alpha-two-general

[robust inlet]

He literally goes over this in his statement document

[gleaming hornet]

another level of the multilevel marketing

[robust inlet]

Its just a document on Google Drive, its safe

[burnt matrix]

There’s a good group of people here that would get DA’d and still think they can fix their partner 🤦‍♂️

[icy sapphire]

His take in the document is retarded
If there was no board, he would be the sole owner of 100% of the shares, making it impossible for what happened to happen.
He even states it himself; The board was Him, John and Tom. THAT IS BY DEFINITION A BOARD
He trusted the wrong people, and he got fucked, that's what happened, but saying there was no board was a fuckign lie all along, its not because its privately held that it means theres no board

[mint nacelle]

Alot of “answered questions” but nothing about the misuse of company funds to buy random stuff 😭

[mild plover]

he still went to them for funding regardless. That's his decision to give a % of the company away

[topaz torrent]

People really have a hard time understanding the mechanics of a hostile takeover apparently

[finite torrent]

@vague leaf ping me if i can get a refund,nothing else you cretin

[robust inlet]

A board and Board of investors as you stated are not the same thing. Every company has a board whether official or not. When you make a company in a startup fashion, shares in the company are a part of the compensation package. Very rarely if never does 1 person ever own 100% of a company. Thats just company basics.

[gleaming hornet]

give full ownership to plannendorf

[burnt matrix]

My vote is for fuppo

[gleaming hornet]

or tmx

[topaz torrent]

We killed Plannendorfs caravan one time man, so much fun

[icy sapphire]

Agreed, but in this case, there was a board of investors, how do you explain salaries being weaponized against him if the project was "Self-funded with his OWN MONEY"?

[gleaming hornet]

let tmx develope ashes

[burnt matrix]

Yeah no

[terse finch]

can’t you play their aoc emulator for that lol

[fathom moon]

Those guys all gave up

[mild plover]

idk how you can make business deals with shady people then be surprised when the shady people do something shady. It's an unfortunate deal with the devil and this was the consequence

[terse finch]

good

[burnt matrix]

Sounds like them for sure

All yap and not real ability

[fervent raft]

I have always believed it was Steven’s intent to develop and deliver AoC.

I have also stated that Nefas uses Jerry Springer tactics for views and doesn’t appear to care about facts and challenging blatant red flags with thugs like Caramanis and that the Jeunesse scum Steven surrounded himself with to finance AoC was a bad move, so I am not surprised to hear there was likely a ton of sketch shit going on behind the scenes.

However, there are some core details that do not change.

One of the biggest core details for me is that if Steven was not making poor financial decisions regarding the company and needing to rely on consistently taking loans from Dawson from 2022 until July 2024 when Dawson finally became the majority stakeholder, the situation would not be where it is.

Steven’s original filing states that between 2023 and May 2024 Dawson repeatedly held him and then board hostage by threats such as withhold financing for employee payroll and health-insurance funding days before payroll deadlines, but I fail to see how this can happen unless Steven put Dawson into a position of power to do this.

If this was occurring in 2023 prior to Dawson having majority control and any control over the finances of the company, this likely means the ‘threat of withholding payroll’, was simply Dawson stating he would not be throwing more money into AoC to keep it going when Steven came up short on payroll or the funds to continue employee health insurance and once again came to Dawson for another loan.

[fathom moon]

Definitely true - corporate sabotage aside, its hard to look past what the devs said of development being dramatically slowed by Steven’s indecisiveness and need to be involved in every decision - thus driving costs higher and dev time longer

[rotund knoll]

🙏 May the roots of the Heartwood Trees grow healthier, and the community of Ashes rise like a blazing Phoenix.

🙏 May the Echoes of the Fallen 7 shine their light and cast away the Darkness that looms over Verra.

May the community stay as vigilant as Steven has proven to be steadfast!

[topaz torrent]

Judge orders both parties to put together siege rosters for one-time war to settle control of the company once and for all. Jason+Nefas lead one team, Steven+Bucky lead the other team. Choose your siege roster

[arctic saffron]

this would be hilarious

[fathom moon]

It’s hard to remember all the facts here

[robust inlet]

It likely was self-funded in the beginning. But Self-Funded means he "funded" the company in the beginning. Until the point at which the company begins having incoming revenue.

That doesnt mean every salary check was being cut from Stevens personal bank account for 11 years.

[fervent raft]

I am not certain that a creditor refusing to invest more money in 2023 to cover payroll would be considered corporate sabotage. Or are you referring to something else?

[robust inlet]

They 100% made some poor choices lately, business wise. They got into bed with some shitty people it sounds like and now theyre in the suck of it.

Still pretty much business 101 in america.

[fathom moon]

I just meant the whole situation in general of what Steven is alleging happened

[burnt matrix]

Imagine letting a kid borrow your shoes and he goes and takes a shit in them. You ask to see them or have them back and he says no. You’re upset at the kid punching the little shit head in the face for his shoes back.

[fathom moon]

Like regardless of all the lawsuit stuff, Steven still slowed aoc dev way down

[safe pivot]

Why is @vague leaf posting anything at the end of the day all I have to remember is no one to answer too no board that alone is enough for me to say you shady bro you lied and mislead tons of peeps now stop acting likenthe victim when you clearly where living above you means

[rotund knoll]

I wouldn't put all the blame on 1 person.
It's not easy to direct over 200 people and guarantee that you make the right choice everytime.

[scenic wagon]

They tried to transfer all the assets, operations and some of the workers to TFE gaming and leave Interpid with all the debts. Steven would own Interpid and would need to answer for the debt while the board would continue development without Steven.

[topaz torrent]

Which is like mob level tactics

[vague leaf]

All meetings in intrepid were required to be recorded. You will see this is not true.

[fathom moon]

That would be awesome ngl

[topaz torrent]

Open development may actually end up saving the day

[rotund knoll]

He asked his council before posting publicly.
This means he asked the lawyers first.

Defamation and harassment is not something easy on someone.

I hope it never happens to you, it really is awful.

[kind prism]

$100 box cost and a $20 sub is one of the most el retardo things I've ever heard xdd

[vague leaf]

You should have seen me screaming in the board meeting.

[fathom moon]

People say AoC is dead but the project being on hiatus for almost four months now and still having a discord more active than most other games in EA says otherwise tbh

[wanton karma]

Steven was by no means perfect, but alot of his mistakes were under coercion, the amount of hate along his way was by no means deserved. Id be happy to play ashes in its current state whilst Steven works on it solo. I have always said even in Alpha 1, that Ashes is better than most MMOs out there

[icy sapphire]

You either haven't followed every streams since 2015 like i did or forgot, he said at every steps; "theres no board, no investors, I'm paying for it, this project is happening no matter what" over 100times. And he hasn't yet to fucking apologies to the community for it, and he won't because that would be admitance of guilt and then we could sue him for it

[terse finch]

the whole ai slop presentation was the most hilarious thing I ever saw in regards to actual plans

[foggy whale]

I don´t think this game will ever come to life with Steven involved, even if the lawsuit will be settled in his favor. I don´t think anyone will trust him enough for investor capital and i do not see him funding the game alone until the end.

[topaz torrent]

He just apologized?

[icy sapphire]

For Lying to us? where?

[wanton karma]

I parked all my characters at the Aelean Gateway in hopes that we would return, and im hopeful that we will.

[robust inlet]

Anything in writing saying that besides the one comment on this discord from 2018 says they were self-funded?

[daring beacon]

We'll likely never know the whole truth, and we don't need to. Ashes of Creation was the only MMORPG I've found interesting in years. I hope we see this project continue to thrive.

[gleaming hornet]

lol

[icy sapphire]

every fucking stream, all the fucking time dude lol

[terse finch]

🤦‍♂️ <- to me or the power point presentation by the board ordered on wish? lol

[icy sapphire]

Go check your facts then you can debate

[burnt matrix]

That’s the power of marketing

[fervent raft]

This did not start until the end of 2025, I was not addressing that. I said all along that the article 9 foreclosure did not appear to be legal but the point remains, Dawson was majority shareholder at the time and according to Steven's filings, he has control and the vote of the Board so if he wanted to, he could have sold the company legally and still can. Had Dawson been a little smarter with control and not tried to push that article 9 privately without the required notification to senior secured creditors and just handled it legally as he had the controlling power to do so, the company would likely have already been sold or dismantled. Dawson's s illegal article 9 foreclosure just delayed what we might be seeing play out in the next few months when Dawson makes the move legally this time.

[robust inlet]

Nah I mean like a statement in writing. Like an announcement, email, etc?

Its the same reason you have conversations at work in written form for important shit. Receipts!

[icy sapphire]

omg bro, you speaking so much out of your ass, such a good troll

[gleaming hornet]

yeah thats ragebait

steven said its self funded til the end the whole time

[mild plover]

it was basically his slogan

[gleaming hornet]

if you debate that youre ragebaiting

[burnt matrix]

Didn’t we dump AoC merch onto a fitness company owned by his brother. His own brother?

[rotund knoll]

I quote directly from Steven's statement

• "And we are going to fight like hell to ensure Ashes of Creation reaches the hands of the people who waited for it for so long, from the hands of those who built it, believe in it, and intend to deliver on its promise."

[robust inlet]

Nah. You feel slighted because you believed something that was said. But its not a big push to ask for literally anywhere its written down for the community?

Why is asking for that Trolling? Thats the first thing you should ever do when forming such a solid opinion about something.

[crimson pecan]

Recorded verbal statements are equal to it being in writing you know. Which there are 10+ cases he has done so

[robust inlet]

Everyone knows shit isnt real till its written down

[gleaming hornet]

ragebait master

[topaz torrent]

That's why we have birth certificates, you aren't real til you get that paper

[burnt matrix]

I wanna be a real boy

[robust inlet]

With all these nerds here, no one has made a Stream remix tape yet of him saying these things over and over? Hard to believe.

[mild plover]

closing your ears and making demands. W ragebait

[fathom moon]

I think that does exist actually but good luck having someone search it up

[crimson pecan]

^^ I’m sure it’s probably out there

[terse finch]

well it still gave people the wrong impression though
last stream statement regarding the funding 👇
https://youtu.be/Ta9mWkgarZE?t=7154&is=oAjFoN5Xhk9XxC4Q

do I personally feel lied to because of things like that?
yes

will I still wait to see what may or may not have happened behind the scenes?
also yes

[wanton karma]

im not entitely sure what the argument is about... we just got proof that what steven says is true. Now we wait for Dawson to release his side, not from clickbait content creators.

[crimson pecan]

Mood. I’m just here still curious what will happen with the source files of the game

[fathom moon]

Steven’s case is really strong right now for sure

[wanton karma]

you work on a company for 10 years with 200+ employees with coercion behind the scenes and you try to make sure you never say a lie. 🙄

[mild plover]

even if everything is 100% true and the court favors steven, he still made the initial deal with this shady party

[timber pulsar]

@vague leaf 🖕

[fathom moon]

I liked this part that lawyers said in the last document linked - summarized bc I can’t post pictures

Basically his lawyers say that by doing the Article 9 sale they gave up their security interest

Then by reversing it as ordered by the court, the assets got given to intrepid, but the interest was not reinstated

So TFE then has no vested interest and can’t sell the assets or do another Article 9

[wanton karma]

making a deal with someone who then turns out to be shady does not put blame on the dealee, what kinda victim blaming is this?

[daring beacon]

Do you think this gesture is very clever?

[wicked shard]

they still own majority of intrepid so none of that matters

[burnt matrix]

None shady people don’t get money to invest on MMOs lol

[wicked shard]

has to be where the money come from. no one wants to waste money on an mmo cause its so rough to invcest into

[burnt matrix]

Shady people don’t care because they know how to get their money back no matter what.

[topaz torrent]

We got the real "juice" of an announcement (see what I did there) today AND israel's covered in bees, man what a great start to the day

[silver nacelle]

@vague leaf We getting our game back or what

[robust inlet]

Wait im legitimately confused here, im sorry. What did I miss in this stream at the spot you posted? All he says here is "The company is financed to completion". He goes on to say "its all on 1 mans shoulders"... But makes no other mention to the fact that he is personally funding everything, just that it is funded.

This is why I ask for receipts, because this stream is not saying anything people are claiming

[hazy pine]

It seems to me that right now it looks like Steven might be able to win the case, but I have no idea how they would technically resume development. I can’t imagine how they would attract good developers to Ashes, and they’d also need to bring back a significant part of the original team just to understand what’s already been built. And on top of that, it would still require hundreds of millions.**

[wanton karma]

i dont really care who owns intrepid, steven started ashes, aslong as he owns the assets and holds true to his dream we can continue growing as a community.

[mild plover]

you don't make million dollar deals while giving away % of your company without knowing your investors practices, especially since steven went back multiple times for more money during this whole thing

[wanton karma]

so he made a bad investment, so?

[topaz torrent]

I couldn't care less, but I would feel dirty if Steven was cutout completely. Don't think I could get past that. Then again I'm still queueing up for League and consider Riot to be the blackrock of the gaming world

[burnt matrix]

Deadlock is the new old league

[topaz torrent]

bugsbunnyno.gif

[mild plover]

yep, and these are the consequences.

[burnt matrix]

I’ve missed the hour long matches Ngl

I played 13 years of league and I haven’t played league like this since s9 🤷‍♂️

[silver nacelle]

Large majority of people screaming about how Ashes is this and that would be back to play no matter who was running it

[burnt matrix]

Why so I can get more pocket dungeons shoved down my throat?

[silver nacelle]

Youll be back~

[robust inlet]

Not the weirdest thing to be put there

[silver nacelle]

Your still in here typing right?!

[burnt matrix]

Nah I’ll pass. They made good POIs bad and only gave us pocket dungeons.

That’s cause I’m waiting for this deadlock match to be over to join my buddy lol

[topaz torrent]

My 3rd monitor has had Ashes general discord open on it for like 4 years straight, I don't really use it for anything else so there was no need to change it even after I stopped playing that Saturday

My desktop still has a map of verra as the background image because I'm lazy

[silver nacelle]

Thats dedication

[wanton karma]

mine too

[terse finch]

It’s about the impression given to people
That’s marketing done well but ending badly
like this is just an example of many many things said to imply stuff and market the game over the years

And while I do think people are right to be sad, upset or frustrated because of that and because of how things ended
I also think that waiting for things to fully reveal is important, like I said, about what ever might or might not have happened behind the scenes
you never know

and on top of that I personally think any kind of personal harassment, insulting etc is completely stupid either way…
just wait for the outcome and keep some human decency

[wanton karma]

i still run a discord dedicated to teaching newbies ashes and helping them enjoy it

[keen goblet]

Steven just keeps doing the same old misleading dialogue that he's been using for years:

"I invested 'millions'"

What is millions? How did you earn your capital? Why wont you go on the record and give numbers and what businesses you ran to make that capitol. You want to know why people are believing your opponents? They are coming with actual numbers about your alleged embezzlement.

People aren't going to trust you anymore Steven, you have to give out actual facts from now on

[burnt matrix]

That’s what me and my guild did all of last wipe lol good times.

[thorn marten]

I will believe Steven if he leaks what Tulnar looked like

[terse finch]

same, both with the guild and a community discord dedicated to new players

[burnt matrix]

That’s all there really was to do tbh. Help the steam players learn the game.

[robust inlet]

For Sure. I just see a lot of people claiming hard and dry that Steven said X Y Z about this... But even here, when asked directly about it, is not saying those claims.

[wanton karma]

i wholeheartedly disagree, eveyone kept saying ashes had no content but thats like saying minecraft has no content. you make the content. its player driven.

[robust inlet]

I mean that was the most shifty PR answer ive seen from him, its obvious in that stream that shits happening in the background hes not in control of. But he never says those things.

[terse finch]

well yea but I also enjoyed it a lot
felt like the good old times where watching a guide on yt wasn’t a thing yet and you had to find a carebear willing to teach you the dungeon mechs lol

[burnt matrix]

I played since p1 and did everything else so teaching new players is all there was to do.

[topaz torrent]

Back in my day we died repeatedly til somebody started yelling then started paying attention and laughed so hard

[marble cypress]

Does it talk about the alleged kickstarter money spent on mtg?

[wanton karma]

i also did and i had 550 hours in the steam launch alone, i dwarfed that playtime in alpha 2, i never came close to doing everything.

[burnt matrix]

Yeah I’ve said time and time again the internet has ruined gaming.

[terse finch]

imo it had tons of content especially when you got a community and were actively testing
but after about 4k hours in the game and x wipes and ptr tests it still was a little repetitive, which was totally fine though

[terse finch]

100% agree

[wanton karma]

gotta also remember the world was static the dynamic nature wasnt even enabled yet.

[terse finch]

ye I mean this is probably an unpopular opinion
but to me ashes was actually on a really good way of getting somewhere when everything collapsed

like I had the most fun in the game in those weeks b4

[wanton karma]

100%, ashes wasnt the issue, the financing was. the game is still great

[acoustic harness]

To hell with the wall of text I was writing...

Steven, that's the shit—that's the ATTITUDE that kept me here even though there's so much shit going on around us.

Keep moving forward on the path, the path that Ashes has followed, keep getting better.
Solutions come to those who seek them, and we’re definitely going to get out of this shitty situation.

||One more thing, to all the haters and complainers out here, THIS IS FOR YOU! FUCK YOU! Ashes is going to fight to keep moving forward ||

From the ashes, a new creation will be born!

[terse finch]

ye, I feel most sorry for the devs
I can only imagine how hard this must have been on them after putting so much sweat and tears into it

[wanton karma]

💯

i could honestly see steven keeping track of the employees and their missed money with intent to repay it when ashes is back on its feet

[terse finch]

I would love for them to work on the game again
but I’m an half empty type of person lol so…
we’ll have to wait and see

[wanton karma]

me too, ashes has always been my last hope for mmos , so im still hopeful.

[terse finch]

same I’ve basically went from nolifing ashes to being a rl person ever since it ended
probably won’t touch another mmo if it isn’t for ashes tbh

[wary spear]

"The board through their agent, Jason Caramanis, claims you didn’t finance
the project and misappropriated funds. Can you address that?
That claim is completely false, and it is contradicted by the record."

I don't think he goes into the MTG specifically, but all of that is probably covered under this. he goes into more details about the situation but doesn't bring up any specific misappropriation of funds because it's being asserted it's all lies.

[wanton karma]

yeah ever since ashes went down ive been on time for work and getting healthy amounts sleep... its horrible

[terse finch]

feels so wrong right? lol

[wanton karma]

i will touch other mmos but ill have 0 hope

[cunning cosmos]

What about ur new house Steve ? why u cant say sorry2community? zero words about stolen money

[wary spear]

This is gonna sound dumb, but Leaks are telling of a pokemon mmo slated for 2029, that covers 5 regions, and that could be fun.

[terse finch]

well I hope you’ll get an unexpected yet pleasant surprise then!

[wanton karma]

ngl, nintendo have proven time and time again that they will ship shit and demand people buy it for $300 due to FOMO

[wary spear]

trolls are back in force because steven has posted

[echo grove]

Majority of the Doordash, MTG, Movie Theatres, Amazon, etc were clearly done on company events/fun.
We've already seen statements before of Company Family movie outings, company catered food sometimes, some MTG / pathfinder etc campaigns and other office fun, and Amazon office supplies.

[wanton karma]

now we need trolls as a playable race and their ingame voice is just toxic comments from discord

[wary spear]

sounds like a good company to work at tbh.

[marble cypress]

Regardless of the decision, irreparable damage has been done unfortunately

[craggy pelican]

I am starting to smell the golden beetles!

[wanton karma]

damage yes, irepparable? idk

[hidden axle]

[terse finch]

ye I don’t really get people being upset over this so badly
especially the lower amounts

honestly a company gifting you a set of dnd dice doesn’t sound like something bad to me

[echo grove]

If your going to question some of the accounting stuff, at least pick the right ones to question.
You got people making youtube videos thinking they are spending epic money on vbucks 😛

[wanton karma]

40k over 10 years is roughly 200 a week, for a company of 200+ employees, thats less than $1 per employee, once a week. like who the fuck cares lmao

[inner citrus]

I have been busy and haven't checked in detail last 1-2 months. Is it still Steven's scam or just terrible decisions ?

[slender hinge]

Are the servers still up ?

[wary spear]

Damage is definitely irepparable to a certain extent. You can't go back and fix the devs that were left starving in their cars because of this even if they get a settlement in the end. I imagine some of the very very talented individuals the company had working for it probably won't ever return.

[thorny chasm]

@vague leaf DOES THIS MEAN THE GAME WILL COME BACK???

[nocturne solar]

Steven, why do u defame Nefas saying that he did not use proper journalistic standards and is just a mouthpiece? He clearly called to you multiple times to share your perspective, man..

This just comes of as totally pointless from you and makes you look bad, for no reason really.

[wanton karma]

neither, steven got money from bad people and they essentially blackmailed him to losing control of the company. at least until proven otherwise.

[granite harbor]

The court dates get delayed every time someone tags him.

[thorny chasm]

NOOOOOO I JUST WANT TO BONK PEOPLE AS A CLERIC AGAIN

[inner citrus]

Ty mate. Quite sad, I was actually looking forward to playing this game. Been following it since 2k17 or sthing..

[stable dune]

Thank you, I do not care about all the shit talk and videos, I genuinely wanted this game and the time I spent playing I loved it. All shit aside I hope the game gets worked on again and a release. This was the funnest times I've had in any video game...

[wary spear]

yeah... a lot of us have. He's said development will continue, but court could takes years. I'm hoping it goes fast though, TFE retransfering back assests back to intrepid while it stopped the injuction does huge damage for their reputation moving forward and I'm hoping that expedites the process of this.

[thorny chasm]

Ngl ive been playing so many mmos lately and none of them gave me the itch like ashes did idk why but it was just so fun even with all the bugs and stuff

[wanton karma]

💯

[charred stratus]

Hope to see the project coming back to life. But I don't understand how would it be possible for Steven to get his management position after all of the litigations 😄 ...

[stable dune]

I agree. I have played most MMORPG releases over the last 20 years. Ashes was my favorite title and time..

[wanton karma]

imo its probably goingnto be intrepid dies, bt steven starts up intrepid 2 electric boogaloo and launches ashes

[wary spear]

I think I put a few hundred hours into P1, I was one of few people in my guild at 25 by the end... I didn't play for p2/p3 cause I didn't want to burn myself out, but man am I regretting it now.

[faint cosmos]

Just

[wanton karma]

i never hit 25 til steam release, because i kept remaking chars to help people out. tanks were endangered at one point

[thorny chasm]

Bro yall i wish i got to play in p1 my buddy told me about the game in the end of p2 and i was like eh idk 100 bucks for what it looked like i was like nawww no way but said fuck it ill buy it and fuckkk man i fucked up my sleep idk why it was so bad for my heath but man i never had so much fun.

[wanton karma]

mmo gonna mmo

[bold steeple]

Steven... that is wonderful news then, especially if you will bring aoc back again from start with new devs etc etc. But foremost of all of that... you will have my backing to pay again if necessary for key or whatever... but how about addressing the lie of having no board members too? Will you address that? Or it wasnt a lie and a misunderstanding from all the players who heard you saying "game is fully funded by you and only you and there are no other share holders or board members".

[rustic oak]

Well he's still a scammer regardless because of previous situations

[mint ocean]

You should check out the News Channel

[wanton karma]

i once got mugged at knifepoint and gave then £10 when i actually had £20 on me, i scammed them good. i am a scammer.

[wary spear]

Yeah it truly connected like few other games have. There's nothing quite like the magic of logging on one night and Steven's RPing with content creators , but you're just some random miner and god is yelling riddles into the atmosphere. I think I probably fell in love with the game at that moment.

Or the time steven showed up because of my guildmates got stuck, and he RPed with them getting him unstuck and give him a mount. I don't know any other game director that's doing those kinds of things.

[delicate ivy]

that is to be confirmed by the employees. if Steven really took care of them when he had the opportunity, which I believe he did based on how many ppl had 5+ years in the company, I don't see why he couldn't bring at least part of them back.

[cosmic cairn]

Steven doesn't need a dev team anymore. Claude Opus got him

[mild plover]

This would work if you mentioned begging the mugger for money repeatedly until he had the % stake to take your money

[delicate ivy]

Game continued after Bard left, one way or another. you lose one talent, you bring another, it is what it is. we got Bucky and other talented ppl, but there are many more ppl waiting to be given a chance to build awesome stuff.

[rustic oak]

This. If western gamers keep seeing this happen with MMO's, our confidence in future companies will keep going down

[lavish hazel]

Even if you win, we'll still have a trust issue. You claimed to be funding the project yourself, but it turns out that wasn't true.

[vague leaf]

Pretty easy. Go read the exhibits and the declarations and sworn statements by the employees. I fought for them then and am fighting now for them.

[pine forge]

Steven taking the words out of my mouth lol

Im reading the witness declearations right now and its one hell of a ride

[fickle canopy]

I WAS GLUED to my screen reading those

[stone leaf]

same, it's mind-boggling that the offer from Riot was a real thing that happened

[pine forge]

Not even that, the kind of methods Dawson and his group (allegedly) employed to pull this entire thing off is just crazy

[elfin aurora]

you should've taken the riot offer

[stone leaf]

hindsight is 20 20

[pine forge]

Also this lol:
"At the end of this January 30 meeting, after deciding to lay everyone off,
Dawson mentioned that he needed to leave because he and his friends were heading
out on a private jet to Cabo for the weekend. In my opinion, this demonstrates poor
character on Dawson’s part."
(Page 30 line 25, declaration of J. Beucler)

[vague leaf]

Read the filing and exhibits. I wanted to. I was convinced otherwise. Then literally 2 months later, the threats and coercion began.

[pine forge]

Isnt that exactly what they are acccusing steven of?

[elfin aurora]

I get that you were convinced otherwise, but you also could've not been convinced lol

[fickle canopy]

It seemed like a really exceptional offer. It kept Steven as the vision. Im shocked it wasnt taken

[potent scarab]

I want answers steven. Why didn't you let us know about the board in the first place?

[pine forge]

read the thing

[misty crown]

I'm so happy to see you in chat again. I'm so sad this had to happen to you and the team.

[vague leaf]

There is more I cannot say at this point. But will come out in deposition I’m sure.

[forest whale]

Real. These are some uh... enlightening testimonies to say the least. Assuming they are honest, which they damn sure seem to be (no offense meant to anyone, just sayin)

[cosmic cairn]

This is some evil villain shit 😂

[potent scarab]

Kk

[pine forge]

fr

[fickle canopy]

Whens the next hearing?

JK April 19th

[pine forge]

page 5 to be precise

[topaz torrent]

I love it when my cats bring lizards in and the lizards bite the cats on the paw/face and just start hanging off of them man its so hilarious

[cosmic cairn]

"Yeah this project bores me, fire everyone, i have a private jet to catch 🧐 "

[misty crown]

Should add them as background villains in the lore

[trim basalt]

What's exact point of truths etc if game is dead?

[pine forge]

Robert the ancient one

[stone leaf]

I'm just still curious about what exactly happened with Apocalypse
I have heard claims that the game was made on a separate UE project and shared functionally no code with the main game
I wanna believe in Steven and Intrepid, but if this is true that's a serious breach of player trust

[topaz torrent]

Just because the game's offline... it still exists. we could... rebuild it

[rustic oak]

What about all of the irresponsible spending? Steven your reputation is permanently damaged.

[pine forge]

read page 7-8

[topaz torrent]

I mean I'm pretty sure that was the exact point of all of this. Damage his reputation beyond repair so they could take over

[spark ingot]

bro this is wild

[topaz torrent]

Act like saviors of the day and shit

Blame all future problems on Steven to escape any accountability for anything

[fading ice]

Hi everybody

[pine forge]

what I find to be most convinccing for stevens side is that apparently there are several other lawsuits with similar "incidents" involving Robert Dawson
That cant be a coincidence

[wheat rover]

agreed

[fickle canopy]

Can other lawsuits be used in court to show a pattern of misconduct?

[snow zephyr]

Oh dang, drama and stuff. I miss my horse Nutmeg.

[wheat rover]

anything can be submitted. not everything is accepted by the court.

[short dew]

Thing is at this point there is so many red flags on this project and studio that no matter the result AOC will have little support unless it is under a new studio with completely different and transparent management

[misty crown]

Agreed, though as I've been following intrepid since the kickstarter, I don't need any convincing to take his side.

[stone leaf]

dawg I don't care just give me something to fill the void archeage left I beg

[solid inlet]

Can someone give me tldr of what's happening cause I don't wanna go through the documents

[supple mantle]

Steven truly had a vision

[stone leaf]

go through the documents

[maiden timber]

[supple mantle]

When is phase 4 I’m ready Steven

[solid inlet]

Sigh

[tulip pond]

The fact you said it was entirely self funded and it actually not being funded by you and by a board of members is enough in itself

[potent scarab]

Yeah i was reading through it. It's page 6 but thanks. I
Did get his answer thanks

[pine forge]

im sure someone will make a yt vid at some point

[solid inlet]

So did the board ACTUALLY exist?

[kind prism]

The timeline where the Riot MMO is actually Ashes would have caused so much salt among a few people I know 😆 Would have been the peak timeline

[forest whale]

You really should read for yourself ngl, but essentially a lot of people go for bat for Stephen and paint a pretty bad picture of Dawson and co.

[pine forge]

np, also counting is hard lul

[stone leaf]

allegedly yes, starting in july 2024

[potent scarab]

@kind prism who is this Tom he talked about? I only knew of him and John in the beginning as owners

[kind prism]

Tom Alkazin

He was one of the first investors in Intrepid

[potent scarab]

I dont remember hearing about him back in 2017. I guess I missed it

[fading oak]

$16k on the movies baby, lets go

[potent scarab]

Its seemed to really be officially a board that seemed to be forced in 2024

[fervent raft]

Most of the creditor/investors have MLM ties and as some filings have indicated, there appears to have been a deliberate attempt to keep some of these MLM ties out of the public eye.

[kind prism]

There was a "board" before 2024, but it consisted of Steven, John, and Tom Alkazin so it was entirely under Steven/Johns control. Was in 2024 that Dawson allegedly took control of it

[thorn marten]

This was actually posted about publicly. They rented out theaters for all employees as a company event or w/e

[pine forge]

“We were trying to pull a fast one, and we got caught.”``` 
The "we got caught" killed me 😂

[solid inlet]

So Steven wasn't the bad guy... It was Rob Dawson?

And I guess the finances were kept on a need to know basis?

[pine forge]

It goes even further:

no real understanding of how to build a video game, had no regard for the humans
involved, and had the sole objective to take control of Intrepid’s assets. For them, it
was just a numbers game."```

[stone leaf]

this was implied in the documents, yeah

[forest whale]

If you believe the court documents (which you probably should) then Stephen was a very naive guy then a very cornered guy trying to do the best for the game and devs and Robert is very bad guy.

And ye finances are explicitly said to be kept need to know basis

[faint bluff]

I cant believe some of yall still wanna drink that kool-aid

[fading oak]

Man, most companies I worked for told me I get a paycheck and better like it. Occasionally, I would get insurance. Can't even imagine some bs like that.

[pine forge]

bro read for urself

[wild drum]

why not, if it's not your money you are spending ^^

[solid inlet]

This is why Steven couldn't say anything before. This NEEDED to play out in court

[fervent raft]

While there is no doubt in my mind that Dawson and some of the other Jeunesse creditors are scumbags, Steven's actions of surrounding himself with these people and then getting himself in a position financially where they could later then leverage this against him such as witholding additional loans to cover payroll ect. appears to be what happened.

[forest whale]

It's entirely possible a lot of people are lying for Steven under oath, and this is the koolest of kool-aid, but that's pretty unlikely after going through all the reading.

/shrug

[tulip pond]

Yeah, regardless of what happens. The game is worse off than Star citizen right now.

Even before this debacle of everyone got fired because the board forcefully took over. The game was stagnant with updates and cheaters..the whole nine yards really.

[forest whale]

Ye seems about what happened

Uh oh I'm pregnant 😳

[zenith solar]

The real winners were the gold sellers

[solid inlet]

Why? What would they gain?

[kind prism]

Congrats

Or condolences

[forest whale]

Absolutely nothing that I can see @solid inlet

[forest surge]

Holy chat blew up in here, any significant changes or good drama

[fickle canopy]

https://discord.com/channels/256164085366915072/270797463907074048

[fervent raft]

Well, the statement you made was quite out there and probably deserved something. I get a thumbs down from Steven every now and then but I think deep down, Steven knows I am fair with my comments. 😉

[neon shell]

New drop.

[sacred ibex]

Any tldr on the #news ?

[forest whale]

[maiden timber]

Phase 4 soon /s

[neon shell]

Rob had control of the money near the end. That. Is going to be a fun one to see in litigation.

[junior atlas]

who is playing teso?

[topaz torrent]

PHASE 4 GON BE LIT

[pine forge]

@sacred ibex

[sacred ibex]

That's all I needed to hear big man 🫡

[kind prism]

We got confirmation that it was Riot who were interested in buying Ashes in 2022. Their initial thoughts of an offer was $250-$500m

[final karma]

you freak :)

[forest whale]

Either a lot of people committed federal perjury for $0 profit or Steven was telling the truth all along.

[solid inlet]

They already lost their job, the company has already gone under for the most part. I don't see anyone lying to go to bat for Steven for no reason.

I think someone put it best.
Steven may have been naive at first, but he really did truly see a vision for AoC

[sacred ibex]

Any more hearings inc/when is it all coming to an end? 🧐

[fickle canopy]

Next hearing april 19th

[kind prism]

Gonna be a long time before it "comes to an end" most likely

[topaz torrent]

4/19, 2 days before my birthday (not nec. the end just the next installment)

[forest surge]

Huh, I'm surprised, and surprised Steven said no. Maybe they refused to give him full creative control?

[kind prism]

Allegedly Steven was interested in taking the offer, but Dawson convinced him not to under the guise of "i'll fully fund the game to completion so don't take the deal". Allegedly it was a scheme by Dawson to take control of the company which was started a couple of months later

[forest whale]

Ye I agree but I'm not in the habit of 100% committing to anything in an ongoing court battle

I was raised by lawyers >,>

[solid inlet]

STREAM THE HEARINGS!!! (kidding)

[topaz torrent]

If those are facts man I wanna box Dawson for charity

[kind prism]

Basically Dawson saw that they were offering up to $500m, got $$$ in his eyes thinking "oh shit it must be worth way more than that so why should we sell" and then he tried to take control of the company to get the $$ all for himself

[inner coral]

And now you will raise lawyers.

[solid inlet]

That's a fair assessment. I'm going based off the documents that are available to us at this moment

If I'm not mistaken, the case is going on in California? If that's the case Steven is in a really good position if everything turns out to be true.

[marsh quarry]

can steven just hurry up lose the court case and ashes so the game devolpment can continue lol

[forest whale]

Random troll attack, my one true weakness! D:

[topaz torrent]

sin tax incoming

[solid inlet]

The assets for the game are worth A LOT. So not a fat chance that this is gonna be swept under the rug

[eager walrus]

Seems like he’s winning

[solid imp]

statement is virus guys

[marsh quarry]

multiple people on the board already stated they want to continue and finish devolpment with the game

if it goes back to steven its not continuing on top of which steven will not be able to get another loan again

[solid imp]

if you click steven also has all rights on you too

[solid inlet]

Virus Total Screenshot or you're grifting

[marsh quarry]

also intripids already proved to be incompetent and at this point the game would be better off undersomeone else to be finished

[pine forge]

[forest whale]

so the cycle continues

[marsh quarry]

4 times the budget of archeage and majority of mmos and they cant even get out of alpha because they higher at best indie devolpers with 2 guys on the team actually carrying devolpment.

[solid inlet]

You... Missed everything didn't you.

This was about development. It was about money

[fervent raft]

Rob seems to always have a hand/control in things he is involved in.

Anyone have any updates on that Ogale Ray lawsuit in Florida that was filed in 2024 involving some pretty hefty claims against Dawson? The Fl lawsuit mentioned potential wrongdoing involving the same Pathway Bank Dawson has controlling interest in mentioned in Steven’s filing as well.

The Fl case involving Dawson appears active but I have not seen any updates on this for months. Dawson must be pretty busy trying to handle two (that we know of) lawsuits at the same time.

[forest surge]

I mean Archeage is a far older game and mmos were cheaper to make back then, so that's less of a point, but I do agree it seems like a multitude of balls have been consistently dropped in regards to AoC's development with Intrepid

[marsh quarry]

even with inflation they have 4 times the budget

[forest surge]

Also reading Steven's statement, either I'm skimming too much or I see nothing regarding an apology to the community for what he did indeed lie to us about, so to me this is once again a he said she said situation

[near atlas]

If I was guilty of what Steven has been accused of, I would not be posting on this discord, in fact I would be as far away from AoC players as possible. So I ask myself.....................

[pine forge]

Caramanis threatened physical violence against Mr. Sharif, including threatening to
break Mr. Sharif’s jaw. Mr. Caramanis’ communications with me were also quite
animated and threatening.``` 
damn wtf

[topaz torrent]

I'd probably find somebody to spread my nonsense that doesn't really get a lot of views so they'll be extra encouraged to do it after seeing the massively increased viewership. Somebody outside of the "normal rotation" of content creators.

[old sentinel]

Steven needs to shut up and keep his head down, come back to us once you've won the lawsuits, but for now it looks like a lot of blustering with no real results

[forest surge]

I've seen the way content creator vultures do and try to tear apart anything and everything he has said on the topic or ever said, but there's nothing shameful or wrong in honestly admitting that the game is neither fully funded nor self-funded anymore to the playerbase, and whatever reason why he chose to never tell us that. I mean, he doesn't "owe us anything" and most people could guess that was not the case, but its about one's character

[pine forge]

wow u got pregnant too

[topaz torrent]

Yup, I'm completely content with this and absolutely agree.

You can be a pregnant man if you ask nice

[near atlas]

So all those people crying for an update and explanation should also shut up right?

[old sentinel]

I hope its a unknowable cryptid!

[rustic oak]

This is how i see it. He's destroyed his reputation enough, showing himself isn't doing any favors.

[ionic flax]

This 👈👉 is money snek. 🐍🐍💰💰 Upsnek ⬆⬆🔜🔜 in 7.123 7⃣ 1⃣2⃣3⃣ snekonds 🐍🐍 or you ✋✋ will NEVER ❌❌❌❌ get monies 💰💰 again Beware!! ✋✋❌❌ You😏😏 don’t ❌❌ have much time!!🕛🕧🕐🕜🕑🕝🕝 You 😏😏 may never ❌❌get monies 💰💰🐍💰💰 again!!

[rustic oak]

He should focus on winning the lawsuit

[old sentinel]

yes

[forest surge]

also helloing Steven I am disappointed how this all went down and hope truth prevails, whatever the truth is. 👋

[royal halo]

Everything I read put me into shock, horror, and at times even hysterical laughter. I won’t attempt to comment on the conflict, but the part about Steven’s health really affected me. I hope your health is okay now, @vague leaf. I wish for justice to be served and for the court to make the right decision.

[pine forge]

same

[maiden timber]

sacrificing 8 years to a project just speaks more than anything else

[pine forge]

like this is crazy

[forest whale]

Which lie? (Just curious what you are talking about specifically)

Also, consider anything Steven posts as a statement could be used against him in court so apologizing is probably best left until all the facts have been determined and everything is done cuz until then it could be pulled out of context and used for character defamation. Idk if that's morally right, but worth considering that tomorrow we all would wake up to articles of "'I'm sorry...' AoC head admits he's wrong???"

[near atlas]

All those people have the right to their opinions as you do, and if they want to know they can ask, you do not get to decide. Why are you still here, if you have no interest?

[jaunty badge]

Buy more magic cards you embezzling douche bag

[old sentinel]

You misunderstand me, I am thoroughly interested and I want steven to succeed. Im saying everyone vulturing for updates and stevens nothing burger updates arent helping. The only thing thats gonna help is winning those lawsuits. I wish deep deep down in my soul for ashes to come back and succeed. I fucking love this game and what it could be

[karmic pollen]

Server up guys

[placid galleon]

there is no way in hell people still believe this retard 😄

[mild plover]

he's gonna delete your message

[pine forge]

read

[jaunty badge]

Right lmfao

[small oar]

STEVEN THE GOAT WITH THE RECEIPTS! What you smooth brains dont seem to understand is that regardless of what transpired, these investors had no legal standing to foreclose and seize anything, they cant seize anything as they arent he #1 debtor, that is illegal. Redirecting steam payments to a new LLC because you feel like its yours isnt legal. That money is the banks. Even in a real foreclosure, a sale is made and people are paid out on a list top to bottom. And in 2025 those notes werent even converted to equity, so theyre literally just a debtor with a board seat. They dont get to take actions as they did, because they arent part owners at all. They were pressuring Steven to convert those notes it looks like, so they could take these actions, but he didnt. They are debtors with very well defined recourse. Nothing they did is legit. NOT TO MENTION theres a RIOT deal on the table that could have made all of this manufactured cant fund the company bills every month bull shit complete nonsense. That dude didnt want to take the RIOT deal because he wanted the whole pie and planned on taking it. He manufactured financial stress to achieve this outcome. AND they were perfectly fine breaking the law because they were gunna move assetts to a new LLC - these chump investors are scum bags. Steven im sorry you had to deal with this. Get this shit settled ASAP, make a deal with RIOT the next day, get us back on track.

[forest surge]

"The game is fully funded to completion" being the primary one with an addon later of, "There's no one to answer to at the top but us" and in theory, that second part was indeed correct, but that's not how borrowing money goes.

As for the second part, sure, the vultures would try and tear his statement apart, but the community is already deeply split on loyalists, people who feel vindicated that Steven was always a scammer, or people like me who're going with the flow. And people like me, who see a genuine apology? I'd appreciate it. Steven took the effort to convince me to stop naysaying apoc back in the day, and even play it, when he could of just banned me instead. Its about one's character too in the face of fuck-ups or adversity.

[delicate ivy]

as well as that other dude, jonny caramanis or whatever. if you do a google search, you will see him involved in a few lawsuits, or at least was the case when everything imploded

[latent wharf]

You have too much faith in this dude's literacy if we're looking at his comment lol

[jaunty badge]

Theres no shot there's actual people who believe steven right?

[pine forge]

u are right, this is the internet after all

[forest whale]

Ahh ty for clarity

[forest surge]

Yup. I don't have an established opinion on everything else, because who knows what the truth is when both sides are loudly claiming their side is the truth, and with receipts? I care about what we do know, and were told, for years.

[rustic oak]

At this point I just want the game to succeed because I was looking forward to it. Other than that, I still dont trust him because in the past he was a scammer. I'll never let that up

[small oar]

The game was funded, and even the lady Theresa still says in Junary texts it still has 12M in funding left. The cut off of payments and that line of credit was because the dude was pressuring steven to make new deals he didnt want to make. Crazy you guys can literally read the shit and not udnerstand it

[forest surge]

Bro has worse selective reading then I do, crazy

[maiden gazelle]

google drive pdf lore drop wasn't on my bingo

[celest mirage]

https://tenor.com/view/is-it-gif-20766212

Is this the free magic card giveaway?

[wild drum]

free? we paid for it

[small oar]

you literally have no idea what youre talking about. go back to shitting in a litter box or whatever your mentally ill situation is

[fervent raft]

What you seem to fail to understand is that although the article 9 foreclosure was not handled legally with notice to senior secured parties, Dawson was/is still the majority shareholder with control of the Board and COULD have legally taken steps to sell or dismantle the company a long time ago and may be taking those steps soon.

Just because the Jeunesse group Steven elected to surround himself with are scum (which I was pointing out long before you), does not mean that Steven did not literally hand them the keys to the kingdom by taking out loans with them until they had leverage against him and full control.

Now if Steven can prove physical violence coercion prior to Dawson gaining majority control and that this threat of physical injury played a role in Dawson actually gaining that controlling interest, that will be something to watch for.

[small oar]

There is no proof he is a shareholder at all. The convertible notes were, at least in 2025, never converted. thats what he was pressuring steven to do. He is essentially a bank with a board seat, he has no ability to dismantle anything. He can force a foreclosure, and then get in line with other debtors after a forced sale, but he cant dismantle anything himself. Thats complete bull shit. Hes not an owner, he's a debtor.

[remote flint]

I'm still here hoping everything goes well and that he comes back soon.

[fervent raft]

Huh? And you call others smooth brained? Even Steven's own filings indicate that Dawson has been Intrepid’s majority shareholder since July
2024.

[void star]

Like honestly I just want the game back. I don't care that it's buggy. It's less janky than WoW retail.

RIOT makes good games. Games we enjoy even though they hurt us. It'd be great to have them on board.

[small oar]

He is an investor yes, the primary one at that point. But Ryan says in his email with the CWBK bank none of the notes have been converted to equity dated 24july2025

[delicate ivy]

yeah. i feel like this generation is soooo incompetent. my parents bought a house with $1000, 40 years ago. ppl nowadays with 4 times the budget can't even buy a penthouse.

[red peak]

The Riot interest was from 2022. Not sure what their level of interest would be given they've theoretically been developing their own MMO in the years since the released email.

I agree though, it would be awesome to have Riot on board to help get this game released.

[unkempt valley]

https://tenor.com/view/michael-jackson-comendo-picoca-gif-9669437860846841235

[small oar]

I think its pretty obvious the reason they pulled funding is because steven wouldnt convert those notes, because of exactly what they tried to do. If he had, it would have all been legal. But he didnt. Its illegal. They are essentially bank acting like they own it all already, but they dont and wouldnt anyway in a legal foreclosure. Like i said, get in line and there will be a forced sale to pay people out in order. But in no world does a bank get to seize a company, move its assets into a new LLC, and sell or operate it. Thats not how any of this works. They also made false filings pinning John as CFO when he clearly wasnt making any of these decisions or actions. These dudes are legit crooks idk how that is even remotely hard to see reading all of this.

[pine forge]

2025, the game had just produced several million in Early Access revenue in
approximately three weeks. The board nonetheless pursued the suspect Article 9 sale
of the company for their own purposes.```
The "AOC is a scam"-conspiracy believers are in shambles

[tulip pond]

The mass deletion of comments they don't like is also pretty wild.

[atomic wadi]

A lot of LOLs 😂

[maiden oriole]

[small oar]

And the scam shit never really adds anyway if you have critical thinking. John is personally on the hook for the bank loan. Moving assetts to another LLC and Intrepid stiffing its debtors means John is literally going to lose his house and everything. The guys doing this to Intrepid are fucking evil. They were also the ones not wanting to pay the PTO, etc because it would be under a new LLC soon and Intrepid getting sued wouldnt matter. Literally screen shots of shit. The HR ladies resignation letter outright says she is quitting because they want to do illegal shit and Steven settled it by personally paying for that PTO out of pocket. Fucking read you neanderthals. As much as it sucks that all this happened, blaming the only person who was trying to do the right thing is fucking crazy.

[young dock]

new AOC content update today! Thanks Stephen 😵‍💫

[topaz torrent]

This was a good patch

Fighter still needs a nerf though

[night bobcat]

if steven trusted a random guy to finance the company rather than a reputable firm like riot, then its only his fault the game failed.

[small oar]

There are many investors this is only 1 guy doing all of this. hence how insane it really is. there are other investors who this guy is fucking by doing what he is doing.

[topaz torrent]

I'm sure it all started out very professional, and got shadier and shadier as time went on

[delicate ivy]

I do not believe we should pay severance nor PTO. These are bottom performers. Who have already been paid more than they deserve. We don’t owe them more.

If they want to make noise in market, they will anyway as we’re fired. Who listens to a poor performer who gets whacked?

Any suit against us will be against the old entity that will have no value in a week. So unless Sam thinks we have an obligation or exposure. Let’s not pay either.

There is no value in using good cash to pay this. If we can find $90K, let’s spend it on marketing. Will generate $180K or 6k new players. When we turn on subscriptions will be worth $120K a month. Conservative valuation multiple of 10X says this makes us $1.2M.

Our fiduciary duty as a board says we owe our investors this better allocation of capital. If we got $80K laying around :-)

Thanks,

Aaron Bartels```

[lament citrus]

The New Lawyer DLC is kinda underwhelming, The graphics suck, the animations are wooden, and frankly it is very poorly thought out and implemented. I give it .1 out of 10, and Crowfall did if Better.

[small oar]

to reiterate - in no world is moving assetts to a new LLC and shafting all investors a legal action by a single investor among many. this dude will likely end up prison because of the fraud he committed along the way.

[topaz torrent]

That's some disgusting shit right there

[small oar]

yea thats one of the dudes who works with the investor

legit evil people who dont give a fuck about AOC

[topaz torrent]

I've always been an advocate of trimming the fat, I mean just because you start working on something doesn't mean you're entitled to keep working on it if you aren't performing

[mild plover]

how do these evil people ever gain enough control to call any shots

[topaz torrent]

But there's a way to do it right

[sterile maple]

And see the players as bags of money. They aren't just coming after Steven, they're coming after us. They'll release a turd to turn on that subscription money flow.

[rich cove]

not only that but from the way it looks, this isnt the first time theyve done exactly the same thing

[hardy valley]

Because this is literally their job.

[small oar]

well thats the thing, they had some control but not legally enough to do what they did. they were hoping they could strong arm enough equity out of steven to make it legal, but he refused. him resigning was his last resort to stop them from doing this all legally.

[mild plover]

there had to be less evil investors to reach out to at some point though. It's hard for me to believe this was a mask off move from them when they have cases against them similar to this as well

[small oar]

nah they definitely lied to him. one of the texts from the investor guy early on steven posted is 'we will just be hands off owners, in the shadows, we dont want control we trust your vision, etc'

and its not just a shady investor, the guys owns a bank as a front.

[hasty vector]

Steve's been known to be a well an a**hole to others that know him personally. He was also spending a ton of the money based on multiple accounts on personal items.

Friend of mine who knew him early in his life when I told him I was paying for early alpha quite literally said he'd bet me it never launches and fraud happens lol

Ironic

Genuine conversation that happened months before I paid for A2

[topaz torrent]

A game studio spending money on ... games and food really isn't the smoking gun that I think people are portraying

[hasty vector]

It's not games and food people are worried about lol

[small oar]

whats shady is the pressuring, using paying employees as a bargaining chip when they already committed to 12M of funding, but are trying to make the month to month seem untennable. its all by design. there was plenty of money left on their initial loan agreeement, all of this 'we dont have money' is manufactured by the investor to pressure equit conversions

[hardy valley]

I don't really care if he's an asshole. He's a gamer. Every single gamer that has ever lived has been an asshole at some point. I just want to get through this court bs

[soft cliff]

Just accept it, aoc is dead jesus

[topaz torrent]

I doubt I'd be here if Steven wasn't an asshole. It takes a certain kind of asshole to be successful at anything these days

[mild plover]

but were they squeaky clean before steven reached out for money? I agree the investor is scum, I just cant believe steven was unaware of it completely

[kind prism]

Didn't Jesus rise from the grave or something in the story?

[soft cliff]

Yes, but aoc didn't

[hasty vector]

And a flaming taking bush

[meager wave]

What relevance does that have to do with what is happening?

He might be an ass, he might not.
How do you know he spent a lot of money on personal items? Got any proof?

Genuine ironic

[small oar]

not sure tbh but they do have a legit front as a bank, in all of this the conversation with this 'investor' is actually a small bank the dude owns which seems legit, not sure how much research was done on them idk i wouldnt think to look into a bank tbh

[hardy valley]

Even if he wasn't aware, Robert was introduced to him. This golden, fat money bag that he desperately needed to continue development and maintain status quo (if true) to avoid uprooting the lives of his employees. I can understand why he would shirk the responsibility of looking into him given everything he'd experienced up until that point.

Does that excuse it? NO. He should've done his due diligence. But two things can be true at the same time.

[hasty vector]

Character is important. So it's relevant to decisions he likely made that were waiting on, so yes.

Someone who knew him very well calling something like this would happen around the start of A1 is...ironic at best.

And many many accounts of him splurging in things he shouldn't have with the money.

Walks, talks, looks, smells like a duck, it probably isn't a bear.

I paid for it regardless and want it to work, just seems all signs point to x

[hardy valley]

Right now, we are only in the earliest stage of this thing. I'm sure we'll eventually get to these points but obviously there is a process, and we're forced to deal with the pace of said process.

I feel like this has moved surprisingly fast even through we're not even that far in.

[hasty vector]

Only game I've paid real early access money into , Im pretty bummed it's not working the vision was insanely cool to me

[hardy valley]

I hopped on during the Steam launch, really a fantastic game. Hence y'know, me being here still

[hasty vector]

I'm just awaiting lucyus massive multi paragraph response to me lol

[meager wave]

Thats not how it works...

As someone stated, all gamers, are assholes at some point, and I want to extend this further, all humans all assholes at some point.

Thats not a character defining trait.
This shit wouldnt have reached this point if it was like you're saying.

We now have Steven's side of the story. I had a hunch that it was somewhere along those lines, aparently, I was close to it. As for which is the actual truth in all this. Dunno man.

[hasty vector]

Ah I highly disagree, you can tell a lot about a person and their future decisions by knowing how they operate , character, Morales, etc. but hey hope it goes in a positive 180 and somehow spins back up

[meager wave]

Neah, not in the mood for arguing, not even for the sake of fun

[red epoch]

yo that announcement

[hasty vector]

You're late nebula lol

[small oar]

it just dosnt make sense either the 'lack of funding' when they had a RIOT deal on the table, that email alone would help them secure funding to finish the project. the lack of funding wasnt a thing, it was that the investor was doling out the money under the loan agreement as he saw fit, and denying it to use as leverage when in reality they could have been funded by many different avenues. the dude was using time constraints and threats of not paying obligations last minute to get what he wanted, when in reality steven could have got other funding and just iced this guy out if he had the time to. but when he is the guy paying the bills, he can force shit like this in a nuclear scenario.

[meager wave]

Yes, but you cannot say that if you're an asshole at some point, with some randoms in a chat, you're a 100% asshole in life and you're not to be trusted

We're all acting like asses from time to time

[red epoch]

I just woke up XD Reading this is crazy, I wonder if the people reporting on this will actually report on this like they did the other stuff lol

[meager wave]

Again, not defending steven. He was the worst kind of mmorpg player :))

[hasty vector]

A one off or few one offs no not at all agreed. But it was just "how he was/who he was" but f do I know.

[hardy valley]

Past behavior is an indicator of future behavior. However, in this case, I'm not really pounding the hammer on this too badly. Mostly because I absolutely hate people who portray this perfect bubble all the time.

He's definitely made a lot of major mistakes that ultimately led us all to this point. But personally speaking, I don't have a dog in the race, necessarily. I joined up late, I don't harbor a bunch of negative sentiment over things that may deserve it. So to me, it matters what he does right now, going forward.

Don't mistake this as a defense of him. I don't know him, so I can't defend him.

[red epoch]

What do you all think about the quickbooks ledger, is it real or fake or is there another ledger out there?

[hardy valley]

Honestly it's hard for me to discuss because there's so many aspects of this I just don't gaf about. I really just want to play the game..

[red epoch]

[teal aurora]

What about of those dms with guild leaders and steven that were leaked. Steven was already doing shady shit outside this lawsuit.

[silent hinge]

All the people saying "maybe they threatened Steven, but idk what the truth is" when there are actual verifiable court filings that show the threats made is a wonderful example of willful ignorance. I hope Steven gets justice for what was done.

[hardy valley]

If you mean what Nefas posted I think I'm just going to wait till court shows everything.

[red epoch]

Thought those were fakes?

[hardy valley]

Literally. It's insane what they were texting him

[meager wave]

All the "leaked" documents from dawson a couple of weeks ago must be false, or at least tempered with.
They all looked... very unprofessional.
Thats not how a company holds its stuff

[hasty vector]

Agreed lol

[red epoch]

The same people that took what Jason sent to Nefas as truth, will deny this, it's crazy.

[hardy valley]

I don't watch anything Jason supposedly gave anyone

[teal aurora]

Lmao no. I was in that guild before I left. I was there when he was told in dms to stop exploiting and they had cleared him from the banned list.

Direct from Steven. He laughed because he got a late night message saying, u up?

[hardy valley]

The dude is a nutjob, and I don't even know how anyone can believe a single word out of a guy whose tied so deeply into MLM. I don't even believe Steven when he initially drops stuff. I read it all, process, outsource to compare my opinion, and THEN wait for the courts to verify/deny/comment before I form any absolute opinion.

[devout halo]

AOC is DOA even if after all the narcissistic posturing from both sides runs its coarse and development continues the delay in a game thats already somewhat over the time it should have taken will be so delayed people will have moved on or simply have no faith in Intrepid anymore

[meager wave]

Yeah... Steven will need to answer about those if ashes is ever going to be somehow reborn

[hardy valley]

There's definitely a lot he needs to address, yeah

[teal aurora]

Even if Steven was partially wronged and not 100% at fault, he was doing slimey things behind the scenes and isnt innocent.

[hardy valley]

I don't think he was just partially wronged.

I'm not going to say anything specific because obviously I can't prove it. But if you really consider that these guys are being sued for very similar if not 1-1 behavior, it makes you pause for a sec and wonder.

[teal aurora]

Im not going to follow each weekly court update. Ill move on and check every so often. Id prefer for it to come back under new management.

[hardy valley]

That's fair. I read all the filings, decs, exhibits, etc
Because I want to know everything for myself.

[meager wave]

But somehow we knew that it was happening :))

It was not that much of a big deal because we knew we were getting a wipe. And probably why he even did those things.
Stuff just... happened.

And, it all happened at the same time with all the shitshow in dec/jan

So from my end, he has a veeeeeeeery small benefit of the doubt that he did not pay much attention to that stuff

[red epoch]

Did I read that email correct? Was RIOT going to invest 250-500 mil?

[hardy valley]

250-500 mil yeah

[meager wave]

Yes

[red epoch]

HOLY SHIT

[teal aurora]

Just sell it to riot and let us move on. Thats be great!

[red epoch]

that's insane

[meager wave]

That was likely the tencent stuff and pics from jason

because as far as i remember tencent owns riot, correct me if im wrong

[red epoch]

I mean it's all in an alpha, not to excuse it but i'd take the game being finished than where we are now tbh.

[mental ridge]

yes

[silent hinge]

You will never in a million years guess who sank the riot deal

[hardy valley]

Crazy that the MLM guy did

I feel like I know why, but it's a tinfoil theory that's virtually not provable. So I'll keep it to myself.

[red epoch]

So this all boils down to Jason introducing Rob to Steven? Otherwise RIOT would've invested in the game?

RIP AF

[hardy valley]

Riot wanted the studio.

Obviously that's a moot point, but it's still crazy to consider.

[meager wave]

Wish he would have disclosed the terms of that contract
If intrepid would have been allowed to function normally, and have riot be just a shareholder without power, that would've been amazing for funding

But ofc, if that would have happen, they couldnt get a hold of the company.

Tbh... those guys are such idiots... They want to steal ashes, but they have no fucking idea what all this is about

[hardy valley]

I mean considering Jason's behavior I've never received a single indication of intelligence

[red epoch]

So basically, Rob noticed the amount that RIOT was willing to put out and was like "this is a golden egg if I ever seen one, time to take over"

[hardy valley]

The guy is textbook to me. I grew up with a violent guardian who behaved just like them. It's literally clear as day who he is to me, and honestly I'm sorry he got involved.

[meager wave]

Yuup

[silent hinge]

The money from riot could have paid out all the creditors and left way more for development. Rob pushed strongly against getting his investment paid back because he was scheming this takeover way back in 2022

[hardy valley]

Yep. Because what the hell does Ashes have that one of the biggest gaming companies in the world wants it? And for that much? Y'know?

[red epoch]

this is making me mad yo

[forest surge]

I mean there's a likely answer as well that Steven was trying to get money out of these guys as much as these guys wanted AoC/wanted the big money. You get in bed with sharks, you best know what you're doing, or you're also a shark

[hardy valley]

Don't get mad. Get glad, and wait for the court proceedings

Honestly I'm really holding my tongue on this one considering they haven't slam dunked the whole thing. I'm waiting for the additional crazy bomb of info

[meager wave]

Imagine, if riot games, one of the biggest gaming companies, owned by tencent, literally the biggest chinese gaming company, wanted to buy everything for 500m, and you had calculated that with 100m investment you could get at least 10x in a few years, you would have done it :))

[forest surge]

It is extremely, extremely unlikely, that either side in this is truly good or has clean hands. Steven's hands likely have their own measure of dirt on them, in whatever form that entails. I don't believe AoC was ever a scam, but he played ball all the same

[red epoch]

These guys are snakes, it's crazy to even consider doing business with them in the first place

[silent hinge]

Rob wanted more money than what was invested up to that point. It wasn't about repaying the note. It was about claiming the IP

[forest surge]

Makes no logical sense to not take the Riot deal unless Riot was gonna take away creative control

[red epoch]

True, do that email says it was "investment" not a complete purchase of the IP/Studio though no?

[red epoch]

Yeah, Steven's hands aren't clean by associating with these people in the first place tbh. Crazy how things turned out.

[meager wave]

Following up on our conversation last week, I'd like to share our initial thinking around the financial component of a potential acquisition of Intrepid by Riot. It's clear we share a goal of creating and evolving a genre-defining MMO that delights millions of players for decades. With that goal in mind, we would aim to align our incentives, de-risking your investment in AoC in the short term while giving you meaningful upside in the long term, but most importantly making sure the game has sufficient resources to achieve the vision and outcomes that we're collectively aiming for.
Here is our proposed outline:

[4 bullet points — redacted/blacked out]

This represents a total investment of $250-$500M by Riot, which would further scale post-launch as we invest in additional AoC content and features over time. I look forward to discussing this on Thursday, and before then, we'll also send over initial answers to your operational questions (how project funding works, standard Riot benefits, what it means to be a Rioter, etc.).```

[forest surge]

"I'd like to share our initial thinking around the financial component of a potential acquisition of Intrepid by Riot." is all we've got

^ what Lucyus shared above is all the info we've got on it, yeah

[meager wave]

Short term investment, that will cover finance until post launch
And a buyout proposal

[hardy valley]

Honestly if they wanted creative control I wouldn't be surprised.

[silent hinge]

It was an acquisition, which means riot would have gotten the debts

[hardy valley]

I might be totally squeezing my brain here but I feel like they recently did that elsewhere, then rescinded it

[silent hinge]

And Rob would not have gotten to pull what they did

[forest surge]

That doesn't necessitate creative control. Someone above earlier said Steven had been considering taking the deal, which makes me think the deal would of involved Steven retaining creative control of the project

[hardy valley]

But regardless they also want to make an MMO. Seemingly a sandbox. It's not impossible.

[meager wave]

Yes, riot announced that when this happen. But they did not give names

[hardy valley]

Ahh I see, thank you!

[remote flint]

I'm still here hoping everything goes well and that he comes back soon.

[silent hinge]

I didn't say creative control, I said Debts. Rob pushed to tank the deal as shown in the filings because riot could have paid off their investment.

[forest surge]

Yes, and my leading point is that Steven also chose not to take the deal because, and this is a guess, he saw a way to squeeze more money out of Rob and co. It goes both ways, is my point.

The Riot deal was the safe way forward.

[meager wave]

The way this works is you come up with an idea, and you attract investors giving them equity and shares

Thats what steven did

It is not something new or sketchy

At the same time, he is technically right when he said that he will fund the game to completion. Because it does not mean straight from his own personal wallet.

OpenAI, facebook, and pretty much all these big startup companies are doing this, or have done it

[hardy valley]

Because we don't know the actual contents of the proposal it's sorta hard to form an opinion, but if he was hearing from Rob that he would keep funding him (he also gave much larger amounts of money at a time, it seems) WITHOUT taking control of the company, versus whatever riot said, I can sort of see the indecision.

I do think RIOT was a safer way forward though

[forest surge]

Have to remember that AoC starting to become a thing coincided around the same time CoE started to become a thing, and CoE burnt through all its money from initial investing and couldn't find more investors and ultimately failed. Promising a fully funded with multi million of self funding, and that not being the case at the end of the day, still amounts to a lie to the playerbase.

I don't really take issue with the investor funding, I think it was expected if you thought logically about it. I take issue with it not being dealt with properly and the playerbase informed properly, because you were worried about people comparing your project to CoE

[hardy valley]

Steven himself said he wanted to accept the deal, and that it is shown in the filings. Though I didn't finish reading so..

[silent hinge]

He couldn't let riot acquire it. Dawson would need to have approved

[meager wave]

I agree with you. It still counts as a lie.
Because if you cannot find investors, the thing comes belly up

But, I 100% think that Steven never ever imagined what it ment to make an mmorpg 11 years ago.
He likely thought that a few mils and a few years will be enough :))

[forest surge]

I could absolutely see this, and its also why I still hold the belief that AoC was never a scam. It was just poorly managed, with a string of poor decisions made and kept tucked under the rug

[silent hinge]

If intrepid were acquired he would have needed consent from the lenders who have intrepids assets as collateral. One of which was Dawson who in one of the 2023 texts even said as much

[forest surge]

Depends on how much control Dawson had at that point, idk what the situation was. I can't see Steven being powerless however if he really wanted to take the Riot deal, and likely had options

[meager wave]

Yes, same.
It stopped being a scam a few years ago in my eyes

As with the poor decisions, yeah... The thing is, you have to pick the best decision available to you at that moment. And you might not always have "good" solutions

[somber cove]

"Regarding the Ashes of Creation / Riot rumors (shoutout /r/mmorpg), we looked at making an investment or even acquiring Intrepid a few years ago, but Riot decided not to move forward with discussions.

The team there shared our goal of making the next great MMO — something we’re more committed to than ever — but combining efforts ultimately didn’t make sense for us."

Tryndamere 39 minutes ago on twitter

[forest surge]

ayo? lmao

[meager wave]

Back then, when the deal was proposed, they werent actual shareholders.
They all had just promisory notes.
Meaning Steven could totally have sold the company.
And ofc that would have ment that whoever bought it, had to pay the notes when they expired

[outer tundra]

These documents do not prove, in any final or objective sense, that Steve Sharif “did nothing wrong.” They are plaintiff-side court filings plus his own public statement, so they are built to advance his theory of the case. What they do provide is a fairly coherent, partially corroborated alternative explanation for Intrepid’s collapse that shifts the center of gravity away from “Steve blew the money” and toward “Dawson used coercive financing and a self-interested foreclosure strategy to take control.”

What Steve is really trying to prove with these documents is not “here is a full forensic accounting of every dollar,” but something narrower and more strategic:

He is trying to show that after Dawson came in as a financier, Dawson allegedly backdated loan papers, discouraged a Riot acquisition proposal, extended convertible notes on aggressive terms, and then used threats tied to payroll, litigation, and personal pressure to extract governance concessions and tighten control over Intrepid. That story appears in Sharif’s declaration, the receiver brief, and supporting witness declarations.

There is also documentary support for a few important planks of that story. The exhibits show a March 2022 wire tied to Dawson’s investment, and the attached note is dated November 23, 2020 even though the funding email chain is from March 2022, which at least supports the claim that a transaction was papered with an earlier date. The Riot material and voicemail also support that a significant outside deal was on the table and that Dawson urged Sharif not to take it.

The strongest theme across the filings is coercion around company control, not embezzlement by Sharif. Sharif’s declaration says Dawson and Caramanis threatened to withhold payroll funding unless documents were signed, threatened litigation and regulatory complaints, and even threatened personal harm or financial ruin. Former investor Tom Alkazin’s declaration partially corroborates that he was contemporaneously told about payroll threats and pressure tactics.

The filings also point to a different immediate cause of the implosion in late 2025 and early 2026: the Steam receivables and the foreclosure fight. According to Sharif’s declaration and the receiver brief, CommerceWest Bank was the senior secured lender, Intrepid had represented that Steam early-access revenue would go toward that debt, and Dawson-aligned leadership then tried to redirect that Steam money to TFE, Dawson’s entity, through a Pathway Bank account. The documents say Valve flagged that as suspicious and froze the funds. Witnesses also describe the same attempted rerouting.

That matters because Steve’s filings are basically saying: the cash crisis that people blame on me was triggered or worsened by the board’s foreclosure-and-diversion strategy, not by me siphoning money. The receiver memo goes even further and says the court had already indicated the January 2026 Article 9 foreclosure was likely unlawful, especially because notice was not given to CommerceWest. Steve’s public statement repeats that theme.

[meager wave]

is that the ceo?

[forest surge]

holy wall of text can I get a tl;dr

[outer tundra]

There is also meaningful support for Steve’s claim that he objected to the final shutdown path rather than engineering it. His resignation email says he opposed employee terminations without legally required pay and PTO, opposed the private foreclosure strategy, and says he had even personally committed to covering PTO costs for some layoffs. An HR resignation exhibit echoes legal and ethical concerns about unpaid wages, benefits, and compliance risk.

Now for the important caveat, because this is where the fog machine clears a bit:

These files do not give you a clean exoneration on “mishandled funds.” They do not include a neutral audit report, full general ledger, bank statements tracing all company cash, board-approved budgets versus actuals, or an independent forensic accounting. Steve says the accusation that he mismanaged or misappropriated funds is false and says an audit months earlier did not make those claims, but in the files he uploaded for us , that point appears mainly in his own statement, not in the form of the audit itself. So that specific innocence claim is still more assertion than proof in this packet.

The documents are pretty good at undermining the simplistic public narrative that “Ashes died because Steve stole or squandered the money.” They supply a serious competing theory with exhibits and witness support: coercive lender control, attempted asset capture, possible.

You're welcome. Brought to you by ChatGPT. It has its uses.

[mental ridge]

https://tenor.com/view/chatgpt-ai-gpt-ask-thinking-gif-17900194303856750041

[forest surge]

I ain't reading all that, I'm sorry that happened, or happy for u

[somber cove]

Co-founder, Co-chair and CPO of riot games

[topaz torrent]

What if the Riot offer is still on the table (overdoses on copium)

[hexed ingot]

probably should look at the documents

[forest surge]

walls of text hurt my eyes srry

[hexed ingot]

if someone controls more shares than you they can do whatever they want

[meager wave]

Somebody gpt'ed all those pdfs :))

Yes, those files are not about funds.
Those filings are Steven's side of the story and Witness'es declarations

[forest surge]

"Back then, when the deal was proposed, they werent actual shareholders.
They all had just promisory notes.
Meaning Steven could totally have sold the company.
And ofc that would have ment that whoever bought it, had to pay the notes when they expired" as Lucyus said before, so clearly not

[meager wave]

"Riot decided not to move forward with discussions"
Fuck off, you got rejected. Don't play it like you changed your mind after you proposed initial investment and full aquisition offers

[small oar]

agreed idk why they would even make a statement about this, they were in talks, they wanted it

[meager wave]

It was not about control
Steven trusted that guy back then
Steven trusted that he got all the funding needed without selling out to riot
Afterwards, based on steven's story, they started forcing steven to give them actual shares and pieces of the company

[hexed ingot]

do you know how long the riot talks were going on for?

[stone leaf]

it's PR speak, can't blame them much for going with that route

[small oar]

reading more about what they were denying payroll to force steven to sign - Dawsom wanted to retroactively change the % of shares in all of the previous debt to share convsersions, which would have moved him from 40% to 70% and made all of this legal

[south lion]

Any chance game gets back on playable stage?

[forest surge]

yes

[hexed ingot]

feel free to answer then

[fervent raft]

First you say Dawson is not a shareholder, so I address that statement quoting Steven's own filing that literally states Dawson is " Intrepid’s majority shareholder since July
2024" and now you want to backtrack to 'he is an investor yes'? 🤦‍♀️

[meager wave]

He did get to 70%
But only after messing with the notes and shares after he initially got 50 something %
He messed up with the things

[forest surge]

bound to confidentiality srry no can do

[stone leaf]

I wouldn't count on it, but man am I hoping for a miracle

[hexed ingot]

you do know its referenced in the paperwork right?

[summer phoenix]

People post too long explanations when nothing is clear. And that's the case with recent Steven post. So I doubt that the game will restart servers any soon 😕

[red epoch]

who's more cooked Rob, Jason or Steven?

[small oar]

im still reading! but if this is true, this means that Dawsons people also lied directly to the primary debtor bank

[red epoch]

You mean about the projections for Steam being 40 mil?

[meager wave]

we dont know how long they discussed this
it was probably a few back and forth emails

[grizzled nimbus]

If the servers went down months ago, why are we still here?

[hexed ingot]

we have at least an idea how when it talks were still going on

[red epoch]

Why are we still here...just to suffer.

[small oar]

no, their email to the bank says in 2025 none of the notes had been converted to equity yet

[meager wave]

The email I cited is from 20 dec 2022

[red epoch]

bruh

[hexed ingot]

you ignored other evidence then

[opal flower]

@grizzled nimbus hoping beyond hope the game comes back in one form or another

[grizzled nimbus]

Dude fr. Let's just all play Crimson Desert and be happy.

[meager wave]

wdym?
The email is literally titled "Initial thinking on deal terms" from the CFO to steven

[topaz torrent]

It's definitely not, Trynd cleared that up. But it still speaks to the potential

[zenith solar]

Yall need to go to gw2 or daoc. Stop hurting yourselves over aoc

[grizzled nimbus]

Now... I do want that. And that's secretly why I was still in this discord to begin with. 😭

[stone leaf]

from currently presented evidence I'm in camp steven, because of testimonies from verified intrepid employees
that being said I would like the claims that "Apoc was made on a separate UE project and didn't share any lines of code with the main game" to be adressed

[hexed ingot]

yeah and thats not the only exihibit in the filings

[small oar]

which is defrauding an investor, as the board trying to seize everything from the other investors. thats like jail fraud.

[somber cove]

gross

[meager wave]

about riot? i think it is? its exibit 3

[hardy valley]

GW2? Good god.

[stone leaf]

can I interest you
in archeage private servers

[jolly raptor]

im aleady mastery lvl 600 in gw2? what do you want me to do there?

[hexed ingot]

im going to assume you havent done any research at all

[hardy valley]

Guys, we can do better. Please. And for anyone who likes GW2, I'm happy for you.

[meager wave]

We were talking about the filings...
The only other thing we have about riot, or rather, tencent, is from jason's messages and pics that he sent to that youtuber, forgot his name.
And those were much earlier than riot in 2022.

[hexed ingot]

its literally in the filings

the amount in which people choose to live in ignorance is astounding to me

[meager wave]

then what are you talking about? i just finished reading them
the only thing about riot is that email and the references to it

[hexed ingot]

have you looked at the exhibits?

[meager wave]

yes

[hardy valley]

No there's another exhibit that's a transcript of Rob talking about it iirc. Unless you're including that and I'm dumb

[hexed ingot]

look again and use your brain this time if you cant determine when riot talks were going on still im sorry

[hardy valley]

Though talking about it is a stretch. He's basically just saying he's unhappy with it

[meager wave]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OtM3sCA3NS7VjYcJSwr1Qi-uSk9aUnt6/view
page 20, exibit 3, the email

[hexed ingot]

holy crap

[opal flower]

Early access Past Fate looks ok. But I dont think I'll be happy with any game after ashes, it had so much potential

[hexed ingot]

theres more than exhibit 3 actually look at the body of evidence

[meager wave]

Who the fuck cares when exactly they the riot talks happen

You asked if somebody knows about that. I told you when the email was sent.

What do you want exactly? Are you half asleep? You deleted a message before sending? Tf do you ask for exactly

[hexed ingot]

Okay you're just dumb then

[meager wave]

Heh... you're a special case

[hardy valley]

Nice to see you're back at it, Leshrac. You vanished for a while.

[hexed ingot]

laying low

[hardy valley]

I was missing watching you talk and thinking, I'm so glad I haven't had a conversation with that person yet. Respectfully. Looks stressful 🤣

[meager wave]

how can i make discord not show "blocked message"

[hardy valley]

You're doing it wrong. You don't block Leshrac, you just take it as entertainment.

[fervent raft]

Nothing is obvious.

Dawson at $80+M in, might have realized his investment was going nowhere as Steven continued to ask for more money every month stating he could not make payroll without it. Perhaps Dawson simply decided to cut his losses where they were and start taking steps to sell and thought he could get away with the quick sketch foreclosure he conducted.

Nothing is obvious and again, no one is stating the foreclosure was not illegal and the Jeunesse group is not scum, I was claiming this before you so stop attempting to deflect valid points with it.

You also seem clueless on what I am all about telling me to get in line for payout as I have been repeatedly stating in this discord for years that I have received way more entertainment value that what I paid for my package so far and I have no intention of asking for reimbursement. You pull almost as much weird spin shit out of your ass as Caramanis. 🤣

[meager wave]

You're right
I fell into the trap

[hardy valley]

Like someone else said, he's disingenuous. Ever since then it's like that's all I can remember 😭

[hexed ingot]

its quite silly people talk without reading the information given, talks with riot were still happening as late as 7/31/2023

[hardy valley]

I don't even know what y'all were discussing, so I'm sure you're both wrong

[fervent raft]

Okay, I will follow you down your rabbit hole. Please explain "but if this is true, this means that Dawsons people also lied directly to the primary debtor bank"

[meager wave]

It was not even a discussion:))
He asked something, I said what I read from the docs, but aparently....

[unreal otter]

he wasted so much money one door dash how its it even possible

[jolly raptor]

how much was it?

[hexed ingot]

Lucyus didn't understand the question and who it was aimed at

[unreal otter]

@jolly raptor to much

[jolly raptor]

nono give me the actual number

[hexed ingot]

he's a dullard

[formal inlet]

Crazy amount of money… the game shouldve been done

[hardy valley]

Someone said 200k on door dash but I'm assuming that's over the entire course of the company existing.

[unreal otter]

@jolly raptor basicly you could buy a house wich it or many houses

[small oar]

i was talking about debtors and how an auction an debtor pay off works, not you. as far as the notes being converted or not, the email in the exhibits from Ryan to CWBK he straight up says, no; the notes have not been converted. that means he is lying to an investor, a bank, the primary debtor

[fading juniper]

buying food for employs?

[jolly raptor]

ok but how much is that in numbers

[hardy valley]

Woah, woah, woah. MULTIPLE houses? Which country?

[formal inlet]

What is it with Western game studios and investments… why do they need 100x more than Asian game studios?

[hexed ingot]

Greed

[hardy valley]

The fuck are we talking about here, the average house is AT LEAST 200-250k and that's on the low end in my area.

[formal inlet]

To what point? How greedy can you be

[jolly raptor]

dunno maybe cost of living in most asian countries is 100x less than in the west

[unreal otter]

@jolly raptor does it really matter it was suppose to go to ashes of creation

[hardy valley]

There's no feasible way he spent that much on door dash 🤣 holy shit, and I thought I was bad on the takeout

[hexed ingot]

they can never satiate it, its a never ending hunger for more

[jolly raptor]

im litteraly a rogue, tell me how much

[meager wave]

1 dev salary is $120k/yr (not lead, seniors)
add infrastructure, licenses and everything else and you get the 4mil/month that they were paying

[formal inlet]

This is mismanagement

Its bad leading

[hardy valley]

It's way more than that.

Like, you literally cannot define this situation within those terms alone.

[unreal otter]

what a retard that rogue one seem like he was little to much brain washes

its like a cult

[jolly raptor]

is named rogue
only cares about money
yeah idk mate

[hardy valley]

Been too long since our last one, eh? Started to forget the sound of it.

[meager wave]

At that time, Intrepid
was spending almost $4 million per month, $2.9 million of which went to employee
salaries.
From the witness DECLARATION OF BRYAN LANGFORD: Point 8, at the end

2.9m/month salaries
1.1m opex xD montly

[hardy valley]

Idk why they couldn't tell you. I feel like this is an easy answer if they were willing to mention it in a public channel.

Though then again we can just go read for ourselves, which I'm gonna go do.

Have a good one, y'all.

[empty pumice]

Stop making sense ! Our little brains cant handle sense making things !

[fervent raft]

The conversation started when you made the false statement that Dawson was not a shareholder and when I pointed to Steven's own filing indicating he became the " majority shareholder of Intrepid in 2024", you switch to 'ok he is an investor' and now you want to swing the conversation to Ogden? If I address that, you jumping to Caramanis next? I will follow down a rabbit hole on the discussion that was started, not the next 6 you pull out of thin air. I am not referring to 'Dawson's people' and not even sure what your definition of this is, the rest of the Board? People Dawson worked with at Jeunesse like Ogden? Na, you have too many rabbit holes.

[meager wave]

Sorry...

Will get back in the sheep mentality...

SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!

[willow vale]

Interesting reads. Still digesting the court papers...

[empty pumice]

that is better ! we are all sheep that cant think further then our noses !

[jolly raptor]

if you find in them how much they spend on door dash this other guy is so salty he won't tell me

[empty pumice]

[meager wave]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ivYAjjAInMyW3bthU2sulGrVysZoXh6QtzhFhChkGqU/edit?gid=336740725#gid=336740725

It is not centralized
But seems that every once in a while day did order door dash
So prob that number is across all years since 2015

[small oar]

You sound schizophrenic or something. Steven is saying they are shareholders. The CFO Ogden in 2025 says no notes had been converted to debt, totaling over 91M in notes. I switched assuming that Steven isnt lying, but that means that Ogden outright lied to the investor in an email. Its not a rabbit hole, its 2 different contradictory statements.

[empty pumice]

Make sure you insult people during a argument, because that will definitely make you win the debate !

[wind pond]

If the game returns at some point in the future, you could say they arose from the.. Ashes of Creation

Queue CSI blaring title music

[small oar]

converted to equity*

[tender olive]

creation from the ashes

[meager wave]

yeah... if the game SOMEHOW makes a comeback, it can say that it trully rebirthed from its Ashes of Creations

[meager wave]

Got it: -306811.79
This is the $ spent since 2015 until present on: 61200 ∑ Business Meals

[jolly raptor]

nice. so 300k does not sound that much over 10 years ngl, considering they likely ordered for several ppl every time

[tender olive]

yea, over 10 years 200 employees thats like less than 150 per employee per year

[hexed ingot]

factually inaccurate there were more business meals than just door dash

[meager wave]

And -220066.46 specifically from: Doordash

[tender olive]

oh even less

[meager wave]

At least, thats what these quickbooks are saying.
I personally take these "quickbooks" with a grain of salt

[jolly raptor]

sure you can fight about weather steben should have paid for these, or if they should have even done these orders. but its not too much number wise even if its doubled or trippled

out of everything you can accuse everyone involved. why the fuck choose food?

[gleaming swift]

they had <100 employees two(three?) years ago, afaik. The crazy hiring spike seems to be a likely culprit for the exhaustion of the funds.

[small oar]

every small company feeds their employees often, including bar tabs. we regularly put 3k bar tabs on my companies amex when the owner takes us out. these numbers are tame in my opinion. nothing unusual.

[tender olive]

dude the devs were working wonky hours for server resets, patch launches deadlines lol mafakas were there at what midnight-2am restarting servers...and people bitching about some doordash? peasant's is what they are.

[tranquil coyote]

Either way game is screw. The original devs won’t come back. Even if Steven wins he is going to have to take this to a publisher that even has an interest in this ip. Seeing how it has already been damage I don’t think there won’t be any good deal. If the board win they will be in the same situation. The game as we know and hope is done. No publisher will have interest in the game not being pay to win. They will suck the most about of money they can get from this and abandon it.

[meager wave]

Business meals:

This food was likely for C suite as the average spent of 146.87$
With the 1 time max spent of 1949.83$
And the median spent of 98.92$

[small oar]

Gamers are desperate, i think if they come back and restart Alpha2 and keep developing, the number of players alone will get funding back

[meager wave]

Same numbers for doordash

[small oar]

if investors think they can get a few % off for the drama and make an investment in a winner because the player numbers are good, they will fund it.

[fervent raft]

You sound schizophrenic or something. Steven is saying they are shareholders.

Yes, that is my point. You claimed Dawson was not a shareholder and I replied to that statement pointing to Steven’s own filing stating that not only is Dawson a shareholder, but he has also been the majority shareholder of Intrepid since July 2024. You then started your twisty twist

The CFO Ogden in 2025 says no notes had been converted to debt, totaling over 91M in notes.

You seem to be really confused. A note IS a debt up until it is converted. At the time a convertible note converts to stock/shares, the debt is then released.

Its not a rabbit hole, its 2 different contradictory statements.

Or, just someone attempting to argue something clearly over their head?

[hoary cove]

Are we saying Steven has a chance to make a come back?

[meager wave]

they had less than 100 employees before covid.
dont remember when exactly they hit 200, prob 2-3 years ago

Damn covid was 6 years ago...

And it seems that in the end they had 227 employees

In December 2025, Intrepid board member Robert Dawson instructed
that Intrepid terminate approximately 100 out of 227 Intrepid employees.......
From witness DECLARATION OF JASON ZIMMERMAN point 3.

From google searches:

After COVID (2022–2024): Since 2022, the studio increased its headcount to over 200 people, with recent reports indicating a staff size of around 250 employees```

[small oar]

i corrected it to converted to equity 1 line later. its not twisty twist, its figuring out whats true when there are contradicting statements. Steven appears to be correct, though that would make Ogden guilty of defrauding an investor. I worked in the startup world for many years, none of this is over my head, just convoluted. Do you have any substance or insight to offer or just quoting me?

[gleaming swift]

I still believe the majority of those 227 were added in the last 2-3 years, so my point is that calculating doordash fees based on 200 employees over 10 years wouldn't be accurate.

[meager wave]

Say 220k / 4 years, thats ~$4600 per month in door dash
That sounds about right for a company that size

[small oar]

Doordash isnt a smoking gun. If there was a yacht on there or a few AMGs or something, then it would be obvious there was fraud. Saying a CEO stole money by buying doordash is false, no matter the amount.

[meager wave]

In fact, thats about the food for a few persons, dont really know how much door dash costs in california, but that looks like food for 2-3 persons
Their median door dash order is $99.
If you do 10 years of door dash for the C suite, every day, its still less than that :))

[fervent raft]

i corrected it to converted to equity 1 line later.

Not in your reply to me which I quoted and addressed but is your point now that it has been explained to you that a note is debt and the conversion of the note the releasing of that debt, that none of Dawson’s notes were actually converted and therefore he is not a shareholder?

Let’s not start a new rabbit hole, just a yes or no to the question so we can stay on track.

[small oar]

Bitch are you retarded?

[fervent raft]

So is that a yes or no?

[meager wave]

yeah...
the CEO having the luxury of having lunch paid by the company seems about right

[empty pumice]

nope, there is only 1 retard here, that is you.

[kind prism]

In that case then it cancels out as the other side are liars and frauds too

[hexed ingot]

thought on Dawson potentially torpedoing the riot deal by pushing for unfavorable terms in the talks that forced them to walk away?

[forest surge]

I'm kinda against AoC funds being spent on thousands of dollars of magic the gathering cards tho but hey maybe that was just the studio having fun in their off time and not just Steven

[hexed ingot]

real issue is were they company property or given to the employees

[burnt matrix]

and doordash

[fervent raft]

It sounds as if Steven might have walked away due to some friendly pressure from Dawson to walk convincing him that 'they' would finish developing the game together.

[forest surge]

yeah exactly what I said, like were they used for in-house MTG fun for employees or what, lol

[hexed ingot]

Riot made a comment about it and they said riot walked away

[fervent raft]

What was the exact comment?

[hexed ingot]

i cant grab it as i do not have an x account

[forest surge]

Drake got zapped, damn that was fast

[bitter nexus]

a lot of effort to clear his name... when it shouldn't take any at all. Busted mr Steven Busted

[hardy valley]

OIh shit

[bitter nexus]

🙂

g'head

[forest surge]

"Regarding the Ashes of Creation / Riot rumors (shoutout /r/mmorpg), we looked at making an investment or even acquiring Intrepid a few years ago, but Riot decided not to move forward with discussions.

The team there shared our goal of making the next great MMO — something we’re more committed to than ever — but combining efforts ultimately didn’t make sense for us."

Tryndamere 39 minutes ago on twitter

Not 39 minutes ago now, like an hour and a half ish, but yeah

[vague leaf]

Correct.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for Marc and the team at Riot and have faith they will create something great with their MMO. At the time these discussions happened, I was advised by Rob not to accept their offer. And instead to counter with a ridiculous ask. After doing so, the discussions did not move forward. Texts and emails will be brought to light with further court filings as the case proceeds. In retrospect, it is clear that Rob and his associates saw the value of Intrepid and proceeded to use threats and coercion to force a takeover of Intrepid for their own personal gain. I’m sorry that Riot was dragged into this public spectacle and wish their team nothing but success and hope for an awesome game that continues to service the players they so obviously care deeply about.

[fervent raft]

I appreciate the quote. The reference to 'decided not to move forward with discussions' is pretty vague on their part and could be something as simple as Steven hemming and hawing during discussions due to Dawson's all over his back to keep the company and move forward with his financial backing.

[forest surge]

I mean as Steven just said above, Rob told him to ask for something ridiculous above to torpedo the deal so yeah

[topaz torrent]

They really thought they had the golden egg and could just get some random guys to come in and get it to market and nobody was gonna say anything lol

[ionic linden]

If you win, would you take an offer from RIOT? If they are still interested

[topaz torrent]

He's not gonna answer that lol

[forest surge]

Do you regret not taking the Riot deal, or do you stick by your guns in the belief that you made what you thought was the best possible decision at the time? Just curious, and if you can't answer, all g

[topaz torrent]

ffr as your not lawyer I advise you to say thats bait

[bitter nexus]

I ❤️ that this is still even happening. When has their been a bigger shit storm in mmorpg gaming? comedic at best

[kind prism]

Well they're not gonna be interested.

When Riot offered the deal in late 2022, they were basically starting from scratch with their MMO, in my opinion that's likely the reason they went to Intrepid in the first place.

Now, they've got 3 and a bit years of work done on their new version and have been creating tools to build their MMO for years. It's highly unlikely they'd make another offer

[forest surge]

I can't really tell if him answering my question could come back on him or not so figured I'd ask lol

[ionic linden]

didnt mean it as bait, but i see how it can be

[forest surge]

okay fair enough Steven, touche sir

[topaz torrent]

It most certainly would by any competent lawyer

"As you can see your honor, Steven said right here how he would be willing to blah blah blah blah and that's why blah blah blah blah"

[ionic linden]

Steven, I do hope that it works out somehow. I had a blast playing it and would really like to see Ashes again. Good luck in your trial

[forest surge]

I don't get it, but maybe that's just 'cause I don't understand how shady lawyers can be

[topaz torrent]

The court system is fucked up man, bad things happen all the time but it's a necessary evil

[hazy pine]

I don’t think that after a couple of months of silence Steven would come out publicly like this without having some progress in the lawsuit. I think his lawyer likely made it clear that they have a decent chance of success. The real question is what that means for us: will he actually get the game back if he wins? Will he have the money to continue development? And even if he does, will he be able to realistically resume it?

[topaz torrent]

Every once and a while real justice gets served though

[blissful summit]

yeah personally id love to see this game be the biggest comeback in gaming there was alot of promise in this game

[hardy valley]

I would hope this is the case, otherwise why sink so much time and effort into something that'll, inevitably, reveal whose actually lying. It's not like the court is just going to give you a pat on the back for lying to them 🤣

[forest surge]

Reminds me of when I met the lawyer who defended the Aurora colorado shooting guy in a job fair type thing. This man's super lawyer, casual answers as to why he defended him just blew my mind, man didn't seem bothered by it at all

[hardy valley]

I'm just a normal person, so idk if there's a difference, but FEDERAL court seems like a much bigger thing than just hitting up the courthouse and having your little case.

[bitter nexus]

lots of money on this

[topaz torrent]

Large potential business yeah

I mean not even potential, it was a large business

[hardy valley]

On a human level, I do want it to end. Organ failure? Contacting people on their holidays, while they're celebrating with their kids? Holy fuck, that is not ANYTHING anyone should have to do.

[kind prism]

Someone set up a Polymarket bet for the results of the trial

[hardy valley]

I couldn't even ask my OWN father to pick me up something to eat, and I was paying for it. I literally could not imagine doing that.

God that just makes me cringe with how uncomfortable those calls probably were.

[ionic linden]

what bothers me about the way it played out, is that i keep hearing that the game was planning some sort of launch this year (state of the game debatable i imagine). But if thats the case, why would all this happen now, and not after launch, when you would have a player base and a game that actually functions and brings money? Why kill it 6 weeks into EA? I truly hope when we get to discovery this thing gets answered

[wanton karma]

i like ashes

[topaz torrent]

A very low percentage of Americans possess a comprehensive understanding of the U.S. court system, with confidence in the judicial branch dropping to a record-low 35% in 2024. While roughly 66% can name all three branches of government, public knowledge regarding specific court functions, such as the number of Supreme Court justices or basic judicial roles, is limited, often obscured by media portrayals.
University of Denver

[foggy jacinth]

All my homies hate Rob Dawson 😤

[hardy valley]

Because they wanted the steam revenue.

[ionic linden]

but they would have still had the steam revenue

[hardy valley]

You're misunderstanding. The whole idea way before was to transfer companies. They wanted the steam revenue to transfer over to the NEW company and use it to fund whatever there.

[topaz torrent]

I don't really hate many people but anybody that fucked up Ashes for me is definitely on that list

[ionic linden]

as the board, keep going as is until launch, have a game, then pull the shady shit. Transfer the IP then, when there are subscriptions in play

[hardy valley]

Intrepid, iirc, though please feel free to correct if I'm just misremembering entirely, was never meant to continue apparently.

[hexed ingot]

According to the statements they were gonna outsource to Amber in the Phillipines

[hardy valley]

? Are you messing with me or being serious, I can't tell, sorry.

[hexed ingot]

Troll hat is currently off

[hardy valley]

Oh awesome. Who/What the hell is Amber?

[ionic linden]

all this could have happened post launch. But considering the doubt that was around the game, giving it 6 weeks was such a wierd move

[hexed ingot]

Its a Studio

[hardy valley]

I haven't heard of that, damn. Must be because I only get filings from yt videos or if Steven releases them.

So yeah, they did want to hop studios with the revenue and I guess outsource to Amber.

[echo grove]

Timeline wise... These Riot emails happened Dec 10, 2022. Didn't Dawson have barely any equity at this point too? Didn't he just have come in the picture?
What I dont understand is... How could someone who denied 250-500m $, not understand that this project would take probably that minimum amount at least to finish?

If someone is offering you 250M for an unfinished game, wouldn't you expect thats what they think it would have cost to finish at the very least?
(also not sure if that offer was to completely stop ashes and work on riot mmorpg as a studio instead and be the funding to pay for that).

[hexed ingot]

talks were still going on til at least 7/31/2023

[hardy valley]

As far as I understood it, they wanted to acquire the studio, but Talents did say that it was around the time they rebooted their efforts, so maybe they wanted Ashes as a baseline.

Though that would purely be for the tools and minds working on it. I doubt they'd go along with the same art style.

[fluid urchin]

Just read the full April post, I hope we find out the truth and bring those responsible to justice. Let true courts dole out justice, not the court of public opinion. If you're telling the truth, then best of luck Steven, and I hope we live in the timeline where we can meet in Verra once again.
PS: I'm amazed at the quality of the product we got to play, jank and all, especially the massive improvements over a year's time, given how unstable a storm it must have been behind the scenes.

[bitter nexus]

[hardy valley]

I miss crate mules.

[silent hinge]

Dawson was not first in line for money owed. Funds would have to go to senior creditors first, and also be allocated for other creditors. If all that money that is being made gets paid out, Dawson would theoretically get paid what they are due but the overall profit would still be split. Even the steam money. Forcing them to sell the ip sland getting the steam money sent to a separate company means that if the other creditors press for what is owed, intrepid has nothing to give and files bankruptcy, while Dawson gets the 8 mil from steam, and the currently developed IP. Based on how they were trying to get the steam account transferred, their ideal hope was that control of the current active servers and steam posting would become theirs and they would have rights to ALL the money with NONE of the debt

It is scummy how they treated Steven, but outright illegal how they tried to do this to defraud the other creditors

[loud prism]

Stay strong, Steven. This too shall pass.

[echo grove]

When this is all said and done, can you buff Fighter please.

[kind prism]

I request a Ranger rework so they're not just physical Mages

[foggy jacinth]

See you all in phase 4 September 2027 😤 💪

[jolly raptor]

buff rogue pls

[hardy valley]

That just doesn't matter to me ngl 🤣 I was having a good time playing the game, and that's what I care about most.

I'm gonna need cloth armor to actually be viable though, seriously.

[rotund knoll]

This is my bookmark.
I missed like 6 hours of things.

[marble quartz]

any can resume or link a comment that already did it? Thank you!

[worn trellis]

@vague leaf , I knew from the very beginning that this was a genuine effort and I haven’t doubted the project once. In light of the information released, I can only say that I haven’t doubted not refunded the game, and I won’t, fight them. Fuck Dawson and Caramanis, fuck anyone who supported the coercive and unethical tactics they used. If the game and company isn’t under your control. It will die. If it hasn’t already.

Take them for every dollar you can. At a bare minimum prevent future games from falling victim to this asshole. And hopefully you can bring together the project in the end of all of this into something better. Praying for you and your husband and all the individuals involved. Take care of yourself Steven.

[vague leaf]

Ty my friend

[worn trellis]

I suspect sir, that more vocal members of the community that were staying silent until more info came out, may become far more vocal now. The shit I just read they did is straight up evil…

[fluid urchin]

I'm more amazed than anything that we got to play such a high quality product for over a year [by alpha standards] while the company was under such duress. All the jank and delays make a lot more sense now.

[worn trellis]

They sent him to the hospital. If there is anything I can do to help destroy their ability to harm others. I’m gonna do it.

[silver nacelle]

@vague leaf You already know this but I’ll say it anyway. If you have the power to bring this ship back.. it would mean a whole lot to a lot of people. Prove the haters wrong-

[rotund knoll]

I quote directly from Steven's statement

• "And we are going to fight like hell to ensure Ashes of Creation reaches the hands of the people who waited for it for so long, from the hands of those who built it, believe in it, and intend to deliver on its promise."

[fluid urchin]

If a new MMORPG releases, everybody will play it. Ultimately 99% of ppl dont care about drama. If the game is good, they will play.

Also, the irony of Ashes of Creation rising from its ashes is just too good of a story xD

[silver nacelle]

Of course but Ashes had magic. There was a real feeling of being alive in the game. Something I have not felt in a long long time with MMOs and nothing … and I do believe nothing comes close to it right now.

[sand mantle]

🤣 🤣 🤣

[silver nacelle]

Did it have its problems? Sure. But if there’s a chance to get that back.. let’s get it back

[undone yoke]

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

[sand mantle]

this discord never fails to give me a good laugh, keep it going boys

[worn trellis]

I spent the last 5 years of my life getting a degree in cybersecurity. Expressly because I wanted to join Intrepid one day.

Now I’ve got a lot of free time. Time to do a bit of research.

[undone yoke]

[fluid urchin]

I refuse to pass judgement on any party until the process is done; all I know is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The defamation campaign has been very disheartening to see in the past months.

[rotund knoll]

🙏 Thanks for removing the person impersonating me as well.
They have since tried defamating my business and harassing me directly.

The police and troopers can't do anything, so i filed a report to the FBI who I am waiting to hear back from.

The #questions and #newcomer-chat are not safe for everyone it seems. So I would advice people to try and keep to themselves.
I simply supported someone, and then woke up to a crazy issue 😑
Cyberbullies are crazy

[undone yoke]

people being people

lots of americans tho ..should say something lmao

[silver nacelle]

You don’t have to like it. Some people can look past withholding certain information and even lieing. Sometimes people lie with good intentions and sometimes people don’t. It is what it is

[remote quarry]

propaganda is real and people are currently falling for it

[queen minnow]

[silver nacelle]

Yes because that’s what happend

[worn trellis]

If Dawson/Caramanis and their cronies hadn’t been lying they’d have done more than talk shit on the internet. They’re criminals and liars. I trust the man filing information under threat of perjury more than the asshole with anger management issues on YouTube.

[fluid urchin]

We don't know, that's up to the courts to verify. That's the whole point of the justice system. I trust the courts more than someone on YouTube.

[silver nacelle]

Anyone with a half a brain can realize this was not the outcome Steven wanted. You can be mad about all the things he did and what you think he did and yadda yadda but.. it’s pretty obvious this was not the ending he was going for

[worn trellis]

Dawson and Caramanis better put their money where their mouth is then. Steven is clearly willing to.

[deft brook]

Accounting books say otherwise ?

[sand mantle]

its pretty much the same as in every other failed MMO discord/community lol

you'll still find people defending Jeromy from chronicles of elyria and they swear it wasnt a scam and the game will release one day 🤣

[silver nacelle]

Do they? You know with 100% certainty of this?

[worn trellis]

Accounting books talked about by a random person on the internet through a leak don’t mean shit.

[tender olive]

Maybe you missed the part of his statement where it said he had no access to corporate finances and couldn’t even find out how they were doing financially.

[fluid urchin]

It's a long shot, but stranger things have happened

[silver nacelle]

Nobody is really even defending Steven. We’re just not all standing and yelling with a pitchfork untill a final conclusion comes out.

[fluid urchin]

Maybe we live in the timeline where Ashes rises again, maybe not

[worn trellis]

Maybe for you, I’ll still play it though, and you won’t stop me and the other people patiently watching and waiting for the Steven W.

[silver nacelle]

People just come on here and scream and yell because of the 30 AOC click bait videos

Gotta chill out and actually wait to find out the conclusion

[fluid urchin]

I think it was zybak that said "if ppl found out Hitler himself made a MMORPG, people would be like hold on, hows the combat?" if you build it, they will come xD

[undone yoke]

one day it will , trst the process , just like ashes 🤣

[worn trellis]

Lmao just another Dawson Bot trying to rage bait, somebody ban this dude. Just giving credence to a criminals information on YouTube. @vague leaf further evidence of defamation lmao

Lmao an actual fucking bot

[deft brook]

I guess Steven can still pay a few bots to defend him lol

[worn trellis]

Lmao brother Steven don’t have to pay me. I see evil, I call it tf out.

[burnt matrix]

same :D!

thats me! hehehe

[deft brook]

Yeah, eat your copium rations lol good luck with that

[worn trellis]

Relevant? You’re talking about relevance?

I’m not even gonna justify that with a response. Bro needs to upgrade his chatGPT subscription. That’s embarrassing.

[worn trellis]

What does copium have to do with you being here, supporting a bunch of criminals and bullies?

[tender olive]

Why don’t yall throw each others names on the “idiots I’m going to kill after the servers come back up” lists and settle it the. Lol

[worn trellis]

Then why are you here? Must be getting paid well to sit here all day and talk shit supporting Caramanis/Dawson and his cronies.

[deft brook]

I don't support either party, they are both disgusting liars. You defending your favorite liar is hilarious and honestly feel bad for you.

[hexed ingot]

if you dont read that one email from Aaron Bartels and dont see that as evil i question your moral compass

[worn trellis]

I haven’t seen any evidence to suggest what Steven has done is lie at any point.

I’ve seen plenty of bots and unconfirmed bullshit from YouTuber I had never heard of before this all started though. Funny how that works out.

[patent pasture]

Is this guy for real?

[frosty salmon]

I can’t ever leave this discord. It keeps me sane knowing how many stupid people there are in this world. Please keep it up 🙏

[deft brook]

That is either you are mentally challenged or can't read

[burnt matrix]

im just here for the updates so i can tell my guild what type of shitstorm is going on

[hexed ingot]

category 5

[worn trellis]

Nah, you take sides when you care and people are getting hurt physically.

lol I’m done talking to you, 1000% you’re involved.

[topaz torrent]

Any farmers in the community, gonna need access to commercial levels of eggs for faces

[burnt matrix]

oh god Daven how will you financially and emotionally recover from this?!

[worn trellis]

Bro joined the Ashes discord in November ‘24 and thinks he’s important and relevant. I think he’s just a bot or a bad actor intentionally poking people to get off.

[silver nacelle]

Who cares!

[worn trellis]

You haven’t said. Not that you need to.

[tender olive]

Steven maybe you shoulder consider like a pop quiz bot that detects weather or not people have actually read the court documents/statements before they can post in here lol

[burnt matrix]

or a quiz if anyone has played the game or not lol

[sacred ibex]

Big, Ashes back this summer? into 2027 launch into game of the century?? wowieh

[worn trellis]

Bro I have never once seen you since A1

You are not known, you’re a nobody

[silver nacelle]

Careful the pitchforks will get ya!

[burnt matrix]

pretty sure most of the hardcore base know daven ngl

[sacred ibex]

Deadass stfu Daven, you bot. bro plays 1 phase for 2 days and dips

[topaz torrent]

Guys guys, deathroll for it pls

[worn trellis]

In what phase?

[sacred ibex]

xdd calling 2.5 a good phase, you are snorting some glue you pleb

[worn trellis]

Quit before me, lmao bro, most of the player base from A2 has more hours in the game than you’ve even been around to play in. Sit down

[hardy valley]

Is that not a guild tag

[worn trellis]

Nah, I’m good, guild don’t matter. And I’m not in one anymore anyway

[hardy valley]

Before that. People do that for their guild tags.

[burnt matrix]

guild is literally the whole thing for ashes lol

[silver nacelle]

I think it’s Polars fault. Had to be Polar

[hardy valley]

Oh. I'm seeing where I misunderstood, lmfao.

[hardy valley]

Surprisingly, I didn't play with a guild until a week before it went down.

[worn trellis]

Oh shit bro you found me out. That instantly makes all of the legally binding court documents I pointed out completely irrelevant /s

[small oar]

Just to revisit this because it pisses me off how condescending you are;

We are both team Steven, i thought that was clear. I was explaining to you why i thought their notes hadn't been converted, because for 1 i hadnt read the filing yet but had just got through the 200 pages of exhibits - and the one of Ogden telling a bank in writing in 2025 that no notes had been converted to equity yet stuck out like a sore thumb. And we've never seen a real cap table, so who knows. Fraudsters arent the brightest but lying to a real bank in writing is pretty bold of anyone.

But even me explaining to you why, you couldn't drop the cunty act. As if you could explain anything to me about startups or finance in the first place, acting like you're the first time I've heard of convertable debt and had the pleasure of you explaining it to me is insane. I literally own convertible notes in startups. I own equity in them too. I also owned stock options when i worked at a startup, if only you could explain to me how those work too. Please after that, explain EBITDA for me, its been a while.

Just quit being such a cunt in regular interactions. You are making enemies of those few who are actually rooting for Steven with your horrible way with words. You should seriously think about your disposition and how it affects people who even WANT to like you.

[worn trellis]

Go read the docs in news, come back in a couple hours.

[hardy valley]

I just sunk my teeth into this like a fucking jelly filled donut, I LOVE DRAMA

[worn trellis]

lol there it is.

[topaz torrent]

bees!

[foggy wave]

No matter what happens in this "case". Ashes is dead lol

[small oar]

shit pisses me off bro, type of woman who cant not be the only right when you both are saying the same thing.

[wanton karma]

what we should do ia have ateven and dawson pvp ingame

[hardy valley]

I agree with your original comment. I haven't had personal conversations with Raina, and actually Raina makes fantastic points. I haven't disagreed with her yet, mostly because I don't sit here flicking through her comment history, lmao. But even though I have wanted to have a conversation, they're far too overwhelming, to put it nicer than you did.

Though that's just my personal inability to converse, or actual want, with people who can't just be calm and normal individuals who aren't making me feel like they're trying to claim ground rather than observe it.

Not every conversation needs to be about having an edge, yknow?

[worn trellis]

Shut up Daven you said you don’t care, stop trying to act like any of this matters to you. If you won’t point out evil and fight it when you see it, then at least don’t fight others who do.

[small oar]

i have no idea who she is, but she came at me wrongf when we essentially both agree, and i was even admitting and explaining why i was wrong earlier and why i changed my tune. but she still couldnt not be a cunt.

[hardy valley]

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

[hazy citrus]

Hello gang, what did i miss, is this game coming out soon or what? havent played in a bit, court documents? Huh

[hardy valley]

That literally sounds like something Katt would say.

[small oar]

Thats when i walked away bro.

[hardy valley]

I highly encourage you to read for yourself. Not in a rude way, but that hearing a retelling of the story is far better for your perspective of the situation.

[undone yoke]

even after its death this discord server never cease to make me laugh lmao

[hardy valley]

I meant not hearing a retelling, god good.

[hazy citrus]

Oh will do, no idea what's going on lol

[hardy valley]

I watch Kira and Theoryforge, and Steven has also linked some of the filings as well in #news so there's that available.

[worn trellis]

lol that’s not how that went. But all you gotta do is scroll up and read. Guess that’s too much. And yes Dawson and Caramanis ARE by definition evil.

[hardy valley]

Caramanis is worse, because he's both a severely bad person but also negative iq.

He literally acts like he's out of fucking mafia.

[hexed ingot]

unironically reading texts was like reading discord chat sometimes and I couldn't correct his horrible spelling

[worn trellis]

lol you love ignoring things that aren’t convenient

[hardy valley]

Thank you for being the only other person to say this. I haven't actually been able to finish that video, or any video where he speaks, because trying to understand him is a far more difficult task than it would be for me to become an astrophysicist without a degree.

[tender olive]

if you read the wall of text produced in the past 15 min, you could have easily read the latest court docs and known what is going on.

[worn trellis]

Nope, I did not. Read again. You had to comment, you had to troll, you had to be a shitty person. Not my fault

[hexed ingot]

I'm shocked at how bad they both were at texting it looked like they were angry and fumbling over their touchpads on their phones with how many errors i found. Dawson used your you're wrong a few times too

[languid heart]

@vague leaf Be sure to add damages for lost monthly income for Intrepid for each month after Septembers 1.0 release too! Get it all back and more!

[small oar]

This is a long lost art. Especially online, we all get so much more out of it if there isnt this one-upmanship.

[hardy valley]

I have no idea how such rich people are so dumb. I mean, come on. How do we not know how to articulate ourselves when we're doing business deals?

[hexed ingot]

Work in banking for a bit you'll realize how many dumb people are rich

[worn trellis]

If you can’t see it, nothing I say is gonna change your mind. You already have it in your mind that whatever nobody YouTubers information is accurate and that Steven committed fraud, or whatever it is you believe. Not worth arguing with you because no one can convince you.

[hardy valley]

How is it a lost art? To clarify, I'm not questioning you. I'm just shocked. It's not as if we've just suddenly stopped communicating with each other as a species. The decay of intelligence is LITERALLY palpable, and maybe that makes me sound super condescending but it's true.

That's why I don't even interact with social media, beyond discord if you consider it that.

[small oar]

VC's are a great example of stupid people who get rich. They consistently bet on 90% losers, but they bet so big that 10% is insane upside.

[hardy valley]

Wild.

You know what I'd do if I were rich like them? In fact, this would be the only change in my day to day life.

Probably gain 100 pounds because I'd be knocking on Chipotle's doors every morning 🤣

I don't understand how people attain wealth and don't IMMEDIATELY start doing shit they like, because why not. I would probably be the worst and least responsible millionaire because I'd just... Spend it. Fuck it.

[jolly raptor]

or you could eat decent food

[hardy valley]

I do eat decent food. Don't act like you've never eaten anything indecent.

[jolly raptor]

😏

[hardy valley]

In fact, I cook every single night. Sometimes it's nice to not have to.

Anyway, I did absolutely fall into that troll a bit too far, lmao. Fuck you 🤣

[jolly raptor]

why we just started

[small oar]

Because algorithms drive engagement. Discourse used to be verbal and you can read ques, etc. Theres really no perk in one-upping and trolling, maybe comedy but its not like, polite or anything. Online whatever is outrageous is interacted with, whether shoutting down or agreeing, and the algorithm wants engagement above all else. Its not completely lost, but people are conditioned by using twitter, insta, FB to just behave like that everywhere else online too. That woman is clearly a redditor. Not only the attitude, but the formatting, long form cunt.

[hardy valley]

I was just raised differently, I guess.

[small oar]

Regardless of how you were raised that shit can be conditioned fast, whats more clear is you arent scrolling social media all day reading comments. I think once you are a doom scroller, your entire personality shifts tbh, no matter where you started. That only shapes your stance, the platform of choice shapes these peoples ability to communicate.

[hardy valley]

What probably saved me, funnily enough, is my disgusting obsession with videogames. My phone has been dead for like, a week, and I only just noticed.

Who the hell has time to scroll social media when I have a stable relationship with my dad and we play The Isle and kill shit all day? It's so easy to be a normal person if you just do normal shit.

[small oar]

i think gamers, at least older MMO types, are good at typing fucking fast and in poorly formatted chunks. but what they do say is usually worth reading.

[hardy valley]

Actually, both my parents game and we play together 🤣 My mom is like, super juiced in elder scrolls. It's hilarious.

[jolly raptor]

which ai bro is gone

[hardy valley]

I agree 100%. Though I can't get into any old MMOs.

I tried Archage but it just reminded me of a worse Ashes.

So right now, I'm waiting on TLOC and SN2

Dude, I can't fucking stand trying to do 1 task that should take an ahour but takes HOURS because these fucking LOSERS just sit there hammering newbies. It's aids gameplay, and I don't really give a shit about dying, but constant farm with no other alt place to farm?

Wasting time is my biggest pet peeve, and that is what put the nail in that coffin for me.

[hexed ingot]

you arent all ai?

[hardy valley]

It's not ganking, at least in my perspective. Ganking is fun, because it's like, holy shit this person is gonna kick my ass, I gotta try and survive.

I got ganked in Ashes so much. My god, it was bad, but I always loved it.

It teaches you a lesson. There is no lesson in archage, though perhaps that was specifically for what I was trying to do, except to accept the fist that's about to rearrange you over, and over, and over.

I thought I had already explained, but maybe I just flew off the handle lmfao. The reason I view it as different is because they're literally just sitting in massive groups inside of farming spots, so its not like they're waiting for you to actuall get shit done and THEN collect on your labor, and constantly killing you over, and over.

Maybe I don't know something about the game that makes that viable for them, I'm not really sure. But I shouldn't have to spend 6h trying to farm the only viable spot for what I need while maybe gaining 5 of those mats each time I finally get a mob because the area is so contested.

My idea of a gank is that you're gaining something. What I would do is sit outside, wait until some poor loser is tired of farming, and take everything they have.

[jolly raptor]

well in this case you gain the knowledge that you defeated the little guy and that you are superior in every way and will stay so because you are holding him back

[hardy valley]

Like when I play League I think about each and every lane and what I will gain for myself as jgl and the rest of the team if I gank x, y, or z lane.

True. It's just flawed as fuck.

I'm not going to be cattleherded into joining a guild just to do one thing because guilds monopolize all the time.

Ashes just had way more wiggle room.

I did everything solo/duo unless I was running a dungeon, which I did 1/2 times because I mob farmed for levels.

Archage is great, don't get me wrong. Fantastic game. It's just not realized in a way that's fun for me to play.

[shrewd spoke]

Wow, i just spent a few hours reading through the entire thing and my head is starting to hurt. WTF.

The thing is, it all has to be proven and has to directly reflect laws were broken that are serious enough to somehow revoke Dawson's ownership rights. He could get heavy fines...maybe jail (haha), but he may still be deemed majority owner unless there is some proof he obtained ownership illegally. It is clear that Dawson and Caramanis are POS's. Wow...Caramanis is one disturbed man.

[hardy valley]

Never got to PVP so I don't really know about all that.

I spent all 500 hours doing professions 🤣

I understand that the game is very much like Archage, but it isn't forcing me to do shit I don't want to. Even if that is because it's 'jank'.

Oh of course not. I don't need to be at the prime spot.

That's why prog matters. It's just that, for what I was trying to do in AA, the alternative was grinding 1 mat per 1 mob and I GENUINELY would rather do anything else.

I didn't get that far in my gameplay before I quit.

I really just don't care about AA.

Talking about it means nothing to me, because I will never play the game. But for those it does fulfill, I'm really happy for them because I know Ashes going down sucked for a ton of people.

[burnt matrix]

That sounds like another "Let me cc white names" statement

yeah sleeping someone isnt competition ngl

for daffs and snowdrop mind you...id understand if youre trying to argue willow+ but literally just 25s sleeping level 13s wanting to make some relevant gear

Yeah if they allowed some sort of system for lower levels to handle it id be down but there were none

was rogue and mage ngl

handle the cc on whites

around 13 is when half the classes got one

[hexed ingot]

CC white names has been and always will be a low iq opinion

[eternal delta]

Soon dev stream

[fervent raft]

Just to revisit this because it pisses me off how condescending you are;

Not because you feel you have a point? Not because you are upset that I corrected your statement?

We are both team Steven, i thought that was clear.

This has absolutely nothing to do with any of my points as my replies are based upon things like facts, not emotions and/or loyalty to specific ‘teams’.

I was explaining to you why i thought their notes hadn't been converted, because for 1 i hadnt read the filing yet but had just got through the 200 pages of exhibits - and the one of Ogden telling a bank in writing in 2025 that no notes had been converted to equity yet stuck out like a sore thumb.

Words/phrasing/context matter.

The comment you are referring to was in reference to the long-term liabilities ($97.7M) mentioned at the time of that email in July 2025. The statement by Ogden does not suggest that ‘no notes’ were ever converted to equity, only the $97.7M long-term liabilities referenced by Commerce West at that time had not been converted to equity. In fact, we have seen evidence of notes being converted to equity as early as 2019 with some of the ya-ya legacy conversion agreements.

But even me explaining to you why, you couldn't drop the cunty act.

You still seem pretty triggered. Not certain if the time-out a while ago was self-imposed, but perhaps you should have used it to practice some relaxation techniques before returning to fire off this most recent post to lecture me on likability?

Just quit being such a cunt in regular interactions. You are making enemies of those few who are actually rooting for Steven with your horrible way with words.

Or….perhaps you should take my lead and try to not think about these discussions as far as sides, teams, and rooting people on? Put your emotions aside when posting to lessen a little of that stress you appear to be placing on yourself during these discussions. You really seem to like this word, EU by chance?

You should seriously think about your disposition and how it affects people who even WANT to like you.

Again, I am not the type of person that posts for people to ‘like’ me, nor am I posting from a team position or to make friends or to experience any kumbaya moment. If you follow my lead and simply look at the replies as words and try to limit yourself to accurate and factual statements and not allow yourself to get so over-emotional, you might not be triggered to the point that your replies are filled with unproductive words like schizophrenic, retarded, bitch, cunt?

[tender olive]

damn yall still goin?

[fallen girder]

steven why are you talking in here are you insane lol

i typed that months ago my b

[small oar]

Im American, when i say cunt i mean it. You earned it.

You write out responses like you reread it and get off on how cunty you were.

[hexed ingot]

shut up and kiss already

[mystic quiver]

see i held out hope all this time and it worked out, ashes is coming back

[dense grove]

Still a long time before that happens

[fervent raft]

You should have taken my suggestion as this is just more emotion.

The fact that you actually made a comment suggesting to someone else that you and I were in agreement and saying the same thing, made me laugh out loud as we literally got here by my disagreeing with what you were saying and pointing out why, which appears to have raised your misogynistic dander a bit. 😉

[ashen pilot]

So ashes can still happen? I pop in and out praying for copium for our game and this sounds like a strong dose

[opaque fractal]

anyone got a tldr or are they just peakin their dopamine at each other while being terminally online

[woeful jolt]

guys this is dead and gone theres no hope for it to come back no need to stress even further just stop

archeage classic is still alive

[small oar]

Agree as in we both believe Steven isnt the evil party in all of this. But good on you for continuing to be cunty regardless, in every reply.

[woeful jolt]

mans malding with every reply

[polar talon]

I miss playing this game tbh it was a hot mess but man it was an enjoyable hot mess especially grind spots w the homies

[shrewd spoke]

well...it could but it may be years. It could be tied up in court for a long time...or they may come up with a settlement and sell it.

[fervent raft]

I have never even discussed evil other than to suggest that the Jeunesse group are scumbags and yet you know my position on this and once again claim we are in agreement?

Rather than make assumptions or false statements, simply ask next time?

[small oar]

If i progranned an AI to be a cunt redditor it would sound like you

[fervent raft]

Oh, you are wrong on that too, I am not a Redditor, Hopefully you do not gamble

[hexed ingot]

I dont think HardCorp is gonna survive the discord much longer

[fervent raft]

I think he just needs to extend his vocabulary a bit. 😉

[hexed ingot]

id extend my vocab but id end up with a perma vacation

[jolly raptor]

you mean a temporary vacation that lasts forever

[hardy valley]

For the record I just think you're scary, like most women I encounter 🥲

It would be nice to have a conversation because I like your takes, but I don't think I could ever do it confidently lol

[fervent raft]

No one stating an opinion as opinion or that isn't spewing bullshit and inaccurate facts should ever fear me.

I am quite lovable 🤗

[hardy valley]

It's more so that you're so... To the point? Blunt? Sure? I don't know, but it's intimidating.

It's not a bad thing, I'm just not any of those things LOL.

[fervent raft]

I do have a very black and white writing style.

[hardy valley]

I live vicariously through your arguments, at times.

It's like a big fuck you sometimes, and it's really funny

[smoky loom]

Read - I found out you are a woman and I think I have a chance if I grovel over discord

[hardy valley]

I'm also a woman, retard.

[smoky loom]

hot

[fervent raft]

I do not mind those that express themselves with emotions and feelings like Hardxcorps appears to do, just do not let the emotion overtake facts and reality.