Catly Developer Banned Me For Exposing Their Game as Potential Scam

[Vandy]

Hello. As the title says, I was banned for relaying information that is public to the steam discussion board.

During The Game Awards, this suspicious "game" was advertised using styles and assets that had the appearance of being generated by AI systems. I posted about the developer's lack of published history, and of the suspicious deletion of another similar project. All information that I shared was public, found through a few search engine queries.

My message was as follows. If you believe I was banned legitimately and without censorship, please say so, but I feel that the developer is suppressing criticism of the people:

Be wary of Information Security

Disclaimer: the following opinion is just that: opinion based on loose facts. Therefore I will preface any statements with "alleged/ly" to preserve myself from any false reports of defamation.

I suspect that this game may allegedly be, or rely heavily upon the use of AI.

The founder, Kevin Yeoung seems to have scrubbed his data from LinkedIn, despite historical remnants pointing to his background being primarily in finance, carrying only a Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance.

The developer has no other published work to date, but there are traces of an additional, scrapped concept called "Plantly." While webcrawler data shows vague traces of it being marketed through both LinkedIn, Instagram, and possibly other social media websites, all live platforms result in a 404 error while attempting to access.

If this developer is in it for the authentic experience of game development, I would be deeply shocked. This feels artificial (artificial intelligence, you could say). I would not put a single line of personal information into any kind of sign-up process or Steam-linked data sharing if I were you.

Steam, if you are reading this: please vet developers with more scrutiny than this. Frankly, I'm disappointed that TGA allowed them to advertise. I'm sure they payed a hefty sum to get their IP in front of so many viewers, and the unscrupulous opinion of the board members is what decided that money was more important than the spirit or authenticity of game development.

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Escrito originalmente por Vandy:

Hello. As the title says, I was banned for relaying information that is public to the steam discussion board.

During The Game Awards, this suspicious "game" was advertised using styles and assets that had the appearance of being generated by AI systems. I posted about the developer's lack of published history, and of the suspicious deletion of another similar project. All information that I shared was public, found through a few search engine queries.

My message was as follows. If you believe I was banned legitimately and without censorship, please say so, but I feel that the developer is suppressing criticism of the people:

Be wary of Information Security

Disclaimer: the following opinion is just that: opinion based on loose facts. Therefore I will preface any statements with "alleged/ly" to preserve myself from any false reports of defamation.

I suspect that this game may allegedly be, or rely heavily upon the use of AI.

The founder, Kevin Yeoung seems to have scrubbed his data from LinkedIn, despite historical remnants pointing to his background being primarily in finance, carrying only a Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance.

The developer has no other published work to date, but there are traces of an additional, scrapped concept called "Plantly." While webcrawler data shows vague traces of it being marketed through both LinkedIn, Instagram, and possibly other social media websites, all live platforms result in a 404 error while attempting to access.

If this developer is in it for the authentic experience of game development, I would be deeply shocked. This feels artificial (artificial intelligence, you could say). I would not put a single line of personal information into any kind of sign-up process or Steam-linked data sharing if I were you.

Steam, if you are reading this: please vet developers with more scrutiny than this. Frankly, I'm disappointed that TGA allowed them to advertise. I'm sure they payed a hefty sum to get their IP in front of so many viewers, and the unscrupulous opinion of the board members is what decided that money was more important than the spirit or authenticity of game development.

Guess what?

Harass other users or Steam personnel
Examples of such prohibited behavior include: trolling; baiting; threatening; spamming; intimidating; and using abusive language or insults.

https://store.steampowered.com/online_conduct/

Developers are Steam users too.

Calling them scammers is an insult.

[fluxtorrent]

Escrito originalmente por d@v3:

Escrito originalmente por fluxtorrent:

"I created a conspiracy out of whole cloth and poor logic skills and people don't want me around!"

if you had bothered to do any research[www.digitaltrends.com], you'd know it's not a conspiracy :conwayfacepalm:

When you prove my point and still think you are right lmao

[Satoru]

Escrito originalmente por fluxtorrent:

Escrito originalmente por d@v3:

if you had bothered to do any research[www.digitaltrends.com], you'd know it's not a conspiracy :conwayfacepalm:

When you prove my point and still think you are right lmao

Its sort of amazing when people link to 'proof' that objectively does the literal opposite of their claim.

[fluxtorrent]

Escrito originalmente por Satoru:

Escrito originalmente por fluxtorrent:

When you prove my point and still think you are right lmao

Its sort of amazing when people link to 'proof' that objectively does the literal opposite of their claim.

It really does highlight the mindset XD

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Escrito originalmente por Vandy:

During The Game Awards, this suspicious "game" was advertised using styles and assets that had the appearance of being generated by AI systems.

I don't need to read your post further. You've already lost me. Please go away.

[ペンギン]

The studio has virtually no digital footprint yet, as Catly seems to be its first game.

This applies to thousands of developers on this platform. To both, small and large developers/publishers, depending on the product.

A Steam page for the game doesn’t give much more detail

This applies to thousands of developers on this platform. To both, small and large developers/publishers, depending on the product.

A business listing, as well as a LinkedIn page from co-founder Kevin Yeung, confirms that the studio is based out of Hong Kong.

Who cares?

it leaves some questions open

Why are nonsensical articles written?

which raises some unanswered questions about how it works

Not their (Digitaltrends) business

A computer screen shows off what appears to be actual gameplay, as a pink cat wearing a helmet stands in the middle of a sunny street.

That's really intense...

[temps]

The game developers/publishers have pretty much full freedom to ban Steam users from their forums for almost anything, and Steam rarely if ever does anything to stop it no matter how reasonable or unreasonable the publishers are.

It's basically like entering a medieval kingdom. If you say something that offends the King, they can put penalties on you no matter how unreasonable they are.

It would be nice if it was more like Twitter/X. Like, I can go to the EA Twitter/X page and write all kinds of stuff there that they don't like and there's very little they can do about that as long as I don't break Twitter/X rules or US law.

[sumolagann]

Ai generated slop is starting to, and is going to flood the market.

[peppermint hollows]

This game is giving me "The Day Before" vibes, lol

[Visenya, the Draconic]

?? what is wrong with half of you in here, this game is very clearly AI and you're defending the AI GAME? look at the trailer where the lady is standing, she has 6! fingers!
I feel so sorry for all of you, you're going to get eaten alive by scams when AI becomes stronger.

[Ɛ: ʎɥɔʇɐԀ]

What is the trend with "-ly" At end of everything?

[Purple Tentacle]

i have no idea why this slop was shown at the game awards if it was. and yes its ai, and ? no one will buy this and life will go on as normal no need to spend more than a couple of seconds looking at it

[eram]

Escrito originalmente por Purple Tentacle:

i have no idea why this slop was shown at the game awards if it was. and yes its ai, and ? no one will buy this and life will go on as normal no need to spend more than a couple of seconds looking at it

im buying it . You dont speak for anyone

[Purple Tentacle]

Escrito originalmente por eram:

Escrito originalmente por Purple Tentacle:

i have no idea why this slop was shown at the game awards if it was. and yes its ai, and ? no one will buy this and life will go on as normal no need to spend more than a couple of seconds looking at it

im buying it . You dont speak for anyone

i never claimed too

[Aluvard]

Escrito originalmente por puppy ♥:

?? what is wrong with half of you in here, this game is very clearly AI and you're defending the AI GAME? look at the trailer where the lady is standing, she has 6! fingers!
I feel so sorry for all of you, you're going to get eaten alive by scams when AI becomes stronger.

AI games are not forbidden on Steam as long as the game's developers clearly disclose this. So far, almost nothing is known about the game other than “It has an AI-generated trailer.”