Evil Genius Games Attempts To Remove Bad Press [Update--And Then Adds Legal Threats!]

Evil Genius Games, publisher of the Everyday Heroes tabletop roleplaying game, and subject of two articles in 2024 here on EN World, is attempting to remove references to documented history which delves into the company's actions by citing court documents and interviews with former employees.

[Update--EGG has recruited a lawyer who has sent us a cease-and-desist letter; scroll down to the end of the article for the update]

In early 2024 several employees of Evil Genius Game resigned, citing ethical concerns with the company's activities. I investigated the allegations, obtained court documents and internal correspondence, and interviewed a number of ex-employees, as well as CEO Dave Scott himself, culminating in a lengthy article which provided a deep dive into the issue. That article was followed by another in June 2024 covering EGG's participation in a pitch competition at an event at Consensus 2024, a convention in Texas run by Coindesk, and its description of the Web3 technologies it proposed using.

The Rise And Fall Of Evil Genius Games

How does a company go from over twenty core staff to just six in the space of a few weeks? In the summer of 2023, Evil Genius Games appeared to be riding high. They’d made about half a million dollars over two Kickstarter campaigns and had raised $1M from several rich investors in the form of...

www.enworld.org

Reddit user calculusbear posted a link in 2024 to my article about EGG's business practices. On January 14th of this year (2025), EGG's CEO Dave Scott messaged calculusbear asking them to take down the link claiming that it (the Reddit link, not the article or, indeed, EGG's own actions) was "destroying my company". Calculusbear has, to date, not taken down that link.

Last year, I had shared an Enworld article regarding the activities of Evil Genius Games, makers of Everyday Heroes in this sub.

A week ago, I received a message on reddit from their CEO, Dave Scott, asking me to remove the post. He claimed it was hurting his company. This is quite the interesting situation I find myself in; a reddit post causing harm to a company. But it's not like there has been any clarifying news since.

Either way, I would ask Mr Scott to share the discussion he wishes to have first, before asking me to remove the post.

This isn't the first time that EGG has attempted to quell criticism. In 2024 the CEO threatened ex-employees with legal action should they speak openly about their experiences--at the time I was shown letters to multiple staff from EGG's legal representatives threatening action in response to their post-resignation statements; and when I spoke to them while researching my article last year, they all expressed concerns about retribution.

In the interests of balance, I'll note that Scott claims in his message that my article (which backs up every statement with court documents, internal company documents, email transcripts, and interview statements) "sighted many inaccurate facts" [sic].

Hi Calculus Bear. My name is Dave Scott and I am the CEO of Evil Genius Games. About a year ago there was a post that highlighted an article by ENWorld that predicted the fall of my company. The article is one sided. It sighted many inaccurate facts that really hurt me personally and my company. Since then, the thread has been archived, but for some reason it still shows up on the front page of Google Search. A year later, this article is destroying my company. Is there any chance you would consider removing the archived thread? I'm happy to have a deeper discussion about what is going on with the thread and my company. Thank you.

Whether the Reddit link is 'destroying the company' is hard to say. Just three months ago, in November 2024, the venture capital firm Alumni Ventures, part of a syndicate which includes Blockchain Founders Fund and Hustle Fund, amongst others, talked about their proud investment in EGG. EGG's most recent crowdfunder, The Armory, raised $47.5K (their original Everyday Heroes Kickstarter raised nearly $400K, while the followup Legendary Bundle raised $115K).

This week EGG launched its digital platform, 'Sidekick'. The advertising for the platform contains no references to technologies such as NFTs and blockchains, for which the company has previously been criticised. It's not clear whether EGG has reversed its position on the ethics of Web3 tech or whether it's still planning on using it.

The original article had largely fallen off the radar, but has seen increased traffic recently due to the company's attempts to hide it (an effect known popularly as the Streisand Effect).

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Update (Jan 23, 2025) -- "Legal Cease and Desist Letter To Remove the Defamatory Content under Defamation Law"

Evil Genius Games' CEO Dave Scott is making legal threats against journalists and news outlets which covered the original story.

EN World received an email from a gmail account named 'Legal Law' purporting to be a lawyer. The email is titled "Legal Cease and Desist Letter To Remove the Defamatory Content under Defamation Law", and was the first and only contact I'd had with or from EGG since the original article in early 2024.*

Dear Legal Team,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to formally request the immediate removal of a defamatory post that has been published on your website. The defamatory post in question was posted on your website without knowing the truth. The post contains false and damaging statements that have caused significant harm to the reputation and well-being of the company.

As you may be aware, defamation refers to the act of making false statements about an individual or entity that harm their reputation. It is my duty to inform you that the defamatory post on your website violates defamation laws and poses legal ramifications for all parties involved. The false information contained within the post has caused substantial harm to company's professional and personal character.

We kindly request that you remove the defamatory post immediately to prevent further dissemination of false information and to avoid potential legal consequences. Failure to comply with this request will leave us with no option but to pursue legal action against your website and the user responsible for the defamatory post.

Here is the link in question;

[Link to original article about Evil Genius Games]

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Communications Decency Act (CDA), has a legal obligation to promptly remove defamatory content upon receipt of a valid takedown notice. We trust that, as a responsible platform, will take immediate action to remove the defamatory post and prevent further harm to company's reputation.

We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter and request confirmation of the removal of the defamatory post within reasonable time frame from the receipt of this letter. Should you have any questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Thank you for your cooperation. We hope to resolve this matter amicably and without resorting to legal measures.

Yours sincerely,

Tauqeer Ahmed

With a quick Google search, it became quickly apparent that this exact letter (word for word) has been posted numerous times on the internet (such as here, here, here, and here--this last one by Irfan Karim, DMCA AGENT), and is extremely unspecific--it doesn't say who his client is, what law firm he works for, comes from a gmail account, refers to IP-related legislation in the context of an alleged libel accusation, and contains no indication that the author is familiar with the subject in question. As such we weren't convinced that it was genuine and felt it prudent to contact Dave Scott to confirm whether Tauqeer Ahmed did, in fact, represent Evil Genius Games. Scott replied in the affirmative.

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*For transparency, I'll note that after I posted this article Scott then posted on my personal Facebook page (which I removed) and emailed me again; but since a legal threat has been issued I felt it inappropriate that we interact further and passed the threatening letter to our legal advisers. Additionally, as EN World's terms and conditions make clear, once a legal threat has been issued EGG is no longer entitled to post on EN World.

Legal Threats
If you make a legal threat (including accusations using legal terminology like "slander" or "libel", or a threat of legal action) against the site, or against a staff member, we will treat it respectfully and seriously. To this end:

• You may no longer use or post on the site.
• We will no longer respond to direct messages from you; we refer you to our mailing address, and your correspondence will be passed to our legal counsel.
• We refer you to our mailing address which is provided on our contact page on enworld.org for the convenience of your legal counsel.

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Update (Jan 24, 2025) -- Not Being Sued After All
I woke up this morning to see Dave Scott had sent me a note indicating that he does not intend to sue EN World. I haven't replied, as my policy is not to engage with people who have threatened me with legal action, but I figure folks would want to know. Hopefully that puts an end to the matter, but who knows?

 

[Kromanjon]

At what point do these articles become EGG bashing or generating 'news'? I think the the previous article was well researched and put together, but this is just rehashing what came before and adding that they are asking people (nicely) to take down links (not demanding). On the other hand, we have Morrus the Journalist, who is also owner of ENworld and EN Publishing, at least the later is a competing business to EGG, the former you could consider an online service (platform). Some of these hats are imho conflicting in this case. Just to be clear, I do not allude to any form of malice on the journalists part.

I think they become "EGG bashing" when they report unconfirmed or untrue information. The rehashing done in the article is to put the new news in context to show this is something of a pattern when it comes to this person and company. Also I am not sure it matters if your polite while sweeping dirt under the rug, fact remains he is trying to hide facts from people so he can get them to spend money on his products and his company while they remain uninformed of his previous behavior.

As for the competing businesses, sure, if you´re just considering the ttrpg market. However, the games are so different in theme (one modern day, one fantasy) the the actual competition seem tenuous at best. EN Publishing seem more in competition with WotC and this site report on their stuff all the time without anyone raising any eyebrows.

I do feel this story has gotten a bit stuck with the whole NFT/blockchain thing, even though I don´t like any of those things. I think the more important part of the original article was about the mistreatment of the staff and freelancers who worked for him. If this kind of behavior is causing trouble for his company then that´s kind of fair in my opinion.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I look forward to 2026, when there will be a new cycle of complaints from EGG games pointing back to this article!

 

[R_J_K75]

I backed the main book and vault

I backed only the core book, as I was looking for a Modern game updated to 5E rules at the time. After I received it, we were in the middle of a 5E D&D campaign and didn't have time to read it, so I gave it to another guy in our group. Now this secondhand hearsay but he said it was a pretty convoluted system with some other choice words that I can't repeat here. Pretty much left him shaking his head with the consensus that he wouldn't run it and possibly wouldn't even play it if someone else did.

I haven't been following this company or the business & ethical practices of Dave Scott (which don't seem good), but that aside, if you have read or played it what are your impressions of the game? Is it worth the investment in time to read and start a campaign in your opinion?

 

[GMMichael]

"You know, I had one simple request . . . "

 

[Staffan]

 

[Morrus]

Exciting developments! We are now the recipients of a ‘legal cease and desist’ letter regarding the original article from … a lawyer? Hard to tell. It’s not very clear. They don’t specifically claim to be representing EGG, it comes from a gmail address, has no mention of an actual law firm, is identical—word for word—to a ‘letter’ which has been posted in many places on social media, and googling the name at the bottom gives me references to a lawyer in Pakistan. How very odd.

It’s so bizarrely non-specific that I’m inclined to think it’s some kind of weird spam. I've forwarded it to Dave Scott and asked whether this person does, in fact, represent EGG.

 

[the Jester]

Streiiiiiiisand, oh Streisand, how could I possibly learn your lesson?

 

[Staffan]

I am not a lawyer, and this should by no means be considered legal advice, but it would be hilarious to copy the Cleveland Browns response to someone complaining about fans making paper planes and throwing them at games.

That, or I believe the tradition is to refer them to the response in Arkell v Pressdram.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Dave Scott would could have done himself a lot of favors by instead issuing public statements regarding their previous mis-steps, apologizing to those affected, and laying out a new plan on how to move forward in a way that would earn the trust of the buying public. It would even be appropriate to contact those who previously wrote them negative press and ask them if they would review the updated company, business plan, etc. and consider updating/appending their previous articles.

That is, if the Streisand effect were not real and the real best advice I have would be instead Dave Scott should have made a brief statement about "we made some mistakes in the past, but we are moving forward with a new strategy, which is..." and then never. mentioning. it. again. Seriously, by continuing to bring this up, the best they can hope for is digging themselves out of the hole they dug, which 1) won't work, and 2) gets them nowhere past ground level, even if it did. Better to try to start over one public-attention-span away at ground level.

But I think that Dave Scott underestimated the 'community' aspect of running a pnp RPG company and how easily you can offend and alienate a very loud minority of that pnp RPG community. For example, Web3 is more then just NFTs and Blockchain, but for many it's enough to raise the pitchforks and burn it all down (it feels a bit how publishers viewed pdfs 30 years ago). I find the technical aspect behind blockchain interesting, but how most companies/investors want to implement it is just another money grabbing venture that is as much 'fun' as a casino (the house always wins!)...

I think if the primary issue in all of this was just the NFTs and Blockchain, then yes it would have just gotten a vocal minority of people who do try to clear-burn to keep such out of the gaming marketplace. The wider tempest* only existed because it expanded beyond the cnontroversy of blockchain/NFT and onto disfavored business practices, toxic personalities, and extremely bad public brand management.
*which, at the end of the day, still remained in a teapot. Even amongst my vigorously-online TTRPG friends, only a handful of them knew about this controversy, compared to semi-recent happenings surrounding WotC, NuTSR, or even M.A.R. Barker.

At what point do these articles become EGG bashing or generating 'news'? I think the the previous article was well researched and put together, but this is just rehashing what came before and adding that they are asking people (nicely) to take down links (not demanding). On the other hand, we have Morrus the Journalist, who is also owner of ENworld and EN Publishing, at least the later is a competing business to EGG, the former you could consider an online service (platform). Some of these hats are imho conflicting in this case. Just to be clear, I do not allude to any form of malice on the journalists part.

This is some pretty subtext-laden writing for not alluding to malice. Exactly what do you think Morrus is doing that is unacceptable? Just that he has a conflict of interest in that he's tangentially competing in the same market? Regarding just generating news, Dave Scott's brand management has been the story the whole time, why is reporting on the latest attempts not appropriate?
Note that I do not disagree in general principle. We absolutely can have a discussion about when we should refrain from beating a dead horse, or when mocking a (self-inflicted) reputational injuries slides into kicking someone when they are down. We certainly do so in the NuTSR threads. I'm just not seeing the case here.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I am not a lawyer, and this should by no means be considered legal advice, but it would be hilarious to copy the Cleveland Browns response to someone complaining about fans making paper planes and throwing them at games.

That, or I believe the tradition is to refer them to the response in Arkell v Pressdram.

See also CA governor Schwarzenegger's letter to state assembly.