Goodman Games: Our Efforts Have Been Mischaracterized

Company reiterates opposition to bigotry and says efforts are well-intentioned.
Goodman Games' CEO Joseph Goodman made a statement via YouTube over the weekend*. The video itself focused on the content of the controversial upcoming City State of the Invincible Overlord crowdfunding product, but was prefaced by a short introduction by Joseph Goodman, in which he reiterates his company's commitment to inclusivity and diversity and its opposition to bigotry, something which they say they "don't want to be associated with".

Goodman goes on to say that the company's efforts have been "mischaracterized by some folks" but does not go so far as to identify the mischaracterization, so it's not entirely clear what they consider to be untrue other than the "inaccurate" statements made by Bob Bledsaw II of Judges Guild about Goodman Games' plans, which Goodman mentioned last week.

For those who haven't been following this story, it has been covered in the articles Goodman Games Revives Relationship With Anti-Semitic Publisher For New City State Kickstarter, Goodman Games Offers Assurances About Judges Guild Royalties, and Judges Guild Makes Statement About Goodman Controversy. In short, Goodman Games is currently licensing an old property from a company with which it claimed to have cut ties in 2020 after the owner of that company made a number of bigoted comments on social media. Goodman Games has repeatedly said that this move would allow them to provide backers of an old unfulfilled Judges Guild Kickstarter with refunds, but there are many people questioning seeming contradictions in both the timelines involved and in the appropriateness of the whole endeavour.

Despite the backlash, the prospects of the crowdfunding project do not seem to have been harmed. The pre-launch page has over 3,000 followers, and many of the comments under the YouTube videos or on other social media are not only very supportive of the project, but also condemn those who question its appropriateness. In comparison, the original (failed) Judges Guild Kickstarter had only 965 backers.

The video is embedded below, followed by a transcript of the relevant section.



Hi everybody, I'm Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games. We recently announced our City State of the Invincible Overlord crowdfunding project for 5E and DCC RPG.

In the video you're about to see, some of our product development team is going to tell you about what makes the City State so amazing and why we're bringing it back to 5E and DCC audiences nearly 50 years after it was first released. It really is an amazing setting.

But we could have rolled this project out with a lot more clarity. Now, to be clear, Goodman Games absolutely opposes any sort of bigotry, racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, transphobia. We don't want to support it. We don't want to be associated with it.

Our well-intentioned effort to launch this project in a way that refunds backers of a former failed Kickstarter from another publisher kind of backfired in the way we announced it. Rest assured, the funds from this crowdfunding will actually fund refunds to backers of the original City State crowdfunding for the Pathfinder edition from 2014.

Unfortunately, our efforts have been—you know, I didn’t clarify them perfectly when we rolled it out—and they've been mischaracterized by some folks since then. But please rest assured, we stand for inclusivity and diversity.

You can read a lot more detail in the post that's linked below, and there's another video linked below where we talk about this in even more detail. But for now, we hope you will sit back and enjoy as some of the product development team tells you about really what makes the City State of the Invincible Overlord so amazing, and why you might want to check it out when it comes to crowdfunding soon.

Thanks, and I'll turn it over to them now.

The statement refers to a post about this that is supposed to be linked below, but at the time of writing no post is linked below the video, so it's not clear if that refers to a new post or one of Goodman Games' previous statements on the issue.

I reached out to Joseph Goodman last week to offer a non-confrontational (although direct and candid) interview in which he could answer some ongoing questions and talk on his reasoning behind the decision; I have not yet received a response to the offer--I did, however, indicate that I was just leaving for UK Games Expo, and wouldn't be back until this week.

*Normally I would have covered this in a more timely fashion, but I was away at UK Games Expo from Thursday through to Monday.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Maybe he'll release or license another version of the city to catch the people will missed out of the kick starter in the manner like those knock off block busters that have similar titles and covers to a big hit.
I mean he has over a decade to release the last version and didn't succeed in any way. This possibility seems unlikely to me. He's not on DTRPG which has a borderline monopoly on independent RPG sales. Whatever he could theoretically make is going to have to clear the hurdles of no major distribution and many people able to point to a long term failed KS.
If he somehow manages to make $100 vs $20 or $1000 vs $200 I'm just not going to lose sleep over than small a sum.

Im still going to be paying out Medicare and SS benefits to the guy in taxes so there's no escaping some amount of my money going to him.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

JG made a deal with Goodman that resulted in old debt being squared. That's probably not why JG made the deal, but it's an outcome all the same, and it's an outcome tied to JG. They certainly don't NOT benefit from it.
There was no debt. A failed KS does not place any debt’s on the creator.

It may generate goodwill for the backers who got shafted but it does not square any debts.

I wish there was a debt. At least I could go after Sarli for his e20 scam.

JG never owed anyone for the failed KS.
 






Make no mistake people, it is Bledsaw who's refunding the backers with his money. It is money owed him through a licensing deal Goodman has agreed upon. That Bledsaw has agreed to allow Goodman to handle these refunds through and escrow account does not change whose money it is.
Good point.
 

Make no mistake people, it is Bledsaw who's refunding the backers with his money. It is money owed him through a licensing deal Goodman has agreed upon. That Bledsaw has agreed to allow Goodman to handle these refunds through and escrow account does not change whose money it is.
Not sure I agree. If the name on the check is Goodman I'd say that's who refunded me the money. Goodman is willing to pay me off to release this product with less outrage. I don't trust that the money would have made it to me if not for Goodman.

Bledsaw could have just taken the royalties and said "We're still working on it!" and kept the money. That's unfortunately how KS works.
 

And now, having made bank, we move conveniently on, never mentioning anything again about this debacle that might cast light on our supporting a fascist **** in any of our official public messaging again. La-de-da, Goodman is a saint amongst the rpg community, and all that bs. pfft

Seeing as how they didn;t make up the amount needed to pay all previous off in full (allegedly) and the small print embedded in the FAQ said remaining allocation would be sold off through commercial channels, just how much extra will be produced... I note that little fn has never been addressed.
 

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Pets & Sidekicks

Remove ads

Top