For the second straight year, “Go Woke, Go Broke” has had an effect on the administration at Board Game Gulag (BGG). They failed to reach their funding goal yet again, this year with even less support than they did in 2022. Each year they targeted 18,000 end of year supporters. Last year, they managed 17,219 (781 short) and for 2023 only 17,048 (952 short), 171 less.

This is great news for the gaming community as they take a stand against the oppressive moderation policies at the Gulag! In the past, these goals were blown away until recent years the moderators have doubled down on their intolerance and divisiveness of the gaming community.

Not all of the decline can be attributed to just the mindless wokeness of BGG Admin. Many have stated that as BGG is a for-profit business that it has no business soliciting additional revenue via “support” donations from the users.

Each of the individuals the run BGG are certainly entitled (pun intended) to their own political and social views. But when they bully those in the gaming community who don’t share their narrow minded opinions on a site that is supposedly “free” and “open” to all, then it’s clear a change needs to be made. Publishers that continue to enable this intolerance and tyranny by only using BGG as their means of support and communication with gamers should likewise be held accountable.

BGG needs to apologize for their behavior, remove Matthew “Octavian” Monin from his position as head of the BGG Secret Police (moderators), and reinstate gamers (myself included) to accounts of good standing. Only then will the damage they caused begin to be repaired.

There is plenty of room in the gaming community for views and opinions of all stripes. Where we don’t agree, we can civilly agree to disagree.