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Saturday, March 27, 2021

News - Luke Crane Resigns from His VP Position at Kickstarter Due to "Perfect RPG" Fiasco

Go figure.

Apparently, Luke Crane was not able to weather the storm that resulted from the Perfect RPG Kickstarter fiasco. I'm not going to say Luke abused his position at Kickstarter to further his own projects, but it's apparent that he felt that the rules that applied to everyone else did not apply to him.

Luke snuck Adam Koebel into the Perfect RPG Kickstarter. Adam is "Best known as the co-designer of the popular Dungeon World game system, Koebel in 2020 broadcast a TTRPG scenario involving in-fiction sexual assault live on Twitch. His handling of that scene was widely criticized by viewers and fans, and ultimately resulted in the dissolution of the actual-play series in which it occurred."

Kickstarters official announcement:

After a discussion about what is best for Kickstarter and our team, we came to the mutual decision with Luke Crane for him to leave Kickstarter. We recognize the many years of work Luke has done to help bring creative projects to life at Kickstarter and we are committed to ensure continued support for our team and for our backer and creator community through this moment of change.

Luke Crane was the main man behind The Burning Wheel RPG.

Read the full article at Polygon 

Luke's statement was shared as an update on the Kickstarter project:

Hello.

I apologize for such a long silence in the wake of the project launch last month. I’ve been in a lot of conservations, and doing a lot of listening. I waited to post anything because I wanted to be sure to be as thoughtful and considered as possible:

When we began the Perfect RPG project, my only goal was to launch a small collection of micro-games designed by my friends and others whose work I respect in the community. On the day it launched, while the project was falling apart, I did not fully understand what was at stake and what had happened—in the shock of the moment my communications were insensitive and desultory.

So here and now I wish to unequivocally apologize to you, and everyone affected, for the harm I’ve done to the community with this project. I am grateful for your input over the last month, and have done my best to listen with an open heart. I thank you for sharing your opinions and feelings, and know that I have violated the trust you placed in me. I am sincerely, deeply regretful.

In creating the project, I made a series of missteps and miscalculations that added up to a gross oversight on my part and, accordingly, I am fully responsible for the current situation and its effects. So I would like to add some clarification around some of the particular points raised, in the hope that it will help the community as a whole move forward in a productive way: There was no deceit, deception or bad faith in any of my actions around the project. I understand that I should have disclosed the participant list to all contributors beforehand, and I feel terrible that my poor planning placed some creators in a difficult position. Likewise with the unusual order in which contributors were listed—I was seeking to highlight the first creator on the list, who was my primary playtester for this project. In hindsight this was a poor idea that came off as duplicitous, for which I apologize.

The Indie RPG community is close-knit and passionate—it is one of the things I've loved the most about being a member. I have worked for 20 years to build and advocate for this community and expand it past its roots. It is very much my life’s work. To see it hurt through my actions has been devastating. Therefore I am now doing my best to repair the harm I have caused and make restitution to anyone negatively affected by my actions.

I recognize that this statement reflects an as-yet incomplete understanding of the impact of my actions, and only a start to making things right. I am actively looking for other ways to redress the wrong I’ve done. To begin this process, I have reached out to all the contributors of the project and I am in discussions with them, listening to their perspectives and asking them for input. I hope that with their help, and the help of this gaming community, I can demonstrate my continued commitment to building better games for all of us.

Sincerely,

—Luke




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15 comments:

  1. "doing a lot of listening" is what pathetic white people say before they let the SJW mob take away everything they have.

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  2. Wow, he takes himself seriously. He should shut up and sit down.

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  3. Let's see...abusing his position at Kickstarter...nope...nope...nope, no apology for that. The rest it? Pretty, pretty words and platitudes. Whatever.

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  4. This will still not be good enough for social media and the SJW gestapo to punish him for the rest of his life.


    All i read was sheer hubris and no action.

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  5. What a nasty little cesspool this whole situation is. Kind of glad I never cared for Burning Wheel or Dungeon World. Who's next to show off their feet of clay?

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  6. Whew lads/lasses. Another douche down and we get days off Zak S celebrating is his Uber snarky manner. Win win

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  7. Struggle sessions will continue until equity improves.

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  8. Wow as usual I can see by the comments on this blog the gaming community is full of right wingers. Which I don’t understand.

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    Replies
    1. "Right Wingers" = "People who don't like things that I like"

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    2. it sounds like you don't explore opinions outside of your echo chamber and label 9 posts "the gaming community" that is full of right leaning people. Way to blanket label millions of people, now go back to twitter.

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    3. I don’t see “right wing” comments. I see folks calling Luke’s apology as bullshit. Not giving any value to his apology is not right wing.

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    4. I see comments saying he is going to be overly punished by the "SJWs" just as much as comments saying his apology was bull. That is what this comment is talking about

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  9. Who? What? I should have scrubbed this pool yesterday.

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  10. It seems impossible that Kickstarter doesn't have a policy against employees running their own Kickstarter campaigns.

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    Replies
    1. Not sure of the validity, but I have heard that they are encouraged to run campaigns.

      Delete

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