http://www.gamespot.com/news/shadow-of-the-eternals-dev-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-6410893

Company CEO Paul Caporicci confirmed on the Precursor Games forums that McCulloch is no longer associated--in any way--with the studio.

"Having just learned of these disturbing charges today and based on the serious nature of them, Ken McCulloch is no longer affiliated in any way with Precursor Games," he said.

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McCulloch was a founding member of Precursor Games and, prior to his arrest, was listed on the company's website as "Lore-keeper. World-Builder. Dream-merchant." His employee profile has since been removed from the site.

Damn, that's just messed up.

That is shudder inducing *shudders

I know there's already another thread on this but I think this one should be kept cause the other one doesn't make it immediately clear what actually happened, assumes you know a little too much already.

You know, I almost wish he had killed a dude, or robbed a bank or something instead. You know, respectable crimes.

In all seriousness though, yeah, this is sickening.

So, what led to the arrest? I mean, did they find that he was in some child porn forums and tracked him down? I'm just wondering what the extent of this is. Because I think there can be a difference between someone peddling child porn and someone arrested and then charged because some porn on their hdd might have included animated underage girls or people who look younger in pornographic movies. After some people have been charged for child porn in Japan for simply torrenting and seeding some anime, I'm hesitant to jump right to condemning this man as some kind of evil pervert.

Anyone have any more solid details on this?

I feel awful for the rest of the company. They had enough shit piling on them without this.

Wonder if they'll keep using any of his work in the game.

^ Also what he said.

Hmmm...this somehow makes his title of "Dream Merchant" immediately creepy.

Dude, totally this. It definitely sounds messed up, but I'll at least reserve judgment until all the cards have been dealt on this one. But in the event that he is guilty though, ooof...

Dream-Merchant?

Does this mean the game is dead?

Never trust a man who considers himself a Dream Merchant with not being a pedophile.

He was caught playing Katawa Shoujo.

I kid... please don't hurt me oh great VGK.

I think this is hilarious. Precursor games is a joke, this is just another aspect of the joke. Hilarious.

How much more crazy can it get from here? Will they put up 3 kickstarters at once and cancel two of them? Will Dennis Dyack stab a guy? Will they make a decent game before 2017? Who knows, anything could happen!

(In case anyone thinks I'm being insensitive to victims he only distributed. Didn't do the dirty looks like. Not the cause, more of an enabler. Doesn't call for sensitivity in my books, calls for public shaming of said enabler. And his (former) company of course, which already a shit show.)

@the_laughing_man said:

I imagine it doesn't kill the project, although that doesn't mean I actually believe it'll come out.

it's hard to kill something that was already dead

I don't know man, watching hand drawn little kids fuck each other or whatever is pretty god damn perverted.

Dyack has that ability, I think. If anyone can do it, Dyack can.

Well let's not condemn the guy before he has his day in court and the facts come out. Come on people. Yes these are VERY serious charges. But he's just been charged. Not found guilty.

Do they still teach civics in school? Who am I kidding. This guy's life is ruined no matter what the facts are.

My guess is that he was playing The Last of Us and commented in a forum that Ellie was cute.

Ugh.

and somehow Denis Dyack is worse.

You know it!

I wasn't really into Precursor, but I wouldn't wish this on any person or studio.

The reaction is somewhat telling, depending on how you view it - either they believe it, and are distancing themselves from a terrible person, OR they're protecting the image of their studio, and are distancing themselves from a prior friend in need of support (having read the article, it doesn't say "accused of pornography charges", but "arrested" - I haven't seen enough Law and Order lately, so I'm not sure if "arrested" implies evidence or simply suspicions).

This is true but police don't just hand out this type of charge without significant evidence.

Arrested means they found something.

They were able to use some kind of evidence to get a search warrant for his home. After carrying out the search warrant and finding some kind of evidence, they arrested him and confiscated some computers and electronics in his home.

I'm still not convinced that enough has come out to show that this is truly selling or making child porn, but they do appear to have some level of evidence that has warranted an investigation, search warrant, and arrest.

@truthtellah said:

In his defense, he could be a slave. A slave in this context is someone's computer that has been hijacked in order to store child pornography locally. Yes, that means someone hacked into your shit and stored their sweet CP there.

If people want to learn more I highly suggest googling it. It's fascinating and pretty disturbing.

I am definitely familiar with the concept of a "slave" pc. I get the feeling this is not the case in this instance. Though, I am still holding out judgment as to whether I think these charges have merit. I need to learn more about the details here.

@truthtellah said:

I think "This investigation is ongoing" implies that they won't be releasing any further information for some time. I think Canadian law is notoriously strict about lolicon shit, so it's kinda hard to judge what the potential severity of his actions are. Not that I'm defending cartoon kiddie porn by the way; that shit is gross, but I'd say it's fair bit less severe/disturbing than, well, you know.

Jesus, this is messed up.

I know I've been harsh on Shadow of the Eternals because of Dyack's involvement. In all likelihood, needlessly so. But anything Dyack may or may not have done is small potatoes compared to these allegations. And this should definitely not reflect on the rest of the development team, though this certainly can't be of help to them. But the guy does deserve his day in court, innocent until proven guilty, so it wouldn't be fair to judge him until it's proven he is. (Though with charges like this, it certainly sounds like there's a solid case against him.)

From the actual news piece and not that gamespot article. He was charge and arrested, not yet proven guilty. A little bit premature to call the guy sick and perverted or what not. Once hes been proven guilty? Sure condemn the guy but for now he is innocent until proven guilty I believe is the US law.

Edit: I am right or is that something I pick up from CSI Miami?

Hopefully we'll hear more once they actually get to trial. Or he can release his own statement from prison or through a lawyer. I'm kind of amazed there isn't already a public statement out there of innocence. Though, maybe there is and I just can't find it.

Sad thing about child porn charges is that even if this guy is innocent his life and career are over. No one will ever hire this guy again.

You're correct. In the U.S., the law states that those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty, though depending on the charges and circumstances, those charged and on trial may be kept behind bars until guilt or innocence is proven. But to my knowledge, Precursor Games and all of its employees are Canadian, and the alleged crime took place in Canada. I'm not that familiar with the Canadian legal process.

Yeah, innocence until proven guilty is in Canada's constitution.

"Any person charged with an offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal."

Man. I bet there's a whole bunch of hard working people at precursor games, who are just banging their head against the wall, because forces outside their control keep making them look bad.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/precursor-games-developer-arrested-1442951/?page=1#10-mark

Already have a thread going on here.

Did he make Gal Gun? Jeff may be an accomplice.

Okay, couple things on general topics of cyber crime involving, but not limited to, the charges filed in this specific case:

Regarding arrest and seizure of computer equipment following a lengthy investigation period; this means they have evidence and feel confident they can link said evidence to the accused. The accused is, of course, innocent until proven otherwise in trial. However to be clear, an arrest after a several month investigation is not some casual traffic stop escalation to vehicle search escalation to on the spot arrest. Making the arrest notifies the accused that he is being investigated. Under these circumstances, you can be confident in assuming the police and prosecuting attorneys office have enough evidence gathered to make a case strong enough that blowing the cover of their investigation is worth it.

Regarding animated 'virtual' pornography; the law as written on that in Canada makes it illegal. However, to date, no individual has been charged with possession/distribution/creating for solely animated or virtual imagery. There have been many cases on possession et al. of the real deal + some 'virtual'. The purpose of the wording of Canada's law in this regard is primarily as a tool for law enforcement to investigate smoke in search of fires, so to speak. It means Canadian law enforcement can take a good close look at anyone bringing 'virtual' stuff over the border, with primary intent to crack down on the actual much graver sort of criminal.

And finally regarding maybe frivolous arrest based on finding some grey area borderline legal evidence; no fucking chance. Not in the Canadian legal system I am familiar with. Police are far too busy hunting real evil fucking bastards who distribute and produce imagery of unquestionable and legitimate abuse to piss around with penny ante 'virtual' shit that would be questionable to make charges stick on anyway.

Just googled this, took a lot for anything to come up actually since typing slave pc brings up IDE drives. I heard about this though, scary stuff actually.

I wonder if they put his stuff back up if he's found innocent?

The game is just meant to never happen I guess. Don't really have a problem with that as everything just seems sketchy around the company and project and now this, just fucked up shit.

What this guy did or didn't do shouldn't reflect on Precursor as a whole unless in some sick twist it turns out that there's company-wide involvement. Though you're right in that this news will reflect negatively on the company and will most likely hinder their efforts from this point on.

What legally constitutes child porn? Is it literally anyone under the age of 18? Or are we talking like little kids?

I'm glad that I was not the only one who thought of that.

@liquidprince: Under 18 although at least in America there are a few weird loop holes regarding that stuff.

@liquidprince: I'm pretty sure it's any pornographic material where the person is under the age of consent which in Canada is normally 16 but when it comes to pornography is 18.

I feel bad for the other devs, his friends and family.

Unfortunately the Court of Public Opinion tends to see things differently.

I agree I just don't think it's right to publicly condemn someone without knowing the facts. Generally yes, if a arrest was made there is some sort of evidence. Let's just let the guy have his day in court and tell his side of things before we hang him from a tree.