John Lynch2
First Post
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?
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?
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