Knights in shining armor

[Ironwolf]

Well after looking through the Valiance website and the hopes of rescue that have been offered, I see that the hopes may have been raised too quickly.

I see a serious opportunity for our folks to be taken advantage of. I don't see a single project worked through to completion just a few screenshots. I know this has fired off red flags in my head that as a man once said - a fool and his money is soon parted. I see a barebones website that could have been thrown up in a weekend that has an empty forum for existing games and a pay me here button at the top.

I then see that the person doesn't want to use any of the existing crowd financing sources.

Sorry folks, unless I see a LOT more from this group - I am not buying the hype.

[Ironwolf]

This is a residential address.

I call bullshit.

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: SHOGN.NET
Created on: 23-Apr-12
Expires on: 23-Apr-13
Last Updated on: 23-Apr-12

Registrant:
SilverHelm Studios LLC.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS23.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS24.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Edit: removed addresses. --TV

[JaguarX]

yeah the more i dig, the more fishier it looks. I think you have called this one exactly right this time.

And yeah that address is a house, that recently sold for about 385,000 Sept 2012 (although I wouldnt pay that kind of money for that sqft but then again that is Cali and I'm used to Southern belt prices where 385,000 can get ya into a near mansion with a yard).

Dont look a studio to me.

[Triplash]

I call bullshit.

Based on what?

I'm not saying you're wrong, but you'll need to explain why I should believe you saying "he's lying" any more than I should believe him saying "I'm honest".

[Ironwolf]

Have you been to the website?

4 projects listed with zero to show for them.

Now another one added all crowd funded. You may believe what you like, I believe what I see - or don't see in this case.

[Triplash]

Have you been to the website?

4 projects listed with zero to show for them.

Now another one added all crowd funded. You may believe what you like, I believe what I see - or don't see in this case.

Ahhh. No, I've only been to the forums so far. There were only a couple posts so I figured I'd come back later for a better look.

Well he certainly does seem to be having credibility issues, doesn't he? I'd suggest to him that if he is legit, and he really would like our input and cooperation, he'll be wanting to ease those concerns by providing something a little more substantial for us to look over. You can't blame us for being careful when it comes to our limited investment ability.

And if he's not legit, well... in that case I'd suggest he not pursue this further. Too many of us are capable of finding the kind of details that can sort truths from lies. Right now those people are logged in as their Defenders. You don't want to give them reason to alt over to their Brutes.

[Thunder Glove]

What I find most ... well, "suspicious" seems like a strong word, so let's say "wary"... is the huge list of fifteen "currently implemented" items they somehow put together in only four days.  Even using an existing engine to start with, it seems like it's quite a lot.

I'll happily subscribe to the game once there's a game to play (and, as I said before, it must be playable on my old Mac laptop), but I'm not throwing any money at them for a pre-alpha (especially one with no listed system specs).

[Ironwolf]

I am just running a few things through to determine who this person is and is not.

Chad or Aaron please if you are reading this tell us what characters you played on CoH and which servers.

https://twitter.com/chad_dulac

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1190681983/outlasting-the-dead/posts/225032
2 drawings no gameplay.

http://comicsfairplay.blogspot.com/2006/11/creator-interview-chad-du-lac-of.html
He is a comic artist.

http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Chad-Dulac/1259513943
More artistic chops.

Many other links showing Chad to be a real person. Not one single link to Aaron Victoria showing he even exists.

[dwturducken]

For the record, I am still cautiously optimistic. The video demos of the fantasy game on YouTube are promising, if primitive, but it's a completely home-spun effort. Anyone going into this at face value clearly isn't doing the research, but I'm not throwing any bullshit flags, yet.

Also, I served with a couple of guys who made freeware games in their spare time. For being circa Windows 95, it wasn't bad stuff. Also, we were on a submarine, not a cruise ship with a flight deck, like the Stennis.

[no hero]

Ok. So I jumped in with both feet. Call me home sick and gullible.
Now that that is out of the way, I have no intention to call Aaron Victoria a false prophet and drag him through the streets of Paragon.
Obviously funding will come as results are produced, but the fact of the matter is, he has been here a week or so.
What details are needed in that kind of time?
His donate button isn't even active for the next few weeks. This isn't as fast of a grab and dash as it is being made out to be.

Should we be defensive?  Abso-freaking-lutely. This is as near and dear as it gets.

I just want my game back. I want it now, and with as few differences as possible.
I don't want "CoH2", though I'll be there. I don't want to wait 5 to 10 years, though I will.
I want what he has offered, "Damn-close-to-CoH,-but-you-can't-sue-me,-because-he's-not-Statesman,-but-Senator-Patriot-Guy" ASAP.

Let's say nothing comes of his attempt, hold onto your cash and no worries.
But let's just say, before the ball drops on New Year's Eve, you can be in your home town.
Is it worth the risk of hearing him out? Darn skippy, it is.
If I am offered the chance, my no hero alts will Super Jump before this year is over.
I want to rest my eyes while my toon goes AFK and misses the iTrial que.
;
Until now, I have been leery of the Plan Zs, because of the split.
Well, not so much the "split" as the venomous "spit" between the groups in the beginning.
That being said, I am seeing the tension between TPP and HaV loosening and have since joined both forums.

I am homesick. I am gullible. If Valiance can give me hope, I'll take it.
As I have asked of him, I will as of you, be kind.
I have earned my 1,386 Badges, and do not wish to be berated for believing in humankind's innate goodness.

[Ironwolf]

I believe in the innate goodness as well but I still trust, but verify.

Forgive me for pointing out the immediate entry by Mr. Victoria was as if he had an existing studio that he would quickly swing to action and we would have a game asap.

Well they have never produced a product yet - whether for good or ill. I have no issue with Indie developers, but show us a product. The details are all in the database.

[downix]

I believe in the innate goodness as well but I still trust, but verify.

Forgive me for pointing out the immediate entry by Mr. Victoria was as if he had an existing studio that he would quickly swing to action and we would have a game asap.

Well they have never produced a product yet - whether for good or ill. I have no issue with Indie developers, but show us a product. The details are all in the database.

A smart group would reach out to established players in the field first. Admittedly they did this and we are talking. They are over eager and jumped the gun here it seems. Still am taking a look at what they have to offer. Worst case it tells us we made the right choice. So far I have seen enough to want to know more.
One benefit to this was finding out that Unity had addressed the issues which originally took it out of contention in the first place.

[Heroette]

Ironwolf, thank you for doing all that research.  I noticed that on the other thread that they started, that as soon as doubts came up, the OP of the thread hadn't posted anything since then even though he was very active before that.  And someone there asked a specific question about COH that I think he avoided so we wouldn't find out he really didn't play it from launch.  I am regularly a very trusting person but it does seem too good to be true.  If I am wrong, great but I don't think so.  I don't think we will see anything from them (again, I may be wrong).

[Omega Mark V]

I thought they were fake in the first place. Truly if they were interested, wouldn't they have just emailed Tony V or one of the Plan Z devs?

I can wait for City of Heroes. Yes I played it since issue 7. Yes I loved the hell out of it. But that's NOT going to get me to degrade it by giving money to some person who has no credentials whatsoever. That or fishy credentials.

I'm waiting for our official reply from Disney (if any), then Google, then Valve before I ever make a move to other teams.

I want the best damn choice of team or publisher for our game to come back.

[Segev]

I think they honestly hadn't heard of either of the Plan Z projects when they first posted here.

[Ironwolf]

Which is a bit dubious if you were a regular player. I mean it was not kept a secret this was the place to go for efforts to save or reverse engineer the game.

[JaguarX]

Which is a bit dubious if you were a regular player. I mean it was not kept a secret this was the place to go for efforts to save or reverse engineer the game.

Well to tell you the truth, it can happen. I wasa regular player since 2005 but...I havent heard about Plan Z until I came here to this forum in recent times. Even then, I didnt know what it was until pointed in the direction of their forum section (didnt know how to get aroudn this forum when I first arrived.) So basically I had no idea of the existance of plan Z until October and didnt know what it consisted of until about later October -Nov time period. Thus if their path was anything like mine, not knowing about plan z unti lthey arrived, then it is possible they didnt know about it until they posted here. And I had the upper hand when plan z was very active within this forum before they got their own website and talks about it slowed down compared to when it was solely here on this forum. While I did poke my head in the old forum in Aug. 2012, coherent things like Plan Z was buried beneath the hate anger, fire flaming of other members, and general unicorns running rampant swamping poor ol' Hitstreak.

come to think of it it wasnt even clear of what plan z was trying to achieve, IP copy, new game, succesor, new super mmo, etc until very recent and even now I'm not 100% sure.

[Heroette]

Well, its been 3 days since we have heard anything from Silverhelm Studios (or whatever name it is).  I don't think we will hear from them again.

[Triplash]

Well, its been 3 days since we have heard anything from Silverhelm Studios (or whatever name it is).  I don't think we will hear from them again.

Aviticus did post in the "Community-Built" thread earlier today. It appears to have gone completely unnoticed or ignored so far though.

[Nightmarer]

Hmm, I've found a different address for SilverHel Studios LLC, they seem to be based in Idaho:

They also seemed to be looking for people as per this website http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91318

Found also this, which I don't know which kind of website it is exactly http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/165041-A-Community-Driven-Independent-Developer-Network   

Edit

Another website places the company in Idaho although they appear here under the cathegory "bankruptcies" which is not too encouraging

Moderator's edit: Removed addresses. --TV