sends his wife into the world to provide for him

A clever man.

Quote2) Does not provide for his kids materially

A poor man?

Quote3) Spends a lot of time online with his hobby  while his wife is working to
 provide for him and the family

A lucky man.

Quote4) Did not serve

A free man.

Quote5) Wrote for White Wolf

A man who made some money off his hobby.

Quote6) Made nothing material out of his education (once pursued a Ph D in analytical philosophy)

An average man.

Quote7) Born in Bawlmore

A Bawlmorian.

Quote Fled to Canada

A smart man.

Quote9) Claimed 50k on his online hobby bona fides

A geeky man.

Quote10) Has wee-wee in his eyes because his 70+ father might die before he does?

A human fucking being.

Quote11) Wrote boring essays on old hobby mags while the kids were in school an the wife earning money for him?

Again a lucky man.

Quote from: Mistwell;625230Bullshit.  As an attorney with 18 years experience, you sir are full of shit.  $50K is a pretty common number to sue over.  Heck, $20K is a pretty common number to sue over.

Most lawsuits are good for an attorney. Few are useful to the plaintiff.

As a business consultant, I regularly negotiate settlements and dance with attorneys. The "let's sue" route is always yummy for the lawyers and that's why they lead people down that path.

Mistwell, I am not saying you do that, but we both know the cockroaches crawling through the halls of 111 North Hill and the rest of the courthouses of America.

Quote from: Settembrini;625075I wish to apologize for all Baltimorians. I was not implying that would be anyhting bad!

Apology accepted, Sett.  I will issue an immediate 'halt' order to the Ray Lewis Stab-o-Tron 3000 Mandroid I put on a boat to Germany yesterday.

Quote from: Settembrini;625075I wish to apologize for all Baltimorians. I was not implying that would be anyhting bad!.

So you did mean to imply that being a stay at home dad, writing for games, not serving in the military, moving to Canada, and being sad if one's parent dies are bad things?

If my wife suddenly had a raise to account for my income, I'd volunteer to be a stay-at-home dad and take our daughter to school, do all the laundry, go to the grocery store, clean the house, etc. etc. She knows it too.

Nothing wrong with men doing that at all.

Quote from: Mistwell;625260Prussian Polish, Prussian German, Prussian Lithuanian or Latvian or Estonian? Prussian Ukrainian? What sort of Prussian?

Hmmm ....  Prussia still exists?

Wonder how many Kaliningrad or Gdansk natives these days would consider themselves "Prussian".

Quote from: VectorSigma;625339I will issue an immediate 'halt' order to the Ray Lewis Stab-o-Tron 3000 Mandroid I put on a boat to Germany yesterday.

Now, now, let's not be hasty. That might be a good resource to have in an advance position, if you know what I mean.

Quote from: Endless Flight;625350If my wife suddenly had a raise to account for my income, I'd volunteer to be a stay-at-home dad and take our daughter to school, do all the laundry, go to the grocery store, clean the house, etc. etc. She knows it too.

Nothing wrong with men doing that at all.

Yeah, instead of doing a fulltime job and then coming home to the honey-do list, you just come up with the honey-do list yourself.  You'd save time and live a decade longer.

Just registered to delurk on this thread.

I'm one of the DM backers and I am disappointed with how things have turned out. In order of preference what I wish would occur would be:

1. James finishes his commitments in a timely manner. Not 6 months to a year from now. I suppose he could resurface tomorrow, but at this point I don't have any real hope that James is ever going to finish DM.

2. James returns the money back to Autarch and releases the IP to Autarch so that they could finish the project.

What really sticks in my craw is the idea that James will get to keep the money without fulfilling his commitments. I find it more important that James not be allowed to keep the money than for me to "be made whole" for what I put into the Kickstarter.

In fact I'd be willing to spend some more money on a lawsuit even if it was unlikely for me to recover my original pledge. Maybe the most that happens is that a lien gets put against James' assets that he never pays off. Maybe he declares bankruptcy and he still doesn't pay back the money. However, at least he has to deal with those consequences for not fulfilling his commitments. If nothing else maybe a lawsuit would cause him to resurface at least in some manner.

Some may call the above throwing good money after bad, but I'd rather spend some additional money and make the effort than just let James pocket the money.

I'm not so much interested in getting a refund just for me, but seeing all of the money returned to either Autarch so that they can finish the project, or the backers as a whole.

I don't suppose there's a way to do something like a Kickstarter to raise funds to file suit against James? Heck, if he continues his current behavior and stays hidden we might win by default.

(FYI, if I don't reply for a while it's because I'm very busy with work. However, be assured I won't disappear for months at a time like James has.)

Ironic thing is that most folks in the RPG community are so generous, that if only he'd posted a couple of plausible updates, he could still be stringing things along now with much less loss of good will.

Quote from: Killfuck Soulshitter;625395Ironic thing is that most folks in the RPG community are so generous, that if only he'd posted a couple of plausible updates, he could still be stringing things along now with much less loss of good will.

Quote from: Endless Flight;625350If my wife suddenly had a raise to account for my income, I'd volunteer to be a stay-at-home dad and take our daughter to school, do all the laundry, go to the grocery store, clean the house, etc. etc. She knows it too.

Nothing wrong with men doing that at all.

I agree.
But you'd have TONS of things to do and be most likely exhausted. And you would feel bad if you spent the time rather on the net blogging and pretending to be an auteur of gygaxian proportions!
All stay-at-home-wifes or husbands whom I know have LESS time for self-fulfillment and small businesses on the side!

ADD: And you would most likely NOT endanger the single income via creating debts and obligations in the 50k range, would you?

No RESPONSIBILITY towards dependants has many faces. Pursueing your hobby in that time is not responsible! It is a slap in the face of all hard working stay-at-home people, be they man, women or anything in between. Especially if it financially creates obligations.

ADD2: And not communicating with his dream-job-partners is also super irresponsible.

QuoteEven if we had the IP and published "a" Dwimmermount, Backers could (in theory) sue us because what we published wouldn't "James Mal's Dwimmermount".

Quote from: Votan;625176Given a draft of the material exists, I think that would have been an exceedingly hard suit as the line between editing it and completing it is very grey.

The problem is, this is a creative endeavor, and it's not the same as a regular good like a car that has a standards expectation.  Creative works would be much harder to deal with.  Many of the people were wanting James M.'s work, and having somebody else finish it might go against what they expected from the Kickstarter.

I didn't back this Kickstarter, but if I was offered a choice on somebody else completing the work, or either getting my money back, or waiting several months or even a year or two, I'd choose the latter.  I follow creators and having somebody else finish it would feel wrong to me.

QuoteI'm not so much interested in getting a refund just for me, but seeing all of the money returned to either Autarch so that they can finish the project, or the backers as a whole.

I think the key thing is Autarch, in the backer updates, has apparently polled the audience and the majority feel okay in waiting, based on this public post:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autarch/dwimmermount/posts/392668

I think if more and more time goes by without any communication from James, a new survey would reflect dissatisfaction, but it seems they are proceeding in the best way that will satisfy the majority of the backers, so I think before an individual backer wants to do things "on behalf of the group". the majority should rule.

Don't get me wrong--James lack of even communicating with Autarch is rather troubling, and I suspect if he doesn't correct this soon he's going to have a lot of lost respect--more than what's been lost already.  I'm still not willing to state though that it's a case of him "taking the money and running".