The Ravens Nest

aka So-Called Gaming “Journalism.”

Seems that GeekNative decided to post an article clearly biased toward Leyline Press’ recent actions and I couldn’t be more surprised if you rammed fifty feet of rubber tubing up my nose without warning.

The TL;DR of the entire article (which isn’t long and worth your few minutes of reading time) is that Leyline Press expelled the editor (who, as of the time of this writing, remains anonymous) and removed their name from the work and that the apology would be welcome and well-received. They also claim, in error, that there are people who never heard of Lamentations of The Flame Princess but would now obstinately purchase it to spite Leyline Press.

There are some points that they missed. First, in the Twitter comments to Leyline Press’ thinly-veiled virtue signalling, the people claiming to never have heard of any of the companies in question, claimed that they had never heard of Leyline Press and had to look them up, myself included as stated in a previous post in which I detail that I had to go look what they produced. The only line of work that interested me was the supplements for the game Mothership. Even in my own interaction, I’d pointed out that I had not heard of them but I had heard of LotFP and that Leyline Press never had to worry about me being one of their own customers.

I even pressed Leyline, because of their press-release-style claim that Lamentations was “bigoted” and “harmful” to cite specifics. I own the Rules & Magic Core Rulebook myself and was curious, perhaps they knew something I didn’t. I did warn them that I did own both PDF and Physical books and they should cite specifics I could check out myself.

Not only have I not received an answer but Leyline Press locked down further comments after being dragged for the posturing they put on public display. There were maybe five or six people that came to their defense and others were levelling the same buzzwords aimlessly into the Twittersphere, again, without any evidence.

Some of the issues that have been glossed over by the article are as follows:

• The editor is a freelancer. Freelancers take work from any and all companies that are paying, without concern for the politics of companies. For a company with a proclaimed “Pro-Worker” stance, they sure are acting “Anti-Worker.”

• Their Twitter stunt was unprofessional, unconscionable and stupid. Why wasn’t this kept in-house? Why wasn’t the editor offered a permanent position with a “no compete” deal?

• Was the editor paid for his work? Seems like a very important point that was missed.

• Leyline Press should understand that they are not Wizards of The Coast, Paizo or Catalyst Games and they could ill-afford to make the same repeated mistakes that these companies have. Read the room, Leyline. Look at how many people have never heard of you.

• Raggi announced that he’s sold over 17,000 copies of his books on Drive-ThruRPG and counting due to the actions of Leyline Press. He slashed his prices down to below $2 per PDF through Tuesday and announced that, on Monday, a hardcover sale on print books sold through the LotFP website would be forthcoming.

• Raggi asked many people to stop trash mobbing Leyline Press, citing that “If it’s bad for them to do, it’s bad for us to do as well.”

• Raggi also thanked Leyline Press for the flood of new customers.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is that GeekNative failed to report these facts. Facts for which there are receipts such as these…

You can even go visit these tweets yourself and see more. There was also The Basic Expert’s Video on the issue which I shouted out during my own video but his was one of the first to cover the topic as soon as it emerged and I highly recommend it.

If nothing else, Leyline’s actions prove the very point I’ve been making all along. Don’t mention that which you’ve made taboo, and if you’re going to mention them and that they’re taboo, you need to have very specific reasons as to why they’re taboo. The “This Thing Bad” concept no longer works. It’s pale shades of The Satanic Panic all over again. We’ve seen it before and, back then, you have had some of us on the back foot while dismissing our concerns but those days are over and done. The othering is no longer tolerated nor acceptable.

To the anonymous editor, we here at The Raven’s Nest wish you nothing but the absolute best in all your future and current endeavors.

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