BoardGameGeek has parted ways with its veteran advertising manager Chad Krizan after he refused to run a Gamefound campaign for social-deduction game Possess Me, Satan, citing his personal experience helping people with what he described as demonic oppression. The story broke today, blew up on r/boardgames within hours, and ended with BGG founder Scott Alden confirming Krizan was out the door.
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Start organising for freeKrizan, who had spent nearly two decades at BGG, wrote to publisher Falling Whale Games to say he could not "in good conscience" approve the ads because "the thought of displaying this subject matter makes me sick to my stomach". In a follow-up he added: "As a follower of Jesus, I routinely help people suffering from demonic oppression," and argued that the game's theme would not be welcoming to all BGG visitors. The publisher pushed back, pointing out that BGG had recently run ads for other occult-themed titles, and shared the email exchange publicly.
In a statement posted to the BGG forums, Scott Alden was blunt: "Due to a situation in which BGG's Advertising Manager responded inappropriately in a business email to a designer, I have decided to let him go. His response does not reflect or represent our company or the way we conduct business."
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Find events near youPossess Me, Satan is pitched as a social deduction game in the vein of Mafia or Werewolf, with the twist that even the host (Satan) has a hidden role. The publicity row has been kind to its Gamefound campaign, which has already pulled in over $14,000 from roughly 250 backers with thirty days still to run. The "all publicity is good publicity" rule is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
It is also a reminder that BGG, the closest thing the hobby has to a town square, runs on real people making real editorial calls. The next ad you see on the front page passed through a desk just like this one.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Gametrodon | Gamefound
