Did anyone remember whatever happened to The Fine Young Capitalists? -

[Boobie Bomb]

I seem to remember that back in the days of GamersGate people used to talk about a group of women who called themselves The Fine Young Capitalists. A group of women who got enough money to make one game and just outright disappeared from the gaming industry altogether. I always wonder whatever happened to them and if they are alive today? What are they even doing today? Their website is still up weirdly enough. None of their social accounts were deleted and they just stopped posting anything new online for a couple of years. Do you guys think they only did this to prove a point or were they really shame from the start? I never trusted them as I never donated any money to their game and the game they did release looks.....

Mehish.

It's not my style of game. But given the money, they got donated to them by fans of sorts. I assume it is something like a Super Meat Boy or an Undertale of legends. It's just... Bad!

I don't know? No one has ever looked up if they did anything outside of gaming and I don't wanna poke the bees nest. But does anyone know if they are still alive today? Just asking is all.

 

[Grinrow]

Probably somewhere on the internet scamming more idiots

 

[inexplicable ethos]

God damn, I haven't heard that name in years. As far as I can tell, after the game came out they made a few updates about fixing bugs and then mostly disappeared; although their Twitter account remained active through 2018, mostly responding to people talking about them or questioning their motives.

If their Twitter and Tumblr statements are to be believed, most of the money made from the game that wasn't given to the contest winner or earmarked for donation already as per the original charity pitch was donated to various other charities or used to fund awards for things like awards for female filmmakers. They gave money to and supposedly operated the application process for porn actress and convicted kiddy fiddler Mercedes Carrera's women in STEM charity although I have no idea who eventually got the money and it may not even be public (or have happened at all). There was some sort of graphic-novel project for anyone who "self-identified as Black before August 12, 2014", but again that seems to have gone nowhere that I can tell. I don't know if it was something they were asking for money for, or just a contest they were helping run.

As for whether this was a scam, eh, I kinda doubt it. At least the original game contest seems more like some people who had an idea, wanted to prove a point, and ended up getting in way over their head. Without the support of /v/ they probably never would have reached their goal, and in a purely meritocratic timeline they never should have. Having read through a bunch of their social media posts, they (or at least whoever runs those accounts) seems to have been relatively unprofessional; not knowing much about how TFYC as a company operated or how the charity money ended up getting doled out. My guess is they got drunk with power over a brief stint of relevance/notoriety and started trying to get involved in a bunch of other charity shit, despite not having the qualifications to be. It's possible that one or two guys at the top came out well off of this and disappeared; but at this point it might have been too long to know. The TFYC Twitter account did say they were willing to provide tax receipts to anyone who emailed them from a reputable news organization, but that's certainly not me.

One interesting thing I wish I was better at researching is the single person known to be associated with TFYC from the start of the project, founder Matthew Rappard. If anyone knows what happened to all the money, it should be him I imagine. Very little information is publicly available about him, and in the one interview I could dig up where he even mentions his name (interestingly the site is defunct and now redirects to an Australian clickbait site) he says he wishes he could have stayed as a "silent partner". There's a LinkedIn profile for a Matthew Rappard in Toronto, who is apparently involved in the tech industry with a company called "Three Lefts" (archive won't capture his staff page specifically) which does, uh... something relating to the blockchain, and with some sort of data management company known as "StonePaper" since late 2015. No conclusive proof linking the two although the timeline would make some sense as the original purpose of TFYC was wrapping up right around that time (the game released in August 2015 and Rappard joined or possibly founded StonePaper in November 2015). Again, I have no idea if this is the same person and it's the best I could find with my limited experience and knowledge to go on.

I actually, somewhat embarrassingly, own a Vivian James mousepad from an anti-bullying fundraiser campaign in 2014 that I believe TFYC was at least tangentially involved in. It's in a box in a closet somewhere, probably, covered in dust and disgusting gamer gunk.

 

[Boobie Bomb]

God damn, I haven't heard that name in years. As far as I can tell, after the game came out they made a few updates about fixing bugs and then mostly disappeared; although their Twitter account remained active through 2018, mostly responding to people talking about them or questioning their motives.

If their Twitter and Tumblr statements are to be believed, most of the money made from the game that wasn't given to the contest winner or earmarked for donation already as per the original charity pitch was donated to various other charities or used to fund awards for things like awards for female filmmakers. They gave money to and supposedly operated the application process for porn actress and convicted kiddy fiddler Mercedes Carrera's women in STEM charity although I have no idea who eventually got the money and it may not even be public (or have happened at all). There was some sort of graphic-novel project for anyone who "self-identified as Black before August 12, 2014", but again that seems to have gone nowhere that I can tell. I don't know if it was something they were asking for money for, or just a contest they were helping run.

As for whether this was a scam, eh, I kinda doubt it. At least the original game contest seems more like some people who had an idea, wanted to prove a point, and ended up getting in way over their head. Without the support of /v/ they probably never would have reached their goal, and in a purely meritocratic timeline they never should have. Having read through a bunch of their social media posts, they (or at least whoever runs those accounts) seems to have been relatively unprofessional; not knowing much about how TFYC as a company operated or how the charity money ended up getting doled out. My guess is they got drunk with power over a brief stint of relevance/notoriety and started trying to get involved in a bunch of other charity shit, despite not having the qualifications to be. It's possible that one or two guys at the top came out well off of this and disappeared; but at this point it might have been too long to know. The TFYC Twitter account did say they were willing to provide tax receipts to anyone who emailed them from a reputable news organization, but that's certainly not me.

One interesting thing I wish I was better at researching is the single person known to be associated with TFYC from the start of the project, founder Matthew Rappard. If anyone knows what happened to all the money, it should be him I imagine. Very little information is publicly available about him, and in the one interview I could dig up where he even mentions his name (interestingly the site is defunct and now redirects to an Australian clickbait site) he says he wishes he could have stayed as a "silent partner". There's a LinkedIn profile for a Matthew Rappard in Toronto, who is apparently involved in the tech industry with a company called "Three Lefts" (archive won't capture his staff page specifically) which does, uh... something relating to the blockchain, and with some sort of data management company known as "StonePaper" since late 2015. No conclusive proof linking the two although the timeline would make some sense as the original purpose of TFYC was wrapping up right around that time (the game released in August 2015 and Rappard joined or possibly founded StonePaper in November 2015). Again, I have no idea if this is the same person and it's the best I could find with my limited experience and knowledge to go on.

I actually, somewhat embarrassingly, own a Vivian James mousepad from an anti-bullying fundraiser campaign in 2014 that I believe TFYC was at least tangentially involved in. It's in a box in a closet somewhere, probably, covered in dust and disgusting gamer gunk.

That is very informative as outside of me I never knew who these people behind the mask are. I wonder if they are with groups that allow them to get away with something like this? They make it seem like they the good guys but they could be like a Fantasy Soft Entertainment and might have gotta away scot-free if their blueprints wasn't shown online. Whoever these people are they may be very smart to hide better while dumbasses like Zoe Quinn, Anita the dummy squaretail, and Braina Wu were fighting over who is more oppressed online.

It's possible they may have duped /v/ into donating money to them and waste the money on something that let's just say could get them into legal trouble. What that is? I don't know. But they seem to hide where they waste the money on. All well at least they put a video game character in the public domain which is odd but I guess they don't wanna copy strike people so James will probably get lewder of her online until the end of time.

Either way? These niggas are smart bitches that ran fast!

 

[Y2K Baby]

Capitalism ate them.

 

[Coffee Shits]

TFYC was GamerGate's black friend to point to, to dispel any accusations of -isms at the time. I don't think anyone expected them to last or make any games that /v/ wanted to play.

 

[Terrorist]

They'll find another -gate full of horny gamers to exit scam soon enough.