uh im still in the groups am i gonna be hunted down o.0 like el chapo
Comment has been collapsed.
Big groups are always somewhat suspicious, and you must be very naive if you think that you'd win anything by inviting all your friends. Also, did no one yet blame the devs? From what I've seen they expect positive reviews for their (maybe) crappy games for free keys. We all know this from greenlight... Steam will soon be full of bullshit crappy games which will have positive reviews because the people were bribed with free keys. The whole thing is so fishy.
I also don't think that you can blame the people who are still in the groups to get the chance of entering the group giveaways. Blame the devs who trust someone who can't even write a proper english sentence, ONLY BECAUSE the person is leader of a few huge groups.... damn, devs! You can do better! ;-)
only my insignificant opinion
Comment has been collapsed.
Blame the guy who manipulated all those people and the devs into getting free keys.
You are in 3 of their groups, dafuq
Comment has been collapsed.
I blame both. The devs for being lazy and naive as fuck.
dafuq, where is the stake to burn me for being in their groups? :s
(263 groups so far, I must be in 80% shit groups anyway x)
Comment has been collapsed.
I really don't think you should go about blaming developers when they are victims in this situation.
They just want to get their game out there and that is incredibly hard even for good games to get some attention so many devs take any opportunity to get for free advertisement and sales. I definitely don't think they're wrong in doing that. However bribing, blackmailing and harassing anyone, devs or not, for freebies is not okay.
Think of it this way, someone is walking along a path, further down they come across someone standing to the side of the path. The man on the side smiles and waves at them and as they are distracted by this friendliness the man sticks their leg out and trips them up.
Which person deserves the blame for the man tripping over? The man walking along who was distracted? Or the man who feigned friendliness and tricked the man walking?
Comment has been collapsed.
I have said that I ALSO blame the developers. Everyone has it's part in this.To be in a situation of blackmail, you must have done something earlier, or it would never happen. Don't get me wrong, blackmailing is one of the worst things, but I, as usual, see BOTH sides. I bet there are way better ways to promote their games... but they are probably lazy and think "oh see, big groups, many people to reach, free positive reviews". Nowadays it's all about quick money. :)
I don't get your example, honestly, I don't see the connection to this context. You must be very very very naive, if you think, that somebody uses his FREE TIME, to write FREE POSITIVE REVIEWS, for NOTHING? wow. Come on. No one here knows what "deals" they made before.
Comment has been collapsed.
People make mistakes and fall for scam artists all the time. Does it mean they should be vindicated for it?
No one deserves to be taken advantage of. Whether they are dumb as a doorknob or a member of MENSA blaming them for a situation like this is naive.
As you yourself said you haven't seen their hypothetical other deals. If there's no proof that they're as shitty as the guy running these groups then why do you automatically assume they are. Even then their other deals could have been quite good, like sending in review copies to the big name youtubers.
And yes there are plenty of ways to promote your games but none of them are easy and very few actually work for indie devs. The big name youtubers being one of them but those youtubers get so many people sending in their games it is really luck of the draw as to whether or not their game even gets shown.
When your customers are out waiting for bundles or that 75% off, actually making a sale is really difficult no matter how much advertisements are out there. Perhaps we should blame them instead, all the hoards of people sitting waiting for the game to be cheaper than a bag of penny sweets, or better yet free.
Oh boy. I must have really pissed you off with the amount of capslock you used. lol
Comment has been collapsed.
I LIKE USING CAPSLOCK, THAT EMPHASIZES MY FEMININE SIDE.
I'm not raging, this topic does not touch me at all, but from time to time I feel like writing my opinion.
And that's what I did. I don't need people to agree with me, and I don't see a reason to push this anymore since my opinion is clear and won't change.
What boy uses the name "Kathleen"? Also I must look very manly in that avatar. lol
My last words to this topic. Have a nice day.
Comment has been collapsed.
When did I call you a man?
From "Oh boy"? It's an expression not a direction at your gender.
If you're sensitive about it my apologies but I would never make an assumption about someone defined by what genitals swing or don't swing between their legs.
Comment has been collapsed.
strange. it's not my real name but I could not imagine a man having it *til now x)
Comment has been collapsed.
Kathleen Ginger Beard he is known as by his close friends.
I too agree with you that developers have equal responsibility in providing honest reviews of their games and some developers NEED people like the person involved in this topic to help generate a larger target audience.
Actually my fathers name is Dennis or was that Denise : )
Comment has been collapsed.
It's ok if the devs ask the leaders of big groups for promotion BUT it's not ok if they "only" accept good reviews. Where is the sense behind it? As I wrote, we don't know what suspicious deals they made. If a dev gives keys out and wants as "payment" only positive reviews, he should not wonder if the tables turn because of reasons greedy people or whatever.
Now I write again about this bullshit even tho I was done. Meh :)
THANKS xD
I see. Good to learn something new every day xD
"yo girl". that's my new expression for everyone from now on.
Comment has been collapsed.
This whole thing doesn't really effect me because I don't rely on early reviews to tell me whether or not I will buy any particular game but some people are loose with their money and believe in all the hype, then after playing it moan about how shitty the game they bought was.
If a developer promises to supply a certain amount of games to increase awareness but falls short on his promise, this does not give the idiot in question any right to act like a spoilt child because he didn't get his own way. His business ethics are terrible and after having spoke to someone close to him I have come to the conclusion that his view of developers in general is very negative.
I don't like the person in question and I don't blame any members of his many different groups for being members so long as their are not trying to defend his actions.
Comment has been collapsed.
I know dude I need to make it but I need to figure out how people can join and provide evidence that they have been blacklisted. If I do make this group it has to be low maintenance, I don't think I will have enough time or the effort to put into it. I don't know if he's blacklisted 10,50,100 or 100's of members from this thread.
But I would like to make giveaways for members who join up, that would be cool. To reward them for standing up against such a stain on society : )
Comment has been collapsed.
you can easy post any of his giveaway, and see if you are bl, just ss :D
Comment has been collapsed.
How can I create a recruitment post here on SG with out calling out, YOU KNOW WHO.
I know I can find members from just looking through this thread and seeing who he repeatedly loses his arguments with.
And the first GA has to be something epic like Fallout 4 or even MGS: PHANTOM PAIN.
And I got to screen every member who applies to join just in case it is HIM using any one of his many alternate accounts.
Could be a lot of work.
I would need proof of being blacklisted along with some kind of link to how they became blacklisted.
Comment has been collapsed.
yes. I agree with you and I never defended that duck guy, he's a douche and does not even hide it. But that was never to discuss for me, because it's obvious ^^
Comment has been collapsed.
Cleaned up and updated the OP.
Added a TL;DR at the bottom.
Comment has been collapsed.
Ah ... reminds me of the drama that one time with Hookups.
Sweet, sweet memories.
Comment has been collapsed.
SalzStange is an admin for Hookups. Not surprised.
Happy Cake Day! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Sad to hear these things. Indie developers have it tough enough without dealing with this sort of behavior. Additionally, some might prefer to make a sale rather than give a bunch of keys away ... I guess there's a fine balance between lost revenue and promotion.
Thanks for the good wishes.
Comment has been collapsed.
lol yeah I remember that. That sammy is/was an idiot. He was making up things as if he had a tough life while doing underhanded tactics to get games and profits right and left.
Left that stupid grup then I switched to Opium Pulses after that and never looked back.
Comment has been collapsed.
Replying to your reply, like a bawss. BUMP - There is still a ton of people in his groups and I hope it's because they are uninformed.
Comment has been collapsed.
Replying to your reply like a boss.
EDIT : Damnit Idio, you beat me to it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Came back to the thread after 2 months. Nothing has changed. Nothing really got accomplished. Which is goddarn sad. I do push this thread in the general direction of friends who are in the group, but it means jack shit to the guys who would suck the guy's balls for free games.
Also reading some responses of people defending the guy gave me cancer. He is a guy you met on the interwebs. How the HELL can you trust his word, and ignore all the pile of evidence that people with total credibility have gathered? HOW?
"He messed up, he is sorry about it." How exactly? By calling the guys who made the topic "trolls" and "attention seekers"? By sending people to defend him? That is NOT called feeling sorry, that is called damage control. And let's be honest, that's not something praiseworthy. Nor is it something those who believed in him can forget. Once bitten twice shy.
TLDR: I will not expect Valve to do anything about this, so this thread is useful for educating the uninformed, but otherwise it didn't do much. After all, it didn't stop him from doing what he does, did it?
Well, here is something worthwhile for staying.
6KZI2-BR65N-IA4VX - Battlepaths
24RH0-PN796-YNP3H - PID
Comment has been collapsed.
Codes taken by a silent ninja.
Reserved for more code drops and bumps.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yay I don't have to reply to myself this time! bump
Comment has been collapsed.
I got an invite to one of these the other day...
Then, I saw it said "we've got over 20k members, we're the fastest growing Steam group, blah blah blah" and was like.. fuck this bs D:.
Comment has been collapsed.
BUMP I thought that they were legit, I feel sorry for participating on their GAs, thanks for the info OP
Comment has been collapsed.
You have to keep an eye out, because it's not just him that's doing them but other people in his group.
I refuse to join ANY of them because I still feel it's cheating devs and they aren't being held accountable.
Comment has been collapsed.
What I don't understand is why dev's don't just do their own big GA's here. I've encouraged a few publishers and developers to do this in the past - so I'm not really sure why any dev would "need" groups like these to host GA's on their behalf... What am I missing here? Is it simply the implied/promised "reviews"?
Oh and apparently I had not completely purged the infection but I'm all good now :-p
Comment has been collapsed.
Yes but can't they reach the same and even wider huge audience by gifting here publicly???
Comment has been collapsed.
Ok but the "groups" in question are maybe 6k-7k in size while a public GA here reaches every single member that logs on while the GA is active... for example, S.Gifts, which is ostensibly this site's Steam group, has 28+K members... surely doing a 50key GA, which are highlighted (in rotation) for the length of the GA, has got to be a better method of "advertising", right?
Edit" from what you posted it's clear he makes a point of "selling reviews" - so yeah, it's a gimme lots of free keys and I will make sure your game gets positive reviews". Kind of bad juju in my book. No wonder he's always trolling members to add friends to keep his e-peen looking large :-(
Frankly, this whole thing stinks of stuff that happened in the 50's with game shows being rigged... guess history isn't studied and there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to scams, huh?
Oh and AngryErpel - or whomever is posting GA's? Please blacklist me because I don't want to see your GA's in my feed. I'm pretty well convinced that what you're doing is a HUGE scam and I don't want to inadvertently enter any of your "giveaways".
Developers: take note that more and more honest users of Steamgifts will NOT be seeing your paid PR gifts as the word of this scam spreads. Please just post your own giveaways here on Steamgifts all on your own. Allow winners to post real reviews as they see fit.
Comment has been collapsed.
Are you and that 'MAHAYO REDUX' topic creator on GOG forum are the same entity?
Comment has been collapsed.
Looks like this is my first time posting something in this thread, but better late than never I guess. First of all, I used to be one of the moderators for two months and also an adminstator for a month, but I and many others left the groups as soon as we found out about this. I want to deeply apologize for everyone what I've done.
What I'm here to tell you isn't that surprising, but I still thought to let you know about this. So this happend two days ago and it's a bit of a mess, so I will try to keep this as simple as possible. Some of you may or may not know about this, but after Salz blackmailed developers, we, the moderators and officers who left OTG, started our own group named Just Reviews. It's a small group, but we are proud for what we have and after all we are doing this for fun rather than winning.
So, one of the current OTG moderators, named Mr.W✪lffstamps, came to our groupchat. He was willing to help our group by reviewing games and he wanted to get a moderator position as well, despite still working as a moderator and a curator for Salz's groups and knowning clearly why we don't want to be associated with them in any way.
However, we decided to kick him off from our group permanently after discussing with him and that was simply because we knew for a fact what he was really up to.
I was proven to be right after seeing the comments he left to my profile afterwards. At first he was friendly and understood the reason behind our decision to get rid of him, but not too long after that he changed his behavior completely. He defended Salz, no matter what, but when a good friend of mine (who also used to be a curator and an adminstrator for OTG) replied to him saying "Says the person who supports a known blackmailer", he deleted ALL of his messages so that it would look like El Kemosabe was talking about me being the blackmailer instead of Salz. He also screencaptured this to show for others and here is the proof for that.
Not only that, but he also went publicly to the OTG groupchat, telling lies about us, how we "bullied and harrased him". I believe there is a very big difference between bullying and questioning why on earth is he still supporting Salz after everything he's done.
http://i.imgur.com/CqEwN2T.png
Judging by the screenshots above, Salz is now apparently trying to get us banned from Steam or something, specifically me for sure. This is yet another proof of how everything Salz is doing and working for is based on pure lies. Oh and Salz still thinks we left his groups without knowing why exactly, but I beg to differ on that one. What a real icing on the cake I must say.
Comment has been collapsed.
Once again: I'm astonished... What is wrong with Salz' brain?!? And also his insanely brainwashed sheep... Do people really not have any shame? Or sense in life? Ffs.
Also: "Didn't reach any of their goals" ... Ehm. You guys' goals are to write wellwritten reviews, and that's it. Salz' goals is to get as many people as it takes to lick his ass...... Ugh! >.<
Comment has been collapsed.
http://i.imgur.com/1nXxMuA.png?1
http://i.imgur.com/PyI1BOZ.png
Confirmation Salz is really brainwashing his admins, so sad that these people believe him even when they have seen all the proof in this thread piling up..
Also, I only posted this thread and I only have 1 account here and on Steam. He's making up more lies apparently. I havent had anything to do with anyone associated with Salz in months, and I rarely post here anymore. I washed my hands of this crap a long time ago. He can do whatever the hell he wants, it wont bother me. I know karma will bite his ass one day. It's guaranteed.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sigh...... He has endless lies up in his sleeve.. As soon as someone turns their back to him, they immediately become 'trolls' in his book. He really does everything to shut the truth away, eh? And 30-40 threads lol? He surely knows how to exaggerate as usual.. He should go back to school..
Comment has been collapsed.
It kind of undermines the plan of trying to make someone look like the bad guy when you openly explain your plan of trying to make them look like the bad guy.
Not to mention it makes it clear that they're the one with ill intent.
Comment has been collapsed.
to be honest, Salzstange is a very mad and lonely "kid" in the age of a grown up man.
all his life builds up in the internet and the non existing "epeen".
in almost every argument of him you will find the following threats: "you got no games on steam" "you got no friends on steam" "you are a lowballer"
he is obviously hiding behind his groups and what he thinks that he build up! a massive imperium that rules the gaming scene.
thats the biggest joke cause this stuff doesnt help him in any way, this guy has no job and spends his time 24/7 in front of his computer.
he will never be successful nor will he never sadly achieve anything in the real world.
Comment has been collapsed.
http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/5bqwx/doorways-holy-mountains-of-flesh/search?page=5#NZBZHQX
Not sure what I have to do to get blacklisted so I don't see this joker's relentless scamming of developers... cause that's exactly what it is - a big, fat scam for him and his friends to get a lot of free games.
Comment has been collapsed.
I actually wanted to be blacklisted - I'd find myself entering GA's and then noticing it was AngryErpel. Frankly I just don't need to see those GA's in my feed.
Comment has been collapsed.
If you're going that route, make sure you get on the blacklist of every other person spamming advertising for these groups as well.
Comment has been collapsed.
To put it simple he likes to censor people. He probably goes through this thread and blacklists everybody that write things here. So its mainly to keep newer people unaware of the real him.
When I left his groups as a mod about alittle more than 1 month before his crappy bundle-key hungry community was exposed. He made sure to threaten me that he would report me if he saw me say anything about him: http://i.imgur.com/FwOZ6Ja.jpg this was 2 weeks before he was exposed and he was invited so some RPG maker project in order to get "dev" status(Yeah I know right "dev of the year") and since the day I left I had not talked about him other than showing the other mods and admins the chatlog of me talking to Salz when he at one point misunderstands me and instantly after starts to insult me and calling me a liar just because he cant read simple english.
Comment has been collapsed.
The horrible English is one thing that is fine by me - heck, there is no way I am going to understand/translate/write in another language so I refuse to judge others, especially when they are making a huge effort to do so :-) However, the immediate defensive position he takes is a bit scary - as a woman in relationship to him, I'd be fearing being hit at any given moment. It is this "short" - well let's be truthful - "zero" fuse that is the most frightening thing about this guy.
The second scary thing is that he attempts to censor anyone and everyone; especially those that know him, i.e., his tactics, previous actions and shaky morals. When someone tries to silence me through blackmail - which is what the "I'll report you" message really is about - I wonder what it is they did that they cannot defend publicly. It's a pretty clear indicator that he has a lot to hide.
As to greedy people being willing to join his groups - hey, most people don't care about taking a moral stance on anything. This requires being on a certain level "need fulfillment" on Maslow's chart. So people that are struggling to find enough to eat, pay rent etc., are not necessarily going to care about Salz's morals, "paid-for" reviews or that he engages in forms of blackmail to censor his detractors or get developers to give him "free" keys to their game. But it doesn't excuse "us" from continuing to raise our hands when we see something of this nature being perpetrated.
In the end, the continued commentary in this thread will inform and allow SG members to make their own personal choice regarding being a member of Salz's many Steam groups. It's about education - not judging. :-)
Comment has been collapsed.
DIRECT CONTACT TO THE STEAM ADMINS AND VALVE WORKERS?!?!!!?
OH NOES WUT DO NOW?!?!
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm less concerned about him blackmailing developers and more worried that some devs may offer free keys in return for favorable reviews. If he attempts to blackmail a dev that dev can just save the communication as proof and bust him, just like how we found out about him in the first place. But giving false reviews for free games is more insidious. The review system on steam is already anemic and unrefined, but people still rely on it to make trades or purchases. Poisoning it with doctored reviews makes it worse.
But at the end of the day I think most people just want free games and don't want to take the whole thing so seriously. I debated whether or not to leave his group but I decided the same thing. Sure he's kind of scummy and I don't trust anything he says or his curators or reviews but if he wants to give away free games I'll take 'em.
Comment has been collapsed.
Agreed on the "free keys for "good" reviews being very insidious. However, since my personal morals won't allow me to participate in this kind of scam, I'd rather be blacklisted so I don't have to make a choice each and every time one of these GA's appears in my feed. Frankly if everyone refused to participate in his GA's several things would happen 1) his GA ratio/level would stop rising based on gifting free keys, 2)Developers would start to question why he couldn't gift 50 keys and see that they aren't getting any free advertising and 3) Once Dev's stopped providing free keys, the "questionable" reviews would stop being posted...
Logic :-p
Comment has been collapsed.
Any dev that is giving him keys post-expose are more than likely doing such. The only reason he gets keys is because he promises good reviews to the publishing agent.
Comment has been collapsed.
Time for yet another bump, I say.
Bump bump bumpetibump.
Comment has been collapsed.
I can't believe cg & staff still let this criminal use this site.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, it just makes no sense considering the proof is all over the internet.
Oh well, so tempted to write something nasty here but I don't want him to send the cyberpolices after me again :P
Comment has been collapsed.
Does he know the whole story about Salz aka AngryErpel ? If so it's a shame,sorry.
Comment has been collapsed.
I can guarantee you he knows about the situation but has personally chosen to do nothing.
Comment has been collapsed.
There is nothing that CG can do, as SalzStrange aka AngryErpel has not broken any SGifts rules. He has been a complete asshole, no doubt on that.
Comment has been collapsed.
There is something that CG can do. He can ban him which will stop him from being able to further manipulate the playing field by offering "advertisement" to devs which all he does is post giveaways on SG (and used to on SC, he only moved to SG cuz roadrunner banned him on SC.)
There are greater rules that overbear others, even SG rules, and Salz broke them in the eyes of the community.
Have fun supporting an extortionist. :)
P.S. Welcome to Bundle Quest. :D
Comment has been collapsed.
I am not supporting SalzStrange, I'm supporting CG. I'm sorry if I made you think anything else. Edited my comment.
Comment has been collapsed.
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.
Comment has been collapsed.