Courtney Campbell, has a very detailed and annotated blog post about Ken Whitman. In it is a list of Ken Whitman's escapades since 1996 in defrauding gamers by promising everything while delivering nothing. It makes for some interesting reading and made me wonder about how effective the gaming "community" is about policing our own and warning people away from crooks if Ken Whitman has been operating for almost 20 years so far.

The tabletop community sucks at protecting people from fraud--I can think of a half dozen folks who straight ripped off kickstarter backers or completely failed to deliver with no excuse (not a thin excuse: NO excuse) and still get listened to as if they're sane, responsible voices and could start another Kickstarter and get it funded tomorrow. And literally dozens more who openly and provably lied about shit in public places with the same nonresult.

I was talking to someone at the Guardian about this:

The problem is twofold:

-There's no professional tabletop gaming newsies, period. So there's nobody whose stock and reputation depends on getting the facts (plausibly close to) right who is trying to build up to getting a real mainstream press job.

-The responsibility then falls to the boards and forums and blogs, which treats all attempts to point out fraud or bad business practices as "Drama".

Once something is classified as Drama, the procedure is:

-Relentlessly reshare and talk about it
-Relentlessly attack everyone involved on any side (victim, perp, people reporting it, commenters) for being involved in it at all in any way
-Desperately avoid any attempt to figure out the facts and attack people for trying to do it

It is not just that the lemmings throw their money at fraudsters, it is that they gleefully encourage every one else to do so as well.

Quote from: Zak S;844762-There's no professional tabletop gaming newsies, period.

And at this point I'm betting there never will be.

Shucks, we haven't even really been able to generate any clear big shot youtube commentators. Video gaming has dozens of those.

Aside from Zak's excellent summation -- "blame the victim/messenger" being SOP in our society at large, not merely in gaming circles -- there's an observation we miss.

Gamers have a surprising tendency to operate by tunnel vision.  They feel that the figures they believe to be of monumental importance are viewed by every gamer that way.  They believe that how their own gaming circle operates is pretty much how all right minded gaming circles operate.  They conflate personal experiences with what all gamers must be experiencing.  And on their teensy little online forums, often with no more than a few dozen regulars, they figure that the topics of conversation and controversy must be on the lips of gamers everywhere.

The "community" just doesn't have the reach and sway members think it does.  There are no doubt hundreds of thousands of gamers who have no opinion -- if they had the slightest idea -- about Paizo's inclusion of gay NPCs in a couple of their products.  They don't know from GNS or the Forge or RPGnet, and wouldn't care if they did.  They play D&D without worrying about editions or Hasbro's business machinations, they play GURPS without grumbling about SJ Games' alleged abandonment of the line for Munchkin, they play RIFTS without knowing anything more of Kevin Siembieda's antics than a name on the cover of the book, and they play White Wolf games without caring whether or not furries might likewise be drawn to them.  

And they have no idea about Ken Whitman, and couldn't care less.  (Their response might also be that if Whitman is indeed a crook, dealing with him is less our business than that of the legitimate authorities.)

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;844766Shucks, we haven't even really been able to generate any clear big shot youtube commentators. Video gaming has dozens of those.

The grand total worldwide sales of every RPG ever produced, all lumped together, are a fraction of the worldwide gross for video games just last year.  Many times more people logged on to Call of Duty online games just last month than likely have ever heard of D&D.

Another problem is that some of the scammers present something OOP and instantly you have the "want-it-need-it" crowd who can and will back even blatant thieves if it means they will get their precious.

Others are just really good at spin-doctoring things to make themselves look the victim or somehow garner sympathy.

Another reason why there is no policing is that a-lot of people in the gaming biz have skeletons in the closet and dirty little secrets that they themselves don't want exposed. They aren't going to stand up for fear that eyes may turn on them next. Or that it may cause a cascade effect and people start finally scrutinizing whats going on behind closed doors. Or those little bootleggers and wanna-bes who don't want the golden goose killed.

But gradually attention is being drawn. See my post about the whole Doom that came to Atlantic City KS scam and how it attracted legal attention then ended up on the news.

Quote from: jeff37923;844741James Mathe, co-owner of DriveThru RPG and others, has a very detailed and annotated blog post about Ken Whitman. In it is a list of Ken Whitman's escapades since 1996 in defrauding gamers by promising everything while delivering nothing. It makes for some interesting reading and made me wonder about how effective the gaming "community" is about policing our own and warning people away from crooks if Ken Whitman has been operating for almost 20 years so far.

Interesting read. He should do GMS next.

Quote from: jeff37923;844741James Mathe, co-owner of DriveThru RPG and others, has a very detailed and annotated blog post about Ken Whitman. In it is a list of Ken Whitman's escapades since 1996 in defrauding gamers by promising everything while delivering nothing. It makes for some interesting reading and made me wonder about how effective the gaming "community" is about policing our own and warning people away from crooks if Ken Whitman has been operating for almost 20 years so far.

Isn't that Courtney Campbell's blog?

Caveat Emptor is key in crowd-sourcing. You gotta do your due diligence before dropping cash, and then, don't drop cash you can't live without.

I've only heard good things about Jolly Blackburn. It's too bad he got into business with a scumbag. Unfortunately, many scumbags have sales skills to shuck and jive decent people out of their money.

I feel this is once again relevant to post:

Quote from: CRKrueger;844781Isn't that Courtney Campbell's blog?

Yes, It's my blog. I'm pretty sure the original poster is referencing the reshare James posted on Facebook.

Thanks for noticing. :-)

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;844766And at this point I'm betting there never will be.

Shucks, we haven't even really been able to generate any clear big shot youtube commentators. Video gaming has dozens of those.

And most of those Video bloggers and commentators ALSO claim that they are NOT professional journalists, and that you should be wary of those who claim that they are.

Quote from: Ravenswing;844767And they have no idea about Ken Whitman, and couldn't care less.

I have no idea about Ken Whitman. I'll look at the link and see if I can care less.

Reporting, law enforcement interest, and societies interest in general will first follow the money and second look at the number of people effected.

There just isn't enough money in RPGs at all, much less in the failed kickstarters, nor enough people who lost money in failed kickstarters to get other people very interested. There are hundreds of other scams that effect more people and involve more money than the tiny fraction of kickstarter scams that comprise the tiny segment of new games in our tiny, tiny hobby. Even as someone with over four decades in the hobby and who has participated in kickstarters, I don't think investigating RPG kickstarter scams is a good use of my tax dollars.

Quote from: Bren;844969I have no idea about Ken Whitman. I'll look at the link and see if I can care less.

Reporting, law enforcement interest, and societies interest in general will first follow the money and second look at the number of people effected.

There just isn't enough money in RPGs at all, much less in the failed kickstarters, nor enough people who lost money in failed kickstarters to get other people very interested. There are hundreds of other scams that effect more people and involve more money than the tiny fraction of kickstarter scams that comprise the tiny segment of new games in our tiny, tiny hobby. Even as someone with over four decades in the hobby and who has participated in kickstarters, I don't think investigating RPG kickstarter scams is a good use of my tax dollars.

He took over 170,000$.