What, no World of Goo?

I am shocked.

Shocked, I say.

SHOCKED.

Meh, gonna pass on this one. I tried the demo for Aztaka and besides the graphics it was really disappointing. Bob Came in Pieces seems slightly interesting, but it's about the only game in this bundle that does.

At least this time with the WWF included there'd be a charity I'd actually care about.

BUYER BEWARE: I just paid a few bucks and bought the bundle through PayPal and was emailed a download link from the that redirects to a German website: http://beta.givewhateveryouwant.com which does not exist.

Note: The payment system, the email, and the website terms and conditions are all in German. Not that there's anything wrong with German, but I am suspecting some kind of scam here.

Looking at the support contact email, this is a scam! The support email is for what looks like a shady CD-key seller shop - not related to any of the developers at all.

In fact, I can't find any evidence that this is being run by any of the studios involved. Very peculiar.

According to the contact details it is run by the German online shop www.gamerdeals.de.
While I don't know it myself, to me their selection of products looks far too large for it to be crooked.
So, while they obviously somewhat copy the Humble Indie Bundle, I think it looks totally legit. Maybe they haven't properly set it up, yet.

Though, the key thing usually looks shady, indeed. Well, it should be easy to get a response from one of the included games' developers.

Boo! I'm not buying it! I need my 7th copy of World of GOO!

/s

I also bought it and was given a fraudulent link.

DO NOT BUY THIS!

Additionally, the site 'gamerdeals.de" which appears to be hosting this has a horrible score on Web of Trust:

http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/gamerdeals.de

The commenters there are complaining in german of not receiving ordered games.

I have heard back from the people at Ludosity Interactive who say that the website is legit, but they don't know anything about bogus download links.

I have also heard back from "Jochen Kolbe" when I replied to the download-link email saying that the link didn't work.

I am still waiting to hear back a second time with more details, but I suspect it's possible that either the URL they sent us is just wrong or the subdomain (beta.givewhateveryouwant.com) is not resolving here in the USA).

I'll post more details if I hear anything, but I would hold off on buying for now.

I found the bundle through the developers of Bob Came in Pieces, so I highly doubt it is a scam - if anything, it's been set-up incorrectly to give you an bad link.

I'll leave it up for now, and if people are still having problems with it, I'll take it down until it's fixed. I've also contacted the BCIP devs to see what's going on.

I made a mistake buying this, but I not entirely sure its a scam, since they havn't actually taken the payment and why via paypal where you have some comeback.

their site is a bit slow, I just think they are having a bit of technical difficulty.

Going to get this for Bob Came in Pieces and Gravitron 2. I may like the others who knows, never played 'em.

Can't beat that deal. Also, giving 100% to the developers. If I wanted to donate to charity I'd do it myself.

Hello,

here is Jochen from GWYW.

We know the Problem with the Link. We forgot to change them after we moved the Site to the Folder.

We are try to fix the PRoblem asap ! But now i cant do anything because today is my Wedding ! :)

But my Developer know the Problem and he will work on it asap !!

WHen its not work pls try the Resender on the German site: www.zahldochwasduwillst.de

Thank you very mich!

Greetings

Jochen

And dont say its Scum only we have Technical Problems...

Its a Problem that we know and we working on it.

THis is not try to Scum because we cooperate with the Developers.

lol, happy wedding day

While the site is very slow, the "Resender" button in the upper-right of the main site does indeed resent a working link.

Oh and John: WebofTrust sucks!

Look here:

https://www.ekomi.de/bewertungen-gamerdeals.html

Absolutly okay!

Read in some other forum about the man behind givewhateveryouwant.

Only heard bad comments and wont buy anything of this page, as it is made by someone who was accused a lot of frauds (selling not working cd keys; promised but never sent awards etc.).

If it is something honest good for him,but I still dont trust it.

Hi guys,
Daniel at Ludosity here. We have updated our blog and twitter feed and please dont use the service until it is fully functional. As we have stated on our homepage, this is just really sad and we at Ludosity have no intentions at all to make people angry and disappointed.

So please, just wait with this service.

I successfully downloaded a 1.4 GB RAR file containing all of the games advertised.

Unfortunately, I can't even get the givewhateveryouwant.com site to load now, and I wonder if it is hosted on the same file server that we are all downloading the game bundle from.

Best of luck to the rest, and thanks to all of the indie developers for offering a great bundle!

As some of you are aware I am the developer of Gravitron 2, and as far as I am concerned this is a legit deal.
If there are indeed problems I'll get in contact with the
distributor and sort it out.
Indeed if it is a scam I will be more than happy to hand out copies of G2 to anyone that has purchased the bundle.
X

Download worked for me now.

Hadn't heard of these games other than Gravitron (which I already own on Steam) and Bob Came in Pieces, but a few bucks to charity is more than fair for one game I am sure to enjoy and four others that could surprise me.

Setting a total of $100 is like a dare for people.

I this it is actually pretty clever, I bet they will get more people paying $100 than they would otherwise. Someone who might have paid $80 might now be tipped into paying $100.

Yeah, it's a scam.

The guys on the GOG forums had him pegged almost immediately.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/givewhateveryouwant_com_indie_games_casual_games_asf/_/2

If it is a scam then he's obviously scamming us developers too.
I stand by what I said earlier, anyone that has donated can claim a copy of G2 from myself.

Hopefully this isnt a scam, and the right thing will be done, its supposed to be for charity afterall.

@standardman: While the past of the guy behind all this is decidedly dodgey, the developers of the games in the bundle have all said it's legit, and a number of purchasers have said they've received their bundle.

If this is a scam, it's a very non-scamy one.

This has been discovered as a Hoax people! DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY on this "Bundle". It's a fraud and the person who started the site is currently being sued.

The folks at indiegames.com should be posting how this is a fraud and not encouraging people to check it out! This Bundle is not Legit nor is it Legal in any way!

Once more - DO NOT BUY THIS BUNDLE - unless you want to lose your money!

Hey Guys,
If the site isnt working, or if this really is a scam, please let us know and we will do what we can and try to sort this out.

As far as I am concerned this is legitimate, if implemented somewhat hap-hazardly.
I wasnt aware of the history of the distributor, and as such have been taken aback by it.

I'm hoping this will all blow over but if it doesnt, except my apologies and contact me directly to recieve copies.
I cannot speak for the other developers, but I'm pretty sure they feel the same way.
X

Wow, this is... oddly fascinating. Browsing through the GOG thread linked by standardman above, there certainly seems to be quite a bit of circumstantial evidence that Jochen isn't the most trustworthy of folks, and that the deal is suspect. He also... doesn't represent himself in that thread tremendously well.

But we have at least a couple folks claiming to be the developers in question here in the thread saying they OK'd the deal and it's legit.

I'm gonna hold off and see where this goes before making any purchases, for obvious reasons. It's certainly interesting to watch, though.

And when I say he "doesn't represent himself tremendously well", I mean it's a barely comprehensible mishmash of passive aggressive attacks towards the posters criticizing him (complete with conspiracy theories of "trolls that only want destroy my ideas"), weird non-sequiturs ("I head from another Indie Studio that World of Goo is bankrupt and need the Money. "), and dodging questions ("Think whatever you want! :) ...I have to work now because we have now 5-6 Games and the Payment Interface Development is very hard").

He's either dishonest or a really incompetent communicator, neither of which makes me terribly inclined to trust him with my money.

If it doesn't have World of Goo, it's not legit, end of story.

There's another thread he posted in here http://www.anything4free.de/showthread.php?t=20446&page=7 it's in German but you can google translate and get the idea.

nope link still not working,tried resend and says payment not yet processed?think maybe next time i shall look before the leap!

The creator of this has been spamming forums for weeks before release, pretending to be a customer that is happy about "another bundle."

This alone has posed me to skip it.

Oh no... I am so stupid, I already paid and now I find this. At least I will know better for the next time.

Through, iam a cheapass and only payed 1e..i dident receive a instant DL link whatsoever. If anyone needs further translations from the linked german sides drope me a line. Generaly the guy tries to defend himself very hard over there and given his past its no suprise people are suspicious.

It whould be a shame if this stuff whould turn out as a scam. If not...ah well we will see.

The owner of the site wants to sue me because I said on a German board (see standardman post) that he is a scammer and liar.

He told different stories on GoG and the German board,especially regarding the payment. He didn't even introduced himself as the owner of the page but tried "secret marketing" as he later stated.
At least he told the truth about being able to divide anything.

Also, some users have contacted developers and they forced him to take down some of the games in offer. This is no lie or defamination, this is what he said himself on the German board, added with a confirm from other users.

Do you seriously believe that today is his Wedding? Really, especially after he opened his page?

Jochen isn't down with telling the truth all the time, but the wedding thing is real. He's been going on about that for ages now. It's just exceptionally poor planning on his side to launch the site one day before that long-planned personal event. I wonder if he booked a honeymoon trip. :-)

@Oschi:

I am still sceptical, but I let that go for now. More importantely is the way to deal with customers now who didn't recieve their games 8/

I also only paid $1 through paypal (didn't recognise any of the games, looked fishy, and I already had bob) and haven't received a link at all. If anyone can provide it, I'd very much like some reassurance that my payment details are secure!

Can anyone read the German conditions?

I expect my email address will be sold to spammers as well...

"Jochen isn't down with telling the truth all the time".

And this is a person trying to run a website that collects money from people?

This is starting to feel like some sort of absurdist comedy, to be honest. I'm expecting Andy Kaufman to show up and challenge his detractors to a wrestling match.

@Tantrix:
I read what you wrote in the other forums. That is it what made me suspicious of this guy.

Because of the Wedding:
I would clearly plan my wedding and the launch of a important site to the same day. (the site I want to get money with because i have liabilities(He said so in one of the other forums))

So everyone thinks "heeey he's getting married today. It isnt that bad that I dont get the games I paid for. Just lets wait till he gets everything right."

Eric, I wish you were right, but I sadly think this is just a scammy scam :(

This is bizarre, a site that is supported by some of the (confused) developers, run by a serial fraudster who chooses to have his wedding on the same day... which donates money to charity.. only accepts some of the payments... and gives out games to only some of the people?

... It's so fishy it makes me wonder where the fraud part is going to come in. If he was frauding, what would his intention be? His identity is hardly concealed.

Even if this site works, the guy's motivations are far from legit. Unlike the recent Humble Indie Bundle which was more about raising money for charity than anything else, Jochen fully admits that he is only doing this to raise money for the legal fees associated with his previous fraud case. He's using people's good intentions for his own benefit and I frankly would not be surprised to see the whole thing disappear once he has reached his goal; "take the money and run" if you will.

@Eric: Absurdist comedy is about right. I find Jochen's shenanigans absolutely hilarious, but then, I've never done any business with him. Seeing him fail again and again provides a never-ending source of humour.

I don't think he intends to rip people off with this new site, but his planning and technological skills stink. So I hope everyone gets their games (and the developers and charity organisations get their money) before this whole thing hits the bottom of the ocean.

Through request I'll translate the AGB.

If anyone else can German, support would be nice:

The following AGB is written on German language and can be loaded and printed by the customer.
By wish can they contact to (...). The address of the company Gamerdeals as the one authorized to represent can be called to account.

§ 1. Choice of Product

The customer has the option to order digital products from the same labeled page. Regarding each product the customer gains the description of the product

§ 2.cancellation policy

Because the product is digital is the option to cancel payment omitted.

§ 3 Price

The customer can define the price him- or herself. The price intimates through seat of enterprise of Gamerdeals including sales tax without shipping payment

@HexagonalBolts:
The german conditions (Impressum) is just copied away from gamerdeals.de

Some Important facts out of the german Impressum tried to translate to english:

§2 Cancellation
"Because this site distributes digital rights, the right for cancellation is not applicable"

Some sentence in §4
"This site is not bound to delivery in case of non-availability"

I hope this means if the indie developers void their contract with the site that they arent bound to deliver the games anyway.

But at least there stands that the site will apply the "Telemediengesetz" (german law for data protection/privacy).

If that really happens is another question.

I'm surprised he got that many games to sign up with such bad english! If he can do it, why couldn't a competent English speaker, let alone someone who actually has a plan, organise an amazing bundle with ease?

§4conclusion of contract

The offers of Gamerdeals of their website are non-binding. Thus Gamerdeals isn't committed performance in case of unavailability.

§ 5 Execution of the contract
handling of orders
Gamer deals will work on the orders immediatly
distribution
The digital media will be transferred immediatly by the server
distribution costs
No distribution costs required.

§ 6 Service Hotline
I'll leave that out.

Now the Stalkers from GOG here too. The Developers approved its legit and now they must use more lies to destroy this wonderful Promotion. Nice to see how they try..

Sick!!!

Had the misfortune of finding this via Ludosity's website and decided to take a punt on it. eeeep only now I learn that it may be a massive load of nonsense. I am getting my download but very very slowly and in 1 big .rar that I will need to then virus scan to be sure.

Shame it looks like a good deal maybe it should be taken down and the devs should club together and do it properly because this is just a farce.

OK everyone hold your horses and step back for a second - trolling doesn't get us anywhere.

Jochen, if you could explain your intentions with regards to the bundle, and whether or not the developers/charities will be receiving their share of the cut, that would be most helpful.

I'd love to hear from these developers how they got tied to this little endeavor. I mean, given how poorly he communicates in the GOG thread, what could he possibly have said to them to make them think this was a solid plan?

If I have a genuine concern about this sort of thing (beyond, obviously, the possibility that people will lose their money and / or risk their personal data being distributed), it's that it could devalue the idea of these donation / charity bundles, which up until now have had considerable positive mindshare pretty much everywhere.

When Rohrer started his "pay what you want" deal for Sleep Is Death (which is still going on), I worried that it might come off as a "me too" tagalong gesture, especially given how recently that game was released - it sounded more like "please pay something for my game" than "here, let me be generous with this thing people already like a lot."

To then see something like this makes me worry even more than the "pay what you want" trend could start to be viewed as desperate, rather than virtuous.

Yeah, that'll convince everyone you're well meaning.

WELL DONE, YOU. Have a cracker.

I don't think anyone here is trolling, and I'm sure we'd all welcome a legitimate, calm explanation from Jochen. So far, though, all I've seen from him here or on GOG is over-reactionary accusations of conspiracy when questioned or criticized, kind of like the one he just posted.

Jochen...

I thought you said you couldn't do anything because you're having your wedding, right now? And yet you're here scanning website posts.

Please, if you want us to trust you, give us some straight answers.

1) Why are only some people receiving the download, and how are you working on this problem?

2) Are you taking some of the profit that is only shown on the website as being divided between 'developers' and 'charity'?

Thanks.

Absolutely DO NOT BUY from that site. I'd like to say sorry to the developers there's nothing wrong with the games, there's a lot wrong with the site. If anyone is still thinking of buying from that site READ the forum from the LINK standardman posted http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/givewhateveryouwant_com_indie_games_casual_games_asf/_/2
The guy who runs the site is untrustworthy, lies a lot, and is ONLY in it for the money, although he admits and denies that at the same time. I hope indie games 'll do some research and give their opinion.

@Eric: Dan Marshall from Zombie Cow forwarded me the email he received from Jochen asking if he wanted a place in the bundle. It's extremely broken English and reads horribly, but bad translation doesn't automatically mean scam.

No, it doesn't, but it does make me think I'd be hesitant to agree to sell my product through the sender unless I was really clear on the terms and trusted them to communicate clearly with my customers, and treat them well.

@HexagonalBolts:
At gog i believe he stated that the part of the money which goes to the developers is split to some parts to his own benefit and the other part direct to developer.

So you are splitting your money between: Charity and Jochen+Developer

If the developers are really behind the bundle and there are enough customers, then I think wolfire, who has already proven themselves, should do a humble indie bundle 2 with these developers, and cut out the fool running this one.

§ 7 Payment conditions

Gamerdeals distributes through prepayment, Moneybookers or Paypal.
Price of the bill are always ending price including taxes. By late payment is the customer
, the consumer, responsible to pay default charges of 5 % through the base rate to Gamerdeals except of higher charges are visible.
At customers who are businessmen themself have (...) to pay 8%.

§ 8 Warranty and liability

The customer will tell Gamerdeals flaws concerning the product and send the product with payment of Gamerdeals. A comparative negligence of the customer will impute him.
The liability because of the malice, garant, fraud, und personal damage are left untouched after the law of the product liability.

@Joe: That is a most excellent idea. From what I've seen of the wonderful Wolfire, they'd surely take pity on these guys and help them out if this all falls through.

@Joe Yep Wolfire certainly seem to have a flair for this sort of thing now. I do hope this all works out otherwise it will stain any other devs who want to try something similar.

Last conditions.

§ 9 force majeure clause

In case if Gamerdeals can't perform the debted performance through force majeure(War,natural disaster),is Gamerdeals freed for the time of hinder from their required performance.
The customer is justified to refrain from their contact in case Gamerdeals is affected by the force majeure in more than 1 month.

§ 10 data privacy

Gamerdeals will respect all data protection requirements, especially the ones of the law of Telemedia.

§ 11 Place of fulfillment and place of jurisdication
1.both Place of fulfillment and jurisdication is, as far as allowed, the seat of Gamerdeals.
The company however is allowed to justify charges against the employer to any other court.
2.The German law falls onto the contract formations.

§ 12 final clauses

The language of the clauses is German. Should any clauses of the conditions invalid or will be invalid, stay the other clauses functional.
Gamerdeals and the customer will replace the invalid clause through a valid one which will come through the will of the contractual partner economically closest

I hope I could help you out.

Daniel Kaplan of Ludosity has confirmed with me that he and his team are now dropping support of the bundle, as they believe sinister means are afoot.

I'm waiting on information from the other developers before I update the main post with the new details.

See jochen..if you really dont provide everyone that PAYED for the games "what they wanted" the games they payed for than dude...the internets will come down on you. Noone is trolling here. All i see is people that probably buyed some other bundles that where linked to charity and, like me, payed even a bit more to balance the charity - indiegame dev thing.

All you should have done is posting something along the lines of "Sorry technical difficultys...we are working on it ect" instead you go to respected forums trying to tell people off. If ONE thing you allready archieved is BAD PR. Sure some might say even bad PR is PR..but in your case it leaves a bad taste.

Also, threatening people with Laywers over some internet post is utterly ridiclous and only shows how unproffesional this whole operation is run.

I still hope it all will turn out cool and we all get the games we payed for AND *more importantly* the charitys get their money too.

It's obvious this guy is in this to scam, but not apparent yet is the actual scam - Is there anything I should be doing to protect myself? I don't know much about paypals mechanisms, but presumably there's no possible way this fellow could try and get yet more money out of my account..?

@Hexagonal

The good thing about paypal is it limits scamming antics such as this.

He won't be able to get anymore that what you paid.

I'm considering officially disputing what I did agree to pay via paypal but not sure if it's worth the bother.

As I muttered on Twitter, at the very least this is both disingenuous and opportunist. That's the best case scenario.

*If* there's a percentage cut taken (which from all the posts so far, that seems to be a given) then it's clearly not communicated to the actual customers who'll be going into this offer expecting (and being led to believe) it's the same set up as The Humble Indie Bundle where minus transaction fees being taken, 100% went to the chosen option.

I hope, for the sales that have been made so far that both the money owed to developers and charities from the sales goes to the respective parties (and I'd hope that this money goes pretty pronto considering, never mind the supposed wedding or legal fees - these people have to fecking well eat and make a living) and that anything owed for the transactions to customers is also delivered in a timely manner. Ie - within the next couple of hours. It shouldn't be up to the devs to clear up the mess here, as lovely as the offers are to do so.

It's a shame there isn't a way to salvage something more from this mess given that as well as the customers, there's deserving devs getting the shaft and caught up in this.

Saddening stuff.

I advise everyone here with extra money in their pockets to go to the sites of the developers involved and purchase their games.

I have a couple of the games in this deal already, and can say you will enjoy them even if you pay premium price.

Do what we can to help the developers who fell victim to this.

I am one of the developers involved in the bundle and have two games included (Kingdom Elemental and Bridge Construction Set). I agreed to have my games included and I do not think the customers are being scammed in anyway (they are receiving what they paid for). As for as the developers getting paid, we will have to wait and see. Just like any business arrangement there is a risk of not getting paid for the developers.

@Josiah: It should not be like that. A contract should have been signed by each participant in the deal - this way any risk would have been null and void (or at least, a lot more void than it is now!)

On the other hand..if i receive a buisness letter in broken bad worded english..i throw it into the trash. Even if the offered product helps enlarging my....Just like every other regular spam.

@Josiah: "they are receiving what they paid for" ... I am still waiting for my games.

To be honest, I've had publishing deals with less email response than I had with Jochen. Some went ok, some not so good.
Language can be a barrier.
Alarms bells should have gone off when there was no sign of a contract though.

I have emailed Jochen and informed him that I am no longer participating in the bundle, no response as of yet.

@josiah:still waiting for my games also!?

@M Rose:
I have a contract with Jochen Kolbe for the Givewhateveryouwant Bundle, but having a contract does not reduce the risk to null and void.

@Thomas and X-out:
What problems are you having with receiving what you paid for? E-mail me and I will try to help:
http://www.chroniclogic.com/contact_form.php?section=support

@Josiah: I am one of the developers (Gravitron).
Actually I would like to get in contact with you and find out more details, you seem to be the only one with a contract.

Just send me an e-mail and I will get right back to you:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/contact_form.php?section=support

Just thought I would share a little update.
I have received an email from Jochen, he refuses to remove my game from the bundle and reckons I will be hearing from his lawyer.

Bundles like this should be organized by the developers themselves, or if they can't, at least get someone they know and trust to help them organize it.

Bridge Construction Set asks for a serial which isn't included in the bundle (neither in the "downloadlink" email or the 1.4GB rar file).

Anyone with the same problem? Don't know if I should bother to drop Jochen a mail.

I am thinking to end the Project because some TRolls are finished what they wanted. Now some Publisher warn for the Project and want not longer work with us.

I dont know what the Problem of 12 Year old Storys and i dont want which Lies the Trolls had told, but this is not a Project for Scam.

I just bought Aztaka from the developer's homepage. Hopefully that could make the damage up done to the team.

Seriously, I get sued by this scammer for saying that he is a scammer and looks what he does! I think I'll call out a sue on HIM.

Tantrix, shut your mouth please. You have a complaint from me and when i find out who you are it will be very expensive for you because you sabotage the project. You will much more pay then as for the AZtaka Bundle.

I tried to contact with the developer of Aztaka about that site, by e-mail in several times, but he didn't reply .

Why Michael Rose wrote:

"they are all understandably shaken by the way this has been handled. "

Its a lie like from a bad news writer. Aztaka, Chroni, PutUp have Contracts and are absolutly legit to sell the games.

I thought it was your wedding day?

Jochen, I paid for the bundle, and the link is not working. So is the one I ask for via the resender.

Thanks Josiah..i get in touch. Other than that i just got forth and donated 50e to our "Kinder krebs Stiftung" ( german child cancer programm )DIRECTLY just to have something good out of the day.

After reading several other responses..what is with the laywer thing ? Trying to sue people you dont have a contract with for trying to protect their property and denying you keys for activation ?

If the original idea whould have been with honesty and made with goodheart the public corospondence whould sound alot more humble and logic. Yet, the only thing comming from the "source" is trolling accusations and the "i send a laywer" phrase wich is overused in germany anyways and/or put out by someone who clearly dosent understand how complicated international lawsuits can get. ( henche the hefty fee they come with )

Next thing. If done with good intend, the project whouldent have been announced officialy "chanceld" so quick. No. You whould have had an open discussion on what maybe was technical difficulties ( can happen..but see..enuff though was put into the mainpage, to start with..why not into the communication when something bad happens ? )

What do we learn ? Indie peeps need to organize for stuff liek that and only work with trustworthy sources. We as longterm gamers LOVE good ideas and i think most are able to pay some buckeroos for a good idea just to see it blossom, if its linked tio charity, even better...BUT have people with experience and good manners organizing it.

Try it with the German Resender on www.zahldochwasduwillst.de and you will get the correct KEy. I try to fix all with the Developer atm. Sorry for that

@Anonymous : It was my Wedding, yes. So i cant answer to mails and it looks like scam but it is no scam. Atm i mail with Ron Bounce to explain what happend because i was afk all this day. Sorry for that!!!

@Narushima Did you try the resender button on the German version of the site? That's what I had to do to get a working link.

www.zahldochwasduwillst.de

The working download link will come from info@zahldochwasduwillst.de (make sure to check your spam folders, etc) and will be in the format of http://www.zahldochwasduwillst.de/download.php?key=[KEY_GOES_HERE]

@Jochen
I think it's entirely laughable, ironic, and somewhat pathetic that I, a customer, am having to provide customer support for your service. I'm only doing so because I understand how frustrating it can be as a consumer, and I hate to see indie developers ripped off. Please get your act together.

I am understanding Customers but i dont understand why Indie Games Blog make the Site bad but its legit. ALl was legit and i am trying to talk to the Developers so all is fine.

Wow. I don't know what the policy is, but at this point I might suggest simply closing the comment thread, because this has clearly become a place for people to be (justifiably, it seems to me) upset about how this has been handled, and for Jochen to claim that everyone's complaints amount to a conspiracy against his good intentions, rather than respond to them.

Get the situation from the developers when they know what it is and then update us all in a subsequent post, but this is getting embarrassing, no? When I called it theatre of the absurd I wasn't expecting this. :-p

So without contracts your lawyer can do nothing I think. And as it seems only one of 5 (or 6?) developers had a contract with you.

@Jochen: I was asked by two of the developers to edit the post. Feel free to work this out with the developers and get back to me, and I'll put the links back in again.

Until then, it shall be left as it is. Also, no-one is scared of you and your 'lawyer', so stop with that please.

@ GIVEWHATEVERYOUWANT

What will be your next step ? Are you going to sue Indie Games Blog ?

The link on the german site does not work either.

@Brian & @GIVEWHATEVERYOUWANT

I have tried the "resender" on www.zahldochwasduwillst.de but I am told that my email address is not found. Not that I expect you to do anything about this Brian, it's just a bit laughable.

LoL @ Jochän

You still haven't found out who I am? I thought you could "trace my IP". Weird, I ain't even using proxxy.

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed your wedding, I feel sorry for the girl/guy who married you. If he/she found out that you are an unstable business man ruining other Indie developers, he/she will give you such a spank ;)

You should rather finance your sue on Ron Tuo, you will need more money for that.Or, getting to deal with the servers.

I feel really sorry for all the developers now, offciailly.

@Aron: no , wrong information you got! :) That is the Point!

@M Rose: I am atm in contact with the Developers and you write it like ALL are not legit but this is not true. All WAS legit and now some dont want but i try to fix the Problems so you can edit the Post because what you write is bad for buisness.

@HexagonalB: Mail me and i will send you good link! I help all but it was my wedding today (in germany its now 9:39am) and i dont want scum anyone.

@vortex and anyone else who already purchased:

The Windows version of Bridge Construction Set in the bundle is incorrectly asking for a key when you start it. This was my mistake (I uploaded the wrong version). I have uploaded the fixed version and it should not be included in the bundle. Let me know if you still have problems:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/contact_form.php?section=support

Thanks and sorry for the hassle.

We exchange it atm! Upload takes a little bit ^^

@Jochen
M Rose only posted the truth about your site, if that is bad for business, then the problem is not the blog, its the business. If you had been honest and competent from the beginning and not posted very publicly and in multiple places about your conspiracy theories and how you are going to sue everyone, there never would have been a problem at all. If you are looking for someone to blame for what has happened here, you need to look squarely in the mirror.

what a surprise i tried the resender on the german site and guess what?......it still dont work!just as it didnt 7 hours ago.my payment has not been verified yet?paypal says the opposite?congrats for being the first to rip me off in 10 years of downloading!well done

stants: The Problem is known.We work on it. Mail me and you get a good link. I make atm Links manual.

You should have all neccesary information from paying cutomers provided by paypal...

Even if You don't Speak English as your naTive language.is Putting a space after every period And not capitalizing Random words in the Middle of a.Sentence too much to ask?

@Josiah & Jochen:

That's good to hear! So will it be available directly through the givewhateveryouwant download link?

All customers should have their products now, if not they should contact support through the web site:

http://givewhateveryouwant.com/#

No one is going to get ripped off if they paid with PayPal. If you did not get the product just contest the charge through PayPal. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with digital distribution (I have been doing it for 8 years now) and it is not always as instant as it should be. That is why it is so important for Jochen to provide good customer support.

I was a bit concerend for a while as I didn't get a download link, but I emailed Jochen and he sent me a working link.
Hopefully the 1.4GB rar will contain the (working) games!

@Thomas : When a guy called stants post here i dont cant find him on my Paypal History because i think its only a nick.

@vortex : Soon. Yes! I Upload it atm! :)

@ALL: Developer told the Link should work now. Problem resolved. I hope !!

@ GIVEWHATEVERYOUWANT
why can't we see any real-time statistics on your website like the one on The Humble Indie Bundle's site ?

@anonymus : You see Statistics in the box under Retweet.

Actually you can. You can see the number of buyers, and the percentage that went to the devs and the charities.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/givewhateveryouwant_com_indie_games_casual_games_asf/_/1

this guy spend over 4 yeahrs in jail for internen scamm

THIS GUY IS A SCAMMER!
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/givewhateveryouwant_com_indie_games_casual_games_asf/_/1

http://www.gulli.com/news/g-data-einstweilige-verf-gung-gegen-gamerdeals-de-2010-03-25

spend more then 4 years in prison for internet fraud!

Jesus Christ just give me my fucking games that I paid for now you asshole!!!

Never mind all of this shit, I've had enough, just as I'm sure everyone else who has been duped by this con artist has.

Don't bother with this asshole anymore, here's one solution that I can almost guarantee will help rectify the problem. If you paid via PayPal just file for a complete refund (No matter what you paid!) and specify exactly why. If everyone who paid via Paypal and hasn't received their bundle yet files for a refund and explains the scamming behavior of Jochen at least those of us who did pay through PayPal will receive a refund and Mr. Jochen here will lose his PayPal and can be charged by and investigated by them.

I'm filing for my refund right now, I suggest you all do the same to help filter such fraudulent or at the very least, "Scamming", behavior.

File for a refund through PayPal if you haven't received your products (and you paid via PayPal of course)!!!

@Watch Out: CAPS LOCK Problems or do you need little bit attention??? Now you must write big to that People believe your Lies??? Hahaha! Nice to see all is working fine and you can do nothing.

@ALL: Dont feed Trolls like "Watch Out", "Tantrix" asf...

I think all the same Person.

@Crant: Do whatever you want when you really buy what i not thinking! Nice try, troll!

IT IS A SCAMM!!!
http://www.gulli.com/news/g-data-einstweilige-verf-gung-gegen-gamerdeals-de-2010-03-25

Now WATCH OUT try all to get attention. Sweet!

@GIVEWHATEVERYOUWANT

In the GOG thread you say you are keeping 30% of the takings for yourself, for administration costs etc. This is not particularly clear on the website. Are you taking a cut, or is 100% of the money going to developers/charities?

@ : GIVEWHATEVERYOUWANT , WATCH OUT!

Will you two stop that flame war in here ? You already did that on GOG.com .

I will not buy anything from that site, will buy directly from the developers. Please everyone do the same thing if you really want to support the developers.

Alright, the download links work now, I'm downloading this right now.

@thechicken: I dont can talk about Agreements public. The 30 % is not longer actual. Sorry. But i can say that the Money of the Charitys go to 100 % to the Charitys.

@Narushima : perfect :)

Intresting read that www.gulli.com article.

Its a bit lenghty but basicly it sais the guy tried to sell keys for software he "buyed" in eastern europe making the price diffrence possible ( i.e a title going 55 sold for 17 ect. )

Whilst there is no totaly clear evidence IF the guy knew about the origin of the keys *eh ye* the case under german law is solid and executed as such.

There also is some stuff about unsigned paperwork that whould have cleared the guy from beign sued....

anyways....

@ Chicken..as far as i understood the developer part is splited 30/70 in vavor to the devs. while the charity part is going 100% to the charitys. ( or..should )

This may be a highly unpleasent thing all around, but you shouldn't get the facts mixed up. Whatever the initiator did or does wrong still doesn't mean that this sale itself is a fraud.

@Thomas : And???? I have found a Niche and will not stop this. When the Prices in Germany would be fair no one will be sell Keys like other keystores. :) Games in Germany costs 60 Euro and in other Countrys the half.

@MisterX

Completely true and i think i took my part in this conversation as level headed as ican. Its just a rough translation of a german article that basicly just shed some light on other layers of the "case".

Indeed, its a noble cause i dident denying that at any point.

In fact i support bundels like that. And as i said before..( scroll up for earlyer comments ) If the response from the host/seller whould have been more levelheaded, clearly worded and thought through, alot of the posts here ould have been avoided entirely.

Noone is denying you opportunitys of making buisness.But if you want to do so you maybe want to look into customer relationships and customer support. Especialy if you have to deal with alot of customers that understood that nowadays, speaking english is a must to be suchessfull on the internets...

If the niche is working for you thats good.

Its the same for all the indie guys here. Even more so since they are the creative/creating minds, instead of just selling a product they are not associated with nor knowing or loving.

There is enough people that maybe only payed 1e on the previous charity bundels..and there is a shiattaton of people that payed alot more ( statistics are on the webs )the diffrence is the clarity and how "buisness" was handeled by the provider of said service.

I dont think reaonable people see a deeper bad intent in the whole thing. But your defencive/aggressive postingstyle might be working if you have to tell the janitor off ( and even that whould be bad ) but clearly dosent help to bring your point across nor supporting a charity operation.

@TakeWhatYouNeed and Thomas: I am glad to see some cooler heads prevail here and some well thought out posts, instead of it degenerating into flaming.

I'm undecided about this whole thing. I do believe there's a chance that this deal might be legit, but on the other hand, and this is a big but, the way Jochen has handled this... even just looking at this thread alone, he's aggressive, abusive, and reply to honest questions with accusations of consipiracies and threaths of taking them to court. Granted he's not very good at english, but that only excuses his spelling, not his behaviour. Since I've never heard of this guy before this, this is all I know about him, and it doesn't leave me very confident that he will actually do the right thing here. Even if I thought he would, I don't want to support bullies like him.

I feel sorry for the indie devs who got mixed up in this fiasco, and I'll check out the games and maybe buy some directly from the devs if I like any of them. I can't afford to buy them all at full price though.

@Josiah
That's 90% of the problem here: a complete lack of a cool head and professionalism on the part of Jochen, starting well before the site went live. He is as much to blame for the flaming going on here and elsewhere with his constant cries of "conspiracy" and "I'll sue ya" every time someone posts accurate, though damaging, information about him or his past business ventures. If he had simply responded in a rational and professional manner, most of this mess could have been avoided and everyone would have moved on. Then again, even his rare rational posts end up damaging him, like the one I mentioned before where he admitted this was just to make money to cover his legal costs.

I wonder what kind of play E. Ionesco or Buñuel could have writen just by reading at the posts XD

I would like to buy, but once I get more confirmation people are getting what they paid for, I'm going to hold off. Maybe this Josiah guy who is one of the developers should take over control of this bundle and make sure everyone gets what they paid for and the money is distributed, since he seems to be the only one to be making an effort to actually help.

You will get the games, that's for sure. Now for the money...

Screw it, I gave a dollar, to Child's Play. If it works, it works. If it's a scam, I only lost a buck and I'll just put in a complaint with Paypal.

141 comments? Wow, nothing grabs attention like a juicy scandal.

@C3PO - My thoughts exactly, man. ;)

Mike, I bet you didn't think this would be your most popular thread of the day for *this* reason, huh? ;) Has anybody told the RockPaperShotgun guys? They'd probably get a hoot out of this.

I blame the Germans, they're always up to no good.

"This may be a highly unpleasent thing all around, but you shouldn't get the facts mixed up. Whatever the initiator did or does wrong still doesn't mean that this sale itself is a fraud."

No, you're right. It doesn't mean it's a fraud but it is an opportunist cash grab that exploits the good will and name of developers and customers alike whilst riding on the back of something far more well intentioned. That much is abundantly clear.

It's only natural that after the success of the HIB more would follow in its wake and some will be good and some will be not so good for various reasons.

The HIB, whilst you could levy a certain level of cynicism if you were that way inclined, was aimed at raising the profile of the devs, making some cash for both the devs and for charity and doing right by the customer. If you exclude the charity angle, this is what we've generally seen with previous bundles and I don't have a problem with the business decisions involved there. No-one gets hurt and everyone comes out of it better, developers and customers alike.

Mentality wise, this one gets as far as "The Humble Indie Bundle made over a million, I WANT SOME OF THAT" and uses the hard work of others and the good will of consumers to facilitate that.

It's pretty clear that the developers who've (not as the case may be) signed on the dotted line for this are being used as nothing more than facilitators for that. Which is borderline exploitation if I'm being nice.

And well, obviously the customers don't count for shit here either or there'd have been a decent and concerted effort to make sure everyone is placated rather than throwing around wild and crazy conspiracy theories and threatening lawyers at every turn to anyone who dare stand between Jochan and his money making scheme.

So y'know, you nip this shit in the bud don't you? And say that it's not acceptable to use developers in this way and it's not acceptable to treat customers this way.

At this point, it doesn't matter if it's a scam or not - it's still a whole bundle of levels of wrongness that shouldn't be encouraged if we want to see more bundles out there and succeed and less cunts getting their grubby mits into indie dev and using me, you and developers to line their own pockets whilst giving fuck all back.

That it's being left to the developers to clean up the mess that monkeyboy up there has left behind is shameful in the extreme.

With any business there's cunts abound but we as customers can choose whether to reward those that do good or those that don't give a toss about us.

Choose the former and you'll get more of the former, yeah?

Child's Play and EFF were both contacted about the whole thing and both responded with being contacted by Jochen and he put them up on the site without their formal approval. Both of the charities want out as soon as they can, and both never signed any contracts.

The Developers of this have fallen victim, as the ones who want out aren't being allowed to. Jochen refuses to let them out of the contractless deal, and threatens to sue.

Customers are not receiving their bundles, and were basically told "I can't fix this now because I am at my wedding so too bad." Poor planning on the host's part. he was just way to worried about getting this site up without making sure everything worked first.

Jochen spammed various message boards about his deal, responding to questions in a hostile manner. Telling people on one forum one thing, and another forum another thing. Further showing poor customer support.

It is also worth mentioning Jochen's shady past, and admitted to wanting to make a profit off of this whole bundle.

I'm not flaming or trolling, I'm stating the facts. I do NOT want ANYONE buying this bundle. If you do, you are hurting developers and everything the HIB stood for.

Okay,

I guess I'm one of the people who have been ripped off because I have received nothing. ZERO. I paid for it and immediately after paying it said (right there on the site) that an email has been sent to my email address with Download links... I haven't received any such email. All I have is the invoice for my payment, no download links... nothing.

This is absolute garbage. When I purchased the Humble Indie Bundle I received it IMMEDIATELY after I sent my payment. I am extremely upset by this because for the most part I have had very good experiences with the independent game developers out there. I am at a loss now to discover that this has been nothing but a scam though. This is absolutely unbelievable though to find out that others have not received the bundle and yet the site is still up!

This is totally irresponsible. I feel like I've been ripped off, but I feel even worse than that, I feel lousy. I thought that this was supposed to partially benefit developers and charity and now I find out more that it was really just about some guy came up with a quick money making scheme! And of course, now I find out that developers have backed out of the deal. What the hell is going to happen to me and my money now?

I feel really awful, almost ill now.

It's really quite a shame because I was in a very good mood before discovering and trying to purchase this bundle and now that I've found multiple sites with people posting problems regarding the bundle and scamming, I just feel sick.

I sincerely just wanted this to be a good thing like the Humble Indie Bundle and now I just want my games or my money back (and I want that feeling that I had before finding out all of this).

I can't quite express how this is making my stomach turn and making me ill now.

To the poster above, I don't know if the link is protected or what, but since the guy isn't helping anyone I don't really care. Here you go:

[EDIT: Please don't put a public link to download the bundle in the comments, it's disrespectful to the developers of the games - Mike]

To anonymous of the above post.

Thanks bro!

@Anonymous

Holy crap. I really can't believe the game bundle is just sitting there in an open directory. I can confirm that if you did manage to get a valid download link from Jochen's company through the givewhateveryouwant.com website that it redirected to [EDIT: Link removed - Mike], but I assumed it was just temporarily allowing me access based on the unique key string in the download URL.

So basically this fucker has put all of the indie games in a public directory for anyone to downloaded. WOW. That is just shitty. I cannot believe how utterly incompetent this guy Jochen is.

Certain people involved with this have every right to be threatening legal action, but Jochen sure isn't one of them.

Even better. The guy put all his bank account info on the same link in basically a money request page that I'm guessing shows more of his true motives, LOL. What a retard:

[EDIT: Yep, that's not staying - Mike]

Oh and here's his contact info, which was on this page, and not on the site I don't believe:

[EDIT: And that - Mike]

JOCHEN KOLBE! SEE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!

Wow...now thats incompetence. If i ever saw something that went wrong...this is.

Unbelivable..srsly dumb and unbelivale...

@Brian: Didn't the Humble Indie Bundle also basically just throw all the games on a public server?

I remember fools commenters getting the direct links to the .exe files removed from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. There was also talk of direct links to the .exes appearing on popular forums within hours of the sale.

I believe the people behind the Humble Bundle even commented on it, saying that by not protecting the files through some sort of high security login system, they were offering more convenience legitimate customers (in keeping with the whole DRM-free thing).

Just to clarify, I meant that the people who posted direct links were foolish. Not the people removing said comments.

Well you can remove the link, I just think its fucked up people paid for it can't even find the game. there should be some way they can download the game they paid for, right?

I dont now what you do here. Charitys should be happen when they got help but when they not want they have enough money. What a shame for that ORganisations that really need Money.

And the open Directory is not public. Only public when you post. On Humble Bundle all games were on public Downloads, too. I can post all Humble Links too and all can download it, so dont do like this double moral.

I don't think that a 100% of the money would ever get to charity. having read the german fine print, it seems like there is an undefined service fee givewhateveryouwant.com is taking. shady business, dubious motives and an operator threatening his customers. priceless!

srsly jochen..learn how to write a sentence right in ENGLISH. Your above text made NO SENSE whatsoever. If you can affort to push sch an operation you maybe want to invest in some basic english training courses...

I will warn all my friends about this and i BET many will stay away from you and your service...this is a result of YOUR actions.

In the end, I got my bundle (x hours late, but still). I seriously hope everyone will get their money. This is a really unfortunate thing to happen. I wish for more great developers and less weird buissiness men!

this business man (and his doomed wife) applied for working as chip an' dale in Disneyland Paris a couple of years ago. i'm just sayin'...

@geezz: take a sip of your own medicine there :)

I think this:

1. This was a genuine deal that was massively unprofessionally handled. Jochen clearly has a lot to learn about conducting basic business. The poorly thought out plan and terrible emails he sent me were the reason I didn't reply and the reason our game is not in the bundle.

2. Even if he HAD done it all right and wasn't a dick to people and didn't have a long previous and wasn't constantly lying - WHY would any of us need him to do a bundle? We as developers don't need some creepy idiot to make up a web site to sell our games for us and take 30%. We're indie, we can band together and do it ourselves. Any of us can. We did, with the Indie Love Bundle and the Humble Indie Bundle. And we'll do it again.

Anyone noticed that you can no longer choose to donate to child's play?

That's what I chose when I bought this so I wonder what's happened to my money...

@Auspax: I did indeed notice that. I've fired off emails to each of the other charities to check they are all in on the bundle.

Bob Came in Pieces is also no longer listed on the website.

I emailed Jochen about Child's Play and got the following reply.

"Childsplay dont want be in our Project, so i removed them. Please choose
another our Charitys where your money should be going."

I think I'll wait to see if there is any answer from the other charities before I email him back with my new charity choice.

Jochen worked with Child's Play before - so they know him and obviously wanted out as soon as they found out about him being involved. or maybe they never wanted (back) in. Only god knows.

My guess is: first, this bundle is been done by an unprofessional person, I also see that most electronically professional stores take from 8% to 10% and provide all services that are lacking here. Second, from posts here and other foruns there seem to be some guys with a lot of free time to bully the whole operation, and most of "these guys" seem to be the same, strange uh? Hope moderators from this and other foruns can detect such. My guess is that such an operation (the bundle) should be done by more internal people to the independent scene, where the money really belongs. Allowing outsiders to come cash in can only disgrace it. I just hope this niche is kept with the indie developers and hope it exists longer to push indies further, it is just too much money potential to attract monopolies or scams... Jochen sure has his share of bad naiveness, as the indie scene is not such a thing as "do as you please", professionalism is sure expected from us. Now I just can't help noticing there are a lot of posts over those foruns that seem to come from a group or a person who is really against this guy.

I cant believe, the indie developers really trusted this guy, after he started his promotion with preventing customers from buying directly from them: http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=80036

jocken = jochen?

So thats the idea of supporting the indie developers?

As it seems, Jason Rohrer, the charity companies, frogames and others were smart enough not to give a shit to that guy. Josiah from "Bridge Construction Set" wasnt that smart and even defending this scammer. What a mess for the indie bundle idea :(

I just received an email back from the German Children's Cancer Foundation. They are not in on the bundle at all:

"We were rather astonished to see our logo on this website. We weren't informed about that."

i will buy all the games, except for bridge constructor. can´t believe, the developer is cooperating with a scammer.

It's a shame because I was willing to spend some money on this before I read all the hate. I loved the Humble Bundle.

@Auspax,

By the sounds of it, no matter which "Charity" you choose the money will most likely be going straight into the pockets of Jochen.

If this was done properly then the charitable profit would have been deducted automatically and gone straight into the charitable accounts (or separated immediately so it could be distinguished). Instead, the lump sum is going into one account and supposedly the money will be divided by Jochen himself once this "Sale" is over.

How much do you trust some guy you don't know to distribute the money properly between charities and developers at the same time that they are taking a cut for themselves?

Basically, you just don't trust that kind of business practice.

The money shouldn't be going into the personal account of Jochen and all of this should have been handled transparently.

Perhaps Jochen was trying to do something positive here, perhaps trying to turn a new leaf or do something honest and earn some sort of trust from people given his shady past. I'd like to think that everyone deserves a second chance, but this is not how you go about it.

Because the money is all going to one place and we don't know exactly how much money has gone to this one place nor do we know exactly what the % percentages are between individual charities, the developers, and lastly how much Jochen takes from this.

Because of all of these reasons, it's safe to assume you cannot trust where your money is going, since it most certainly seems that it is all going to Jochen (and we can't be convinced otherwise until we see the money given to both the charities and developers receiving their appropriate splits).

This probably sounded like a decent idea at the time of proposal, especially given the success of the Humble Indie Bundle, but this should be a lesson to the developers. These things really don't throw themselves together with little thought or insight. They take a little bit of time and thoughtful planning (especially whenever charities are concerned). People are paranoid enough that others are out to get their money.

What's happened here is unfortunate for a number of reasons because the internet really doesn't need one more shady business practice backed by legitimate professionals, in this case indie developers who thought this whole thing might be beneficial all around (to gamers, charities, themselves, etc.)

By backing a scrupulous source it's almost as if you're vouching for this person which throws your reputation into the mix with theirs.

Hopefully this will make everyone think a little bit harder before jumping at what could possibly be decent or enticing offers, even though the offer involves those we have come to trust.

Will somebody get this creep off the innertubes already?

Alex May has probably the best comment in this huge, weird thread - there's no reason indie developers need somebody like Jochen to set up a website for them and then take a percentage off the top of their "sales" (/donations) just to get their wares out there.

Jochen essentially tried to set himself up as a temporary mini-publisher / distributor and did an absolutely *terrible* job of it, but that job isn't necessary to start with. Signing on to such an arrangement with a third party whose motive is profit was probably an ill-considered move on the part of the devs even if he had represented himself well (which he clearly did not).

This is an unfortunate episode that didn't need to happen, but it doesn't need to inspire cynicism (though I'm sure it will in some). If these developers were really enamored of the idea of putting out a "pay what you want / donate to charity" bundle like this, they can - and should - just go ahead and do it themselves. Just, you know, make sure the charities are actually on board with it first. ;)

I think I'm going to request a refund, this all just sounds too shady. I would have filed a paypal dispute but the transaction apparently isn't complete

If someone wants to get in contact with him - to get back his money etc. - his mobile number is +4917664819384.

@Gulda: Nice to see my old number. *laugh*

Dear Jochen,

cockiness isn't going to help you this time. I know it.

Jesus

Jochen didn´t have an Paypal account, because it was closed for fraudulent actions in many cases months ago. How can he use Paypal again?

I wouldn´t pay any money to this person.

It was not closed for fraudulent Actions. Its a lie !

Why the People believe more what Liars like this say, as other??

OMFG !!!!!

Son,

he simply used an account opened by his ill-fated wife.

Jesus

btw one of the developers called Jochen an 'creepy idiot' in this very comments section - priceless²

Well that was me and I'm not one of the developers. I think you need to get your facts straight and maybe give up this campaign against Jochen, which is a little creepy in itself.

Still, I don't know many straight up nice guys who have so many committed haters, so I guess what goes around comes around.

Actually I was looking forward to see if there was a place for traders/publishers in such a deal. While it's certainly possible without them, I think it could also be an advantage to have someone dedicated to this role and maybe offering several "pay what you want" bundles.

Of course it should be done more professional, both behaviour-wise and technically, to be eligable.

So your wife is now part of your businnes? Why is your wife receiving payments for your company? That´s quite a hazardous construction in a serious businnes.

Btw: Wasn´t Jason Rohrer with his game ment to be part of this bundle? What happend?

I interviewed Jochen and some of the developers. Full Q&A is here.

@ Jaz McDougall
thank you

@Bnonymous : same here, I have nothing against a middle-man, if he were to set up bundles regularly. That would be extremely beneficiary to the developers. But that man obviously needs to be a professional...

If you set the price to 1$ and donate 100% to charity, the site keeps telling you, you have to pay 60$. Great businnes it is ;)

"Jaz: How would you describe your part in this deal? Are you organising it? Hosting it?
Jochen: I organise it and host it. I have made the Website with a very good Developer that costs a lot of Money..."

So he´s got enough money for lawyers, developers, actress speaking the terrible site-sound, sueing people, but claims to be bankrupt in Germany and left there many of creditors?

What is wrong with this guy?

Thanks for conducting the interview, Jaz. Kind of painful to read, but good to have on record. I think it mostly speaks for itself.

Well look on the bright side to all this. If some German with a shady past who can barely speak English can put together one of these bundles, it wouldn't take much from a more credible, reliable person to set something like this up.

If I knew anything about web design or Paypal, I would happily set something like this up. Hopefully those with that kind of experience who want to do right by these developers and charities are watching all of this and ready to spring into motion with their own bundle to make up for this.

I mean, if this tool can do this, how hard can it be?

bout that interview: how can they have earned "The amazing amount of 65 Euro" if they already sold more than 200 units for at least 1 $/€? its all lies again.

Thanks Jaz.

"Several members of the GOG.com community claim to have unearthed details on things you've been involved with in the past. Would you like to take the opportunity to respond to them?
I dont why old Storys are so interested. They send some Developers Forum Links from Traffic Offence that i made 12 Years ago."

OMG, this guy keeps lying. According to sources from GOG, this guy was punished for internet fraud.

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/german_scammer_abusing_the_humble_indie_idea_please_help_with_warning/_/1

http://a.yfrog.com/img217/307/kolbebetrugsurteil.jpg

Fraud/Scamm = Betrug in german.

Not sure I get the point of the JPG image. Unless I'm missing something, Jochen's name doesn't appear on it. It may well be some sort of record of a fraudulent case, but is he identified on it anywhere?

That JPG isn't about internet fraud or business fraud at all. It's about driving without a driver's license, which is also called a (license) fraud in Germany. If this is what you base your accusations on you're wrong, and I suspect that is on purpose.

@Eric
Read the gog-thread. Everything is explained there.

"So here is the proof, that he is a scammer, punished for fraud for over 5 years, that is a very serious punishment, because the maximum for internet fraud in germany is 5 years.

The next two links show you the proof:

http://a.yfrog.com/img217/307/kolbebetrugsurteil.jpg

Betrug = fraud

comming from http://www.verkehrsportal.de/board/index.php?showtopic=77843&st=200

Posts 242-243. His callsign is horned, denroh or hornedry2k. You can google for him and will find much bad stuff.

And here you will find his statement:

http://www.usa-reise.net/forum/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=33858.0

hornedry2k am 04.08.2008, 20:19 Uhr

"habe ich zwischen 1999 und 2001 Internetbetrug begangen, habe 5,3 Jahre bekommen und 4,4 davon gesessen. Meine Bewährung endet am 1.9.08"

Short: punishment for 5,3 years, spend in jail 4,4 years. Released from punishment one year ago."

@Betrug

Would you understand the german language, you would not write that :(

Look at the link above.

"Perhaps Jochen was trying to do something positive here, perhaps trying to turn a new leaf or do something honest and earn some sort of trust from people given his shady past. I'd like to think that everyone deserves a second chance, but this is not how you go about it.

Because the money is all going to one place and we don't know exactly how much money has gone to this one place nor do we know exactly what the % percentages are between individual charities, the developers, and lastly how much Jochen takes from this.

Because of all of these reasons, it's safe to assume you cannot trust where your money is going, since it most certainly seems that it is all going to Jochen (and we can't be convinced otherwise until we see the money given to both the charities and developers receiving their appropriate splits).

This probably sounded like a decent idea at the time of proposal, especially given the success of the Humble Indie Bundle, but this should be a lesson to the developers. These things really don't throw themselves together with little thought or insight. They take a little bit of time and thoughtful planning (especially whenever charities are concerned). People are paranoid enough that others are out to get their money.

What's happened here is unfortunate for a number of reasons because the internet really doesn't need one more shady business practice backed by legitimate professionals, in this case indie developers who thought this whole thing might be beneficial all around (to gamers, charities, themselves, etc.)

By backing a scrupulous source it's almost as if you're vouching for this person which throws your reputation into the mix with theirs.

Hopefully this will make everyone think a little bit harder before jumping at what could possibly be decent or enticing offers, even though the offer involves those we have come to trust."

Yes, exactly, where has all of this money gone? Why is it all going into one account??? Why is the site still up when Devs have tried to pull out and are their links to charities that are not participating in this bundle???

Why is this site up still???????

Maybe Jaz could once more ask for a statement of Jochen, because at GOG he refused to answer.

And according to GOG, Jochen started the promotion with Jason Rohrer´s game "Sleep is Death", but then Jason refused the agreement and Jochen called him greedy.
The same like now the charity companies are called to big and that they don´t need the money.
Fine way to treat indy devs and charity companies ;)

All I can say is, this guy is so pathetically poor at writing the English language that I find it hard to believe he can even communicate in the German language!

His English is abysmal and I have dealt with people who barely speak English on multiple occasions through actual conversations and through text and messages.

How could any of the Dev's (unless they actually spoke and/or wrote in German) actually understand this guy and more importantly, agree to participate with him in what has turned out to be a scheme and scam???

How?

@Milhouse : they accepted because they don't have the ability to see in the future.

And take it easy on his English capacities. I'm sure most of you who bitch about it can't speak a word of German.

nice interview:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=248403

i bought the deal and got the game.i mean: 1 bucks.what is that?nothing.i am happy and what you write about him dont interest me.

@Tron aka Jochen: Nice try, mate. Are you actually proud of that interview? It doesn't show you in a better light than any other piece in your marvelous puzzle of self-destruction.

@Oschi

Well done. I am quite szre, it´him too: Betrug | May 26, 2010 6:46 PM

Please don't insult me. My English isn't that bad.

Oh my god, he's the Uwe Boll of digital distribution! Us Germans always deliver quality work, huh?

Yeah, Betrug can't be Jochen, because he uses proper English. Let's not get paranoid here. :-)

Tron's post on the other hand is EXACTLY the same type of broken English that Jochen has presented so much recently - it often reads like a German sentence (structure-wise) translated word by word.

"the Uwe Boll of digital distribution!"

Effing hilarious.

"Please don't insult me. My English isn't that bad."

Then your German is instead ;)

Driving in Germany without a licence isn´t called "Fraud" . Tell your fairy tales somewhere else ;)

It is clear, that he has been punished for multiple fraud AND driving without a licence in a vehicle without an injurance.

Anyway, he stated his prison-time in that US-visitors-forum.

So if you call yourself "Betrug", why are you trying this misinterpretation of this document?

And i "suspect that is on purpose." ;)

gezzz, this Vid is hilarious ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxfmVnKdmw4

It could perfectly be Amtsdeutsch to me. Jurists always have their own weird names for things. I've never had such trouble so I don't know what exactly they call it.

You provided the other links later, so the picture was the only thing I had at that time. With that additional information it's clear what they refer to. Although I'm not fond of knowing they get all that information and decide wether you may drive or not based on non driving-related incidents.

Anyways, indie devs should definately be more careful. His English alone should be enough to not sign (or upload) anything.

Importing products takes a license, Jochen ! Everybody knows that !

@Betrug : Yes, let's not trust anyone who doesn't speak our language . That's a reasonable way of thinking !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

Charity scams

http://419eater.com/

It's not about trust, it's about meaning the same when you negotiate. The devs aren't native English speakers either but they can be understood and understand what other people are writing.

This guy deserves real, actual jail time, and i hope a 300 pound russian takes a steaming crap on his face, no wait, he would probably enjoy that almost as much as he enjoying fraudulent internet scams.

"No, you're right. It doesn't mean it's a fraud but it is an opportunist cash grab that exploits the good will and name of developers and customers alike whilst riding on the back of something far more well intentioned. That much is abundantly clear."

Thanks RobF, you nailed it.

http://sixtyfpsorbust.tumblr.com/post/635687639/give-whatever-you-want-controversy-an-interview-with

Interview a reader from RPS did...
Also emails from dev. contacts...

Jochen really isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, is he.

I have contected WWF and Kinderkrebsstiftung to ask them about the Projekt.

Kinderkrebsstiftung answered me, and kindly answered on English:

"Thanks for your mail. We hadn't got the slightest idea, that we, the German
Childhood Cancer Foundation, are declared charity partner on
givewhateveryouwant.com. Neither do we don't know Mr. Kolbe nor did we get
any donation. We were not informed about this initiative.

Jens Kort.

www.kinderkrebsstiftung.de "

If you think my message is faux, go ahead and contact the head of the organisation 8)

@Anonymous :LOL, he told me he is a Freelancer of IGN and now he has a little blog and want some Clicks in this Situaiton. NICE ^^

@ALL: Atm we are working on the Website to make resolve all Problems and make it better like before. Its nut scum and i dont wand scum anyone. MAny happend wrong and i can only say Sorry.

My dear friend Jochen,

it is time to wake up and see how everybody "involved" in this project is turning away from it now. Why bring it back online? This is scorched earth like everything you touch.

I am sending you light to heal you,

Jesus

Sorry, there is a type from the message.
"Neither do" falls out.

Jochen, please don't waste your time trying to bring this site back. It's already too late; the damage is done and nothing you could do in the foreseeable future will undo that damage.

I think it's really unfair to discriminate against Jochen because of his bad English, and the stalkers here leave just as bad a taste in my mouth as the rest of this mess does.

Everybody needs to chill out a bit and act like mature adults.

well said, Alex.

so here's my story: I thought I'd try if this whole thing works by sending a relatively small amount of money via Paypal (that was two days ago). Apparently the sum wasn't big enough, so my payment was not collected... until this morning. So now Jochen received my money, but I had nothing whatsoever. I filed a complaint on Paypal and got my download link a couple of seconds later. And - of course - he threatens me with legal actions. Oh well. I advise everyone who is still waiting for their download links to do the same. After all, he cannot sue all of us, right?

still, I feel sorry for the devs. guess I'll treat the games I got as demo versions of sorts, and then buy the "full" versions directly from them if I really like them.

Lots of lessons learned, I guess (even though I doubt that Jochen learned that much. given his reputation, he will try again and again.)

Thank you for posting the link to that interview at "sixty". A short summary of all that:

Charity organisations are bad, Paypal is bad, GDATA is evil, german law is really bad, indie developers are no "gentlemans" and so on.

The money, the customers want to go to charity, is HIS money and he decides who he will give it to. The charity organisations are to wealthy and don´t need more money but it should be an honor for them to take HIS money.

"when i choose the Charitys that i want support it must be a honor for them because they need Money like everyone. ANd when i give the Charitys its my Decision which i give Money. I look many for Charitys where I thought there were just deserves. But when someone tell me that he dont want Money, in this Childs Play, i must think they have enough Money and dont need help. Its a shame..."

This guy will never get the idea, that honorable organisations would never agree to an association with a scammer and ex-prisoner.

As it seems, he keeps lying to the public, because according to this source, where he stated being in prison for over 4 years for internet fraud, this thing wasn´t over 12 years ago, but he was really free in 2008:

http://www.usa-reise.net/forum/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=33858.0

hornedry2k am 04.08.2008, 20:19

"Meine Bewährung endet am 1.9.08"

Or did i misunderstand that?

But the best part is, where he threats his critics with layers and court cases and is doing that with great satisfaction, really enjoing it, as it seem, but at the other hand he starts the whinning about being sued himself for selling stolen things. What a bad comedy.

@Alex May

Where do you see any stalkers? I just read many comments of people, who provide proof for his lies. No insulting or whatever. So chill, mate :)

@Jesus: Booooooooooring! When its back after we resolve the technical PRoblems it will be a big Surprise. :) The first Sales was very good. It works and it will be come back! :P

@Tantrix: Du kannst dich schon freuen denn Anzeige Nummer Zwei hat soeben das Gebäude verlassen. :) Das wird ein Fest mit Dir.

@Alex May : For the most to strong. :-) They must bash. But thanks for Support.

The most only bash and dont realise that i dont want scum. THe biggest mistake was the Site one Day before my Wedding to start because when someone start a Proejct like this he must be online to resolve all Problem in Realtime. So it was my biggest mistake. But i learn from this and all will be better. The Site will be work better than before and i have learned. But you must give me a Chance. Dont judge to early about me because you heard something from some stupid Guys like Tantrix.

@Clown : That is your interpretion of that interview. But not the true. The People only talk what they want here and other believe it.

Your Name is what it sounds. Very funny Postings. ^^ WHen you not understand what in the Forums in Germany i am posting then please dont tell this Lies. Really Free? What is really free? What you told is not true.

@Der Jochen

In Deutschland hast du dich bereits mehrmals und überall zum idioten gemacht, jetzt schafst Du es auch international. Glückwunsch dazu. Dein selbstzerstörerischer Drang ist scheinbar nicht aufzuhalten und krankhaft. Lass dieses glorreiche Geschäft sein, sonst klopft die Kripo schneller an deine Tür, als Du "Knast" sagen kannst.

@Joke: Träum weiter, du Pappnase. Ich werde das Konzept natürlich weiter verfolgen und sobald die Seite technisch überarbeitet wurde geht sie wieder online. Es hat sich mehr verkauft als ich gedacht habeu nd auch negative Presse ist Presse. So ist das halt. Und solange alles seien Richtigkeit hat wird auch nichts passieren. Also droh mir nicht mit so einem Käse. Das ist einfach nur der neid derer die nichts auf die Reihe bekommen haben. Aber für Tantrix wird es teuer wenn wir seien Identität gefunden haben. Sehr teuer. Da gibt es einen schönen Paragraphen im BGB der ihn schön zur Kasse bitten wird. ^^

Agree with Alex that the stalker thing is more than a little scary, guys. Ease up that road, eh.

Posting phone numbers etc... is creepy.

However:

@Jochen

"Dont judge to early about me because you heard something from some stupid Guys like Tantrix. "

We're not. We're going on your actions and your *continued* behaviour, man.

When we are back online we will send to all Press Sites a Press Release what is happend wrond with a Apology to all! I can only say sorry for all.

A chance? No, thank you, i don´t want to be threaten with legal actions, like you do with your customers (iLag).

If i understand it right, you above stated, that even bad publicity is ok to you, as publicity at all. So i doubt that anyone except yourself thinks this way, too. No Charity companies, nor indie developers. And as a projekt similiar to and using the populatrity of the Humble Indie idea, you are destroying this good name on purpose!

You are completely unprofessional and got no idea about marketing, advertising or promotion in sort of "Good-Will" business. Even more: You are damaging this on purpose. You are an evilminded, unscrupulous person :(

Please, stop spamming over and over the same stuff, as we all could read this all in the interviews. Just stay out of here, thank you in advance!

@Clown: My Answer in Short Verson is NO!

ohhh, and don´t forget. This is no german site!

@Clown: I can speak German wherever i want.

@Jochen: Are you gonna write that press release yourself?

Anyway, since you present yourself very optimistic about the future of your project: You may always find a couple of customers who haven't heard of the problems surrounding it, but good luck finding new partners to provide merchandise and charity organisations willing to officially cooperate after all this!

This isn't about his piss poor English skills. This is about his inability to communicate properly with customers.

So, lets not all be naive and start bitching about people who are having a hard time with his broken English. The problem is, he went through all this trouble to include an English side to the site, with mostly proper grammar and spelling. Somebody honest, would have hired someone to handle the English customer service side of all of this because YOU DO NOT THREATEN YOUR CUSTOMERS!

Most of the indie developers I've bought games from don't speak English as their native language and it's no big deal because most of them try their best to be helpful and provide support for their customers WITHOUT THREATENING THEM.

So, this has NOTHING to do with the fact that he's German... It absolutely doesn't matter what nationality this guy is. He decided to start a site that is also in English (and the site was competently written), however, he decided to respond personally to his English speaking and English writing customers while using the English language in an improper way to threaten his customers rather than try to provide customer support!

So now everyone can stop the crying.

Jochen has been in jail for about 4 1/2 years until early 2007 for fraud. You can still find messages from him from 07/05 in a german law forum asking how he could save his new-bought PS3 and HDTV from being taken away by the bailiff for the people he was owing money from those fraud. Very honest indeed.

In 2009, he startet a friedly advertising bonus site where people could recruit friends for newspaper subscriptions and things like that and get bonus points which could then be exchanged into gaming equipment and other stuff. At some point he told that he wasn't able to pay out people anymore, first asked for voluntary renounce and then used very questionable methods like writing a newsletter "everyone who will not send me a copy of his pass within two weeks will loose his points".

Both of that is more than enough reason not to trust him in any way in my opinion.

@Anonymous: The threatening of customers unfortunately doesn't result from his poor English skills. He's been doing the same thing in his German business endeavours ever since he started those. It's really a miracle his company has stayed afloat for so long.

The fault is not in his language but in his character.

Can someone clear something up for me - Did Jochen get married after the site launched? I thought that the PayPal account used was in his wife's married name?

P.

@Paul: That's a very interesting point... it sounds like the Paypal account was only just set up?

@Paul Moloney:

Yes, his marriage was the day after the site launched.

wedding usually refers to the party. they could've gotten legally married a month ago or whatever.

in german forum jochen say the site will be online again and he gets no problem because not of luck but because he skills. he planning on making 4000 dollars a month is all he care and laughing about developer participation. you should now!

@German : LOOOOOOL! Nice Lie!!!! *laugh*

"wedding usually refers to the party. they could've gotten legally married a month ago or whatever."

Ah, fair enough. There's lot of wedding stuff on her Facebook page anyway (no link; easy enough to find), so it does indeed look like having the wedding and launching the site at the same was just bad timing.

P.

no, it was planned for the 25th and was on this date. so what name is in that pp-account? if it´s wolfram, then it is her former name. at GOG someone posted a video of his proposal to his fiance, he made in german tv.

Not lie it very much posting but you can read after here

http://www.pcx-forum.de/

there is whole truth i tell you use google translator find out the evil!!!!!!!

Who is there? I am not there? Do you need clicks on that Forum? I am not there.

I think someone will profit from this Story to earn clicks on his Website. I am not there.

But you are still here. Please leave finaly, you did a sad catastophe to the "humble Indie" and charity ideas. And if the story, with the private bank and pp-accounts is true, you and your wife will face enough trouble with german tax authority. Or is she now your official business partner?

Is here CSI Indie Games Blog or what do you want from me?? Its all legal and i pay tax like every Company Owner in Germany. So whatever you investigate in your Rush - you can do nothing!!

And which privat bank story?? Which story is there ???

Did you pay out all the people from gamerdeals-gratis and those you owed money from the older fraud story? If not, do you still own luxury stuff like a PS3 and other things someone who's claiming not to be able to pay his debts is not supposed to have? I guess that's an important question for people before giving any money to you.

@Artist: I dont own luxory Stuff like PS3, Xbox360,Wii or whatever you told. Nope. I have a normal Cellphone from LG, no Iphone, and i dont own Gold. ^^ I dont drive a Ferrari or whatever now People say.So what you want from me?

Jochen, take is serious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZwLsvO6YTw

@Clown:

http://trollcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/shut_your_whore_mouth_trollcat.jpg

Is there any opportunity to be more untrustworthy like this guy Jochen?

Recently he bought two or three high class monitors and a new gaming pc whilst owing his customers lots of stuff and telling them that he would not be able to buy and send them their stuff (which ironically they paid for themselves). Now that's fair play for sure ;)

@Jesus: It was not three Monitors. It was 24 Monitors:

http://www.tweakpc.de/gallery/data/533/medium/eyefinity_extrem.jpg

This is my PC! *laugh*

Where is my Ferrari? When comes the Story about cars like that. Its funny what going on here.

Could anyone provide informations, if and which indie developers have been informed about this Jochens criminal deeds and what they replied? It would be interesting to know, how they react to such news.

Josiah from chroniclogic (Bridge Constructor Set) is posting here and even defending this guy.

@Josiah
Have you been informed about this guy before this mess started? And if that´s the case, what made you decide to cooperate with him.

Same question to other developers.

Dear Jochen,

here is proof: http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=4140060&page=2

Jesus

And my favourite bit: He's taking horseback riding lessons. Ah well, a poor man's simple pleasures.

Ok,that's enough. Please close this thread.

@Jesus: Where?No Pictures, no postings from me. Where???I dont have three Monitors. I have only one!!!And i dont have a Alienware PC, i have a Acer.

@Oschi: And? What interest that in this Topic?? And every day i wake up i eat breakfast. Oh my God. Breakfast. Next Story.

Stop fooling us. Although you deleted your post in that thread, it's still quoted on page 2: "Zitat von hornedry2k
Habe mir jetzt einen alienware gekauft und der hat 2 dvI und enen MiniDisplay Port. Habe auch den Adapter von Apple. Zwei Monitore gehen an der Graka, aber kaum stecke ich den dritten rein geht nichts mehr und alle werden schwarz. Woran liegt das?"

Close? Not before i know, if some of the developers have been so desperatly in need of money, that they started the cooperation with this guy, even if they knew about his past and present businnes and legal problems.

I am eager to know that.

@Jochen: Just supporting Jesus in building your character profile (i. e. you shelling out for luxury nonsense while you owe a lot of people merchandise from a previous business failure).

XOXOXOXOXO
Oschi

Nice to see Jochen constantly lying in this thread, too.

Some things will never change.

I see a dark future ahead of you, son.

Jesus

Quote form the "team page" of Jochen's homepage:
-----
Admin / Projektleiter / Schnäppchen Jochen Kolbe Email: jochen.kolbe(at)modulopfer.de Systeme: Alienware Area51 ALX mit drei Samsung P2250 Monitoren (ATI Eyefinity)
-----

So, yeah, three monitors, alienware pc. that's from his new website that launched like some weeks ago.

Liar.

Jesus

PS: I bet he is gonna delete this now, but i made some screenshots.

Did you know Wayne??

Christ. All of you are just making massive fools of yourselves.

Interesting. You lie, you are proven to have lied, and this is your reaction?

But i dont have three Monitors and a Alienware System. I hope after this Post you know what i mean.

And what do you want to tell us where it went since you obviously had it a few weeks ago?

So you are lying on your modulopfer-page. Why?

Artist : Smart Guy! :) But i forgot. Old Storys are more interesting than actually Storys and nobody can change.

Guys, all please stop this now, it's incredibly degrading to every single one of you.

I'm just going to start deleting every comment from now on that continues this pointless saga.

Im to lazy to read all this, but what happens with the money now? will the devs get some? and what is with the charity-organisations?

I am not interested in his hardware, but in the actions and decisions of the developers. So i repeat my question:

@Developers cooperating with Jochen,

have you been informed about this guy before this mess started? And if that´s the case, what made you decide to cooperate with him.

I'd have thought it was abundantly clear by now that no-one involved in this was aware of him prior to the bundle so you can stop waving that finger around now, there's a love.

@RobF

That´s actually not true. Josiah from Chronic Logic was very well informed about all that, with masses of evidence already on 05.22. But he didn´t change his mind, like other developers did.

I will not judge this, but it leaves a very bad taste :(

@WarningSign, got any evidence for this?

Of course. I can provide the emails, if he would deny that fact. He was the only one, i contacted, who did keep to cooperate with this scammer. Others refused to cooperate with this guy, who is like a parasite. They have been more affraid about the moral of this all.

I don't want to drag Josiah into this mess, but you really shouldn't throw around accusations like that without providing any proof to back it up.

Just ask him.

So why haven't any of the charities or the developers received any money yet?

Because Jochen had planned on keeping it all for himself all along.

Simple really.

Although he was going to give 70% of $1.00 dollar to Josiah.

Okay, stepping away from the mud-slinging match: we now are being offered a "Logic Chonric Indie Bundle + PutUp" according to the email - again in German - that I've recieved. The downloads are still not working, so I wonder if Josiah and any other developers (i.e. Matuda Games, who make PutUp) would be willing to comment on the contents of the bundle, and this sudden change in the product that we're being offered. I've tried to contact Jochen, but he is refusing to speak to me after I publicised the emails between himself and Ludosity and Ron Bunce that he willingly forwarded to me for use in my article.

Oh man, that´s his idea of PR, that we now got used to:

http://steamunpowered.eu/alternative-shops/

"hornedry2k

After the new Owner G2Play.pl is dead. The Support is slow and not the best. Keys coming after 2 Days or longer. The most Keys dont work. Battleforge Keys are from stolen Credit Cards – EA closed all Accounts from G2PLay bought Keys. Left4Dead only cut Versions. The Support dont understand English.

G2Play is dead!

For Germans i can tell you that http://www.gamerdeals-shop.de is a very good Choice. You can pay with Paypal, Moneybookers and others. So i can think you can order there from other Countrys, too. Very good!!!"

Let me remind you, that his trouble with law in Germany and GDATA comes from buying stolen keys from g2play as his supplier for the last year. But first he started the business and his promoting with slandering his future supplier ;)

Thats the way to promote new business and treat your partners ;)

I think this guy is related to Derek Smart! It is either that or they have the same brain malfunction that fails to tell them when it is time to be silent.

Jochen you are a pathetic mess. Everyone who followed the mess you created should allready have realized that you are not the brightest of characters.

Instead of appologizing you call people TROLLS for linking to a video YOU MADE..how fucking ridicilous is that ?

You arguments repeat themselfs over and over. If you are confronted with people its either a conspiracy against ou or TROLLS or PEOPLE THAT NEED CLICKS...srsly GTFO my internets...

The Total Amount of few Hours was 403 Euro excl. all Paypal Fees.

From that Money 70 % goes to the Developer because that was what Customers wanted. This are 282 Euro.

We had 5 Developers, so every got 56,40. Chronic Logic has got his Money, PutUp dont want his Money. From the Rest i dont have Paypal Informations atm.

30 % goes to Charity. This are 121 Euro. 90 % want give the Money to Childs Play. This are 108 Euro. I put on this 108 Euro the Money from Putu = 164 Euro.

As you can see here i send the Money to Childs Play

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/Qhx1fgbyhM.jpg

and Chronic Logic , too.

The Rest of the Donation-Money will send per Bank Account because German Cancer foundation dont have Paypal. And EFF got only 5 % - this are 6,05 Euro but i put my Part of all on it and so they get 75 Euro.

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/6WznD3i0H9.jpg

You see i earn nothing in this Debacle. It was a big mistake to go online one day before my wedding and i only can say Sorry and try to Apogolise. I will fix all on Site and then we go online and hope you will get me and this PRoject a second Chance!

so Chronic Logic risked they name for 56 eur? i cant believe that :(

none was paying with other payment methods? no moneybookers, no bank transfers? very suspicious.

and about second chance i just repeat, what Clown wrote on May 27, 2010 12:23 PM, because that is the perfect answer to such jerk:

"A chance? No, thank you, i don´t want to be threaten with legal actions, like you do with your customers (iLag).

If i understand it right, you above stated, that even bad publicity is ok to you, as publicity at all. So i doubt that anyone except yourself thinks this way, too. No Charity companies, nor indie developers. And as a projekt similiar to and using the populatrity of the Humble Indie idea, you are destroying this good name on purpose!

You are completely unprofessional and got no idea about marketing, advertising or promotion in sort of "Good-Will" business. Even more: You are damaging this on purpose. You are an evilminded, unscrupulous person :("

"

@Andrew: As you can see on SIte Moneybookers dont work. In other Forum someone post that Moneybookers not work. So no Moneybookers Money. ANd Prepayment have some used but not payd yet.

And it has been much more Moeny than 56 EUro but i take the SIte off because the technical issues was at the ENd too much.

We will fix all Technical Issues, than i will begin fromt he beginning but no more Indie Games and with COntracts that no Publisher can say he dont want after it start. That is like Kindergarten and i dont want this anymore.

I hope we NEVER see this guy jochen AGAIN trying to cash in on ideas that other suchseffuly developed and found so many followers like the HumbelBundle.

I also hope he stops trying to deal with people outside of germany since clearly he lacks the experience to do so.

Lets put this shit to rest and die quitly...

"but no more Indie Games and with COntracts that no Publisher can say he dont want after it start. That is like Kindergarten"

yes, a kindergarden indeed, that you produced.

and this sounds, like you are blaming the developers for your fail. are you completely insane?

Jochen, no one will trust you anymore, nor pay any money to whatever business you start. and i hope very much, that the internet communities will watch out for your shady ideas and deeds, to warn eachother.

just leave this all be, before you´ll kicked into prison again. you just seem to be unable to learn from your own faults.

Jochen, I mean the following with all sincerity; you are obviously not cut for business. (That's not necessarily a bad thing; I know I'm not either.) Go get a 9-5 desk job.

P.

@Andrew: I dont think so ! There are many ways... So let me do whatever i want to do and go away.

I do whatever i want and this Blog is not the Center of the World, so many dont read this and i others trust me. :)

i doubt, that anyone trusts you. you seem to live in your own world, that has nothing to do with reality.

i hope you get a hard kick for this story. you really deserve this.

Jochen, i am giving you a very serious advice. plz go visit a doctor. you show the moste symptoms of the antisocial personality disorder:

-Persistent lying or stealing
-Apparent lack of remorse or empathy for others
-Poor behavioral controls — expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression, and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper
-Recurring difficulties with the law
-Tendency to violate the boundaries and rights of others
-Aggressive, often violent behavior
-failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
-deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
-impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
-consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations
-lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another

plz dont let your family and and your supposed customers suffer under your disorder.

this is no joke, take it serious!

I think Mike Rose should close this. We go around in circles. Dont post here anymore.

We will work on the Site and i need now a nice Holiday. :)

Bye Bye

dont think so. we found now the reason for all that mess with you in the last 12 years, or whatever.

"antisocial personality disorder" is a very serious disorder. there is no need to "smile" at this facts.

Anon...srslyiam dissapointed in you. You have let this perfect chance of beign a true anon beign corrupted by your own selfish ways..while a true anon allways has the goal to score for the greater good, you have bein corrupted and infested and..worst of all..you dident see the countertroll comming and let it have its ways..iam dissapointed anon...you can do alot more better.

I not run scum, all legit businss deals to you still try and break my businES. Wat abut charity stealing from ppls all time to pay courts and police? I'm victim too! But now your ruin my profit by LIes and tell. I make all right thogh now I show when site back all better than ever. Once I pay for all my wedding you see I make good effort for PAying developer and charities.

M Rose pls handle or is the Indie Games Blog the Place where all can do what they want?

"The Total Amount of few Hours was 403 Euro excl. all Paypal Fees. [...] but i put my Part of all on it and so they get 75 Euro."

4*56 € - Devs
164 € - Childs Play
6€ - Krebshilfe
75€ - EFF

= 469€

The total amount of 403€ can´t be true.

And here I was, thinking about creating some kind of promotion for indie games on my little site. Then this happened, I’m german, too, so there goes the neighborhood. Thank you for ruining our reputation forever.

OMFG !!!!!! @Anonymous

Read my Post again and then calculate new!

Blame! Some People try to bash but dont use his brain

Again:

The Total Amount of few Hours was 403 Euro excl. all Paypal Fees.

From that Money 70 % goes to the Developer because that was what Customers wanted. This are 282 Euro.

We had 5 Developers, so every got 56,40. Chronic Logic has got his Money, PutUp dont want his Money. From the Rest i dont have Paypal Informations atm.

30 % goes to Charity. This are 121 Euro. 90 % want give the Money to Childs Play. This are 108 Euro. I put on this 108 Euro the Money from Putu = 164 Euro.

As you can see here i send the Money to Childs Play

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/Qhx1fgbyhM.jpg

and Chronic Logic , too.

The Rest of the Donation-Money will send per Bank Account because German Cancer foundation dont have Paypal. And EFF got only 5 % - this are 6,05 Euro but i put my Part of all on it and so they get 75 Euro.

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/6WznD3i0H9.jpg

You see i earn nothing in this Debacle. It was a big mistake to go online one day before my wedding and i only can say Sorry and try to Apogolise. I will fix all on Site and then we go online and hope you will get me and this PRoject a second Chance!

And when i calculate wrong, what i dont think, i am sorry then -then i must pay more and some Money from my Private Money. But it was never more than 403 Euro.Josiah from Chronic Logic saw the Paypal Statement (CSV Export) and it was not more.

why isn't the focus of this debacle be the literally stupid developers that sold their soul for a 70% cut of their original ip?

why are we focusing on the businessman who is acting like a businessman?

Yeah, stop with that soul selling for a 70% cut of your original IP, Indie devs.

STOP IT NOW.

*watches all portals and console vendors stop carrying Indie games*

Oh... that didn't go quite as planned.

Ah well. Nothing to see here, move along.

http://www.texturmatsch.de/2010/05/givewhateveryouwant-com-dreist-muss-man-sein/

Well, I wouldn't mind getting a hold of these games, but I'll wait until the stupidity blows over to actually secure a copy.

jochen is even faking his critics. this guy is much more sick, then anybody supposed :(

http://board.gulli.com/thread/1561578-zahldochwasduwillstdegivewhateveryouwantcom/#post12932439

Its a Game from the Stalker that he havw.Bad Actors,not really believable.Some Guys need only a little bit attention.Always i look i read the name tantrix.Sorry but now is enough.Its not longer plausible.maybe there are some other guys sick.and i dont think jochen it is atm.

Crypton = Jochen

pathetic!

@Jonny

full ack!

this guy is pathetic indeed.

cant believe, he thinks everyone is an idiot, like himself.

following his typical whining, as it seems, after he crashed against a wall again, leaving many people without money or paid goods, like in former business projekts. the creditors are put off with the next greatfull projekt, that will be the money making machine for sure. it is a neverending story.

the best joke is his "give me a second chance", after the most people gave him like 10 times the "second chance" and he messed with it over and over.

this text seems to be a helpless attempt to keep the charity organisations from sueing him, after he threatend the developers, customers and critics with legal actions.

this apology is formated and published so unprofessional, it cant be serious and honest :(

"

Dear Customers,

i dont want disturb but i must send you this Mail because i cant sleep good without to apologise.

I never want scam with this Site. I never planned this. It was a bad mistake and very amateurish to start the Website one day before my wedding. this was amateurish and stupid. So i cant support

the PRoblems or help when the Link dont work. The Site has many technical issues. I was too impatient. I wanted go online asap. A big mistake. I am very Sorry and must apologise by all of you.

I dont want apologise to hint my Story 12 Years ago. I think its not interesting for all because all People has earned a second Chance. Everyone. And i has established. So dont judge about me too early

and give me a second Chance.

Some mailed me to know if the site come back. The ANswer: I really dont know. I want but i am afraid that is not work anymore. I dont want scam with the Site. You can believe me.

I will say Sorry to the Organisations, too. I am sorry that i use the Logos without asking. I only want help and never take the Money for me. The Charity-Money was from the beginning of the idea 100 % planned

for them. I am very Sorry.

And i will say Sorry to the Developers that all happened like this now.

I'm really sorry. Please forgive me.

Sincerely yours,

Jochen Kolbe
"

This Jochen guy has no clue about anything.

Now, after this thing has mostly blown over, I must say I feel a bit sorry for Jochen and the entire project. I think he never intended to scam anyone with this. The problem wasn't really even the dead link, the problem was 100% his customer support. IE acting childish on forums and lashing out on specific people, instead of just shutting up and issuing official statements on the website or the like.

With that said, some good actually came out of this - for us atleast. Look out in the near future for the awesomest game pack ever - Northern Light, 5 nordic designs, on Steam. Cheap.