Although the situation has been ongoing for some time,
the event of Zak Sabbath announcing by form of a competition
the availability of his latest book, and what people can do to get a copy of it,
initiated a multi-platform collective psychosis and group hysteria
as people who have a history of being abusive to Zak went into overdrive.
This marks a calendar event for what ZakGate has come to represent.
ZakGate occurred during December of 2024.
At time of writing, it is still going on.
What is ZakGate?
ZakGate is when internet rpg forum hosts entrenched in the gaming industry were exposed for generating a smear campaign, which involved hundreds of people being misinformed through their forums.
A manipulation of peoples fear-reflex to entice them to attack anyone who disagrees with their campaign of character-assassinating and defaming Zak Sabbath, without asking for any evidence to prove their malicious claims. The repression of evidence supporting Zak by insta-banning anyone who posts evidence supporting Zak or who speaks up for him.
It has been likened to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s in that it involves a witch-hunt and the debunking of it.
Some of the forums involved in the targeted abuse, as I have experienced myself first-hand, include:
Facebook OSR RPG
RPG net
Strangely, these are forums which have (at time of writing) the LGBT flag as their banner; a community which historically has stood for inclusivity.
How do I know about ZakGate?
My philosophy is to 'work with what works'.
I know about ZakGate because in I am working with Zak. He’s an autistic savant who is misunderstood as autistic savants usually are.
The anti-Zak hate-mob are describing people such as myself as ‘human bots’ alleging Zak has created an army of human bots to …
Well, they’re not exactly sure. They have ignored statements of explanation by Zak and his supporters explicitly stating what they are doing. They have invented things, to tell people Zak and his supporters are doing things which they are not doing. Zak and his supporters have 1) posted a very clear description of precisely what they are doing and 2) asked for any evidence to the contrary, which does not exist.
The response from the anti Zak hate mob is to block Zak and anyone supporting him from their personal accounts and from their forums, and to show off about it.
There is no use attempting to use reason with people who have been proved to be unreasonable.
… promote his book.
Fans of a book want to promote it. They are being subjected to targeted harassment and defamation by people who are on a vendetta.
… clear his name.
People who have seen the evidence and who care about truth and justice are presenting it to people who have ignored the evidence and do not care about truth and justice. They are instead subjecting people to targeted harassment, and encouraging others to do likewise.
Why would they be doing this?
They possibly believe they are morally right.
They possibly are malicious people by nature.
They possibly have been manipulated.
This is why debunking their attacks by presenting evidence is necessary. For the greater good of the community, is call to realign it with truth and justice.
What Started ZakGate?
Zakgate started when Zak Sabbath set a challenge to the community to win a free copy of his new book, by helping him.
The specifics are two items in this request for help.
1) interact with social media rpg forums to create a less toxic community.
2) defend Zak against false allegations by presenting evidence which clears his name of smear campaign, whenever anyone posts defamatory remarks and repeats the debunked lies about him.
There is nothing suspicious about that, in my opinion.
Zak has presented evidence to prove he is not manipulating anyone, but rather that he is the victim of a defamation campaign, of targeted harassment. I bear witness to this. The names of the individuals doing that are identifiable and known. They occupy positions of social responsibility as they host popular RPG web forums. They are mismanaging that by creating a toxic community, misinformed about the truth of the situation. They are doing this knowingly.
That is what ZakGate is.
Several collectors who have funds but not time to use the forums in this way have paid $1000 per copy of Zaks book, in private deals. It contains the complete of his CubeWorld campaign. I have seen photos of the books interior. I have not held the book. I am not doing this for a copy of the book, much as I would treasure it if I had one. I failed the criteria of attaining it through Zaks competition because the forums outright banned me from posting there. They did that after I posted evidence on a totally different forum which supports Zak. By ‘evidence’ I refer to a range of items where the courts have supported Zaks claims that he is target of a harassment and defamation campaign.