Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men
Some of you who have been following the QOL vs David Allen saga since earlier this year probably know that two weeks ago, weekend of Sept 11th, he put up a patently defamatory blog in which he not only blasted the QOL investors, but also myself.
He posted a bunch of patently false commentary that were so egregious and malicious about all of us – most especially about me – that I’m not even going to bother republishing them. And that was all aside from the confidential company information that he published on the web and with inpunity. Material which he had no rights to and which, apart from his breach of the NDA he signed with QOL, was also a breach of the Operating Agreement of the LLC that he signed with the investors.
And on top of that, he posted a completely fabricated chart of Alganon‘s progress in order to show that it was failing as a result of his departure. Of course it was false and we called him on it.
All this was about a game and company that he received millions of investor money to formulate and create. And since he’s out, Scorched Earth is what his focus seems to be because his actions seem to be clearly designed to damage the company as well as the people trying to save it.
His blog was a doozy.
Why did he do it? Well, you’d have to ask him. However, the intent was clear. He wanted to damage the company, damage my rep, damage the rep of the investors etc. If you read that blog before it was taken offline, you’d have drawn this conclusion yourself as there is no other feasible explanation for why he did it. There was nothng to be gained from it. And apparently in granting the injunction (see below), the judge agreed.
Basically once the attorneys got involved, he took it down. That was two and a half weeks ago.
Then this past weekend, after we rejected some of the demands that he was making in the settlement (we’re ready, willing and able to sue him to the end and have no incentive or reason to settle, other than to get rid of him) agreement that he initiated a few months back, he put it back up. To top it off, he had the audacity to post this excerpt as a precursor to putting it back up.
The reason I took the blog down was as a sign of good faith to support settlement discussions with QOL. Unfortunately, commitments were made over the near two week period that were not met. Since there is no sign the libel will be removed anytime soon, this overview will remain active as long as necessary.
During all this time, he had been trying to leverage his blog into the settlement because he figured that the only way we could get him to remove it, was either through settlement on his terms or by a court order. He was probably also hoping against hope that whatever lies he posted about me were true or that I wouldn’t want to go to court to explain his ludicrous defamatory statements. Apparently every “Derek Smart” out there, is me and anything that a detractor posts about me on the Internet, must be true. Go figure.
There is a reason that he tends to pull off nonsense like this on weekends when the attorneys are away, courts are closed etc.
So I instructed the attorneys not to even bother with him but to go straight to court first thing this past Monday morning. Armed with a very big stick.
We filed an injunction against him, detailing everything that was false, defamatory or otherwise confidential in the blog.
Once he was notified of that action, he started to make some edits to the blog which included removing some of the defamatory material among other items. In other words, he was in damage control mode and trying to see what he could pass under the nose of a judge.
Well, moments ago, word just came down that the judge granted the injunction aka TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) on all counts in the complaint and the entire blog was required to be taken down immediately.
Which means that the blog goes down and anyone posting any excerpts from it, is required to take it down or be sued for republication of defamatory material, be held in contempt of court etc.
As of this writing, the blog has been taken down.
Meanwhile, the Alganon game which he failed to complete, pissed away investors money on then released it incomplete, continues to grow steadily and to the extent that I’m already working on our 2011 gameplan as well as localization for hosting the game in other territories, our first expansion pack, numerous enhancements etc.
Sure, we have quite a hill to climb after the December 2009 fiasco that Allen saddled us with, but we’re taking it one step at a time as we work diligently to improve on Alganon, keep the company going etc. The current team (two weeks ago I organized a trip to Las Vegas where our datacenter is located for a, first of its kind for QOL, “meet & greet”), sans Allen and his buddies, is top notch and we’re all focused on the continued improvement of Alganon as we look to the future.
How did we get here? Well, here is a short and sweet, 100% factual chronology of events which I have also discussed across several blogs in the past months.
- In 2006, David Allen – after his second failed attempt at developing an MMO and which ended in a disaster at Artifact Entertainment (another venture he started) from where he was subsequently fired – decided to go back to the drawing board with a new MMO.
- He had no money. Somehow he convinced the mild mannered Gregory Wexler, who Allen was working for at one of Wexler’s companies, to invest in his new idea.
- Greg agreed and together they formed Quest Online, LLC in Arizona where Allen resided. They split the company into 50/50 shares. Greg was the money guy and Allen would bring the ideas for the game, put a team together, take a salary from QOL (funded by Wexler) etc
- Trouble is, he sold Wexler a bill of goods that were not only false but not based in reality. He claimed that he could develop an MMO game for around $500K and under a year. Yes. Seriously. So the initial funding ran out, the schedule went out the window and they needed more money.
- So Allen went investor shopping at various places, including GoBigNetwork. Wexler pinged some of his friends, they pinged their friends, family etc. Allen also ended up hooking an investor at one of the investor sites (GBN apparently), who also brought in friends and family. In the end, QOL was an LLC consisting of two clusters of closely related people. Those that came in through the investor network and those that came in through Wexler. Allen didn’t know any of these people and had no ties to them.
- Through what can only be attributed to sheer incompetence, Allen had false start after false start. Hiring the wrong people for the wrong job, getting into all kinds of personal issues with them (one previous contractor, Dan Nissenbaum, actually threatened to sue the company over Allen’s actions – an issue that I recently settled amicably out of court obo QOL even though I wasn’t even at QOL when it all started), making all sorts of promises he couldn’t possible keep.
The result of this was date after date was missed and promise after promise made to the investors was broken.
- At the end of the day, when all the other investors had enough and stopped investing, only one majority investing group remained. Allen and Wexler continued to sell equity in the LLC to this group and by the time the dust settled in 2009, this group became the majority investors and with both Allen and Wexler owning less than 35% of the company – together.
- These investors, in late 2009, four years and several missed shipped dates later, got fedup and pulled funding. The Alganon game was, for all intent and purposes, dead.
- Allen and I had been having discussions earlier in 2009 when I was out looking for an MMO network (I also spoke to the likes of K2, Nexon and other networks) to host my work-in-progress MMO which was being developed in tandem with the two games my company shipped in 2009.
Those discussions with Allen went nowhere, apparently because QOL really wasn’t a network capable of hosting other MMO games.
Then several months later, out of the Blue, Allen contacts me, soliciting my assistance to convince the investors to invest more money into QOL because the Alganon game was ready and that he needed additional money to actually deploy (release) it.
- I agreed to help. In exchange, Allen offered that once Alganon was completed, that QOL would be able to host my games on their network, provide backend billing support etc.
Allen then sets up a conference call with him, Wexler, the Olausons (the only investors who were left funding the company) and myself. They explained why they weren’t putting any more money into QOL.
I gave them my pitch regarding the direction of the industry, the viability of MMO games, that if the game was finished and only needed to be deployed, that it made sense to get to the finish line etc.
Shortly thereafter, convinced by my pitch, the investors agreed to invest more money to see the game deployed – but only if I were personally involved. Unless I was involved, Allen wasn’t getting any more money and the company would be wound down.
That was November 2009, around Thanksgiving.
- I agreed to do this oversight, help with promoting the game etc. All things that I had successfully done for more than twenty years and fourteen games.
Allen, after warranting to us all that the game was finished and ready to ship that December (less than a month later), got the additional funding.
- The investors, as per my involvement, asked me to keep an eye on things, guide and direct Allen to ensure that we weren’t looking at yet another missed date. They asked for my analysis of the situation.
- During this time, Allen knowingly shipped the Alganon game in December 2009 – unfinished and while still in Beta. The game, not being finished, of course did poorly, right out of the gate. This is the risk that he was willing to take.
- By the time my analysis for the investors was complete, I already had the full picture of what was really going on at QOL and none of which the investors actually knew about.
Basically, Allen had been lying to them. And in what can only be described as insanity, had not only lied to me, but also used my influence and industry credibility to obtain money from the investors under false pretences (e.g. the game wasn’t finished and ready to deploy).
- Once I sent out the report to him and the investors, Allen went ballistic. That was the beginning of the end for him.
- As things began to unravel and it became clear that he had shipped the game incomplete, had been lying to everyone etc things started getting really crazy at QOL. In the end, the investors still believing that I could help sort things out, asked Allen to step aside and let me handle things.
- I was made president pro tempore of QOL in a contract that Allen, Wexler and the investors signed. At that point, Allen and everyone at the company, reported to me. Allen and Wexler were still Managing Members of the LLC.
- I asked for and got additional funding so that we could finish the game. We gave Allen an additional three months.
- However, nothing changed and much like the way he treats everyone that works for him, Allen felt that he could push me around, yell at me, not follow my guidelines etc.
He shot down almost every single idea that I brought. He didn’t want to make the game F2P, he didn’t want to implement a micro-transaction system which would support it, he didn’t want to trim the design – in fact, he was just fine continuing the game the way he had it; despite the fact that it just wasn’t getting finished.
Heck, I had to fight tooth and nail to actually get a proper trial for the game, after making it clear that the demo just wasn’t cutting it. He wanted to be boss and since Alganon was his “baby”, nobody could tell him what to do with it, nor how to handle it. Totally oblivious to the fact that he was burning through investor money with inpunity.
To this day, as we (myself, the investors and the team) read online where he tries to take credit for things which he never did or initiated, yet wants to take credit for, it just solidifies the reasons for getting him out of QOL. Apart from the fact that, according to the SVN logs, he never wrote a single line of game code for Alganon.
Then, to cap it all, he tried to license the game to a third party (UTV TrueGames) without my permission or that of the investors. The reasoning behind this was that he already knew that he – once again – could not finish the game within the three months he was given, so he wanted to try and license off the game to a third party – for cheap – and reset the clock, thereby getting around the investors.
The problem with that is that the game was not finished and any such deal would have ended up with UTV suing QOL for breach once they found out later down the road what was really going on.
So I killed the deal by sending a strongly worded cease & desist email to the CEO of Truegames informing them that Allen did not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of QOL and that I had sole authority and wasn’t interested in licensing Alganon to a third party. The CEO immediately recalled their evaluation team – which coincidentally was on site at QOL going through the game with Allen.
It just so happens that UTV Truegames, just a few short months later, sued the developers of one of their own MMO games, Mytheon. That was a bullet that I also dodged when Allen was removed from QOL.
- Then it dawned on me that he was once again telling us and the investors that the game would be ready and relaunched. After looking at the schedules, talking to the team etc, it became clear that this was still not the case. Which explained clearly why, instead of working with the team on the game, he was out trying to license it to a third party behind our backs.
- In the end, with everyone fedup that he had basically maintained the Status Quo and didn’t let me do my job, the decision was made in February 2010 to fire Allen so that we could save the game and company. A lot of drama ensued, all of which I have already documented in my blogs and reported in our industry media outlets.
- Immediately after Allen left QOL, Hue Henry (designer) and Josef Schindler (data) quit and later Jason Blood (lead programmer) was terminated from the company. These were three of Allen’s buddies who, with the exception of Schindler, were on the ground floor of the game’s development since day one, along with Allen.
- Then Allen, through Jason Blood (who was still at the company), breach security protocols by letting Allen – who was no longer at QOL – access our dev systems (Confluence, Jira, SVN etc) back into QOL sub-systems. Allen then locked us all out – including Wexler – and held the assets hostage.
Then he sent a scathing email to the investors bad mouthing me, saying that I was there to appropriate QOL tech etc. All this, knowing fully well that not only was it false, but that he had brought me there. Of course this – the first of many – move failed to sway the investors and I was given the OK to proceed as I saw fit in saving the game and company.
The majority investors then hired me to do what it took to secure their investment, see the game to completion, keep the company afloat etc. In other words, I now had full control over the Alganon game as well as QOL operations. I was also later made a Managing Member of the LLC.
I immediately terminated Jason Blood’s contract.
- One of the investors filed a police report against Allen at the Chandler, AZ police.
I also dispatched an IT team to our Las Vegas datacenter to secure our servers at root level and wipe out Allen’s credentials. This move was successful and we regained the company assets back.
Work on Alganon resumed.
- The investors later unanimously voted him out of the LLC. First as a Managing Member and then as a Member. This left him with only an ecomonic interest in the LLC. Basically, they kicked him right out of the company.
- Allen, using the residual balance from the company’s bank account (before we could seize control of them), sued all of us. Then started claiming that it was an illegal action that was taken to fire him etc. So QOL issued a statement addressing this.
- Since QOL didn’t have access to its bank accounts – which Allen had held hostage and subsequently cleared out – 3000AD (my company) started bridge funding QOL’s operations with the majority investors, while we worked with the attorneys and Wexler to obtain new bank accounts, credentials, additional funding for operations etc.
- We were focused on getting Alganon finished, while the attorneys worked to address his suit.
After I re-assessed the game, modified the schedule, trimmed the design in order to actually have a game we could finish, we finally finished and shipped the game in late April 2010.
We killed the subscription model. And as a gesture of good faith, we also refunded 100% of the subscriptions which gamers had paid up-front back in December 2009 when Allen purported that the game was actually ready for deployment. This was a significant amount of cash, but I felt that it was the right thing to do and the investors agreed. Compare that to other games (e.g. the recent APB closure) in which gamers lose their entire investment and with no recourse whatsoever.
- After doing all our research, investigations, getting our ducks in a row, going through all the company’s paperwork etc, we filed an extensive counter-suit against him. The allegations (start on page 31 of the filing) included fraud, embezzlement, conversion, breach of fiduciary duties etc.
- He immediately initiated settlement talks in which he was asking for a ludicrous amount of money for his equity in the LLC as settlement. We laughed and asked the attorneys to continue with their work on the suit.
- In the meantime, after having refused to provide the company’s complete financial documents, we filed subpoenas to all the banks that QOL had used since 2006. The goal was to try and figure out where all the investor money went, how it was spent etc.
During this time, he was still doing his saber rattling, tweaking and revising his settlement requirements etc. In other words, we were getting nowhere in terms of a settlement.
Once he got down to terms worth discussing, for the good of the company, we decided to engage – and then laid out terms of our own. Basically, the investors decided to buy out his equity interest in the LLC for pennies on the dollar and to have his frivolous suit tossed. From the start, his lawsuit was just rubbish and the strength of our own counter-suit sparked the settlement talks.
- He thought we were bluffing with the stiff guidelines we laid out for the settlement. Thing is, we weren’t. So for almost four months, this back and forth continued and we refused to back down or agree to his demands.
- Obviously getting desperate, he decided to try and once again strongarm us into paying him. And so during the weekend of Sept 11th, he put up a scathing blog post in which he not only lambasted everyone, but also made the most egregious and malicious defamatory statements about the investors and most especially myself. To the extent that he flat out fabricated a chart that was porported to show Alganon’s decline since I took over. His primary target was me. After all, he held me responsible for him being kicked out of the company. In all of that, not once taking responsibility for what he had done.
- The attorneys got involved and the blog was taken down almost immediately.
- During this time, the accountants and attorneys were still trying to find out where all the investor money went while we continued to hash out a settlement which was acceptable to us. After all, he did sue a bunch of people and everyone had to pitch in on how things would go; though they left all the final decisions to me – since I am President of the company and someone who works directly for and represents the majority investors. If it wasn’t for me, QOL would have folded since November 2009, so they felt confident enough to leave things in my hands and I continued to work with Wexler to put the matter behind us.
- He then tried to use the blog as leverage to alter the terms of the settlement in his favor. You see, he felt that if we didn’t want him to post those things, that we would a) settle on his terms b) I would remove all my interviews, blogs, forum posts etc documenting what had happened etc – thus wiping out all traces of what he had done. The problem with that is, unlike his blog post, none of my commentary is false or defamatory. So, according to the attorneys, he simply didn’t want the truth being out there. After all, with a lawsuit in place, if he felt that I was defaming him, all he had to do was sue. Oh wait, that’s right, he already did that earlier this year.
- We still refused to settle under his terms. So he puts the blog back up during the weekend of Sept. 25th.
- This time, we didn’t even bother with him. I simply asked the attorneys to go straight to court and obtain an injunction. As any decent attorney knows, obtaining a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) is one of the most difficult things to do. Not only are the standards very high, but unless it is determined that if a case was filed that we would prevail, a TRO would not be granted.
- The judge granted the TRO yesterday, Sept 22nd. And with that, the blog was to go down.
- And we’re back to the originally crafted settlement talks to buy him out of the LLC and send him on his way, while tossing the suit out.
- But it didn’t stop there. He still has remnants (e.g. Google caches) of the blog, comments, links within etc which he has refused to remove. So today, we’re going straight back to court to obtain an order of contempt to have everything removed.
SEPT 23rd UPDATE: Under the threat of a contempt of court order which we were going to file this morning, the blog and all links, comments etc have now been taken down completely as of this morning.
So we pretty much spent almost three weeks dealing with his latest disruption (as per the blog) and spending money on attorneys, when we could be wrapping up the settlement.
He gained absolutely nothing from this exercise and it all amounted to just wasted effort because he, once again, failed miserably.
SEPT 27th UPDATE: At approximately 7PM EST, the lawsuit between QOL and Allen was settled.With everything dismissed and QOL purchasing his aforementioned remaining stake in the LLC, it’s FINALLY OVER.
If any of this sounds familiar to those of you in the gaming industry, or who follow your game developers closely, it should be.
Apparently the same or similar events happened at the now defunct Artifact Entertainment over the Horizons game. He allegedly lied to the investors, misrepresented the state of the game etc. In the end, Horizons too was a disaster that much has been written about. In short, they tried to get him out and with a decent severance package, he refused. They finally kicked him out. He then went around bad mouthing and blaming everyone else for that fiasco. These are statements obtained directly from those were right there on the ground floor of it all and who keep contacting us, amazed at how similar this situation was to their own. Soon after the dust settled, this “mysterious” web article about the events showed up – and it mimics exactly the style, prose and context of the blog that Allen put up about us recently. Which, to me, gives credibility to those who back then claimed that Allen either engineered or ghost wrote it.
He tried to start another venture after the AE and Horizons game fiasco. That too failed.
Then in 2004 he posted a farewell to the industry (you have to select all the text on the page with CTRL+A in order for it to be visible), disappeared for awhile; apparently to go work for Greg Wexler.
He later surfaced in 2006 with the new QOL venture courtesy of Wexler’s money.
Then, unfortunately for Wexler and the investors who poured their money (some even emptied their IRA savings and gave to Allen) lightning struck twice and got us where we are today.
If this had gone to trial, we were going to subpoena every single person who has ever worked with Allen at his previous ventures and it would have been easy for us to paint a clear pattern of conduct ranging from misleading investors, misrepresenting the state of the game etc.
So, that’s where we are today. Hopefully this will all end soon. Right now all we are focused on is buying out his remaining shares in the LLC and waving him goodbye. We’re DONE with him.
And any adversarial move he makes from here on out is going to be met with swift and decisive legal action because we’re all fedup and have simply had it.