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Author Topic: Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]  (Read 34196 times)

Sacrificial Lamb

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« on: October 09, 2019, 01:59:33 AM »
Hi, guys. I haven't posted on gaming websites in years, but I recently saw this post from Frank Trollman that looked so absolutely ridiculous....that I couldn't quite bring myself to ignore it. Maybe I'm making a mistake in posting this here at all, but here it is anyway:

https://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=57411&sid=38d1fc599e0852b3520c1a80eafb6301

Quote from: FrankTrollman
PostPosted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:13 pm Post subject:

ACKS is different from MYFAROG in the sense that it has some good ideas in it. It is not different in the sense that supporting it financially in any way, even indirectly is ethically inexcusable.

Alexander Macris was the actual owner of the company created for Milo to tour the country radicalizing potential racist terrorists. Since then, 8Chan has been shut down for its close links to multiple terrorist attacks killing dozens of people. In any sane world, Alexander Macris would be writing these things from jail.

There was a time that I thought all the weirdness about racial character classes was just a bloody minded adherence to old school tropes for its own sake. Turns out that he's a racist shitheel who financed a terrorist network and is personally responsible for the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of people.

But it's also true that a bad man can paint a good picture or whatever, and ACKS has infinitely more good ideas to steal than MYFAROG or RAHOWA do. What is it about racist terrorists that inspires them to make acronymized names for their games? Should I be checking Steve Jackson's house for Confederate memorabilia?

-Frank



Quote from: FrankTrollman
PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:26 pm Post subject:

Dungeons & Dragons has a number of tropes in it that are difficult to justify morally. Often we handwave that off with ideas that it's just a game, or that there probably is some overriding justification for whatever violence is used but that neither the justness of the Halfling cause nor the injustice of the orc position are particularly relevant to the story about dashing knights and cunning wizards fighting battles. Saturday morning cartoon morality may suffice because we're potentially telling stories in the genre and inspired by actual Saturday morning cartoons.

However, we can't really extend that kind of good faith to ACKS, because it turns out to be written by a guy who is almost exactly Osama Bin Laden. I do not make that comparison lightly or in jest. He literally and specifically financed and supported a quite significant network of people for whom radicalizing potential terrorists was a full time job.

So the stuff where in ACKS you're supposed to go to the homes of people who look different than you, murder them, and take their gold can't really be blithely accepted as being merely hockey the way the original Gygaxianisms could. Gygax was your racist but good meaning uncle, Alexander Macris is only you're uncle if you're a Saudi prince with a family fortune of blood money to protect.

Similarly you have various tropes and events in classic fantasy literature which are potentially offensive or things that give wood to white supremacists simply because of when they were made. Tolkien was explicitly against white supremacy as an ideology, but you can definitely see why actual white supremacists think his stuff about inherently noble and powerful Numenorians is him speaking their language. Tolkien writing then was him writing in as anti-racist a manner as he was able to given his time and place and background. We extend understanding and allowance for Tolkien that we would not do for someone writing the same things today. And indeed, when Alexander Macris writes Numernor expies, we don't give him the benefit of the doubt. We don't have doubt for him to benefit from. It's racist eliminationalist rhetoric that is disgusting when Alexander Macris writes this shit in 2017.

-Frank



I had to reread this a couple times, because I initially couldn't believe my eyes. It looks like Trollman actually accuses Alexander Macris of being a "racist terrorist", a "white supremacist" (whatever that means), and mass murderer. I always knew that Trollman was obnoxious and arrogant, but has he completely lost his mind? Is Trollman sperging out because Macris worked as CEO last year at some company run by Milo Yiannopoulos? How does this make Macris a "racist terrorist" and mass murderer who is "personally responsible for the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of people?"

I don't understand.

The reason why I would (partially) classify this as a gaming thread, is because it looks like Trollman is very intentionally engaging in defamation of character (or libel) against Macris....in order to cause financial harm against both he and his gaming company, Autarch (which produces ACKS).

What kills me is that absolutely nobody in the Gaming Den challenged Trollman on the falsehood of his statements, even though he was quite obviously being deliberately deceptive and manipulative in one of the most vicious and unethical ways I've ever seen.

Pundit, I don't know if I should have ignored this drama or not...but if this is an inappropriate thread, then feel free to just nuke it. However, Trollman's statements went so beyond the pale, that I had trouble processing it....and decided to share it.

Omega

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2019, 02:38:29 AM »
This seems relatively gaming related as this nut goes on to attack D&D with the usual dead horse screed and then goes after ACKs and its designer. Is this out of the blue or has this guy been a known knut for a while? Never heard of him till now though the name seems oddly familliar.

DeadUematsu

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2019, 02:57:07 AM »
Frank Trollman went nuts ages ago.
 

Sacrificial Lamb

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2019, 04:00:51 AM »
I think Trollman worked as a freelancer on Shadowrun. It's hard to remember. He does have a reputation for unbelievable arrogance, but these posts are on another level entirely......even for him.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2019, 05:50:05 AM by Sacrificial Lamb »

Spinachcat

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2019, 04:15:39 AM »
Hopefully Macris will go after Trollman, but there's the question of jurisdictions and getting lawyers outside your own territory. Of course, Macris might not want to give Trollman and his cuck brigade any free publicity.  

But either way, Trollman's rant was insane.

Orphan81

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2019, 05:07:19 AM »
Trollman was banned by the Big Purple, back in the beginnings of the SJW era for them.... That should tell you something about how unhinged and crazy he is, given not even TBP wanted to deal with him. He's also the guy who couldn't even be bothered to read how the rules in Godbound work and dismissed it as a bad game out of hand when he assumed damage and HP worked like they did in most OSR games.

Basically, I don't trust anything Trollman says or does. He has unearned arrogance, and is a total asshole.
1. Some of you culture warriors are so committed to the bit you'll throw out any nuance or common sense in fear it's 'giving in' to the other side.

2. I'm a married homeowner with a career and a child. I won life. You can't insult me.

3. I work in a Prison, your tough guy act is boring.

TJS

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #6 on: October 09, 2019, 05:18:06 AM »
It would be fun to put Frank Trollman and the RPGPundit in a room together.

crkrueger

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2019, 08:08:08 AM »
Trollman was a guy you could count on to show all the ways Shadowrun 4th was broken...about a decade ago.  Even then he was weird when he talked about anything other then game mechanics.  I see years of echo-chamber groupthink and hero-worship by the crowd at TGD have done wonders for his sanity.
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Anglachel

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #8 on: October 09, 2019, 08:51:28 AM »
Oh wow, somebody forgot to take his pills!

I bet he would fit nicely in all the twitter groups that try to push narratives like this...mentally ill people who think they're fighting "the good" fight while being at least as big asshats as the people they accuse of wrong-doing :rolleyes:

Mistwell

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #9 on: October 09, 2019, 11:06:45 AM »
Quote from: Sacrificial Lamb;1108464
Hi, guys. I haven't posted on gaming websites in years, but I recently saw this post from Frank Trollman that looked so absolutely ridiculous....that I couldn't quite bring myself to ignore it.

Nice to see you Sacrificial Lamb. Been a while! Surprised to not see you at EnWorld anymore these days.

nope

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2019, 11:17:51 AM »
Lol, what the hell? "Turns out that he's a racist shitheel who financed a terrorist network and is personally responsible for the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of people"? I'd also question the premise of Milo "radicalizing potential racist terrorists," but whatever. What a nutcase.

"Should I be checking Steve Jackson's house for Confederate memorabilia?" Oh no, he hasn't heard the news? Steve Jackson already came out as an alt-right, women-hating sexual abuse promoter and rape apologist!
« Last Edit: October 09, 2019, 11:48:22 AM by Antiquation! »

Mistwell

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #11 on: October 09, 2019, 11:19:37 AM »
As to the question about Frank Trollman, yeah his brain broke at least 5 years ago. He started a thread there that 5e D&D was "vapourware" and when it actually did come out, any sane person would have ended it there. Not Trollman....he continues to claim 5e is essentially just vapourware. That the publication rate and number of employees is evidence WOTC is just putting out a trickle of stuff to maintain the IP Rights (as if that were a thing). And when you point out that it's been on the bestseller list for literally 5 years straight, he just won't acknowledge the reality of what that means. So yeah, I really do think he's left reality to some degree. And he has a weird posse of sycophants who nod at whatever he says. It's almost cult-like.

wmarshal

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #12 on: October 09, 2019, 01:28:09 PM »
I would drop the "almost" and go ahead and call it a cult. It's just that these are secular cults we're sometimes dealing with when by tradition we're used to recognizing religious cults.

Mistwell

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #13 on: October 09, 2019, 01:36:54 PM »
Quote from: wmarshal;1108539
I would drop the "almost" and go ahead and call it a cult. It's just that these are secular cults we're sometimes dealing with when by tradition we're used to recognizing religious cults.

As far as I know, nobody has sold all their worldly possessions, given everything they have to him, and gone to live in a compound with him. When people start getting branded on their butts with his initials we can firmly declare it a cult :)

Brad

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Frank Trollman libels Alexander Macris [of Autarch, and ACKS]
« Reply #14 on: October 09, 2019, 01:45:47 PM »
Quote from: Mistwell;1108544
As far as I know, nobody has sold all their worldly possessions, given everything they have to him, and gone to live in a compound with him. When people start getting branded on their butts with his initials we can firmly declare it a cult :)

Dude, millennials are too lazy to do all that...all you need to join a cult in the modern age is to follow someone on Instagram and give their Patreon $5/month.
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.