lawsuit status?

I'd rather spend $500 throwing poop at John that giving it to an attorney.... Just sayin'...

@Iceman or Mod team

Can you edit the title of the thread and spell Magic Girl, Zombie and Alice out versus the MG, RAZA and AIW?

The reason I ask is so Google picks this thread up.
Currently when you google "Magic Girl Pinball" this thread is pretty far from the top results.

Well the attorney was my only legal option. First lawsuit I've ever been involved in.

Neh, i got my money back via international card services,so i don't sue,but the anger is still here and i cannot believe we let Jpop
tinker with our money, I am furious and though I got my money back I still pitch my thoughts because everybody should get the money back from this crazy doc Brown that lives in his makebelieve world.

Neh, i got my money back via international card services,so i don't sue,but the anger is still here and i cannot believe we let Jpop
tinker with our money, I am furious and though I got my money back I still pitch my thoughts because everybody should get the money back from this crazy doc Brown that lives in his makebelieve world.

I totally understand, and I hope that the law suit rips a wide tear in Jpoop's tight paranoid sphincter.

If we get our money back, will that be a Jcoup?

He's probably using the last bit of money to fight the lawsuit.

Iceman can't change the thread title (at least, I don't think he can).

Let me check with the other mods and see what they collectively think on this. I agree that I would like to see this thread be found by innocent bystanders who might otherwise be conned by JPop - John Popadiuk - into giving John Popadiuk money for a game or games that are not going to be made as he has done this to others and appears to have simply absconded or stolen their hard earned money in his fraud scheme and he lacks the competence to make a pinball machine like he promised.

I want Google to know what John Popadiuk has done to our community with his self serving actions that he personally profited from but we all lost by.

i might add: with his self serving, lying, deceiving, criminal actions

If not create a new thread with a proper title, a summary of the situation, a link to this thread and then lock the thread with only that one post. This way you still contain the conversation to here,

Hey Ben, what ever happened to the glue gun idea in the game.... seems that got lost along the way. I'd be interested to be reminded how it fit in the game to begin with.

Its what was used to hold all the cardboard ramps together in the prototype

It was Jpops tribute to Ben and Bens love of the glue gun!

rd

It's insane to me that he declared publicly that he has no way to finish these games, is being sued, is ignoring every other customer, pulled down his websites, deleted his facebook, yet is still tinkering at his shop?? Like WTF?

Is there ANYONE who has contact with him? Is he literally "wishing upon a star" that some rich guy is going to call him?

He should voluntarily bankrupt himself and let all the creditors take their pennies. At least that would end things. It's like even though he has failed and has no way out of this, he doesn't want to give up any of his toys and doesn't want to apologize and attempt to make up through liquidation to all the people he's hurt.

Oh and here I thought it was a depiction of Ben who flew down to Australia (note Ferris wheel spinning opposite direction) for a mere 1600.00 return. Stepping out of his 5 night, 300 per night Hotel room with glue gun in hand, to tack down the layover on the play field! Note: see how skinny Ben is getting because couldn't afford to eat with the mere 1k extra charge to do this! Disclaimer: I do not know what Ben looks like in person

I think you have been sniffing too much glue yourself?

Nope just a play on how ridiculous it was to put a 1k extra charge to come to your home and build the machine with you!

I think wcbrandes earned the right to make whatever jokes he wants about the situation at this point.

It literally hurts my brain thinking about how colossally stupid John's "we'll finish the game in your home!" idea was.

That's why this situation is so stupefying to people - trying to figure it out logically is a fallacy because the situation was born without logic.

Course this is the same guy who hired a programmer with England, with a 160% exchange rate, and probably spent 2k just shipping him a whitewood.

When I heard that, I assumed the $1k was JUST the labor (assuming John's salary of $90k/year, that's $360/day). If he could finish the build in 2 days, he's still profiting assuming the buyer was fronting the airfare, shipping cost and hotel. Not being a buyer, I have no idea what the contract said, but I'm sure it wasn't very clear.

Now you can make your own Magic Girl...with hookers and black jack.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/974196497/pinbox-3000-artcade-system/

When I first started watching that video, I laughed the concept off as a joke. However, it quickly grew on me. Especially for $50.

Here is my reasoning.... My daughter is 6 and kinda likes pinball and tinkering with stuff but really likes art and drawing. I'm always trying to get her interested in STEM, even if she doesn't end up picking a STEM career, purely because I want her to be empowered with her own knowledge. I see so many young people today that have no clue how to do basic home/auto/etc.. maintenance, and I don't want my kids to grow up like that.

She and I could probably cobble together a cardboard machine for her to decorate and plan a layout on, but it would take us a day or two at least to get flippers working correctly, etc.... Knowing a 6 year old's attention span, two days of engineering isn't a great draw. I'd lose her an hour in and we would never get to the fun part.

For less than the price of a video game, I can get her one of these kits and let her go to town designing her own machines without having to worry about the nuances of flippers or a plunger.

I I'm in for one if they start shipping. I unfortunately won't send money to *any* kickstarter. Nothing against these guys in particular.

Jpop's silence is deafening. Where is he? Does he think he can scooby doo and a couple years later we'll say Jwho? I'd much rather Jsue

Mr Plopaduck is a pinball muppet.

Agreed. Plus this whole situation is an unbelievable farce.

If the buyer fronts those costs then it's more like $2500 instead of $1000. Who would do that?

Cardboard pinball seems like a pretty safe Kickstarter. All they have to do is press START on a laser. Unless they get massively over funded and can't meet demand, I'm sure you'd get your product.

Wonder if JPOP will show up at pintastic this weekend lol.

I get the whole having a shop still plan...

-Stop paying landlord. Check
-Stay in shop pretending to his wife he's going to finish the games so he can make lawsuits go away with another investor.. Check
-landlord asks for rent.. Ignore cause I work 24/7... Check
-pay electric bill for shop to keep lights on but no other bills...check
-try to go back to zizzle and sell a mini magic girl layout to them... Check
-back to shop, landlord trying to throw me out... Keep ignoring.. Check
-iceman finds new cell number and drunk texts me at 2am... Ignore... Check
-check on my life insurance policy. Won't cover lawsuits... Killing self not worth it.. Check
-find a new job on Google while coming across my name in the scam section... Check
-must invent new way not to drop the soap when lawsuit catches up with me.. Check
-work on my best scoobie doo impersonation of "would have got away with it, if it wasn't for those damn meddlin pinsiders" check

- keep long hair and continue to look and behave like a slovenly clown to fool people into thinking he is not a criminal but merely inept ...Check

genuine LOL

rd

He's trying to do the Jame Gumb "slither" out the side door but Pinside has him covered!

slither.png

Has anyone looked behind his "Magic Door"?

magic door.jpg

In the even his assets get seized (at least six years from now minimum), there will be stacks of Power Ball, Mega Millions and Illinois ^Extra Shot Lotto tickets in his car, shop desk drawers as well as home. He's waiting for the big payoff because "Someone's gonna win; why not him"?

Maybe replace "update" with "swindle"... actually that might fall under defamation, you might add Lawsuit update if there's room.

Yea what's up with that glue gun... Bad ass Ben Heck! (I want this game)
image.jpg

Hes back again!!!

rd

Man if I had such a cool picture of me, I'd definitely work for Jpop for free

Yeah at tax time I can just show that photo to the IRS and they won't require any money!

Wonder if it would work with my landlord(s) too?

Comments from Jersey Jack on this whole thing:

JPOP Thoughts

19 Jun

Jersey Jack

My personal opinions:

This is the JJP Forum but there is obvious spillover as it's all Pinball.

JJP was able to start because you, the loyal customer base of PBSC believed first in me and then in the Team and in what we were doing. You bought into a dream, an idea, a hope and ultimately a game(s).

The Pre-Pay crowd-funded model seemed good. Get money, build games. We all know that road was and is littered with land mines and huge chasms. Not everyone can navigate them and yes the Journey is The Reward and all that.
We have learned a lot and we have much to still learn. This is a marathon and not a sprint and it's not for everyone, obviously.

About six weeks ago at his invitation I visited JPOP at his studio. I don't know John. I've never said more than a few words at shows where I saw him. I like the games he has designed and like everything in this industry, it has many stories and many twists and turns.

When I was there I was impressed at what I saw. Though I felt a bit blinded by what appeared to be a "game" Magic Girl was to me, a "Box of Lights" and I mean that in a very respectful way. I myself had paraded a box of lights around in June of 2012 at E3 and NW Pinball but that was a different kinder and gentler time when hope sprung eternal.

Still John had MG in some place where it could be a game if the right amount of time, expertise, money and magic was applied, this could be a good game perhaps. But it was not ready to be played, shot on or shown as a near finished product.

My friend Bill called me to discuss his best efforts to revive or to save this dream that John had. Bill is a wonderfully hopeful guy that had every good intention. In the process he subjected himself to public ridicule, humiliation, scrutiny and all at the cost of over $100,000 to his wallet. His associate was likewise skewered in public by the angry mob and even the few hopeful, hapless know it all armchair experts that do nothing and have never done anything worthwhile.

It made for great drama and great reading on the forum. After all bad news sells newspapers and good news, well.... zzzzzzz. So, Bill went on his Mission which became Mission Impossible. Nobody can step into this fray or in front of a moving train and survive.

I read most of the posts and I spent some hours talking with John. Is he a genius or a moron? Is he a diabolical thief or a bad businessman? Did he intend to defraud or was it a bad plan of events? He knows and he must look himself in the mirror. I believe he is a good designer and a bad businessman. I do not believe his intent was ever anything other than to deliver the best most innovative game he could design. The guy redesigned leg bolts! I mean who makes PC boards Purple? Waste of money or Passion??

He got way ahead of himself. I asked him - John - If you had a house with ten rooms and enough paint to finish one room, why would you try and paint all ten rooms? He did Magic Girl, Zombie, Kiss, Alice...what else.....years of passion, blood, sweat and tears of his life to do this. Pinball is (or was) John's life. He did it for you, those who believed in him. He did not intend this to happen, it happened because of poor planning, because of negative posts cutting off and panicking his buyers. Because he was too secretive and not communicating in a broad sense....who knows - all of this is my guess...I don't have the facts of the financial or anything else. It's just what it appears to me personally and not commentary on behalf of JJP.

John is a mere Mortal like all of us. He is flesh and blood and has feelings. He has a wife and kids and they have feelings too. Those who "invested" in him - well - you got what you paid for. You got to be on the roller coaster ride of ups and downs. You got to be an insider and an outsider. You had the money to burn for a big toy that nobody needs and that money got burned alright. It was used to fund a startup, most all of which fail in the first formative years as perhaps John's may have.

You already have received your pound of flesh and if you truly cared about Pinball all of you would have rallied as a group to help the poor guy figure out what he has and what could be saved if it was possible. Instead, the lynch mob storms the castle with pitchforks and torches. Hang the guy, so what satisfaction is that. He did his best and maybe his best was not good enough but it was his best. Done.

Next, who knows what happens, that's a legal thing. Sue him or not. Forgive and forget or hold a grudge and let it consume you. Live and Let Live.

The guy and his family have suffered enough, really, he has. He is out of Pinball. Aside from his family that was the thing in life he loved most. Bigger things have failed and smarter better funded people have failed. John is not a failure, his company is a failure.

I feel bad for the people who lost money and I feel bad for John and especially feel bad for Pinball in general.

Thanks, Jack, for your post (on the JJP forums, but you knew it would go public). Good to have some insight.

I take issue with this:

He did not intend this to happen, it happened because of poor planning, because of negative posts cutting off and panicking his buyers.

People may be not be aware, but owners were concerned IN PRIVATE (on the private owner's blog) far before it bubbled up here. Questions were asked of John for probably a year before Pinside exploded. Questions like "can we get an updated schedule", "how far are you", "how much is left to go". John ignored everyone's questions and concerns, or told outright lies about his progress, about people who were involved (turned out not to be, like project managers, programmers, partners), about "reveals" scheduled for games that we have since learned were no where near complete.

"Lying to customers is not the way I work, to make them go away for a while. " - John Popadiuk.

But that ended up being EXACTLY how he worked. Telling people whatever it took to make them go away for a while.

To throw this on Pinside, which is what John has said in the past, for ruining things and running off prospective customers (new suckers with new money) is just plain WRONG. If the silence continued, all that would have happened was more people would get hurt. John was siphoning so much cash for personal salary, there was no money left to do anything else.

The proof was in the pudding - the state of his games after all these years. This was not a pinside problem.

Wrong.

I'll also add - I thought as recently as a few months ago, that this could all STILL be saved by John showing Magic Girl to the world. I still believed everything I had been told that the game was 95% done, it just needed ramps. People had "played" it and told us it was near complete. I figured if the game was shown and wowed the world, new money could come in. Sell more Magic Girls, raise revenue.

But that wasn't the situation. So to imply all John needed was less criticism, and more silence, so people could be DUPED into sending him more money for vapor games is ridiculous.

Some new activity on the AIW thread:

image.jpg

Sorry, I fucked up there.

How did I come up with 95%?

I played the Whitewood which is more complete than the prototype. There's video proof of that.

My biggest mistake was I trusted what Jpop told me.

For that I apologize, but I would also like to point out John wasn't giving refunds past that date. I doubt my posts kept anyone from getting (or not getting) a refund.

Really? He has suffered enough? I am curious how he has suffered. He got a million bucks and played tinker toys for 4 years. I wish I could suffer that way.

95% had been thrown around a lot by a lot of people. I'm guessing the origins of it were from John's mouth.

I believe your words were "near complete" .

This is the really indicting statement for John. You are/were arguably his "best" customer with the most access and frequent visits, and despite that you were still led down the garden path. It shows real calculated deceit on his part, far more than "bad businessman".

Dude, youre an optimist. No need to apologize tfor that.

I agree that likely nothing you said stopped anyone from getting a refund. The only way someone ever gets a refund is if someone had taken their spot, and if John stopped paying himself and taking all the money. $7500 a month is more than what I sent for RAZA, so he would need monthly new game sales just to pay himself, let alone refund people.

Spring 2014 is probably when this officially died. Around when the programmer stopped getting paid and the other vendors.

So if JJP ever runs out of money, will this be what he tells his customers?