What's the deal with all the CAG mentions? Are no other sites/forums discussing this?

More: This Steven Baez guy hates us. Also, he made an account here. This is the what he posted in their comments section in response to somebody asking for transparency. Unfortunately, because their formatting is different from ours (or some reason), it turns into a massive wall of text when copy/pasted here.

Originally Posted by Steven Baez in the Operation Rainfall comments section Hey, you bring up several good points. My name is Steven, and I am both an admin here at Oprainfall and the one that this incident happened to. Yeah, I've been without steady internet the past few days, so I haven't been able to address this as properly as I would have liked to. First off, contrary to the CheapAssGamer forums (which I have thoroughly caught up on), we aren't "changing our stories". Unlike major "games journalism" sites, Oprainfall does not have a central office. We're scattered around the world and our main communication method is via the internet, and in emergency situations, we will make phone calls. When I came home to find my house vandalized and pretty much everything of value stolen, my wife and I were traumatized. The next morning, when I had finally regained some composure, I came into the chat group that Oprainfall operates from to let them know what had happened. At that moment in time, I didn't even give a shit about the cases. I was more concerned that my wife and I would need to find a new place to live. Richard, a fellow admin here at Oprainfall immediately thought of Oprainfall and the cases, and his first course of action was "full disclosure". Which would have been GREAT if he had all of the details. The only problem was that in our limited communication, very little of what made it to the initial post (which has since been hidden) is actually what happened. Several facts were distorted in the initial post, leading forum-goers to think that we had stolen their money and ran with it. The fact that it was the weekend and our printer was closed did not help matters. If I had been robbed during the daylight in the middle of the week, it would have been far more convenient because I could have immediately called the printer to request a duplicate receipt for our goods. But, unfortunately, whatever assholes decided to do this did it at night, at the start of the weekend, when my wife and I were away from the house. I have noticed that the forum users at CheapAssGamer have been trying to do some internet sleuthing, and I guess they (maybe) deserve props for finding my old address from a few years ago registered to my old company that I happened to register our domains under. As nice as it is that "investigative journalists" are trying to dig up "the truth", unfortunately there's not much more to it than that. How do we know that the users are coming from CheapAssGamer forums? Because our analytic data showed that nearly 90% of readers on the post we made about the cases came directly from CheapAssGamer or were users refreshing the page after coming from CAG. I'm not putting any blame on the actual website, for the record, it just so happens that they have some pretty shitty trolls. My first thought when a police record was requested was: "sure, no problem, it only takes a minute to scan this thing." But then I gave it some more thought and quite simply put, I don't want that shit posted on the internet. I don't have the time to sit and edit out a police record because 1) I've been legally advised that although it wouldn't HURT, it actually won't HELP either (and if we're really lying, wouldn't it be much easier to just make a photoshop?). 2) We're offering a full refund for anyone that wants their money back. No questions asked, just send us an email. I fully admit that this process took MUCH longer than expected, and this is partially MY fault for putting my personal life ahead of the cases, and partially because of going with a cheap understaffed printer. I wouldn't expect much less from dissatisfied donators. And 3) the cases were insured. The original receipt was lost in the mess of my home being vandalized, (which led to more confusion for the poor editor that made the original post), but our printer happily provided us with all the information we needed, including the tracking number and the fact that the boxes were insured. We've filed a claim with the shipping company, and when reimbursed, we'll order more cases. If you "don't buy it", ask for a refund, it's really that simple. I've been advised that our financial information is private since we are offering a full refund to anyone that asks. I can say this much: the amount of money we made in donations was barely enough to cover the costs to print the cases and have them shipped. You can do the math yourself to find out how much it costs to have 1000 sheets of cardboard printed and shipped. Someone earlier asked for an ETA - at the moment, we do not know. Here's the factors to consider, though: 1) the shipping company must process our claim and issue our refund (if they don't we will either pay for the cases out of our pockets or just issue everyone a full refund, and you'll hear about that when WE know the answer). 2) We must pay the cases to be reprinted (the printer asks for full payment in advance. However, since they already have our design on file, this time around should be MUCH quicker than before. 3) Once the cases are printed and shipped to our staff, we still need to package and mail each case individually. We maintain a secure database of each and every transaction. No one is forgotten. This is in addition to the records kept on PayPal itself. Oprainfall as a whole will continue to operate, as there are approximately 30 volunteers now that research and write articles. Only a handful were responsible for the cases. Did we miscommunicate to our audience by making the original, uninformed post? Yes.Was it irresponsible for it to take this long for the cases to arrive? Partially (I defend that because I don't get paid for this - I do Oprainfall in my spare time and my real life comes first). But ultimately, yes.Are we trying to fix the situation? Yes. As best as we can, actually. Everyone that donated will either get a case eventually or will get a refund, it's REALLY that simple. Will the cases be shipped to the same address? No. My wife and I live in a house (no, it's not an apartment, yes we rent, no we don't have renter's insurance, and no we don't live with my parents, although for the past few days we have been staying with my in-laws while our landlord repairs some of the damage). The reprinted cases will be shipped to a secure address in a much safer location (obviously I'm not going to post it here). When will Do I have your money? No. Although it would sure be nice to have money right now since my home was broken into, we're looking for a new place to live, and I've had to purchase a new computer for work (as I work from home, and yes, CheapAssGamer readers got it right, I do website design!). If I had your money, I wouldn't be defending myself and I sure as hell wouldn't be visiting the CAG forums right now. (I did set up an account, but it takes a few days to comment, apparently) Please feel free to use this comment wherever needed. But my words reflect ME, not Oprainfall (or I'd write an article about it). And if I see this comment taken out of context (which it probably will be), I'll be sure to head to CheapAssGamers forums myself to post the full body of this comment. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sensationalized headline on one of the major gaming sites taking this entire situation out of context as easy click-bait. So as the heads of the internet try to convince others I'm on a vacation in the Bahamas laughing all the way to the bank, my wife and I are trying to piece together our lives as best as we can. Was this post TL;DR?1) We made several PR errors while handling this situation (yes, I admit, we ed up)2) We're in the process of fixing it.3) Don't believe it? Ask for a refund. --- Jean , I apologize that I'm making this post as a reply to your questions, I'm just a little more than pissed off that this is something that I have to deal with during a particularly trying time for my wife and I, and as much as I understand that the slips of cardboard are meaningful to people, I've got a lot of real life business to take care of at the moment. Okay, carry on. (More from Steven, a couple posts later...) Also, this should also be clarified: 1) We made an editorial mistake by not posting that refunds could be requested when we made our second post. Once we stated that we would offer a refund, that offer still stood, even though the line of text was mistakenly forgotten. We still stand by that. If you want a refund, just ask. MEANING: IF YOU ASK FOR A REFUND, YOU WILL GET IT AS LONG AS YOU GIVE US SOMETHING TO SEARCH FOR IN OUR DATABASE. 2) There's been no secrecy regarding the cases aside from the exact number of people that donated enough to get a case. I'm not sure if we will ever disclose that number unless required by law, but I can tell you that after we ship all of the cases to those who donated, we will still have more than half of them sitting collecting dust. It would have been nice to have ordered a smaller batch. 3) When we reprint the cases, I'll post the tracking number for the new batch so you can all follow along. If I posted the current tracking number, all you'll see is "delivered". 4) I don't get why people keep thinking we claim to have "brought over" Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story. Sure, we made a lot of noise and did free promotion, but I think it's pretty clear that those decisions were made by Nintendo and XSEED possibly even before our campaign started. Pandora's Tower would have only been different if one of the publishers we pitched to actually picked up the title. Well, it isn't here, so obviously we can't claim shit on that one.

Funny shit. It looks like I and the other people who mentioned his living quarters got under his skin. At least he finally answered the "house versus apartment" question... Even though I'm hesitant to believe anything they say at this point.

It also looks like the two people that donated in this thread got $10 worth of entertainment out of this whole fiasco. Thanks for giving me and the rest of us free popcorn reading!

Doesnt their own comments say that while its not official that they brought the last story and xenoblade here, but its clearly obvious that they did?

Originally Posted by Deader2818 Doesnt their own comments say that while its not official that they brought the last story and xenoblade here, but its clearly obvious that they did?

They had nothing to do with either game. Gamestop went to Nintendo of America and made a deal for exclusivity because they knew it would sell, and NoA is famous for not bringing RPGs over. It came out in June 2010 in JP, while finally coming out here in April 2012, only because they were handed money and zero risk.

XSEED was responsible for bringing The Last Story to NA.

Oh no, im not saying they did at all. Im just saying in his rant he said he has no idea why anyone brings up that they said that they helped bring the game here when they had a post acting like they did.

Re: MEANING: IF YOU ASK FOR A REFUND, YOU WILL GET IT AS LONG AS YOU GIVE US SOMETHING TO SEARCH FOR IN OUR DATABASE.

They don't have a database. If they did they wouldn't need people to send them their info to send a refund back.

Re: They weren't responsible for bringing those games over.

Yes we know. The point was that they were basically saying 'We never claimed to be responsible for bringing those gsmes over...but really we were'

Originally Posted by Motoki Re: MEANING: IF YOU ASK FOR A REFUND, YOU WILL GET IT AS LONG AS YOU GIVE US SOMETHING TO SEARCH FOR IN OUR DATABASE. They don't have a database. If they did they wouldn't need people to send them their info to send a refund back. Re: They weren't responsible for bringing those games over. Yes we know. The point was that they were basically saying 'We never claimed to be responsible for bringing those gsmes over...but really we were'

I bet if they have a "database" it's some sort of Microsoft word or PowerPoint file.

Originally Posted by Ryuukishi What's the deal with all the CAG mentions? Are no other sites/forums discussing this?

Nope. I saw a few forum posts on Gamespot about this here:

http://www.gamespot.com/xenoblade-ch...ists-64798740/

But not much has come from it.

Seems like no one else besides CAG is talking about this at all, which is kind of unfortunate.

OP Rainfall really made no effort to let people know about the cases. I'm sure they were hoping few would notice. So essentially followers who haven't checked the site lately, or saw the Facebook post may not even know what's going on yet. If they really wanted people to know about refunds, and keep them informed there would be more Tweets and Facebook discussion over this. Instead the original post got put up late on a Saturday night when traffic on websites are lower and that was it.

It's kind of sad, because I'm willing to bet there are also a bunch of people that forgot who may never even get the cases. When you buy a ton of crap you tend to forget these things. When I look at the whole picture, I see a site that tried to make it's own name for itself, bring in an audience, however it seemed their mission was to gain recognition and not to bring those games over. Now they have a fan base so they can tell people to F off, and those same people will follow them mindlessly because they have been with them ever since.

If they genuinely wanted to get these cases out to people, they have done a bad job of portraying this.

"Selfless service" is apparently not something we are capable of anymore. - Zyzxx

Wow, that admin seems quite upset. But at least something new was posted from his rant that he had little to no time to create. There was a minimum of 1,000 different donators for them to print at least 1,000 of the CE boxes. Especially since they were also accepting donations for $5.

Not sure if they had posted a number on how much they received in donations prior to this, but at least I'm finally up to date on that.

Originally Posted by Motoki Re: MEANING: IF YOU ASK FOR A REFUND, YOU WILL GET IT AS LONG AS YOU GIVE US SOMETHING TO SEARCH FOR IN OUR DATABASE. They don't have a database. If they did they wouldn't need people to send them their info to send a refund back. Re: They weren't responsible for bringing those games over. Yes we know. The point was that they were basically saying 'We never claimed to be responsible for bringing those gsmes over...but really we were'

I sent them my name, email and transaction ID (I saved the email from my donation) and I got my money back in just over a day. So yeah, they will give you your money back assuming you can give them the right info.

This shit reminds me of that game advocate group a while back that promised a lot but did not seem (to me) to have delivered much... but they did bring us the sweetness of those awesome amazon codes... whatever happened to that group? Are they still around? Anyone remember?

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Originally Posted by Asgardian This shit reminds me of that game advocate group a while back that promised a lot but did not seem (to me) to have delivered much... but they did bring us the sweetness of those awesome amazon codes... whatever happened to that group? Are they still around? Anyone remember?

Ah yes, I think you're talking the ECA memberships that were ing annoying to cancel.

Okay, so I reached out and filed a request from the Police Department located in Temecula, the town of the physical address where the various websites operated by Mr. Boaz are registered under.

It is important to note that Mr. Boaz claims he has since moved from this address. While this is yet another detail that we have to take without any evidence or any third-party verification, I have no evidence one way or the other regarding his claim.

However, the following is the reply I received upon requesting a copy of the public record regarding a robbery at the aforementioned address:

Chief O’Harra forwarded me your Public Records Act request to obtain a copy of a police report involving an incident that occurred on 11/29/12 at >address retraced<. I ran an extensive search in our computer system under that address and was unable to come up with any contacts for the entire 2012 calendar year to date. I also ran the names of Steven and >wife's name removed< Boaz and was unable to come up with any contacts under their names as well. At this point, given the information you have provided me, there doesn’t appear to have been any calls made to the Temecula Police Department involving the above referenced address or names. I am willing to continue to assist you in any way I can, but I will need for you to provide me with a little more information. Feel free to either call me or e-mail me back with more information and I will be more than happy to assist you.

I would post this on Operation Rainfall's website so that anyone from there could comment on it freely, should they so desire, however last thing I posted on there was deleted (which was merely a link to the local paper), so I'm not even going to bother with their site.

interesting...

I am still amazed that not much has gone beyond CAG and a few comments on OP. Someone should try reddit??

I guess what gets to me is if OP Rainfall REALLY wanted to notify their beloved community of being able to submit for a refund, etc. they would be announcing it to them a couple more times about it. All they did was submit one post (well actually two since the first one was deleted).

Since it happened on the weekend I'm sure very few people saw, and even know about this. OP Rainfall doesn't want to refresh the convo anywhere on their twitter or facebook, to keep their readers informed of what's happening.

any normal fundraiser will notify people of how much they received, and how many donators they had. scams won't.

Originally Posted by tanders interesting... I am still amazed that not much has gone beyond CAG and a few comments on OP. Someone should try reddit?? I guess what gets to me is if OP Rainfall REALLY wanted to notify their beloved community of being able to submit for a refund, etc. they would be announcing it to them a couple more times about it. All they did was submit one post (well actually two since the first one was deleted). Since it happened on the weekend I'm sure very few people saw, and even know about this. OP Rainfall doesn't want to refresh the convo anywhere on their twitter or facebook, to keep their readers informed of what's happening. any normal fundraiser will notify people of how much they received, and how many donators they had. scams won't.

Suppose you could toss a few links over to the "major 'games journalism' sites" that Steven Baez references, but I doubt that would do much. It's not uncommon for somebody that ran a kickstarter or indie-gogo to join with Billy Joe and Bobby Sue.

Don't believe they cover many details regarding those either. I'm just going to request a refund now.

Luckily I didn't buy these but this begs the question, if they don't know who contributed then how the hell were they going to mail out the boxes?

How do you get that they don't know who contributed?