Goodman Games: Our Efforts Have Been Mischaracterized

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.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Okay. Shrug.

"Keyboard warrior" is a dog whistle that itself is a bit sus, but . . .

For me, personally, as a fan of RPG games and OSR games specifically, I'm wary of publishers and creators I'm not familiar with because of the bad behavior of several prominent creators in the field (Webb, Peterson, Bledsaw). Yes, the entire OSR community is tainted (for me) by the bad behavior of a few. Sad, but that's how it goes for a lot of folks.

Doesn't mean I'm boycotting the entire genre, far from it. Just that an element of caution has been added to my purchase decisions.

I'm done with some specific companies (Necromancer, Goodman Games, Frog God Games), and wary of others in the space. Trusted creators I will go out of my way to patronize (Dionne/Arcane Library).

EDIT: Oh yeah, and the "Lamentations of the Flame Princess" guy . . . he's on my naughty list as well. There are others that are more foggy to memory . . . it isn't just the Goodman/Frog God/Necromancer trifecta . . .

Ok, I’m not across this one either. What did Raggi do?

 

[Mannahnin]

Ok, I’m not across this one either. What did Raggi do?

Raggi stood by and kept publishing someone really nasty in the community, whom a lot of folks had problems with for online bullying, verbal abuse and manipulation, after that person was credibly accused of physically abusing intimate partners. Raggi took it further in publishing a module trolling the community about it and, casting the abuser as a persecuted victim, and including a big essay in the back of the print version committing to defending the scumbag.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Ok, I’m not across this one either. What did Raggi do?

This is probably the major thing, but there've been other things he's done that have raised red flags, as well: LotFP's James Raggi says he'll ban anybody who talk about Zak S controversy

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Raggi stood by and kept publishing someone really nasty in the community, whom a lot of folks had problems with for online bullying, verbal abuse and manipulation, after that person was credibly accused of physically abusing intimate partners. Raggi took it further in publishing a module trolling the community about it and, casting the abuser as a persecuted victim, and including a big essay in the back of the print version committing to defending the scumbag.

Damn, that gets worse the more I read.

 

[Gradine]

We can throw ACKS into the firepit as well, while we're at it.

The problem with asking people not to generalize about the OSR audience is that the bad actors within that community insist on generalizing about the OSR audience themselves, specifically by thinking they are its representatives and the only true OSR culture. That's their argument.

They're dead wrong, thankfully, there's lots of really awesome people doing really awesome stuff in that space and there are plenty of fans/players who are not terrible people. But the less they do to distance themselves from that crowd, the more credence they give to their argument.

Basically, if you and/or your game has vociferous fans on The RPG Site, I can't trust it or you.