What to do about Judges Guild?
I resisted making a post about Judges Guild for several days because I’d hoped against hope that Bob Bledsaw II would wise up and make an apology for his anti-semetic and racist comments on Facebook. As of today it has become apparent that he will not apologize, and in fact that he is willing to defend his indefensible beliefs and comments. For those who may not know what this is all about, following is some background mostly in the form of screenshots of Bob’s own words. He has not attempted to deny them.
How it all started was with these comments and perhaps others from Bob Bledsaw II’s Facebook account.
RPG social media exploded as these posts began to circulate, and Bob perhaps beginning to sense the wrongness of his own actions locked down his profile. However, rumor began circulating that he’d been accepted into a secret Facebook group for gamers with a similar outlook on these issues. That seemed to be a bad sign, but I wanted to wait and see what Bob did. Then came the official industry condemnations of Bob’s words and pledges to cease working with Judges Guild.
The Goodman Games statement was criticized as being a little vague, so they followed up with this statement.
I actually thought that Bob might have learned a lesson when the Goodman Games statement said he was willing to donate to GLAAD and the ADL. I was wrong. Earlier today Bob posted the following, unbelievable statement to the Judges Guild Facebook page. It has since been taken down.
At this point I think it is fair to say that Bob Bledsaw II just doesn’t get it, and will never change his awful views. I feel compelled to write this post because I think the gaming public has a right to know what kind of people they are supporting if they continue to purchase products licensed from Judges Guild. That is a personal decision, but I know I will never support a Judges Guild product ever again. That is my decision. There are plenty of other great companies producing great products for gaming and the OSR specifically. They are much more deserving of our support and if you want to know who some of them are, check out the two companies mentioned in this post (Frog God Games and Goodman Games), and those with banner ads at the bottom of this blog’s page. Check them out!
I’d welcome civil discussion of this topic below. What do you think? Does Bob deserve everything that has happened? And if you think he does not, then how should we treat someone with such objectively vile opinions?
This is probably tangential to the discussion you wish to have, but is there any real evidence for a Facebook group for gamers with anti-semitic/racist beliefs? Or is that just a rumor started by those people wanting to paint all OSR dudes as racist? I am not a social media person, nor a fan of Facebook, so I am not plugged in to the rumormills. I would have kinda laughed off that such a group existed, but seeing some of the defenses posted on Bob Jr.’s post before it was deleted, I give it more validity.
In response to your question: yeah, he deserves the condemnation he has gotten.
Yeah, that’s just a rumor I’ve heard, but I do know someone who had infiltrated just such a group and taken screenshots of the activity there. As much as I wish it was not true, I’m afraid it is probably true.
As I said on the Facebook group for this blog, I’m not sure there is an answer to this question, I’m just doing the logic exercise because if someone so vehemently protests our response that must mean they believe a middle ground exists. Or they could just be partisan trolls with no point whatsoever, I guess.
And the hits just keep coming with this moron.
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