https://store.steampowered.com/app/3281420/Paradise/
I have seen lots of 'it's a scam' posts and vids around about this, but I don't know, what do you think?
Many complain about the creators using unedited unreal engine store content, but meh, that's not really evidence as such.
There's a crypto connection which is more of a concern.

The demo video is hilarious, to me anyway.

Why would I hope it could be real? I like the look of the characters, they seem like everyday people rather than cartoons or air-brushed models.
I like the AI generated dialogue.
It looks good.

I also hatez the gunz.

As I said on Reddit, this is more of a GTA clone than a life sim. Sure, GTA can be a form of a life sim but not really.

To my knowledge, they weren't just using uncredited unreal engine content, some of the assets looked identical to GTA5 assets which would be a nono.

Imo, it's best to stay away from crypto related projects. Who knows what kind of software they're sneaking into their software. You could be downloading crypto miners for all you know. Let someone else be a guinea pig before spending your money on projects like these.

If anybody wants a realistic life simulator, try InZoi. So many people fall for online scams these days. I see that because Avast warns me about ongoing threats in the world.

I haven't played GTA so wouldn't have spotted copied content.

I am surprised steam don't have more security checks.

Hi, my name is Pico and I am superexcited to be in Paradise. I can buy businesses, cars and stylish clothes. I can also buy guns to kill the people who don't want to sell me their businesses, cars and stylish clothes. And I can play any influencer I want. And I want so much. So much.

I didn't really look at previous scam games so have nothing to compare this with for an assessment, but having read the statement below I am still in 'wait and see' mode;
https://paradisevs.com/community_info
If it isn't legitimate they certainly have gone to a lot of trouble.

https://youtu.be/J_5S3JVEY-g?si=43A394MwNaP_0gSG
Another video claiming this is a crypto scam. Ah well, it probably is, it just seems a shame.

Muta from SomeOrdinaryGamers has chimed in about this game as well.

Massive GTA 6 Scam Situation...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8EnfX5nHkQ

Malcolm has also chimed in along with a few other scam games...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzE4wxUv1go

Despite the claims made that just because something is sold on Steam somehow makes a game not a scam is total BS! Anybody can pay Steam a fee and have their "game" listed.

Yeah, whoever said that probably doesn't play a lot of Steam games. Or they just haven't run into the asset flip industry before. Being listed on Steam means practically nothing in terms of legitimacy, just in case this is anyone's first time hearing it.

I think it is the sheer lack of choice in the life sim genre which creates the particular desire to see more games and that leads to wishful thinking, certainly on my part.
I just can't get into inzoi, it just doesn't feel aimed at me but at a much younger market. I hung onto EA's the sims for far too long until they stamped on my fingers long and hard enough for me to realise they don't particularly want me as a customer either.
Paralives seems more promising, but I am worried that it will feel too cosy and safe and therefore get boring for me.

Sigh, so now I am trying out MMOs and dodging the bullets, swords, tentacles to see if any kind of game exists around and outside the conflict base.
I can't help feeling that it isn't just me wondering why so many games companies don't seem to be even looking in my direction.

edit: That sounder rather grimmer than I actually feel. Swapping genres has been energising and at least one game I am interested in shows a lot of promise.

I too wish we had lots of life sim games to pick from. It's frustrating, but it is equally frustrating when I hear a person from the sims community that is a YouTuber tell her otherwise young audience to basically trust anything on Steam's website. It could be about any website, not just Steam. The rule of "If something sounds too good to be true, it is" applies here.

For those that haven't bothered looking into the problems with Paradise, the dev team is saying the game will be free to play, but on the back-end it is a crypto scam. They want people to buy into it, but whoever buys in will never be able to 'cash out'. Children are not going to pick up on this or understand it.

This problem isn't obvious because Steam doesn't like crypto-based games. The dev team of this game is trying to hide it so they can fly and stay off of Steam's radar.

There are things about this game that would make a person step back, like the blatant rip off of GTA 6 which is why Muta titled his video the way he did. Take Two / Rock Star never put things in their game that would be in copyright violation. Everything in the GTA series is a parody of some real life thing. Devs of this game don't understand what is going on, so they're just scanning stuff in and relying on AI.

Somebody sought out the physical address these people put on their website and tried to go there. The address doesn't exist.

This dev team keeps changing their website. At first they were claiming that big influencers like Ninja were onboard with their game. Now because they keep being called out, they keep changing their website. People know this because of WayBack machine. They were using people's likeness, not actually getting contracts with these people.

There are red flags everywhere with this game. The internet isn't just piling on to this game for no reason. There are many reasons...

I didn't see the misleading youtuber's video but I have seen the 'it's a scam' videos, and these get more convincing as they go on, that's why I hopped off the fence!

All I see is GTA take here only. Even Inzoi looks more domesticated simulator than this (whilst it does not have suburban houses, yoi do mundane stuff at a house). I wish people stop labelling anything life simulator if it doesn’t include kids and family gameplay (why do I must care a can create and control a single character in a hustling ghetto city block?). I like micromanaging multiple characters on a single block rather have them run around in streets and drive cars (I can switch to gta if I wanted that).

Whilst others competitors have shwon much more, they at least look like true Sim games and the closest that are what Im looking for a Sims game. If those don’t lift off, then I can always return to TS3, 2 and even 1 if I decide to play all of them in a session.

Looks like GTA and inZOI... prolly a scam.

Seems an unnecessarily complicated rug pull

It has been 8 months since anybody has breathed life into this thread. The scam that was called Paradise is now over according to the following video, however, problems still remain.

Paradise - The Scam Is Finally Over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_P9UNUys1s

I don't know what is going on with Valve, but they continue to allow this backdoor crypto bullshit on their platform. There is no connection between these two games. I'm not trying to make that connection or imply there is one. It is the backdoor crypto bullshit itself that is the problem. Steam sez they don't allow crypto in any form, but yet, somehow crypto scams ( as well as attempted crypto scams) continue to make its way on to their platform. Are peeps at Valve sleeping at the wheel?

For those that don't want to sit through the second video, here's the tea.

A cancer patient streams to make money to cover his treatments. He keeps his funds in the form of crypto. Somebody in his chat recommends a free-to-play game ( Block Busters) on Steam. He trusts the person's suggestion, downloads the game and his crypto wallet is drained.

It was discovered that this free to play game was loaded with malware with a backdoor do steal people's money. In the end, the person does get their money back via a donation.

TikTok Scumbag Stole $30,000 from Cancer Patient and Got CAUGHT..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H_lxKi584g

I'm not posting this as a means of telling people never to use Steam or how to spend their money, but buyer / free-to-play person... beware. Do your research! Where there is smoke there is fire. Until somebody lights a fire under Valve's ass about this, issues like these are going to continue. If isn't a person's crypto wallet being drained, it will be PayPal accounts, credit cards end up being maxed out, ect...

Definitely don't buy and play just any steam game. Ever since they switched from manual approval to "pay a fee to get on our store", scams have gotten out of control.

If you see a cool game you want to try..... WAIT. Look up people playing it, commentary or not. Good and bad videos. Look and see what else the developers have done (if any) or the kinds of things they post online. Watch out for words or statements implying you can make and spend real money in their game.

Watch out for indie studios claiming to put out high fidelity graphics with complex systems. As an indie enjoyer, you'll quickly learn most indies can either afford cool graphics and so-so gameplay or cool gameplay and so-so graphics.

If you're a streamer, don't just play any game some random commenter or donator tells you to play. You still need to vet the game unless you're running a virtual machine that isn't connected to your creds and personal identification. I feel like gamers need to be more aware of the dangers online. For too long I think people have felt safe and people have forgotten how to be safe online.

I feel like we have to be continually re-educating ourselves to avoid scams and misinformation, and there are bad actors out there looking for any opportunity to exploit the vulnerable or unaware.
The unfortunate side effect of that is that genuine projects (not this one!) can be weighed down under a maelstrom of accusations.

A person can't trust the Steam review system either. Block Buster's rave reviews were all bots.

This is no different than any other website such as Amazon. A person can find any kind of junk on Amazon. Said hunk of junk can have 5-star reviews with pictures that were stolen from a original site somewhere. This can also be found on Temu, Shein, EBay, blah, blah, blah. Add the AI slop that is being posted everywhere and now the internet is nothing more than a cesspool. I digress.

If Valve can't be bothered to keep customers safe, customers shouldn't willingly hand over their trust.

I just had a look and found out that there are four games called "Paradise" on Steam and then there is also Midnight Paradise and Paradise Lust and Corrupted Paradise and Paradise Cleaning! and many many others. I took a closer look at the Cleaning! one and no, it is not a house cleaning simulator. Very positive reviews, though.