VN Ren'Py Abandoned Midlife Crisis [v0.34 - v0.1 Dark] [Nefastus Games]

[Ayhsel]

I'm not sure if any privacy policy applies to that situation. A privacy policy cannot circumvent statutory laws, otherwise you could film child pornography and claim privacy protection when you were investigated.
Privacy policy is not an absolute. Otherwise you could demand your bank to delete all your customer records and you would be debt-free. I work in a financial institution and I can tell you there are daily requests coming in demanding just that and all such requests are denied with a polite 'fuck you'.

While on topic of debt, if a creator was in debt and collections came knocking, Patreon would be compelled to surrender details of the offender and allow collections to garnish Patreon income.

A creator authorizes Patreon to send money to his account, which is taxable in most jurisdictions. In some countries, Patreon is required to provide annual tax statements to creators.
They also need to monitor accounts for fraudulent activity.
These requirements force Patreon to be able to verify that the person they have on file is the owner of the account.

All this makes me think that Patreon probably could investigate.

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If there are reasonable doubts whether the account holder is still active and still receiving money pledged by patrons, they have an obligation to act, including withholding payments.
Now, whether they would act on a user report is another matter, but complete radio silence should prompt Patreon into investigating the situation.

Patreon doesn't keep creator pages open when they are made aware that the creator passed away. Privacy policy prevents them from providing full disclosure, but they do remove creator pages.

Oh don't get me wrong, I am understand what you are saying. But you are explaining a situation of going through the right channels, which may even include legal procedures.

I don't think some random guy calling patreon asking to check if some guy is alive after a month are "legal procedures". Of course, you could potentially hire a lawyer and do all that, but I don't see anything doing that, the cost would be simply higher.

Anyway, I doubt we are going to find out. I'd say something happened and we are going to go radio silence definitely, or on the very least for some months.

 

[cloudfw]

Well, damn.
Wanted to look into the thread about the status of the next update... and the news are not encouraging, it seems.
Well, I just hope that all turns out well in the end.

 

[fotogaik]

Well, for better or worse, I contacted Patreon, notified them that Nefastus has gone silent and asked if they can contact him to check if he intends to continue or not.
We'll see how it goes.

 

[Grubb]

Well, for better or worse, I contacted Patreon, notified them that Nefastus has gone silent and asked if they can contact him to check if he intends to continue or not.
We'll see how it goes.

If that was a thing, a lot of game scammers would be gone. Yet they are still there, some of which are on F95 as well.

 

[xxTHESTYGIANxx]

My god people, wait three months before the off the wall theories come out. This isn't the first time he has gone dark, contacting Patreon is a leap and wrong. Give him the usual 3 months before this crap pops off about this happened or that happened or oh my god what if he is dead. At this point it is conjecture, theories and all around nonsense to explain why an update isn't out yet....from a dev that has gone dark for months in the past.

 

[RabidSloth]

My god people, wait three months before the off the wall theories come out. This isn't the first time he has gone dark, contacting Patreon is a leap and wrong. Give him the usual 3 months before this crap pops off about this happened or that happened or oh my god what if he is dead. At this point it is conjecture, theories and all around nonsense to explain why an update isn't out yet....from a dev that has gone dark for months in the past.

I'm new to this game and dev, so I don't know the history or pattern, but my understanding is that the worry isn't just because he's gone dark, but the way it happened. Something about him saying the new update was uploading now and he was feeling wiped out and needed to go lie down, and then after that, nothing, anywhere. Which if that is unusual for him then I can understand the concern and worry for his well-being under those circumstances.

 

[Immunity]

While I'm sympathetic to the dev's plights (everybody goes through major shit at one point or another), at the same time I have little tolerance towards poly-chronic individuals that are known to jerk people around. Going from - "it's uploading now" to no contact for months on end - the only real excuses would be major accidents/prison/commitment to a mental asylum/death. The, "oh, I was in a bad place" stuff doesn't fly when all it would take would be less than a minute to post a one word update.

Whatever his situation may be, it's massively disrespectful towards those throwing him money every month to treat them like that.

 

[RabidSloth]

While I'm sympathetic to the dev's plights (everybody goes through major shit at one point or another), at the same time I have little tolerance towards poly-chronic individuals that are known to jerk people around. Going from - "it's uploading now" to no contact for months on end - the only real excuses would be major accidents/prison/commitment to a mental asylum/death. The, "oh, I was in a bad place" stuff doesn't fly when all it would take would be less than a minute to post a one word update.

Whatever his situation may be, it's massively disrespectful towards those throwing him money every month to treat them like that.

Can't say I disagree with you. I myself have mental health problems, and have admitted myself into a hospital/psych ward during some suicidal episodes. And in my experience they don't exactly let you have internet access from there. So in that particular set of circumstances or similar I can somewhat understand. But outside of that, if alive and able, it's just common courtesy imo to at least throw out a "Hey, I'm alive." or something.

If he suddenly resurfaced, my thoughts would likely be "Oh thank god you're alive! I'm so relieved! ...now WTF?!!"

 

[xxTHESTYGIANxx]

I'm new to this game and dev, so I don't know the history or pattern, but my understanding is that the worry isn't just because he's gone dark, but the way it happened. Something about him saying the new update was uploading now and he was feeling wiped out and needed to go lie down, and then after that, nothing, anywhere. Which if that is unusual for him then I can understand the concern and worry for his well-being under those circumstances.

Look the pattern and the way it happened is normal for him. Going full on worry is for nothing without knowing what is going on. None of us do. None of us can say with out a doubt what is going on, what might be going on, all we can do is go off past dissapearnaces, in which case had no reason behind them so calm down, wait and deal with it once it comes after 3 moinths atleast.

 

[xxTHESTYGIANxx]

Not to mention most on here don't know his "pattern of dropping out" so at the end of the day it is "normal" until we hit an amount of time. Those that have been here from first release know that and this is well within the realm of normalcy. Just calm down don't get up at arms for something none of us know, it could be anything.

 

[RabidSloth]

Look the pattern and the way it happened is normal for him. Going full on worry is for nothing without knowing what is going on. None of us do. None of us can say with out a doubt what is going on, what might be going on, all we can do is go off past dissapearnaces, in which case had no reason behind them so calm down, wait and deal with it once it comes after 3 moinths atleast.

I'm glad to hear (even if it does drop my respect level for him down a bit) that it's at least not something that's uncommon with him. Someone else said the opposite, that it was very out of character. And as I said I'm unfamiliar with him until recently so *shrug*

 

[xxTHESTYGIANxx]

I'm glad to hear (even if it does drop my respect level for him down a bit) that it's at least not something that's uncommon with him. Someone else said the opposite, that it was very out of character. And as I said I'm unfamiliar with him until recently so *shrug*

Respect for him should still be there. Even with the going dark. He has still put out quality updates so just give him the benefit of the doubt. He is good, things happen IRL that none of us know more so with a dev that we can't possibly know

 

[RabidSloth]

Not to mention most on here don't know his "pattern of dropping out" so at the end of the day it is "normal" until we hit an amount of time. Those that have been here from first release know that and this is well within the realm of normalcy. Just calm down don't get up at arms for something none of us know, it could be anything.

I don't know whether or not you're addressing me or just the people commenting recently in general lol, and I can only speak for myself, but no "calming down" is needed. No one is really hysterical or up in arms from what I can tell. People just want to know he's okay after that last message followed by going dark for several weeks.

But thank you for mentioning that it's within the realm of normalcy for him. It's a good thing to know when following a new (for me anyway) game and dev. I only played the game for the first time recently, and while it got off to a rocky start imo, it got soo much better as it went on. I'm very invested now and eagerly awaiting any news, whenever it may come

 

[xxTHESTYGIANxx]

I don't know whether or not you're addressing me or just the people commenting recently in general lol, and I can only speak for myself, but no "calming down" is needed. No one is really hysterical or up in arms from what I can tell. People just want to know he's okay after that last message followed by going dark for several weeks.

But thank you for mentioning that it's within the realm of normalcy for him. It's a good thing to know when following a new (for me anyway) game and dev. I only played the game for the first time recently, and while it got off to a rocky start imo, it got soo much better as it went on. I'm very invested now and eagerly awaiting any news, whenever it may come

Just replying, no calling anyone out. It just gets under my skin when people jump to "worst case scenario" when in this case it is normal. So I appologize if it seemed like I was calling you out.

 

[RabidSloth]

Just replying, no calling anyone out. It just gets under my skin when people jump to "worst case scenario" when in this case it is normal. So I appologize if it seemed like I was calling you out.

No prob. And that's understandable. Thanks

 

[Seps]

The usual pattern of gamedevs here. They are 1-2 years doing regular updates, then they lose interest(or whatever) and then you see how the frequency of updates gets lower.. Some devs, start coming up with excuses for stalling.. They or their teammembers are sick, cat got fleas, you name it.. Eventually they disappear. Sadly so many good games have been abandoned this way.
Nefastus has followed the same pattern. He pushed out updates every month.. and then, after two years or so ... the adult game developers syndrome hit also him. We started seeing excuses, his updates were delayed, he disappeared from time to time.. until he is now completely gone.

So nothing new here. I am sure, he is fine and I wish him well. Midlife crisis is great game.

 

[Cartageno]

The usual pattern of gamedevs here. They are 1-2 years doing regular updates, then they lose interest(or whatever) and then you see how the frequency of updates gets lower.. Some devs, start coming up with excuses for stalling.. They or their teammembers are sick, cat got fleas, you name it.. Eventually they disappear. Sadly so many good games have been abandoned this way.
Nefastus has followed the same pattern. He pushed out updates every month.. and then, after two years or so ... the adult game developers syndrome hit also him. We started seeing excuses, his updates were delayed, he disappeared from time to time.. until he is now completely gone.

So nothing new here. I am sure, he is fine and I wish him well. Midlife crisis is great game.

Not entirely certain whether this isn't even a more broad thing than just game devs. There is a trinity here of a creative process with all the writer's block related issues coming with it, being self-employed with the self-organization and often unstable income it brings together with mostly working alone thus no colleague's help when stuck, and a long term project of years without experiencing the major success of actually finishing it. Not everybody is cut out for that (and I certainly wouldn't be) even if it were only one of the three. So yeah, the problem is real. (Also, this lifestyle lends itself to not caring enough about your health, so that this often happens isn't even that improbable.)

However, the storyline here seems to be a bit different (you never know from the outside). Even though your suggestion actually would be nicer if true than what we can deduct from the postings.

 

[Krynh]

Going from - "it's uploading now" to no contact for months on end - the only real excuses would be major accidents/prison/commitment to a mental asylum/death.

He's never done this while uploading the update though.

 

[Immunity]

He's never done this while uploading the update though.

I sincerely doubt he was actually uploading the update when he posted that - hence my reference to polychronic people. I've got a friend like that myself. When you tell him the meeting is starting at 9 AM, he'll show up at 9:30, bullshit till 10, and the meeting may begin at 10:15 AM if we're lucky.

It's actually a very interesting read the whole monochronic vs. polychronic thing. Heavily based on culture but culture isn't totally indicative of it. Don't want to get too OT though.

 

[tazaaron]

This is and has been a normal pattern for the dev since the beginning. This is nothing new, i used to joke on the discord when he said the update was ready that ok now you will disappear for 2 weeks and the update will be out in 3-4 weeks.