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It's a tale as old as time. Terrible game developer (James Romine of Digital Homicide) makes some asset flip games on Steam to score a quick buck. A game journalist (Jim Sterling) calls them out on their terribleness. Game developer gets mad for the truth hitting a large audience. Game developer sues game journalist for $10 million because they felt like the coverage the game journalist gave their game caused him emotional damage and had forever harmed his game company. Game developer then ups that amount to $15 million for assault, libel, and slander.

Game developer then attempts to sue 100 Steam users for $18 million. Game developer chooses to represent himself in all of these lawsuits. This is obviously a supremely wise decision. Game developer eventually tried to crowdfund proper legal representation, but nobody donated. Game developer gets their games pulled from Steam by Valve. Game developer then wants to also sue Valve. Game developer then has lawsuit against 100 Steam users dismissed. Though to the game developer's credit, there were indeed some Steam users that harassed and threatened said game developer and frankly, that's quite terrible. Game developer ultimately has lawsuit against game journalist dismissed.

Really, it could happen to anyone.

That's right, the lawsuit between James Romine of Digital Homicide against Jim Sterling has finally been dismissed. We all knew it was going to happen, it was really just a matter of time. Sterling shared his thoughts on the dismissal in a nice, lengthy write-up on his site. I will link to it again here while fetching a tasty blurb to paste below.
First of all, I’m obviously pleased with the result. We filed for dismissal, because this whole thing was an instant waste of time and money that could never be recuperated. Even if this went to court and we counterclaimed, what would we get out of it? A dismissal with prejudice is even better than the simple dismissal I’d originally aimed for – this effectively means these ludicrous charges aren’t coming back.

Although he filed pro se and couldn’t seem to find legal help (his funding page for a lawyer remained starkly arid for the duration of this situation), Romine was nevertheless a drain on resources both material and emotional and his increasingly erratic filings continued to confuse and exasperate throughout the months.

For those curious about this resolution, I was not a direct part of the communication between Romine and my lawyer, but as I understand it, the agreement to drop the suit with prejudice was the result of Hartman’s enviable reasoning ability. The plaintiff agreed to drop his case after my lawyer explained exactly what would happen if this went to court and how we would respond.

That it got as far as it did, went on for as long as it did, is atrocious – especially when this is a case that amounts to a game developer wanting to silence a game critic.

I personally viewed, and still view, the lawsuit as an attempted attack on my freedom to do my legally protected job. I personally perceive it as an attack launched by a man who is unable to deal with criticism in a reasonable fashion and has sought to blame me, continuously, for his failures.

Sterling goes on to thank his wife, friends, Patreon patrons, and fans for their continued kind words. He also says he's going to play some video games.