Dreamworld - Timeline of a scam MMO

i'm gonna be honest i've not been this invested in drama since high school the battle lines have now been drawn on one side content creators including myself kira tv callum upton and many others on the other side the dreamworld discord and the dream world creators each week brings us new revelations so grab some popcorn and settle back as we chronicle this bit of kickstarter and gaming history ladies and gentlemen welcome i'm josh drivehayes and over the last few weeks we have watched the fiasco that is dream world evolved starting from its humble beginnings as a misguided kickstarter and eventually turning into a viral kickstarter sensation covered by multiple youtubers it's even spawned memes and you know something is serious when it spawns memes you've now got several youtubers including myself who are covering the situation from various angles looking at the technical specs of it looking at the history of the people involved and it's getting complex now from the from the kickstarter started almost 10 years ago to the discord mods being literal children involved in this so i want to break it all down let's have a look at the timeline of dreamworld before we begin consider dropping a like on the video or subscribing to the channel for more mmo stuff and ring the bell so you get all the future videos a massive thank you to all the supporters on patreon and twitch who keep the channel going more on how you can support at the end for now let's begin so grab some popcorn and strap in because this thing this thing goes deep but first a word from our sponsor and it's the first time i've ever said that in a video and i want you to let me explain why i'm saying it now bear with me it's one of the good sponsors not one of the crap ones the reason i turn down sponsorships is because i either don't play the games i don't use the products or i don't trust the company that's making them to be honest and to be genuine or the company doesn't give me enough freedom to 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company to give a youtuber free reign to write the script and say what they want and offer a 30-day money-back guarantee to anyone shows an incredible amount of confidence in their own product if you're interested in trying it you can go to nordvpn.com forward slash strive to get a two-year plan with an extra month free for a decent discount link is in the description and pinned as a comment honestly it's worth at least trying to see if you like it and if you don't you get all your money back right with that covered let's get back to the drama so dreamworld got funded and you'd assume because of this it's going to get made but what if i told you this wasn't the first experience these guys had had with crowdfunding and it definitely wasn't the first experience they'd had with not delivering and to see the start of this story we have to go back almost 10 years may 2012 zachary kaplan's linkedin profile lists him as the ceo of a company called core aegis now the core aegis website is still online the about us section explains they are a company who and they quote build dreams of the future today and will never sacrifice quality for the bottom line they create services that excite impassion and provide solutions to the unaddressed needs of individuals around the world there's also a picture of zack sitting on a throne of core aegis products with a light up bluetooth speaker attached to him this is the product what does this company sell well the main page shows us three things an active strap a casual strap and then a core aegis speaker it's basically a bluetooth speaker that clips into one of those straps the straps are 15 the speaker is 150 and all of the items are coming soon his linkedin profile also confirms he dropped out of new york university to work on the core aegis company this basically lets us know the type of person we're dealing with the type of person who believes wearing a bluetooth speaker on you to play music in public is a good idea like the kind of people who play music from their phone but worse march 2018 zachary starts the fashion brand baron the picture is used on his linkedin profile the baron brand website is still online today it is described as a brand worn by the brave few who take it upon themselves to create build act on their dreams and persevere where others would quit there are several modeling photos on the website and while the main website logo is gold on the back of a t-shirt it's shown as white making it look a lot like the valve logo 15th of march 2020 zachary kaplan lost his job as a waiter this information is given to us in the dream world kickstarter video but remember at this point he is still the ceo of core aegis and owner of the baron fashion brand 7th of april 2020 t with z zachary starts a podcast called zed chronicles with a series called t with z where he interviews his friends in a free-form fashion the z-chronicle soundcloud is still online now despite only having three episodes you'll also find links to his twitter instagram and facebook the twitter is protected and now uses a dreamworld banner image the instagram is private yet describes zack as an aspiring cosmic imagineer and the facebook is deleted the soundcloud itself also links to the core aegis wearable speaker general life advice anyone who describes themselves as an aspiring cosmic imagineer has been spending far too much time around tech bros and should be avoided and not taken seriously first of june 2020 the dream world discord server is created although it may not have been named dreamworld at the time and now things begin to get interesting 21st of september 2020 the ely zm pronounced elysium youtube channel is created from the name on the banner image we can see it was created by the user toby do 2. this will be important later the first video uploaded the elysium channel is a prototype promo featuring almost exactly the same gameplay and idea and mechanics as dreamworld and open world customizable mmo using stock assets now only two videos show up when you look at the video sections of the elysium channel but if you go to playlist you can find a third unlisted video this is because unlisted videos don't show up in youtube searches or on the youtube video list but they do still show up if you added them to a playlist there is one video called halloween maker competition 2020 dated 2nd of november and in that video zachary kaplan talks about the mmorpg he is making elysium in the video zack confirms that elysium is funded he has managed to secure money to make this project real he confirms it has what it needs to be made and we just need to wait so now we have a video where zack confirms he has an mmo already called elysium and he has the funding for it interesting 3rd of january 2021 youtube channel the ragin fourth team uploads the video 13 minutes of elysium shenanigans this footage now looks exactly like dreamworld same ui same graphics same mechanics even the same in-game object manipulation tools and because we have confirmation that elysium has funding there should be no need for extra money should there but then on the 17th of march 2021 the dream world kickstarter launches and receives its first backup zachary kaplan and garrison ballack are now working together to create dreamworld a brand new idea the gameplay trailer for dreamworld is essentially identical to the trailer for elysium a game zac confirmed was funded four months prior on the kickstarter they claimed to already have investment from y combinator a major startup venture capital firm now y combinator usually has stringent checks on projects to make sure scams don't slip through but don't worry we'll be coming back to this later 18th of march 2021 one day later kira tv releases dream world mmorpg the last game you'll ever play in this video he reveals the amount they're trying to raise is 7 000 english pounds and questions the ability to produce such a grand scale game on a low budget and he's right to question this kira reviews the kickstarter pitch video and in the video the creators mentioned they're going to have millions of players kira correctly points out that this is an incredibly complex networking architecture achievement and if you're able to do this you wouldn't be struggling for funding because every major company would want to buy the technology off you for several million pounds on the same day the dream world kickstarter reaches its funding goal in only nine hours this is because they were looking for less than ten thousand dollars the update video is then two minutes of zack telling people how incredible they are for funding it nothing of value is gained by watching this video on the same day again brie royce editor-in-chief of the mmorpg website massivelyop publishes the article dreamworld promises an infinite open world the article covers the trailer and takes a very neutral stance on the game's actual viability four days later 22nd of march 2021 a video is uploaded to skiazzo's youtube channel an in-depth q a with the dream world dev team every youtube comment is bashing the developers now i feel a bit sorry for youtuber skiazzo he's a smaller youtuber clearly being used by these two to push the game every small youtuber hopes to hop onto a game before it gets big so they can ride the popularity wave but this game was clearly a scam and skiazzo is not helping his reputation by being connected positively to it at 11 minutes and 33 seconds into this video they asked what players can expect to see in the alpha gameplay test and garrison explains they hope to have the pantheon of kickstarter backers the main city and to have updated the player model from a ball to a humanoid they do seem to have at least done that by using the default unreal mannequin in this video they also claim to have raised 650 000 in startup funding and they mentioned the investment group y combinator on the same day callum upton released his first youtube video exposing the dream world kickstarter scam he shows how the trailer was made using asset packs purchased on the unreal store and in some cases using the prototype levels from those asset packs wholesale he explains how the scene of a mannequin running through the snow would be incompatible with the landscape destruction and terraforming gameplay shown later because those two systems are immensely difficult to combine he explains the reason the default unreal model shields its eyes from snow during the snowstorm is because it was programmed to do that in the pack you can buy he goes into so much detail he even points out in the pirate cove fly-through section you can see the words press p for movie in the top left these words appear because they are filming within a pre-made level using free flight camera mode and if they did press p a pre-established camera fly-through would take over he proves this by showing the actual fly-through on a youtube video callum then scours the comments on the kickstarter and discovers that to play the alpha you have to not only back the kickstarter but then get two other people to back it as well turning the kickstarter into essentially a pyramid scheme he then joins the dreamworld discord and posts a poll asking if the current backers had actually played the game and the answer to the poll was in his words an overwhelming no he even shows a comment from a super backer someone who likely invested around two thousand dollars and even they don't have access to the alpha until they get two more people to join callum says he asked someone who did manage to get two people to pledge if they now have access and he was told no that person has not been given access to the alpha they've been put onto a list for access to the pre-alpha the next day 23rd of march simmer gaming releases kickstarter review dreamworld mmo in the video he watches and reacts to the trailer and the kickstarter he raises all the same points pointing out how 10 000 isn't enough to make an mmo and a million hosted players is unrealistic for a small developer he also questions garrison's credentials garrison claims to have been employed previously at google apple and facebook but he gave all those up to work on dreamworld now we don't have any proof that garrison didn't work at those places but we also don't have proof of the capacity he worked in from summer intern to senior developer garrison may have been employed or at least affiliated with google facebook and apple at one point in time but he doesn't expand on how this channel will then go on to follow on with several updates over the following weeks three days later 26th of march youtuber mmobike releases a video called they tried to pay me to lie to you all in it he reveals a kickstarter mmo which he refuses to name so as not to drive traffic to them emailed him several times asking him to cover the game eventually telling him if your video increases our sales from a positive review we will give you 20 of all of the earnings from the point you released your video onwards in mmobites video he does not reveal the name of the kickstarted mmo he does however share extracts from his email replies showing how he refuses to support them because he cannot in good faith post a positive review about a game he cannot play just over a week later on the 4th of april slopes game room released the stop this new kickstarter scam over on his second channel extra slope in the video he covers multiple scams and issues but at the seven minute mark he has a four minute segment on dreamworld he points out the promises made are far beyond the money they're asking for but also mentions how kickstarter has given the dreamworld project the projects we love stamp of approval meaning clearly someone at kickstarter isn't quality checking the reality of what projects are claiming they can do three days later on the 7th of april callum upton released his follow-up video kickstarter scam follow-up in this video he reveals the core aegis the original company zack started back in 2012 also began on kickstarter and apparently nobody who supported that project was sent their original backer rewards oh no people aren't going to be able to walk around with bluetooth speakers strapped to them playing music loudly in public what a shame callum then shows that kickstarter has now removed the projects we love badge from dreamworld he then goes through kickstarter's own rules on projects and explains how the current dreamworld trailer is in violation of several of them including using heavily edited videos to misrepresent the game's current stage of development remember though while kickstarter have removed the projects we love badge they've not stopped the project altogether likely because kickstarter get five percent of any funding a successful project raises this video also reveals a very damning piece of evidence the y combinator page of dreamworld has changed the descriptive text for the project previously y combinator advertised dreamworld as cloud gaming now it's advertised as simply active calum theorizes this is because dreamworld actually cannot get the multiplayer element working as they have described he also points out that y combinator invests a maximum of 125 000 twice a year into various projects this is confirmed on the y combinators page meaning the original claim zach and garrison made of raising 650 000 was either incorrect or a lie now remember they didn't actually claim the entire 650 000 came just from y combinator so they could get away with that but they also haven't provided any other sources for where the rest of the money came from and my question is if they'd already raised 650 000 dollars what on earth is a ten thousand dollar kickstarter gonna do one day later on the eighth of april youtuber bigfry tv releases dreamworld the biggest kickstarter scam you'll never play he describes dreamworld sarcastically as the most ambitious video game ever made and then explains why it won't happen at 5 minutes and 40 seconds into this video he summarizes the entire project extremely eloquently it's it's uh the biggest load of that i have ever heard in my life on the same day brie royce from massively op publishes a follow-up article titled there is no good reason for mmo gamers to fund dreamworld the article lists all the known connections and reasons so far and says that even if the game was theoretically possible there's no reason for mmo fans to fund it because if they had the technology it will make enough money through alternative investments one day later on the 9th of april the dreamworld kickstarter campaign ends and is successfully funded for 64 000 almost 650 percent of its original goal both creators zachary and garrison now take a break from announcing anything on kickstarter the long absence will be heavily scrutinized by the comments from the backers on the kickstarter comments section especially as several of the backers have now started to watch the videos being put out by various creators which is causing many of them to question the legitimacy of this project there were two other youtube videos then created first of all mine i released my first video on the subject dreamworld the scam mmo that got funded and then kira tv released dreamworld i can't actually believe my eyes in kira's video he explains that most mmo kickstarter projects are started by naive or young people who vastly overestimate their own abilities and they will never get funded and so they are not dangerous but dream world is different because it's being driven forward by zachary kaplan a very charismatic manipulative individual it's likely zach and garrison are completely aware they cannot create a game they are claiming to create so it's more about the funding and less about the final project it starts to fall apart this is a rotten onion and we're peeling it back layer by layer in this video kira also calls out zac for claiming to be a marketing expert and yet in eight years of business training he's only been able to achieve 100 followers on his core aegis twitter he has got a very good point here i am not a professional marketer and i'm pretty sure i could do better kira then says he has been in contact with a potential y combinator investor the investor asked kira for his opinion about investing in the dreamworld project kira correctly explained the project is a scam and the investor replied yeah but what if it's not the y combinator investors throw so much money at so many projects they do not mind a few failing they are willing to take the risk because if it's on y combinator at all it must have been checked for not being a scam right kira also points out in the video that due to the clever wording on the kickstarter backers have not actually been promised a finished game they've only been promised access to an alpha no matter what state the alpha is in this is a potential legal loophole allowing the dreamworld team to release an awful alpha and claim they have met all of the kickstarter demands also the several hundred pound airship they are giving away to the highest tier of support is actually a fifteen to twenty dollar asset you can buy on the unity asset store kira also points out that several people have asked legitimate questions on the kickstarter including how the roadmap for development ends at the alpha release and asks if they intend to actually have a full release after that the dreamworld team respond by saying there is more information on the discord this is neither a yes nor no answer meaning when dreamworld were directly asked will the full game release they replied with maybe 19th of april 10 days later slopes game room on his second channel extra slope teams up with callum upton for the video exposing dream world live it's a one and a half hour duo stream where slopes and callum break down the gameplay footage from the dreamworld streams and point out the simplicity of what they have so far at 37 minutes in they discussed the bannings on the dreamworld discord they are extensive by now the official discord is being flooded with questions about the reality of the project and the moderators later revealed to be young teenagers are quickly banning anyone who questions the game or calls it a potential scam add one hour and three minutes into this discussion they also mentioned the youtuber toby do 2 explaining how the youtuber is likely under 18 and is a kickstarter backer and how the dreamworld team are heavily encouraging him to make more dream world content effectively preying on the aspirations of a smaller youtuber now if you remember toby do 2 was the name seen on the elysium banner image if you google toby do 2 youtube dream world you can see the second google link references a video called dream world number one world tour and building a market but when you go to toby's channel there is only one video making you think it's not the same guy but in the discussion section of toby's channel a user called kyle asked if he deleted his elysium videos and toby replied yes he wanted to step away from gaming than toward 3d design and as we know elysium was the original name for the project that would become dreamworld it's likely this is the same guy on the same day there is a dreamworld kickstarter update 10 days after the funding finished a video of zack and garrison sitting in what looks like a convention center side hall surrounded by chairs appears on the kickstarter page do they do they go on holiday or something this video also contains a phrase a lot of people have latched on to despite it having no actual meaning here in this thank you video zack says the following yeah and uh we had a lot of people tell us that what they think we're building is fantastical and incredible and uh i don't think that was a hidden code or a secret cry for help because honestly i don't think they're smart enough to do that i think when he said what people think we're building is fantastical what he meant to say was people think what we are building is fantastical it wasn't a hidden code it was just a linguistic slip it was a mistake it's not damning evidence that it's a scam we have enough of that already this is also a very specific reference you have to have been on the twitch streams to get this this update video is available to watch on youtube however the comments have been disabled 20th of april 2021 kira tv releases a kickstarter of lies video in this he calls out the update video being comment disabled and points out how the about us page on the dreamworld main website accessible only by specifically typing that into the actual web address states zack has nine years of game development experience despite that claim never being mentioned again or having any actual games developed in the video kira also shows a fantastic recording of the exact moment he joined the dream world discord server asked a few polite and legitimate technical questions then asked why people are being banned for asking questions and then got banned a few users live at the time agreed with kira and began to ask questions as well kira pm dwolf that's zack asking the same questions and then we see footage of wolff logging into discord via his phone and kira being kicked from the server live kira also states the moderators of the dreamworld discord were at the time a 14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl and questions how a company that's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and is using discord as its main point of public contact is confident that two teenagers will provide the best possible public relations which is a very very good question how could you trust your your pr in the hands of a 14 and 16 year old child it is also in this video that kira shares screenshots of conversations between zack and his at the time fiance a girl named islan which means one day later on the 21st of april youtuber smilin island makes a video called why i broke off my engagement and explains her position in the dreamworld scandal in the video she explains the breakdown of the relationship with zachary including how he bought her a fake diamond ring and tried to pass it off as a real diamond ring and how he's been working on the dreamworld project for quite a while before the breakup happened she also did not leave him just because he lost his job she also adds that zach's comments of how they were both struggling is false he was struggling she was doing remarkably well and enjoying a blossoming modeling career four days later on the 25th of april youtuber mmobite releases the biggest mmo scam ever to get fully funded in the video he reveals he didn't want to cover dreamworld while the kickstarter was active because he didn't want to increase its exposure and potentially increase its audience reach but now it's over and done he can cover it and he reveals his previous they tried to pay me to lie to you the game which offered him 20 of all revenue generated from the release of his positive review was indeed dreamworld he ends this video with the fantastic advice we should all consider following so do your due diligence guys if you see a game that promises you the world and they are asking for money to help make this happen just don't believe them it's really that simple 26th of april youtube channel leaving dream world is started with the mission of recording and cataloging videos related to dreamworld that may otherwise be taken down effectively serving as a library of dreamworld related media four days later on the 30th callum releases dreamworld gets even worse which opens with the best dream world meme so far my left me my best friend gary left me my parents left me [Music] we got so excited that i made a discord channel and it left me callum has now spoken directly to smiling island and confirmed a few aspects of zack's personality mainly that he lies a lot but then we get the largest revelations so far proof of it but it has been proven to me that garrison has a very close friend at y-combinator who for years he has gone to lunch with and this individual has had him fast-tracked him and dreamworld fast-tracked into y combinator that skips a large proportion of the vetting process now this is a major issue if garrison bellac has personal contacts within the y combinator company and he's meeting them for lunch and he's using that influence to fast-track his project through the checks that creates a very very bad balance of personal and professional life it creates a conflict of professional interests now this hasn't been legally proven in court yet but if the accusation has any weight whatsoever that's extremely bad because the y combinator investors only invest and only trust y combinator because they have a process to weed out scams if it's proven that the dream world project has been fast-tracked and allowed to skip the y combinator checks that will put y combinator in an extremely compromising position it will harm their professional reputation callum then reveals that by diving into the dream world files available for download the music in the audio file is titled in the moment by fesleyan studios but when callum contacted the studio they confirmed they had no matching records of a customer by that name either zachary garrison or dreamworld what this likely means is the music was either downloaded and used without permission or because the music track uses the exact website address of it it was played on a pc screen while recording software was running such as obs the type i'm using to capture this recording and then the audio was isolated from the recording and used again without permission on the same day callum creates a discord channel for his youtube and general dream worlds tip-offs it fills up pretty fast and the creation of dreamworld memes begins on the 1st of may callum shares a screenshot in his discord showing the contents of the dreamworld alpha the game exe file is still called elysium on the same day i ask kira tv via twitter if we're making a guild in dreamworld and he agrees we decide to call it my guild left me this is an ongoing plan and you're all welcome to join three days later on the 3rd of may screenshots from the dreamworld discord reveal that while zachary or wolff claims to have 9 years game development experience the experience was all in personal projects and none of those projects are publicly available for anyone to play on the 3rd of may again kira tv releases dreamworld the ultimate scam game video which opens with a brilliantly funny segment comparing zachary to willy wonka about collecting children the video then shows the sources closer to garrison confirm he did indeed work at google apple and facebook but all in a very low capacity kira adds on to the fake ring story it seems zachary proposed to ireland at a pretty high class red carpet event somewhat unexpectedly that she was attending as a model and the diamond was remarkably large island asked if the ring was indeed genuine and zach confirmed that it was but later in time when ireland went to get the ring resized by a professional jeweler they told her that would be impossible because the materials it was created out of were too cheap to manipulate without breaking and the diamond wasn't real in the video kira is also contacted by a moderator of the dream world discord the mod says he is 23 but the others are 14 and 16 and he has some major issues with the way the pr is being handled which is completely understandable on the 4th of may screenshots show up when asked about the excessive bannings zack responds with have you ever tried to build your own startup that answer is in no way related to the question asked screenshots also show that the first alpha is promised on the 21st of may and everything is now diverted to this answer wait for the 21st of may even more screenshots show jack the 14 year old moderator being incredibly rude discord user hilden darlow asks wolfe a question wolff diverts hildendallo replies that's not an answer and you know that and jack adds on not to be rude but it's the only answer you deserve remember this is a guy they trust with representing them and keeping peace in the discord zack and garrison also insist that all of the content creators currently covering them including myself kyra callum and mmo bite are all wrong they ask the community to wait until the 21st for the alpha when all will be revealed this creates more memes another screenshot shows a user in the dreamworld discord asking how hard is it to make a gui or graphical user interface and then asks can i help zach says that's great i'll pm you if somebody has to ask how hard something is to do then they do not know how to do that thing and therefore you don't want them doing that thing you've raised hundreds of thousands of pounds why are you pm'ing randos on discord to design your ui hire a game designer although i may have spoken too soon there because 9th of may 2021 the website work at a startup dot com has a job opening for dream world they're looking for a game developer maybe zachary should apply i mean he's got nine years experience apparently and now you're pretty much up to speed on the dream world scandal all the people you need to watch all the relevant videos they're all linked down in the description below you watch all them and you'll pretty much know everything that we know i've loved the drama i want to see how it carries on i want to see all the memes that get made i want to see the inevitable failure when it all comes crashing down around them and they scramble to blame the other person but for now cheers for watching thank you again to nordvpn and i'll see you sometime soon thank you for watching a massive thank you to all the youtubers who did such a great job cataloguing this insane series of events and a massive shout out to my supporters on patreon and twitch who keep the channel going you can support the patreon from just one pound a month check the video description for links to the nordvpn discount use code strife the patreon twitch twitter and our discord and as always have a great day

Channel: Josh Strife Hayes

Views: 1,424,195

Keywords: dreamworld, scam mmo, scam kickstarter, kickscammer, fake games, worst mmo, scam game, con man, ycombinator, zachary kaplan, garrison bellack

Id: J6MCXnUJLNQ

Length: 34min 14sec (2054 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021