I'm not in their groups anymore. Too much drama for me.
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"Perfect english"
PS: Giving away 7k euro doesn't excuse the threats, extortions, and bully tactics that were displayed, Sir.
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http://prntscr.com/7d31zn
http://prntscr.com/7d32nc
http://prntscr.com/7d344r
Some interesting things within chat.
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"I want keys...so I stay here" ,that's all what you need to know why other people are still in his group.
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Noticed that part tooo....It's sad how people would sell their soul for some random numbers/letters combination :3
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There are many countries where a 60 USD game is really out of reach for years until they drop to the 10-15 USD range (this is why G2A can still exist…).
Still, they really should have at least some moral standards. Even if they are just young kids who cannot even know any better.
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That's the thing though, they're not giving out $60 AAA games, it's all bundle garbage 99% of the time.
The groups make it seem like they give out all these great games to lure people in, but then all you get is crumbs, and people are willing to put up with some slimy stuff for those crumbs sadly.
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Well, if one is just hoarding bundle keys then for cards or for the sake of hoarding, I cannot say any redeeming thing for them. I'm among the very few people on Steam who tries to maintain an at least 75% of bought titles played/completed ratio instead of just buying everything for the sake of "owning" it.
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There's digging yourself into a hole, and then there's whatever the hell that is...
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Bump for bumping's sake.
What kind of delusional piece of brick is he anyways. o_o
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Sorry Jim, I didn't include you spamming, just wanted to include the important things lol.
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At this point the best course of action would be this, but he insists on digging that hole even deeper:
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I missed that drama? Damn.
Besides, does that mean that I am in danger because he's in my friendlist because he added me back then to offer me a position that I declined because I have a life and that I never interacted with him apart for a giveaway of mine he won and that I belong to the giveaway group without even being active? I hope not because it means that I will have also to protest against those doing this blindly BY either keeping him in my friendlist or staying in the group.
Just to clarify, I don't agree with these methods either. So, I still don't know why I will do.
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I'm kind of worried that the keys the OTG group is giving away here were obtained in a similar fashion. I personally won't be entering any of their giveaway's, I don't want keys obtained through underhanded means.
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Thanks for bringing this up OP, I wouldn't have noticed I was in one of those groups. Quickly left, I just hope others do the same.
The problem is the damage is done, the admin is not really repairing anything with his statement and there is not a single sorry involved. I read someone was getting abusive messages sent by some of the group, if that's the case you should take screens send them to Valve/Mods/Police because that's not cool and they should be able to take action if it's serious.
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It only takes one weak link dude. Once the weak link has been removed, only then can the chain be strong.
The weak link has to go, start up your own groups and reform with the best members.
My grandfather use to say "the more you play with shit, the more it smells". Nip it in the bud dude start your own group up, it would be nice to see. He is "unprofessionell" after all.
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Sorry to hear that your country is in war... are you from Ukraine? Hope everything gets better and I encourage you to keep up with your favorite hobbies such as playing videogames and writing reviews
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Yea CHVNGE can give you some good tips :D When he joined us we kicked like hm... 10 members :D
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Haha, I am the bus conductor, get your tickets ready or get off our bus : )
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BTW do you have Total War: Fall of the Samurai complete edition on you wishlist because I am making a ga for it later this evening, I know you like Total War series : )
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HOLY SH1T
Thanks a lot NerdHouse, I wasn't aware of all of this... your Reddit post was very thorough, I didn't know of any of this, I just joined a couple of those groups after some users asked people to join in some of the GAs that I entered, I will leave now.
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THIS
MEATMONSTER - ƈαɾԃ ιԃʅҽ 2 mai à 6h10
i got the key from a middleman called [duck head], not from the dev himself.
he got the task from the dev to only give it to people who write a positive review, as i wrote above.
and yeah, in this case its very sad because the game really isnt that great, but the storepage got a good rating because of this fake reviews.
so you cant really take steam ratings serious anymore
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Lol, I literally just finished reading the whole comment page 1 here, your comments popped up... geez, the guy didn't even play the game, that's shady from the get go.
The only thing to clear out is if he was forced to write a good review or didn't, sadly the imgur pics have been taken down. I'm with you with this:
its wrong to give someone a key and saying " write a positive review ", but its also wrong to fake a review.
2 wrongs dont make a right
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Yes, Meatmonster reacted poorly... I'm still curious about the real chat, if Mendel's claims are true then Meatmonster was 200% wrong.
However we have NerdHouse and Electric Fire cases too, those seem more solid accusations, I see that you are a mod to one of [duck head] groups now, gFunk too (I quitted them since I don't like all of this and I haven't even gotten involved in them).
I wan to believe that such practices are now over and wish you guys the best, but maybe the best thing will be to form a new group from the ground up, the reputation of [duck head]'s groups has now been stained by some bad decisions.
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ALSO THIS GUY
unk_Electric_Fire 1386 points 1 day ago*
I'm a independent reviewer on Steam and this guy offered me to join his big sexy curator group. Of course I did because I'd like to get noticed, maybe write not-so-independently. Then I wrote a negative review for a game and he told me to take it down.
DAMN MY ETHICS.
[Image removed for not calling out]
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Thanks, I had no idea about this guy. I left all those groups.
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Yea read it long ago was so rofling, he is not right in the head, you know... xD
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Wow... is that guy 15 or something? He makes a threat and then gets angry that the dev made public his threat, REALLY?!?
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"Yeah, well... I threatened to kill the President. But I never did!!! The President is still alive! So I did nothing wrong, see?"
Spock facepalms to his logic...
(But serious, of course the dead he threatened to do was bad, but the way he denies that "only" threatening to do so is already bad...)
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Okay, there ends all the fun, he's legitimately mentally ill. :|
Nothing to see here, people, move along, move along.
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Shit keeps piling up, better get a a shovel DuckGuy
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Well, after reading all this I was leaving the groups and blocked their founder.
Don't want to be connected with such persons in real life nor online.
I have to admit that I only joined the groups to win a game, but after this look behind the courtain I decided it's better to have not even having a group in common with them.
No honour, no pride, no loyalty, no respect, false values = GTFO!
Enough ranting, now I sit here and imagine a world without such people.
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You can delete comments, ban and threaten people when you don't get your own way. But you can't stop the power of the BUMP
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Thanks for this. Just left all the numerous groups he had made. Can't enjoy in taking keys of steam games which are extorted out of indie game developers. No Thanks.
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I just left all of the groups he made! Also, I blacklisted the guy, it won't do much but it still makes me feel better about the whole situation.
And this thread deserves a bump so that others can see his extortion schemes.
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looks like this is getting a lot of attention.
as i said in another thread i personally don't really care about reviews because i always check gameplay videos and not reviews but if i try to see this by a developers view it might damage the games reputation having a lot of fake reviews and surely blackmail isn't accepted.
i'm gotta check again the whole situation when i'll have time,at the moment we should all bump this thread for more people to read.
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It can have a devastating effect on developers when a curator tells their ~30k+ members not to buy a dev's game. That then spreads to non-members through word-of-mouth. Plus the downvoting of positive reviews makes it seem that the positive reviews were fake, giving more emphasis to their negative reviews. I'm shocked he hasn't been community banned yet on Steam.
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It's coming, don't worry. Steam has already disabled/locked a number of his reviews for violating the TOS. It's only a matter of time now. There's just too much evidence against him. He can't really backpeddle and cover anything up now that this has gone public. Who is to say he hasn't done this to countless other devs?
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Where can you see that his reviews have been disabled/locked?
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Sigh - drama llama strikes again :-(
retreats to her cave
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Congrats, this found it's way to NeoGAF - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1056695
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In the morning I like to drink my coffee with a nice slice of drama.
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And I thought I was THE pro leecher... :P
Bullying devs for free keys and all the other stuff this duck and his group's done simply makes my head boil. What a bunch of idiots, I'm leaving all these groups and hope everyone else will do the same!
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You have all probably seen this group "network" at some point. They send out invites to everyone. They giveaway bundle games here in mass quantities as part of their recruitment. They also advertise giving away AAA titles to whoever invites the most people to their groups. Sadly those giveaways are rigged, as they are not done on SteamGifts, but rather in his group's forum, and no winners are chosen truly at random as the system here allows.
But that's not what I'm here to tell you about.
First, let me show you exactly what I am talking about, in case you are unfamiliar with the OTG Network.
Original Traders Group
Original Curators Group
Original Giveaway Group
German Giveaway Community
Original Society Club
Duck Society
The above 6 groups are what's known as the 'Original Network'. It originally started as just the top group. It's recently expanded unnecessarily into the other groups. You can do everything the 4 groups do with one group, after all. The groups are also all populated by the same people, so don't let the numbers fool you. The Original Society Club is for the most loyal of his followers, where he supposedly does non-bundle game giveaways. Duck Society is...I don't even.
They are all run by a lovely fellow named SalzStange. His username here on SteamGifts is AngryErpel.
Confirmed with SteamGifts Support that this is not calling out..
SalzStange was recently outted on Twitter for trying to blackmail a developer for a free Steam Key. This kind of activity has been known to occur in this "network" but was covered up by his loyalists. When things like this happened in the past, or someone wrote a negative review for a game SalzStange obtained keys for, he would ask his loyalists to downrate the hell out of the review, which they sadly did. According to other 'victims', his loyalists were also asked to harass people that did not agree with SalzStange's methods or people who called him out on his bullshit. It's safe to say some are blindly following him in the hopes of free games. This is, of course, unacceptable, and since this was brought public, some of his loyalists left the group. Namely a few (most) of his admins and even a co-founder. He now has a new set of followers and Admins/Mods, and they are still up to the same routine.
SalzStange thinks giving away games is charity, and refers to his groups as "the biggest charity groups on Steam".
Charity is helping people who are less fortunate (IE Homeless, starving, etc), donating clothes and food to homeless people, or volunteering at a shelter....things of that nature. Not giving away games to privileged people on SteamGifts. He lists hundreds of giveaways for bundle games and games he's received from devs here on SteamGifts. The bundle games he asks members to donate to him so he can give them away here or in his group's chat (this has been confirmed by many former members). Either way, he is unfairly benefiting from contributor value here on SteamGifts because of this. He is currently a LV 9 contributor here on SteamGifts.
There is a reddit thread where a lot of people have come forward to share their experiences with SalzStange and his groups. and there is also a NEOGAF thread.
Proof, evidence, chatlogs, examples of his behavior and other things.
Take a look at these and find out for yourself what kind of person SalzStange is. Don't listen to his long-winded excuses or lies he's posted here and elsewhere.
2706 line OTG Group Chat Log
Full email conversation - This is the 'unedited' screenshot SalzStange provided that he claims absolves him of all accusations. It, in fact, makes him look worse.
My experience with SalzStange and his group
Chat harassment
SalzStange's SteamRep Report
SalzStange's "apology" to the dev he blackmailed
SalzStange thinks there's no proof
Valve is at least aware of this situation
SalzStange thinks those "against" him are all trolls
SalzStange denies allegations concerning his rigged giveaways, which were already confirmed as true
SalzStange's official statement after he was caught
Former Mod's response to his 'official statement'
SalzStange's post history on the Steam forums. A great example of his attitude and how he talks to developers
OTG Head Admin is okay with SalzStange's actions.
SalzStange has been permanently banned from SteamCompanion.
SalzStange calls those who caught him and spread awareness of his lies 'troll' and 'haters'..
SteamCompanion Group Chatlog where SalzStange was invited to discuss his ban
If you are still a part of this "network" I advise you all to leave to avoid being dragged down with him. It will happen eventually. WGN got shut down for doing less than this.
If you would like to combat this network and it's practices, there are a number of things you can do.
If you are a member of any of their groups, or any of the groups that SalzStange associates with (Such as Hookups where he is an Admin), simply leave them. You can also share this thread with people on your friendslists who are members of these groups and advise them to leave as well.
TL;DR:
SalzStange threatened a dev, got caught, and is still trying to lie and cover up the facts, acting like he did nothing wrong.
He claims to be an adult, but is refusing to own up to his actions. Everything we do in life has consequences. It's time he faces them.
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