What the heck is going on with the professional RPG industry in regards to Zak S?

Strangely enough comments weren't enabled on the news article over Zak S being removed from the PHB. I'm not sure why (I don't come here enough to know whether that's because of the type of article it is or not).

We've recently had a blog post with new allegations against Zak S (a.k.a Zak Zabbath a.k.a Zak Smith). I'm not surprised to see a new round of allegations against him. This isn't the first time he's weathered such accusations. Although unlike some previous allegations this one seems to have no evidence (which is fair enough. Someone shouldn't have to be a forensic scientist to alert people of the way they've been treated).

However supported only by an allegation the RPG industry has acted swiftly and with vengeance. The biggest seller of RPG products is refusing to carry Zak's work. And WotC have now removed the credit Zak had from the 5e PHB.

Are we as consumers okay at the professional RPG industry refusing to do business with someone over a mere allegation? Because I can see this quickly leading to some innocent people hurt sooner or later.

If they are acting on more than the allegation, and are in fact reacting to known behaviour of Zak S or so strongly suspected behaviour that they feel confident in their current reaction: What the heck was the RPG industry doing up until now? If Zak S is so bad that he should have every mention of him removed from the RPG industry, why didn't they do something before now? I certainly wasn't surprised to see the most recent allegation. So why the heck are they pretending to be surprised? And if they didn't have any suspicions, why are they taking such drastic action against someone without any legal proceedings occurring?

If Ed Greenwood or Mike Mearls get similar allegations made against them, will they be treated the same as Zak S? And if not, then why not?

What's going on? In some ways, the chickens are coming home to roost. The question might be better posed as "Why is it finally happening now?" And I think you have the broader culture to thank for that.

But as far as reacting to allegations - do you really think the preponderance of complaints against Zak S is just "an allegation"? Or did things finally get to the point where people could no longer ignore them or brush them off without really feeling queasy or being held accountable? The D&D community is more feminized that it has ever been according to the polls and it's the 800 lb gorilla of RPGs. It seems to be doing well, in part, as a result of that growth of female gamers. Nobody wants to alienate that hard-won segment of the market by turning a deaf ear to complaints.

Without delving into the veracity of the current or even any past allegations, I think that perhaps a lot of this has to do with his generally toxic and combative attitude. If he hadn’t rubbed so many people the wrong way over so many years he might find himself with more support.

Honestly, and I say this as someone who thinks his rpg work has been very compelling, his online behavior was so awful that it’s hard to imagine him being radically different in person.

In the end, Zak treated everyone like crap.

hmmm.....not an expert, but...AFAICT most allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct don't actually go to court, but that won't keep you from getting fired (or not, depending on the company attitude) for a "gig" based industry like rpgs, this is what it looks like.

I think, IME, etc. etc.

As a side note, and I'm not calling out anyone around here specifically, the cry of "but he could lose his job!" is often trotted out like its the single worst fate that it could befall somebody. I find that odd, especially in cases of violent activity. I mean, working well with people requires some positive personality traits and behavior (as [MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION] alluded to) it shouldn't be surprising or objectionable when someone who fails to exhibit those traits is shown the door, especially when they exhibit profoundly negative traits as well. ::shrug::

Oh, look, a fresh and new take on the topic where a low-post-count user is suddenly supremely concerned with the implications of MEN being accused of bad behaviour online. I'm certain this will be an exciting and original take on the subject.

Not all allegations are created equal. Some are more substantial and believable than others.

hawkeyefan said:

Without delving into the veracity of the current or even any past allegations, I think that perhaps a lot of this has to do with his generally toxic and combative attitude. If he hadn’t rubbed so many people the wrong way over so many years he might find himself with more support.

Honestly, and I say this as someone who thinks his rpg work has been very compelling, his online behavior was so awful that it’s hard to imagine him being radically different in person.

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But his online behaviour was a known factor years ago. I knew about it back when the PHB was released (which was when I first learned of the allegations against him). No new facts have come to light with the most recent allegations. It's just a different person making the same claims about what he has done against them. Either he was guilty all along and the professional RPG community knew (or should have known. Given how widespread the allegations against Zak S have been, it's quite hard for them to claim they didn't know) or they genuinely believed they weren't true, in which case they're acting very quickly against someone who they had previously investigated and believed to be innocent. What new evidence has come to light that made everyone suddenly change their mind? AFAIK none.

billd91 said:

But as far as reacting to allegations - do you really think the preponderance of complaints against Zak S is just "an allegation"? Or did things finally get to the point where people could no longer ignore them or brush them off without really feeling queasy or being held accountable?

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Nothing new or surprising was released in the latest allegations against Zak S. WotC and RPGNow pretending they are surprising and acting in a manner completely inconsistent with their previous actions (especially for WotC which went so far as to say none of the allegations against Zak S were true) seems very convenient and very disingenuous.

billd91 said:

The question might be better posed as "Why is it finally happening now?" And I think you have the broader culture to thank for that.
....
The D&D community is more feminized that it has ever been according to the polls and it's the 800 lb gorilla of RPGs. It seems to be doing well, in part, as a result of that growth of female gamers. Nobody wants to alienate that hard-won segment of the market by turning a deaf ear to complaints.

Click to expand...

What this seems to be saying is that WotC felt it was completely okay to dismiss claims against an abuser because there wasn't enough negative press associated with doing so? That paints WotC in a pretty despicable light.

WotC's actions appear to be purely damage control. They don't care whether or not Zak S has done the things that that have been claimed. Becoming associated with him is now no longer profitable and so they are doing everything they can to remove all ties they previously had to him. Accompanying such capitalistic activity with claims of "we genuinely care about the safety of the community and are doing this because of that" is disgusting.

WotC's actions have betrayed no ACTUAL care about the safety of the community. Not back in 2014 when they felt it was okay to put Zak S in the credits despite all of the allegations against him. And not now when they're removing his name from the PHB despite there being no change in the evidence against Zak S in the past 4.5 years. Associating with Zak S was a move to associate with a "popular" member of the geek community (he has his followers and certainly had them in 2014). It's why we got the playtest Acquisitions podcast. It was seen as profitable to be associated with Penny Arcade back then. They have wrung all profit they could in their association with Zak S. Now that there is no longer any benefit (and in fact a detriment) they are disassociating themselves with him and removing records in their published works that demonstrates they were ever associated.

I fail to see how WotC is demonstrating any actual care for the safety of the community in their actions and find their behaviour to be particularly despicable.

Celebrim said:

Not all allegations are created equal. Some are more substantial and believable than others.

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So your saying the previous allegations aren't credible? What's different about this most recent one? Why is this victim more worthy of our concern then previous victims?

Immortal Sun said:

Oh, look, a fresh and new take on the topic where a low-post-count user is suddenly supremely concerned with the implications of MEN being accused of bad behaviour online. I'm certain this will be an exciting and original take on the subject.

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I use to have a different user account over here. I'm not really sure how I ended up with this account. Link: http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?6749563-JohnLynch

Ratskinner said:

hmmm.....not an expert, but...AFAICT most allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct don't actually go to court, but that won't keep you from getting fired (or not, depending on the company attitude) for a "gig" based industry like rpgs, this is what it looks like.

I think, IME, etc. etc.

Click to expand...

I'd be concerned if my place of employment fired someone because their girlfriend/boyfriend stood at the corner of a shopping centre and yelled about abuse the person had done to them. I'm not sure what American law or attitude is towards this though. You lot have some very.... "interesting" ideas and laws when it comes to employment and firing people without cause.

Ratskinner said:

As a side note, and I'm not calling out anyone around here specifically, the cry of "but he could lose his job!" is often trotted out like its the single worst fate that it could befall somebody. I find that odd, especially in cases of violent activity. I mean, working well with people requires some positive personality traits and behavior (as [MENTION=6785785]hawkeyefan[/MENTION] alluded to) it shouldn't be surprising or objectionable when someone who fails to exhibit those traits is shown the door, especially when they exhibit profoundly negative traits as well. ::shrug::

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But his behaviour isn't new nor is it surprising.

Also: choosing not to work with someone is one thing. But should these organisations remove all mention of their previous association? Either Zak S deserved to be in the credits because of the work he performed for WotC or he didn't. It'd be like removing Kevin Spacey from the credits of all movies he's ever appeared in.

The Zak S situation brings something very disturbing to light. I'm concerned at either:
* What threshold of allegations OneBookshelf is going to set before they pull the plug and refuse to do business with someone; OR
* How many more known abusers we have in the community (Zak S's behaviour is certainly not surprising) and how long it will take OneBookshelf and the rest of the industry before it decides to safeguard our safety by excising them from the industry.

Either Zak S was a known abuser and the industry has done nothing. Or a facebook post accompanied by no evidence is all that's required to have someone removed from the biggest seller of online RPG products. Either way I think OneBookshelf and WotC need to set some guidelines as to who they will and won't do business with and why they're only setting those guidelines now. Or else we're going to have innocent people thrown out of the industry at the whims of these organisations.