A $420,000 US settlement fund has been established from which eligible player accounts will be able to file a claim for this class action lawsuit that was brought against Trion Worlds in 2015 for violating California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act, False Advertising Law, and Unfair Competition Law prior to the launch AND when it sold supply crates in-game via the ArcheAge Marketplace (credit shop).
The lawsuit was complicated by Trion’s eventual insolvency back in October 2018 when Gamigo acquired Trion’s assets via an “assignment of the creditors process” but a tentative agreement was reached this past summer (August 2019) as both parties submitted court filings to settle the case. The insurer for Trion Worlds (Navigators Insurance Company) officers and directors will be the ones establishing that fund (Trion Worlds no longer exists as a legal corporation; only its brand name exists since Gamigo decided to continue using it for that purpose for the Glyph platform library including the Trion web site – part of that was likely technical in terms of portions of their backend relying on the trionworlds.com domain).
The specific details of the settlement (including the long-form court documents) as well as the ability to submit a claim (eligible players must opt-in since the final cash payout will depend on the number of claims filed) can be found on the ArcheAge Marketplace Settlement site. Note that there are people wondering about the validity of this site (whois shows the registering organization as P&N Technologies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – a cursory check shows their are a 65 year old CPA firm that specializes in technology consulting amongst the accounting/tax business and matches the contact info provided on the site and in the filings). I am not sure if there will be more specific information provided that allows better validation (a concern given social engineering and phishing attempts).
Opinion: As someone who long had a bone to pick with Trion and how their leadership handled their titles including how they mismanaged Devilian three months into its launch (as a former long time player of this specific game) and pretty much treated its player community as a second thought compared to most of their other communities at the time, I look at this settlement as a deserved kicking of additional dirt/mud in their face (i.e. adding insult to injury) even though the company no longer exists (and even though they admitted no guilt when deciding to settle as opposed to going to trial). The leadership team including former CEO Scott Hartsman, made decisions that resulted in a well deserved poor reputation and the eventual implosion of Trion Worlds as a legal entity. The officers and directors overseeing Trion Worlds were no better by approving of the job that the executive management team did at the company.
The following tweet from Hartsman on the day the news was announced is why I do not hold him in any high regard (despite the employee friendly face he portrayed).
Hell of a day. Plenty of time to talk later. For now, GAMES/TECH, RECRUITER/HIRING MANAGER FRIENDS: If you’re looking for great folks and are open to being contacted directly, please DM: name, email, company, roles, location. Thanks!— Scott Hartsman (@hartsman) October 23, 2018
You don’t say “hell of a day” or reaching out to recruiters this way when you are the head of the ship (in the know about what was going on and what was about to go down) and you were responsible for running it straight into an iceberg and causing it to completely sink to begin with. Guys like this have a golden parachute negotiated as part of their contract; their lower level front line employees do not.
So even though the total enumeration from this class action will end up being small per eligible customer (as is normally the case with class action lawsuits), it’s the final message for what used to be Trion Worlds (and its directors/officers/executive management). This is their crappy personal legacy which those individuals leave behind and will always be associated with no matter how some of them (including Hartsman) try to spin things after the fact.
