Thread: [~2,500 USD] Partner/Developer

Originally Posted by Arham

Background: I was a developer at Near-Reality from October 2019 till July 2020 (August 2020 officially, but I did no work in my last month stay after the sheer fatigue; I gave a 1 month notice before officially leaving).



Lol tell that to lare96, who he paid very well for Group Ironman.



For reference: The update was on April 16, the messages above are from late October.

nothing at you Optimum you know I love you

I'm not sure on the trustworthy bit either. I was agreed to get paid a certain amount per week. I agreed to take 35% of what I agreed to while the server was down in development. Sure, fair. Then, the server launched, and I got a "raise" up to 50% of what I agreed on.

After the launch in December didn't go amazing, he went MIA for almost 2 months. Here's one month in.



So after basically taking responsibility of being owner (while getting paid 50% of my agreed amount), I eventually received another "raise." This time it was about 72% of what I agreed on.

So yeah, trustworthy.

After a bit, I got sick of working so hard, so I messaged basically saying how I would work for only 18 hours per week. By the way, this was strict hours. I did not include meetings, talking to staff members, all that jazz. I only went by the timer in my IDE that showed that I programmed for x amount of hours. The timer would automatically stop if I didn't do any programming for 2 minutes. So no, this isn't just an 18 hour week, but it works out to be much more. If one did the math on just those strict hours, it was about 25 to 30 dollars per hour. He didn't like that though.



I think he thought that the amount he gave me was sufficient for a full time developer (which, doing the math, was about 12 - 13 dollars per hour if one did full time).

This is my smallest complaint, by the way, but I think the topic of pay is probably most important to a lot of people when applying for a position. I didn't complain much, if at all, about it and that is my fault. But I still don't regard that as trustworthy.

That alone was not what drove me to ultimately end my 8 month tenure, though.

Cons

• Everything written above in regards to pay.
• The lack of availability for his own server, infamously always being "MIA." You can ask any single player or staff about this.
• The lack of presence in his own server by not logging in game for weeks, commonly months, at a time.
• The lack of knowledge of his own server, to the extent of not even knowing his own dedicated server's password. Hell, in the aforementioned 2 month hiatus, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].
• The lack of accountability for one's self by always claiming to be the victim of everything rather than taking a step back and thinking there is an error in his own way.
• The lack of shame when not giving his own players the prizes from server hosted competitions (do you think he will pay you if he can't pay his players prizes?) because he kept stalling it for weeks. Or not paying people he said he would pay who did hard work (volunteer work, not development), only to be greated with a ghost.
• The lack of truthfulness when lying about various things; I recall a yellow flag the very day I got hired being that he told his staff team that he has "known Arham for years" so as to sway their opinion of me when introducing me before hiring me, when I really had just met him that week. I brushed that to the side though.

The combination of all these things made me leave.

Pros

• The Near-Reality community is a great community when they trust you.
• Unfortunately, Near-Reality manages to get some of the best staff I've seen that are happy to help developers to the best of their ability. The unfortunate bit is that they are at Near-Reality, instead of another server that can use their infatuation and actually appreciate it.
• The source code for Near-Reality is not bad to work with. This is majorly credited to developers I regard as pretty great, like Dread, touching it. It has its very ugly bits, like hard-coded custom models in the client, but it has an overall better codebase than a lot of other servers I've worked with.

Foolish Arham continued to work for many, many more hours over the 18 hours mentioned before. I believe in the week leading to launch, I had a 100 hour week (two all nighters!). A pat on the back is all you will receive for such efforts, though, (not extra money) so I highly suggest you not do this, nor get carried away in your effort. If you are to leave his server, he will probably talk bad about you despite such efforts of yours anyways. Remember that in his eyes, you will always be a replaceable tool in the shed. I suppose the same can be said about any other place to work for, but it isn't quite as bluntly displayed as working at N-R.

All in all, no, I don't vouch for Jacmob. There are many developers who have worked for him in the past that can basically attest to some, if not all, of what I have written here. It is about time this information comes open to the public rather than only knowledge of the people who have worked for him in the past, lest we see new developers join not knowing what they are getting themselves into.

I suppose I'll address each of your points one by one;

As for Group Ironman, it had multiple issues within the piece of content where half of the features promised were never delivered. He would disappear, come back, reappear, and so forth; this went on for nearly three months, you yourself were not happy with Lare whatsoever. Regardless, I sent a message to Lare for reconciliation.

First and foremost, I appreciate you bringing forward these faults of my past, as it's a reminder of what I need to work on in the RSPS scene. Near-Reality and RSPS have always been a hobby for me that I truly cherish and care about. Running it through college was strenuous at times. But over the months from your messages dated in January, that quickly changed as school transitioned online. We spent many days and nights speaking for months leading to the July launch; I was readily available and active within the team.

As for your payment, we agreed upon 250-350 USD/weekly while the game was in development and 500 USD/weekly upon launch, and that agreement was satisfied. You've misconstrued our agreement in your post. I understand I agreed to a raise to 700 USD/weekly after two months (back in 2019), but we spoke about this; the size and revenue of NR were not feasible at that time (funny enough due to raids flopping). I have paid developers based on how the game performed; if the pay was unsatisfactory, I wish you were more vocal about it. I know a few times I paid you extra due to the amount of work you put in. Quite frankly, Arham, you are one of the most hardworking and friendly people I know.

As for the conversation regarding changing your work hours, I was nothing but supportive. I noticed you were unhappy, and I came up with suggestions to create a healthier workplace. Such as focusing on planning updates better, so we were not cramming everything in at once, making everything a headache for all involved, and so forth. I asked a simple question of whether 18 focused hours would be equivalent to your average work done. You said yes; nothing more was said in conjunction with this conversation; I had no objections.

I am aware of my mishaps in my past, and there are simply no excuses, but I have worked on myself over the past year and a half and have made great changes. I didn't have the time earlier in 2020 (January-March), as I was finishing my degree. After I graduated, we spoke nearly every day until July 2020, and was active within the team and server. Every player was always paid, albeit sometimes OSRS GP was hard to come by, but they were still paid. I had known of your name for many years prior to working with you; I don't see how this is relevant to my character.

I've never seen you as replaceable. Even when you blocked me from everything without saying a word, I still saw you as a friend, I always wanted you to visit me in Michigan, I don't have anything but praise for you. Was I upset for a while as we were left with Raids to finish, plus having what I considered a friend blocking me, sure. As you have no wishes to speak with me, I would like to apologize for any wrongdoings you believe I have committed towards you.

Originally Posted by Arham

The premise of everything is like the aphorism (paraphrased) "History is bound to repeat itself."



It was launched, so the developer should be paid. Due to missing features, the overall price was reduced. It doesn't really make for a delay.



As one person famously said, "It took an entire global pandemic for Jacmob to come back to Near-Reality." There were surely good times at Near-Reality when it came to your availability, but let us not forget how history repeated itself in June onwards when it came to "activity" again.



We never quite spoke with respect to the initial agreed amount, so let us not misconstrue that bit. But I do acknowledge my lack of discussion on the topic:



I've also corrected your post. And thanks for the kind words.



There isn't much to say here. I followed through with the 18 hours for about 2 weeks before falling back into going more hours. This is a fair point of yours.



Activity is the expectation when it comes to an owner. So moments of activity aren't praiseworthy, rather what should be done. In my stay from late October (basically November) till July, you were present for November, mid-March, April, May, and June. In July, we began to see the same Jacmob that was seen in months before. It is a cycle. Many players have told me that this is a cycle that has gone on for many years, where you would come and go. Do note the 3 day gap in our [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].



Replaceaility does not necessarily extend to myself. Also, I apologize for anything inaccurate in my initial post in this thread.

I must go now due to in real life priorities, so sorry for the short post.

Addressing point by point once again;

You saw the change that happened within me as school transitioned online and eventually to my graduation. I was around for everyone, you, any new developer, staff member and so forth. I don’t know why you’re bringing up these moot and irrelevant points because you’re unhappy with how everything ended. I didn’t even get a say, all I got was a block without a single word nor explanation. History has not repeated itself, I stayed true until the eventual failure due to Raids not being accomplished, the flag stone piece of content.

It was launched and we were still promised working features, he wasn’t around for weeks on end. Even when mentioning to me about paying him was it weeks upon weeks later. I remember the conversations we had, you made fun and cracked jokes at his expense about his absence, tardiness, and lack of professionalism. I paid him right as I saw it fell through the cracks last night. I’m not one to post private Discord messages, but you know very well that they are there. The only reason you mentioned this tid bit is because you have a vendetta towards me that I can’t quite understand.

You never brought it up, we had 60-90 online on average as we were prepping for the July launch, we did not have enough income for 700/weekly and you never raised any concerns. As for what was agreed; 250-350 for the first few weeks, 500 weekly during the next two months of development time, 700/weekly when launch was scheduled around, flopped, Juan left, I’m sure you can contest we had very few players and income. I couldn’t afford the increase at that time, you never raised any issues.

After graduation I was on daily, I cared deeply, I brought in the only developer that did anything alongside you, and when we launched and failed due to our flagstone piece of content once again not hitting the mark, I was defeated. I knew we were going to shutdown, especially when you already put in your months notice.

Again, I don’t know why you have such a grudge towards me. What I did to deserve to be blocked, I have no idea. I’m not going into detail why I responded with that emoji, it isn’t for public forum talk, but it has a deeper meaning in regards to another developer we interviewed and did not get a job due to lack of skill (before you were hired).

You PM’ed my staff members less than three days after your departure trying to get them to quit, yet what did I truly do to you? I don’t understand this attack on Near-Reality.

I truly am sorry if I wronged you in anyway.