Phil Reed, who stepped down as of Steve Jackson Games earlier this year, is gone from SJG as of now.  Also, Hunter Shelbourne, miniatures painter and frequent contributor to their web site, is also gone.  No word yet if they left or were fired.

My guess is that they were let go, since they were prominent there, and also left at the same time.  This is only speculation.  I have no facts at this time.  If they were fired, was it to save money because, "Go woke, go broke"?  Or were they too intellectually diverse for the company?  If the reason comes out, I expect the parties to remain cordial about it so we won't know for sure.

The replacement CEO is Meredith Placko, pop culture fanatic and self-proclaimed "journalist" (she was paid by NBC so still looking for evidence), whose qualifications for the job include being so much of a far-left SJW extremist that she was a regular contributor to The Young Turks.

Do you have anything to corroborate any of this or is this simply wild speculation on your part?    (Wild speculation is ok, I am just interested in exploring the subject further if there is there is something to go on.) 

She's been playing GURPS for years, and helps run a miniature paint company called TurboDork. She was on "What the Flick!" a movie review show on the TYT network.  The paint company moved to Austin, Texas so she was already in SJG's home city.

Don't forget, Dave Rubin and Jimmy Dore were big TYTers too (back before they had movie review shows) and now they're the people Cenk and Ana hate more than anybody.

Quote from: BadApple on October 22, 2023, 08:51:14 AM
Do you have anything to corroborate any of this or is this simply wild speculation on your part?    (Wild speculation is ok, I am just interested in exploring the subject further if there is there is something to go on.)

I would not intentionally pass off speculation as fact.  The internet has too much of that!  This is the reason I identified the parts of my post where I was speculating.

Someone sent me a Discord screen shot of the verification from Jimmie, a SJG employee, and webmaster of SJG's official Discord server.  This is the quote:

Quote"We're obviously not able to talk about internal personnel matters with the general public.  I can confirm that neither Hunter nor Philip are still with the company."

Unless this was faked, which I highly doubt, this is an official statement from a senior SJG employee.

If they were fired, more than likely faked sexual harassments by a click of women SJG hired and they wanted to get promoted, just going off the comics industry.  Or it could be worse one or both of them fucked a chick at work and she got very upset when they broke up and made charges.  Hell as fucked up a company becomes when you go woke, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking like normal human beings or they donated to Ronald Reagan's election and that was enough to get them fired.

Goodbye SJG!!

I wonder how long until Steve gets "cancelled" by his own staff choices.

I feel sorry for the people that have been fans of GURPS for decades. It seems like Steve went crazy during the covid lockdowns and we're just watching it all die in slow motion.

Quote from: Dracones on October 23, 2023, 05:24:59 PM
I feel sorry for the people that have been fans of GURPS for decades. It seems like Steve went crazy during the covid lockdowns and we're just watching it all die in slow motion.

Pretty sure that GURPS fans have their books and don't need anything from SJG at this point.

Meredith Placko has been CEO since April. My limited understanding is that Phil Reed stepped down from the pressures of being CEO but, at least at that time, remained with the company as Art Director, leading their crowdfunding effort etc. I'm not sure whether this was part of a transitional agreement or not and, to be honest, it's not my place to speculate.

Here's what SJGames had to say about it in April:

Quote from: Daily IlluminatorAfter almost a decade at the helm, steering us through choppy waters and growing the company dramatically, Phil Reed is taking a well-deserved rest from the CEO position. He will continue to lead our crowdfunding effort, act as Art Director, and serve as a member of our Senior Staff and Board of Directors. But he will be doing this on fewer hours a week, devoting more energy to his health and personal work while still being available to his successor to answer questions.

You can read more about it at here.

Quote from: TheShadow on October 23, 2023, 05:35:03 PM

Quote from: Dracones on October 23, 2023, 05:24:59 PM
I feel sorry for the people that have been fans of GURPS for decades. It seems like Steve went crazy during the covid lockdowns and we're just watching it all die in slow motion.

Pretty sure that GURPS fans have their books and don't need anything from SJG at this point.

I don't know. They're still producing materials for GURPS even if it is not their main cash cow. I still buy GURPS materials when they inspire because they're generally of high quality and allow me to, for the most part, use one system to play in a whole bunch of different settings.

*shrugs*

Kind of what it says on the tin.

I'm sure that there are reasons that SJGames receives so much ire in this thread, but quite why the system gets so often singled out while other generic systems do not (Savage Worlds, FATE-distros etc.) remains a surprise to me. Then again, I don't pay attention to the companies policies so maybe that's just rose-coloured glasses.

I get what you're saying, though. There are plenty of GURPS books out there that already allow you to do so much. Fans would keep on working with it even if it were to die the corporate death. Just as they have done with systems like, for example, Unisystem.

Phil certainly hasn't left gaming. He's been cranking out small, system neutral supplements for quite a while. I've backed several of his Kickstarters and snagged a few others on DTRPG. They're quality work.

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/philipreed/created
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/16363/Philip-Reed-Games

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on October 23, 2023, 03:41:19 PM
If they were fired, more than likely faked sexual harassments by a click of women SJG hired and they wanted to get promoted, just going off the comics industry.  Or it could be worse one or both of them fucked a chick at work and she got very upset when they broke up and made charges.  Hell as fucked up a company becomes when you go woke, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking like normal human beings or they donated to Ronald Reagan's election and that was enough to get them fired.

now THIS is rumor!

Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 23, 2023, 11:53:18 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on October 23, 2023, 03:41:19 PM
If they were fired, more than likely faked sexual harassments by a click of women SJG hired and they wanted to get promoted, just going off the comics industry.  Or it could be worse one or both of them fucked a chick at work and she got very upset when they broke up and made charges.  Hell as fucked up a company becomes when you go woke, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking like normal human beings or they donated to Ronald Reagan's election and that was enough to get them fired.

now THIS is rumor!

Hence the "IF" or "COULD BE" or "WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED" all of those are statements of conjecture, not fact.  I'm basing this looking at the comic books industry and how the leftards removed men from their jobs.  Hell we've got an apology on this page for Zak Smith due to spurious allegations by women.

Women with little talent remove men on allegation, we've seen it a lot.  Its more time that than the man himself.  Lets look at the odoious Jason Roilands and Rick and Morty (you really have to watch this season to see what those women writers have done to the show).

Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 23, 2023, 11:53:18 PM
now THIS is rumor!

One might use the term "baseless", right?

Isn't SJGames just using the right of a corporation to be treated like an individual?

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on October 24, 2023, 12:04:42 AM

Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 23, 2023, 11:53:18 PM

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on October 23, 2023, 03:41:19 PM
If they were fired, more than likely faked sexual harassments by a click of women SJG hired and they wanted to get promoted, just going off the comics industry.  Or it could be worse one or both of them fucked a chick at work and she got very upset when they broke up and made charges.  Hell as fucked up a company becomes when you go woke, I wouldn't be surprised if they were talking like normal human beings or they donated to Ronald Reagan's election and that was enough to get them fired.

now THIS is rumor!

Hence the "IF" or "COULD BE" or "WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED" all of those are statements of conjecture, not fact.  I'm basing this looking at the comic books industry and how the leftards removed men from their jobs.  Hell we've got an apology on this page for Zak Smith due to spurious allegations by women.

I understand.  And if one of these cases turned out to be the situation, would I be surprised?  No.  Ironically, SJG was one of the few defenders of Frog God games after their SJW allegations of misogynany.

The worst thing a CEO can do is hire a bunch of woketards.  They almost always turn on the CEO, demand control of the company and expect to remove them from the company.  Five Nights at Freddiys being a perfect example.  He didn't gatekeep who he hired, he treated them as conservatives always treat people "judge the work not the person" and the leftards treated him how they always treat people "judge the politics not the work of the person" and they fired him.  He should have stayed, fired each and everyone one of the sniveling little bastards.  By him leaving, he made the world a little bit more toxic to conservatives and he missed an opportunity to spin the company into a conservative game space that hires conservatives.  He effed up.  Now he's gonna have a woke run company and he'll get money but the company will slowly die and put out art that disparages himself and his friends, watch.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2021/06/18/five-nights-at-freddys-controversy-scott-cawthon-republican-donald-trump-lgbtq-backlash/?sh=17f5d1876f8a