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Digital Homicide first sues Jim Sterling because he had the nerve to call them out on their asset flip cookie cutter games. Then, they subpoena Valve for the real names of 100 Steam users they wanted to sue because they said mean things about them. Then, Valve removes Digital Homicide's games from Steam for essentially bullying the Steam userbase. Now, Digital Homicide wants to sue Valve.
Digital Homicide is the gift that keeps on giving. Here is what Digital Homicide put up on their website less than 24 hours ago with respect to this newfound desire to sue Valve. I've directly copy and pasted this, so my apologies for their typos and poor grammar.
They end with an email address that can be used for "legal council interested in (their) case" to contact them at. I won't link it because they would probably say we're enabling their abuse by spreading that contact mail that they publicly provided.
Now, on to the real meat and potatoes here. Does Valve have a problem with policy enforcement on their Community and forums? Absolutely. It's honestly in a sad state in many regards. The problem here is that while Digital Homicide were still on Steam, they should have spoken up about this. They should have banned the biggest offenders from posting on their own community sections. They also seem as though they were perhaps in a good position to raise this issue with persons at Valve that they almost certainly had some form of contact with. Valve is usually very hands-off when it comes to the moderation of the Community and the forums. Volunteer moderators (which are not typically Valve employees) may not communicate about repeat offenders because there are just so many more users to account for now that pretty much every Steam user is also a Community user. That's not even taking into account the sheer number of forum sections that there are to keep an eye on since every game also has their own Community section. It's a big reason why every developer has full moderation powers over their Community sections and can also (I believe) appoint their own moderators to their Community sections to help keep order.
I mentioned this before, but a long while back when I was a moderator on the Valve forums there was a period in which I was being harassed by a forum stalker. They began sending me threatening messages, making threatening threads, repeatedly bypassing bans, and even emailing me directly with thinly veiled threats. This was all because I simply issued them a warning for breaking the rules. Valve (and another development studio) did their best to help me out in any way that they could. They were actually more helpful than my local authorities were at the time. I find it very hard to believe that a developer selling their games through Steam would have a difficult time finding the same sort of support from Valve if they simply asked, raised the issue, or pressed the issue if they somehow felt ignored.
Digital Homicide's actions have been nothing short of petty malice for the past couple of years now. These are the same people that many suspect are quite deeply involved in the doxxing and threats made against Jim Sterling from back in November of 2015. Now they're crying fowl when the same thing happens to them. On one hand, part of me does indeed feel sorry for them and their families that are undoubtedly tied up in all of this stupid nonsense. It certainly seems as though there is perhaps something wrong enough that professional help should be sought out. On the other hand, these guys can go fuck themselves.
Digital Homicide is the gift that keeps on giving. Here is what Digital Homicide put up on their website less than 24 hours ago with respect to this newfound desire to sue Valve. I've directly copy and pasted this, so my apologies for their typos and poor grammar.
First i'd like to briefly respond to Doug Lombardi's official statement about Digital Homicide and its owners. I'd like to give some context to his offficial statement "Valve has stopped doing business with Digital Homicide for being hostile to Steam customers." What has actually transpired was a lack of resolution from Steam in regards to moderation of their platform which might sound like a tough job to do, but coming from a company that brags its profitability per employee is higher than google, it just shows a reckless disregard for for the well being of their community for profits. We submitted numerous reports and sent multiple emails in regards to individuals making personal attacks, harassment, and more on not only us but on other Steam customers who were actually interested in our products. The lawsuit that was submitted in regards to a handful of Steam users has been labeled by the media and now by Doug Lombardi's(a Valve representative) statement as "being hostile to Steam users" in general which is incorrect. The lawsuit recently filed is solely in regards to individuals where no resolution was able to be obtained from Steam to provide a safe environment for us to conduct business. By removing us for defending ourselves against harassment Steam is openly stating you cannot defend yourself from examples like these:
A comment from a steam user who was reported a multitude of times with over 2,000 posts over 18 months and never taken care of for ongoing harassment.
A comment from a steam user who was reported and never taken care of that harassed ongoing.
Here is another user who was flagged and a moderator actually banned someone for disruptive behavior but the original poster wants me to kill myself, mentions my family and has a moderation flag.
When someone bothers you on say a platform like Facebook and you find the need to ban them, the Facebook response after you ban is "Sorry you had this experience" and then that person is removed from being able to post on your page. Steam's stance is what just happened to us. By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family . If I try to defend myself against said actions then I lose my family's income. If it wasn't for 2 years of experience of dealing with Steam on a regular basis, this disgusting stance would seem shocking to me. The only thing that prevented me seeking legal counsel for a long list of breach of contracts, interference with business, and anti-trust issues was the fear of losing my family's income. Since that has been taken away I am seeking legal representation. The case will benefit from a long list of organized documentation of events that have happened over the past 2 years including dates, screenshots, emails, and more on over 100 infractions in need of litigation.
A comment from a steam user who was reported a multitude of times with over 2,000 posts over 18 months and never taken care of for ongoing harassment.
A comment from a steam user who was reported and never taken care of that harassed ongoing.
Here is another user who was flagged and a moderator actually banned someone for disruptive behavior but the original poster wants me to kill myself, mentions my family and has a moderation flag.
When someone bothers you on say a platform like Facebook and you find the need to ban them, the Facebook response after you ban is "Sorry you had this experience" and then that person is removed from being able to post on your page. Steam's stance is what just happened to us. By removing us they have taken the stance that users have the right to harass me, tell me I should kill myself, and insult my family . If I try to defend myself against said actions then I lose my family's income. If it wasn't for 2 years of experience of dealing with Steam on a regular basis, this disgusting stance would seem shocking to me. The only thing that prevented me seeking legal counsel for a long list of breach of contracts, interference with business, and anti-trust issues was the fear of losing my family's income. Since that has been taken away I am seeking legal representation. The case will benefit from a long list of organized documentation of events that have happened over the past 2 years including dates, screenshots, emails, and more on over 100 infractions in need of litigation.
They end with an email address that can be used for "legal council interested in (their) case" to contact them at. I won't link it because they would probably say we're enabling their abuse by spreading that contact mail that they publicly provided.
Now, on to the real meat and potatoes here. Does Valve have a problem with policy enforcement on their Community and forums? Absolutely. It's honestly in a sad state in many regards. The problem here is that while Digital Homicide were still on Steam, they should have spoken up about this. They should have banned the biggest offenders from posting on their own community sections. They also seem as though they were perhaps in a good position to raise this issue with persons at Valve that they almost certainly had some form of contact with. Valve is usually very hands-off when it comes to the moderation of the Community and the forums. Volunteer moderators (which are not typically Valve employees) may not communicate about repeat offenders because there are just so many more users to account for now that pretty much every Steam user is also a Community user. That's not even taking into account the sheer number of forum sections that there are to keep an eye on since every game also has their own Community section. It's a big reason why every developer has full moderation powers over their Community sections and can also (I believe) appoint their own moderators to their Community sections to help keep order.
I mentioned this before, but a long while back when I was a moderator on the Valve forums there was a period in which I was being harassed by a forum stalker. They began sending me threatening messages, making threatening threads, repeatedly bypassing bans, and even emailing me directly with thinly veiled threats. This was all because I simply issued them a warning for breaking the rules. Valve (and another development studio) did their best to help me out in any way that they could. They were actually more helpful than my local authorities were at the time. I find it very hard to believe that a developer selling their games through Steam would have a difficult time finding the same sort of support from Valve if they simply asked, raised the issue, or pressed the issue if they somehow felt ignored.
Digital Homicide's actions have been nothing short of petty malice for the past couple of years now. These are the same people that many suspect are quite deeply involved in the doxxing and threats made against Jim Sterling from back in November of 2015. Now they're crying fowl when the same thing happens to them. On one hand, part of me does indeed feel sorry for them and their families that are undoubtedly tied up in all of this stupid nonsense. It certainly seems as though there is perhaps something wrong enough that professional help should be sought out. On the other hand, these guys can go fuck themselves.