I first came across Zak Sabbath on I Hit It With My Axe which is still so much better than CriticalRole that the latter doesn’t even score.
I next heard about Zak while researching him and discovering his blog in which his intelligence and passion for D&D is evident as is his dedication to the role of mediator calling for common sense and an end to dumbfuckery within the online D&D community.
I next heard about Zak when I discovered he is also known as Zak Smith whose art, and he is genuinely incredibly talented at painting as well as his writing and social observational skills, has sold to Saatchi. I studied the Fine Arts at honours degree, have been all over Europe studying art history, philosophy, theory and practise, art and architecture. I feel qualified to say Zak’s paintings are really fucking good. See it for yourself.
Long story short:
Zak’s hoe who he loved, supported and put up with her bisexual feminist friends moving in on him, publicly lied about him and shamed him out of spite to destroy his career.
Zak was vilified and persecuted by half the D&D establishment based on hearsay, slander and zero evidence whatsoever; which says everything about them and nothing about Zak. Even her dad said she was lying and had admitted it. She’s bipolar so that’s a factor.
It went to court. It was delayed by Covid-19. Eventually through presenting actual evidence, Zak won the case and his name has been exonerated.
A few lame-ass people publicly apologised for having backed her lies and having joined the hate mob against him. Most people didn’t much care and went quiet about it probably out of shame which they genuinely should feel for a form of antisocial personality disorder based on zero accountability for their inability to do the humanitarian thing and ask for actual evidence before hating on another person because of a badly orchestrated hate campaign.
Anyway. Whether he wants it or not Zak was thrust into the similar situation Jonny Depp was thrust into by Amber Heard for the same reasons (financial exploitation mixed with hatred) and during the same overlapping time period. Perhaps it is something in the stars. Both these guys situations legal cases have become synonymous with the Men’s Rights Movement of this era.
How does this affect the roleplaying games we all enjoy to play?
A raised awareness of being aware of who it is you are playing with, perhaps.
Disclaimer: I do not personally know Zak Sabbath. We live on the other side of the Atlantic. I emailed him once to wish him well with the court case. He didn’t reply and I didn’t expect him to. He’s a busy guy who doesn’t know me from Jacks curious butthole, why would he?
Even if Zak had done the allegation, he was still a guy with a brilliant mind who has earned a lot of genuine respect by being superb in multiple fields, who was going through a rough time and deserving of some compassion.