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Author Topic: Zak S. sues GenCon!  (Read 10603 times)

GameDaddy
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Zak S. sues GenCon!
« on: March 01, 2021, 11:25:49 PM »
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

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Omega

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2021, 12:28:22 AM »
huh? So some of the heads of GenCon singled out Zak in their comment on whos banned? Seems they want to expand on that not so little incident of removing him from mention in the core 5e books as a consultant (and then the other consultants, just to be sure I guess.)

Does seem a bit off kilter to single him out for mention as if every GenCon attende was worried or at risk. WTF?

Mjollnir
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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2021, 02:59:20 AM »
Good, I hope they suffer financially to the greatest extent possible. If institutions or "platforms" are forced to think twice before taking harmful actions against "cancelees" in the pursuit of social signaling, everyone will be better off.

robh

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2021, 05:47:20 AM »
Good, I hope they suffer financially to the greatest extent possible. If institutions or "platforms" are forced to think twice before taking harmful actions against "cancelees" in the pursuit of social signaling, everyone will be better off.

This. Absolutely.

HappyDaze

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2021, 05:49:43 AM »
The suit claims:
13. For consultants, developers, and producers of RPG games to succeed in that industry, they must attend Gen Con.

Is this an absolute truth? It seems to be a pillar that the case is built upon, and if shown to be false, the case could likely suffer a little. Not that this changes most the arguments of defamation.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2021, 05:52:22 AM by HappyDaze »

Ghostmaker

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2021, 08:16:48 AM »
I disagree with Zak's assertion that 'to succeed, a developer must attend GenCon'. Maybe that was true 20-30 years ago, but I'm not so sure today. If someone has some hard numbers on this I'd like to see them.

That being said, I am deeply amused at that quote from Adkison:
Quote
There was due process, that’s why it took us so long to come around. There were many people abused by Zak, the evidence was overwhelming. I don’t need a court process to uninvite a abuser to my party.
He manages to contradict the hell out of himself, claiming 'due process' but that he doesn't need the courts?

Paragraphs 28-35 are the meat of Zak's argument. He's stating he has lost revenue and suffered financial damage from Adkison's ban.

I don't expect Zak to comment on this (and in fact I would prefer he did not, as I have stated that when the lawyers come out it's time to shut the fuck up), at least not until the case is finished one way or the other.

Omega

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2021, 02:33:53 PM »
The suit claims:
13. For consultants, developers, and producers of RPG games to succeed in that industry, they must attend Gen Con.

Is this an absolute truth? It seems to be a pillar that the case is built upon, and if shown to be false, the case could likely suffer a little. Not that this changes most the arguments of defamation.

As a former small publisher and working with others I can say that GenCon was up till I was no longer able to attend, and according to others, up till fairly recently at least... still one of the bit cons to go to to tout your game or yourself. That and Origins till that con started acting weird. Cons in general are a great place to do alot of things you cant normally, or at least easily, as a publisher, designer, etc. And one big one, up till the plague, being meeting people face to face and pitching whatever.

I would though say Zak is putting too much emphasis on being able to attend GenCon as vital. Especially with the current plague situation putting a damper on cons, or ending them totally in many areas.

I'd more say GenCon is the biggest and most important of the gaming cons and being banned from it denies access to those resources.

If WOTC also tried to leverage banning him from say Origins then he'd really have some ammo against them. And he should be keeping an eye on other cons to see if they have been trying to do exactly that.

Lynn

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2021, 02:42:57 PM »
I have no comment on this, ...however leave this link for your review...

Good for Zak! This sort of thing is good for everyone else that gets targeted online and experiences real world repercussions.
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Shasarak

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2021, 02:58:52 PM »
Gencon probably should have just stuck to their original system of anonymous banning instead of going for Virtue Signal brownie points.
Who da Drow?  U da drow! - hedgehobbit

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look at the good things you've got! -  Jesus

Brad

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2021, 03:15:11 PM »
How is a known wife beater suing Gencon for not allowing him to attend because he poses a threat to attendees? #believeallwomen
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Valatar

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2021, 03:45:35 PM »
A con has every right to ban people for whatever reason, real or imagined, but yes, going and trumpeting about it on the Internet is extremely unwise.  It would be different if he was being banned for something that happened at the con, with video and a bunch of witnesses, because then he wouldn't have ammo to claim that the con management was libeling him with false accusations.  They should have kept their mouths shut.

RandyB

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2021, 04:09:50 PM »
A con has every right to ban people for whatever reason, real or imagined, but yes, going and trumpeting about it on the Internet is extremely unwise.  It would be different if he was being banned for something that happened at the con, with video and a bunch of witnesses, because then he wouldn't have ammo to claim that the con management was libeling him with false accusations.  They should have kept their mouths shut.

If they kept their mouth shut, they wouldn't get the virtue signaling points for banning a badperson. Now you know their intent.

Aglondir

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2021, 04:19:58 PM »
Best of luck, Zak!

jeff37923

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2021, 04:41:45 PM »
I have no comment on this, ...however leave this link for your review...

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20475730/smith-v-gen-con-king-county-superior-court-21-2-01684-3.pdf

This warms my heart to see. Hope GenCon dies a nasty death.
"Meh."

Shasarak

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Re: Zak S. sues GenCon!
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2021, 04:42:12 PM »
How is a known wife beater suing Gencon for not allowing him to attend because he poses a threat to attendees? #believeallwomen


What about real threats like Drump?

Please tell me at least he has been banned.
Who da Drow?  U da drow! - hedgehobbit

There will be poor always,
pathetically struggling,
look at the good things you've got! -  Jesus