My bold.
"Zeea said:
02-16-2017 03:20 PM
Zak harassed a transgender game designer via sockpuppet, using slurs about her appearance, until she quit the industry. He directed harassment campaigns against several other industry professionals, some of which became rather severe, and he may have very well been one of the harassers. I'm not saying he was, but it's absolutely possible because he has certainly harassed and defamed other people and then claimed it wasn't him. He regularly creates sockpuppets to praise himself and attack his enemies. And he hides all of these behaviors behind his, "aww, shucks, I'm just abrasive but I'm nice when you get to know me" routine.
If they'd hired some of the more controversial designers out there, I would have sighed. But Zak? He's actually hurt people. He's just got a high Charisma score that helps him get away with it. I don't know of any other person in this industry who has done the things Zak has done.
EDIT: I was very tempted to just avoid this conversation entirely because I really don't want the drama. But it's pretty messed up that he keeps getting away with this.
EDIT2: By "drama," I mean "potential death threats from people over the phone," by the way. Or sockpuppets with a distinctive telltale writing style coming after me online. Or someone with that writing style impersonating me. But I just want to go ahead and state here that if any of those things happen, they will be documented thoroughly.
EDIT3: These are all things that have happened to people I know, by the way. I guess he can say I'm lying, and well, you can believe who you want. But I've been part of the online gaming community since 1998 and put almost all of my life into it in some way, so I'm not exactly going to throw that away on wild false accusations. I am not making these things up. (EDIT: Er, 1996. I've been on rpg.net since 1998.)
Last edited by Zeea; 02-16-2017 at 03:32 PM."
"Zeea said:
02-16-2017 09:23 PM
Re: World of Darkness Preludes: Masquerade and Ascension
The other stuff he's done would be enough to get anyone else kicked out of the industry. For example, impersonating other industry professionals through sockpuppets. Maybe the industry professionals don't care, because most of the industry think Zak is one of those minor pests like that guy who keeps claiming to own Tunnels & Trolls and don't want to give him attention, but I think it'd be good for more of the non-industry folks to know about his actions.
As for that particular incident, whether he personally threatened the life of a child who answered a phone or just got one of his buddies to do it or just recklessly sent people out to harass someone and caused it, it's pretty damning. It wouldn't have happened if not for his deliberate actions. And it's not like that incident shocked him and caused him to stop acting like that. If anything, he just stepped it up."