The Dark Side of Gaming - DIGIMENT

The Dark Side of Gaming

Firstly, I would like to thank you for visiting this blog, this is an account of 5 previous employees under the Director Mr. Eirik Moseng.  I hereby make these accounts public so others are warned to be wary of any companies he is associated with, especially Digiment, a gaming company operating from London and Oslo.

For me this all started when I applied for a Games Artist role with a fun looking games company called Digiment. Maybe it was the eagerness in me to move into the world of games that sparked his interest, maybe it was my age or gender that allowed Moseng to pray on my vulnerabilities back in 2013. You may wonder why I am writing this open account but we feel it is time to be heard as a collective especially when he is still committing the same fraudulent dealings in the heart of London.

When my recruiter at ABRS secured me a telephone interview I was thrilled and thought this is it! I have finally made the step into games after 4 years working as a visualisation artist. It was going to be risky moving into a new field but my heart has always been in games and I trusted the recruiters, why wouldn’t I? The interview went well and I proceeded to the second stage where I met the Art Director and Moseng in stylish offices, I thought this looks great I would love to work here. I produced extra work for the 2^nd interview which went down well as I showed how we could explore other characters with this new game he was creating called ‘Zoonie Match’. This was followed by another call and eventually a job offer.  Then the excuses started to happen, I was waiting for an official offer and a contract this took over a month, to be honest alarm bells were starting to ring but I wanted to work in games so bad I ignored them, a young trusting naive me should have listened. Excuses like this were starting to happen: 

Nevertheless, I accepted the offer and put in for my notice at my current workplace.  After my notice period I was looking forward to getting into the new offices and getting stuck in with my new career path. This however, never happened…

On the day before I was meant to start I went to the train station to buy a weekly train ticket who would have thought I was never going to need it. The excuses started flying in fast, I was set up working from home over skype where I developed a friendship with two others, a sound artist in Sweden and the lead artist based in the UK. There was another art director based back in Norway called Anders Korodi who helped me with some of the art tasks I was given. This is one of the emails, it seemed to be legit and I believed anything at this stage, I just quit a 4year career for this job and my mortgage was on the line, I believed everything he said.

None of what Moseng said came true, there were no offices, I didn’t receive any equipment, I was using my own to create work with Anders who apparently had no idea what was happening which I do not believe as he is still working for Moseng I believe they are in this business together. I started to question things with the other two employees. A similar story had unravelled, and we found out that one of them who was quite young had been working under Moseng for 6 months, he was promised a plane ticket to come join us in the UK and he has never been paid the correct amount for the work he did.

By this stage well into my first month of working at ‘Digiment’ I started to worry, I was going on holiday over the week that I was meant to get paid. The student in Sweden was sacked after telling us he had never been paid, Moseng was screaming down the phone and I feared I would be next for questioning him, I felt like I was in an abusive relationship. I kept reiterating with Moseng will I get paid for the work I have done? He assured me I would, I even received a payslip.

This was never paid to me, the lead artist and now my close friend was never paid, the young student in Sweden was never paid. I had to start legal proceedings, Moseng was poking holes instead of apologising and paying me the money I was owed he back tracked and said the few days of holiday we had agreed on were unpaid, this was never discussed with me and at this stage it really wasn’t the issue. I had no option but to cease all work and this was part of his reply-

“Further, while you have the management’s full understanding about your eventual decision to cease all work due to the situation and delayed payments of wages, I have to notify you that such delayed payments do not give you any legal right to cease or be absent from work and could affect your future engagement and wages.

Best regards,

Eirik Moseng,

General Manager/Technical Director Digiment”

This is where the story gets even more scary… We did some digging around online about Mr. Eirik Moseng and found in a depression forum someone who had had similar dealings with him in 1995.

“Some guy called Eirik Moseng said he represented a games programming company in Norway and was looking for submissions. I sent him my game and he seemed to like it. The next thing I know, we were talking about setting up a development team here in NZ.

This next bit is pretty painful (for me anyway). I got totally suckered.  I quit my job, I got a group of other suitable talented computer geeks together, and I set up a company (Digital Entertainment).

All that was needed was the funding (which Eirik promised).  The money never came, and I lost a huge amount of my own savings, which I'd put into the company myself.

Also, I didn't have a job anymore.  However, having a knack for landing on my feet, I got into a very sweet contracting role which lasted a year, so I made all my money back, and then some.

This Eirik guy actually came to NZ.  He did have a company of his own (of sorts) but it was down the toilet.  Another Norwegian guy got in contact with me and explained the situation.

Eirik was in denial, and was fucking up anyone stupid enough to go down with him (of which I was one of).

He was trying to do a financial deal with a big Norwegian games company called Funcom, but they told him to bugger off.

He came to NZ to "set things up" which I took it to mean he was bringing start-up funds, but he left a few days later having done nothing except talk some BS and spend time at our local casino.

I guess i'm just mentioning it because it was a very "intense" time in my life, but ancient history now.  It totally cured my Computer Geekdom.  I don't program for fun anymore, just because its what pays the bills.

Anyway, if you ever run into a guy called Eirik Moseng, kick him in the nuts for me.”

When I spoke to the person in NZ he was very sympathetic and couldn’t believe that Moseng was still operating. I went to the employment tribunal and filled out all the forms, the lead artist had also stopped doing work for Digiment and he was now running out of savings which he had been living off from coming over to the UK to work for this company. My savings were starting to dry up too, I had a mortgage to pay and I was genuinely worried we were going to lose the home we had only recently bought. I was spiralling down a dark path and wondering how I got here, why was this happening and why hadn’t this guy been stopped so he couldn’t keep doing it to people. He is a very manipulative and cunning con man, he knows how to play the system but I still didn’t realise how much of this was true.

The court case was filed and paid for by me when myself and the lead artist were taken on by another company in October. So from June – October I was left with no money and how could I take him to court because I have to pay to do that. All I could do was try to move on until I had the funds to stop him. I tried to go down the route of the courts excepting a remission form but because my partner was working we were not eligible to receive help. My evidence was lost by the people in charge, I had to start the whole process for a 2^nd time because the other people involved could not afford the fees. That whole process took over 2 months, I had started it as soon as I wasn’t paid for the first month but I was actually employed by Digiment for 3 full months with no pay received.

Moseng had two companies, Digiment Ltd which is squeaky clean and then Digiment Studios/ Digiment Group which has CCJ’s against it, when he found out I was taking both to court he was not pleased, and said but you were employed by Digiment Studios (this was where he was hiding the other court judgements so people didn’t find them). In the end I won the case on 15^th January 2014, 10 months since I interviewed at ‘Digiment’ to this day I have not received a penny. And yes my friends, he is still operating in London, he has done this to yet another person who I warned and is going through the same court proceedings.

After a few years of trying to get over my burnt-out dreams and the way I had been introduced into the industry I didn’t give up. I kept an eye on him and decided to send in the Sheriffs to collect my money. They hunted for him and each time they turned up at his virtual office addresses he shut down the company and moved it to another virtual space in London.

Eventually they were going to his personal flat in Wimbledon but he resigned as Director of the company, changed the company’s name, by this time this was the 3^rd address they tried for me and we had to give up. There were no more avenues to follow, myself, the guy in New Zealand and my two friends from the early days of Digiment are left with a hole not only in our pockets but it’s always at the back of our minds. Now he is rubbing shoulders with Sir Richard Branson and no one knows our story. I hope you have been able to follow this blog to the end because it will never be over for us, this is what gives the Gaming Industry a bad name, I have battled right up until this very point, opening up to tell you our story is a hard process because it puts me right back into a young 26-year-old full of dreams and aspirations. 

Here are a few quotes from the other people who worked for Mr. Eirik Moseng, and please just be aware of how many lives he has damaged and that he is still allowed to operate within the UK. Some people did not want to comment publicly and I have respected their decision.

“As a young and naive composer I got thoroughly manipulated and taken advantage of by Eirik Moseng. He knew I was desperate for a job and money so he would lead me on by "accidentally" sending the wrong amount of money and "forgetting" about booking the plane tickets we talked about.

I didn't really understand that not getting paid on time (or at all) was a huge warning sign, and he got very aggressive and dismissive as soon as I brought it up, so I got scared that I would lose the opportunity to work with games. He knew this and fostered that fear by promising so much like being head of office and so on.”

“You don't need to tell me how badly something like this can mess with a persons life, I was devastated when I realised it was all just a silly dream and that it was never going to happen.

I have to say, it is my personal view that Erik himself does believe his own bullshit. I think in his own mind he is conducting business the way it is meant to be done, and it's as if he lives in a fantasy world where he is just one step away from securing millions of dollars to fund projects. The guy is unstable in my view, and I'm amazed he has not yet crashed and burned, but I guess he is also a cunning asshole who knows how to look after himself.

Again, very sorry this has happened to you and your friends”