So, the wargaming world was all abuzz last week. GMT Games, considered by many the flagship publisher of wargames, decided NOT to publish a Eurogame.
Reading the Twitter and BoardGameGeek outrage one may have thought the end of the world had arrived.
Let me be clear. As far I care GMT Games can choose to publish, or not publish, any game they want. Choosing to not publish a game is not censorship – it is a business decision.
Let’s also remember that this business decision has a real personal impact. It comes through clearly in a posting by GMT’s Gene Billingsley on CSW:
There’s certainly truth to that, Steven. I think Michael has a point, though. We’ve all had several days to vent about this decision, whatever our POV. The reason I’m not sharing further, btw, is because I think anything I say at this point will just be used by one side or the other to further deepen divides or “prove” their points. I have no interest in that.
I do want to thank Roger Miller for his most recent post. I wish everyone would read it and really give it some thought. Roger Miller, “GMT Games” #100011, 9 Apr 2019 6:20 pm
So let’s leave this discussion here. I understand that there are consequences to every decision (I knew this was a lose-lose when I made the decision) and that people on both sides of this want us to suffer them to varying degrees right now. But for us at GMT, with a tough decision behind us, we need to stay focused on the work. What I told our group of amazing office folks recently (you can probably imagine what they’ve had to endure this week) was:
“Let’s be kind in our responses. Let’s give everyone time to vent, think about it, and at some point move on. Most of all, let’s get back to the business of what our customers most want us to do – creating and producing more great games that they will enjoy.”
And that’s where I’ll leave it. Let’s close that discussion on this topic. If you have further things you want me to hear, please feel free to drop me an email.
Enjoy the games!
Gene
For what it’s worth (nothing, for I am not by any measure a content creator of any significance for the wargaming community), I was not going to purchase the game. I don’t buy games because of a publisher. I buy games that interest me and I want to play. The game did not interest me. But just because I don’t like the game doesn’t mean I don’t think it should be published. I certainly wish some games were never published but many times they are. So I express my approval/disapproval as I can. Usually that is in the form of a purchase – or not.
I have not reviewed my P500 list at GMT Games because I don’t have to. I have made my decision previously about which games I want to buy. I don’t need to review them because of this business decision.
The saddest part of this whole episode is the actions of more than a few members of the wargaming community and BoardGameGeek. I would like to think our hobby is a diverse, inclusive, tolerant crowd. This past week I saw too much negative behavior and it is disheartening. Too many gamers forgot to treat each other with respect. Some of the attacks turned very personal. A few threatened to leave the hobby or burn all their games.
Good riddance.
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Well said. Though I have not seen the comments or been party to the announcements, the impression I get is that it is very similar to a lot of what goes on in other ‘gaming’ communities, which is a shame. Unfortunately there seems to be too much of a sense of ‘entitlement’ that people should always get what they want, even if it is not necessarily in a companies interest, especially when circumstances change for that organisation. There should be no place for intolerance – being positive and supporting each other seems to be the harder thing to do.