Games industry rocked by multiple reports of sexual harassment accusations and allegations of inappropriate behavior

[Redaktion]

The games industry is under the spotlight again due to a fresh wave of sexual harassment accusations and reports of inappropriate behavior. Companies that have been named in these reports include Ubisoft, Insomniac Games, Bungie, Paradox Interactive, Twitch, and the IGN media network. In some instances, there have been alleged threats of violence and even incidents of rape.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Games-industry-rocked-by-multiple-reports-of-sexual-harassment-accusations-and-allegations-of-inappropriate-behavior.477255.0.html

[Travis H]

"The games industry has been rocked by similar scandals before, such as the Gamergate controversy of 2014 when women working in the industry were targeted by harassment campaigns that even involved rape and death threats."

Yep, that's all Gamergate was. Nothing else to discuss or any other possible viewpoint here, no sir. Just a bunch of women who, out of the blue, received hate and notoriety from evil sexist gamers for the crime of being women. Great reporting guys, really captured the nuance of these various controversies.

[winston]

Ever heard of due process?

[kony]

And most of them are likely fakes or complete non-issues which just make me baffled.

To give an example, one of them is "six years ago we got drunk and went to a hotel, he wanted to have sex, I said no and he left! Then sent me inappropriate text message!!! IM CRYING TO THIS DAY BECAUSE OF THAT SEX PREDATOR ;_;" - as is in MCA's case, who just got fired from Techland, Gato Studio and one more I forgot, because of this "accusation".

This is beyond stupid.

[Valantar]

"The games industry has been rocked by similar scandals before, such as the Gamergate controversy of 2014 when women working in the industry were targeted by harassment campaigns that even involved rape and death threats."

Yep, that's all Gamergate was. Nothing else to discuss or any other possible viewpoint here, no sir. Just a bunch of women who, out of the blue, received hate and notoriety from evil sexist gamers for the crime of being women. Great reporting guys, really captured the nuance of these various controversies.

Wait, are you alluding to that silly "ethics in games journalism" thing? Don't be daft. Gamergate was a retributive hate campaign, started out as such against a specific woman, expanded to several other women, then largely morphed into an industry-wide one. Retribution for what, exactly? Anything and everything, but mostly it did seem to boil down to having the audacity to be a woman working in games. The horror!

The whole "ethics in games journalism" BS was a cover story with no factual basis - the entire show was trumped up by overstating the importance of some very minor connections between people. Also, how does harassment, death threats, bomb threats and similar "tactics" somehow seek to improve ethics in games journalism? And if that was the key goal of the movement, can you show me any proof of concerted work being done to improve on that and to ensure separation between journalists and publishers/developers in the time since? If there was such passion for that cause someone ought to have kept going, right? Also, can you show me one example of it not being used to either shame/attack/harass a woman or do the same to someone who had some form of relationship to one such woman? If this was about corruption, positive reviews due to relationships etc., that can happen between men too after all.

Ever heard of due process?

Ever heard of institutional bias? Sexual harassment and even rape are notoriously poorly upheld laws, even in cases where evidence and witness testimony is plentiful. Most reported cases are never even investigated, let alone have the perpetrators charged or brought to court. Police and investigators also routinely try to pin blame for what happened on the victim. Victims here have very, very good reason to not trust the system, and the justice system needs serious reforms for this to change.

And most of them are likely fakes or complete non-issues which just make me baffled.

To give an example, one of them is "six years ago we got drunk and went to a hotel, he wanted to have sex, I said no and he left! Then sent me inappropriate text message!!! IM CRYING TO THIS DAY BECAUSE OF THAT SEX PREDATOR ;_;" - as is in MCA's case, who just got fired from Techland, Gato Studio and one more I forgot, because of this "accusation".

This is beyond stupid.

"Most of them are likely fakes" - that statement needs some kind of factual basis to back it up, otherwise you are just blowing hot air. On what, exactly, are you basing that statement? 'Cause the only plausible explanation seems to be misogyny.

The same goes for your "example" - which given the form it is presented in really just exemplifies how you apparently like to belittle people who have gone through traumatic experiences - source? Also, if this is a person with power and influence in the industry using said power and influence to try to coerce people into having sex with them, that is indeed deeply, deeply problematic.

[kony]

I like how twitter mob as well as various sites, including Notebookcheck it seems, jumped so hard on these allegations, and how all it took was tweets of these "accusers" to see how full of s*** they are.

6-7 years ago Avellone was a major house in the industry. People who accuse him now, threw themselves at him, praised him on twitter and in the interviews, saying how amazing and talented he is and how lucky they are to know him and were so fuking friendly with him, it's even revolting. What happened with these accusations after so much time? Well, let's see:

Karissa changed her story multiple times, and doubled down in her bullshit. Her story changed so much that right now with the latest's additions she got caught up in her own lies.



https://twitter.com/RPGNewsHQ/status/1280340105983598594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280340105983598594%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html1280340105983598594

You can add this to accusations from another girl, who says that Karissa did her best to silence alleged victim of sexual assault, because people who were responsible were her friends. Classy.

Riot employee is another great story. She is the girl who provided that drunken sexting attempt, in which Avellone critically failed, she is also a friend of Karissa, and led everyone to believe that Avellone had some sort of power over her. Well that was a lie. He had no power over her at all. But you know, I mean I kind of support her, because that was some fuking terrible sexting, especially from legendary writer. The fact that he did not put any fuking effort in to his game, is offensive on itself. Is this enough to cancel a man? I don't think so. Another problem that she states that she was so upset that her BF saw those messages, yet her OCcupid profile at the time states they were in the open relationships. She was literally looking for people to date/f*** with, and called Avellone "boyfriend in another life" on twitter.

https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/399456397642846208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E399457209865613312%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html399457209865613312


Girl who accused Avellone of groping is the funniest of them all. After that event, she actually complained on twitter that nobody was approaching her, and she should start hitting on people by herself. Funny, but kind of sad.

Now the last person from Bloomberg article (game dev), is also an avid drinker according to her twitter! She liked to get drunk and meet with other people, and was good enough to score a couple of times. Props to her. The problem is, that she says that she sees "pattern of behavior" with Avellone. Well considering how often (according to her own twitter) she went out and got drunk, it seems that this pattern is not only exclusive to Avellone.

I won't even add the whole "i saw a guy who know a guy who saw a guy who told me that Avellone was going out with young females" bs. Its only there to bolster Karissa's "Avellone went after young and petite females!" narrative.

Truth is - Avellone was probably getting drunk a lot. And a lot of people wanted to be on his good side. So back in the day, when it was still not criminal (according to twitter court of justice) they partied and drink and fucked a ton. They had a good time and everything was normal (according to them). But years later down the line, for some reason Karissa decided to end Avellone for good. Why? Who knows. But they deliberately waited until the good moment presents itself, and used it to its fullest to end Avellone.

What upsets me the most, is that all these people are airing up their fantasies, dirty laundry and accusations that cannot be proven by anyone, yet that is enough to legit end career of one of the best writers in the industry. No courts and sentences needed. Just a good campaign.

I am also surprised how little it took to disprove them. With all this s*** going, I thought that at the very least some of them would be smart enough to erase the old tweets, so they not look like a retards with their praise of Avellone.

It's a sad day if even a notebook review site becomes a sex-rumor news site that doesn't even check its facts and spreads lies.

[Valantar]

I like how twitter mob as well as various sites, including Notebookcheck it seems, jumped so hard on these allegations, and how all it took was tweets of these "accusers" to see how full of s*** they are.

6-7 years ago Avellone was a major house in the industry. People who accuse him now, threw themselves at him, praised him on twitter and in the interviews, saying how amazing and talented he is and how lucky they are to know him and were so fuking friendly with him, it's even revolting. What happened with these accusations after so much time? Well, let's see:

Karissa changed her story multiple times, and doubled down in her bullshit. Her story changed so much that right now with the latest's additions she got caught up in her own lies.



https://twitter.com/RPGNewsHQ/status/1280340105983598594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280340105983598594%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html1280340105983598594

You can add this to accusations from another girl, who says that Karissa did her best to silence alleged victim of sexual assault, because people who were responsible were her friends. Classy.

Riot employee is another great story. She is the girl who provided that drunken sexting attempt, in which Avellone critically failed, she is also a friend of Karissa, and led everyone to believe that Avellone had some sort of power over her. Well that was a lie. He had no power over her at all. But you know, I mean I kind of support her, because that was some fuking terrible sexting, especially from legendary writer. The fact that he did not put any fuking effort in to his game, is offensive on itself. Is this enough to cancel a man? I don't think so. Another problem that she states that she was so upset that her BF saw those messages, yet her OCcupid profile at the time states they were in the open relationships. She was literally looking for people to date/f*** with, and called Avellone "boyfriend in another life" on twitter.

https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/399456397642846208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E399457209865613312%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html399457209865613312


Girl who accused Avellone of groping is the funniest of them all. After that event, she actually complained on twitter that nobody was approaching her, and she should start hitting on people by herself. Funny, but kind of sad.

Now the last person from Bloomberg article (game dev), is also an avid drinker according to her twitter! She liked to get drunk and meet with other people, and was good enough to score a couple of times. Props to her. The problem is, that she says that she sees "pattern of behavior" with Avellone. Well considering how often (according to her own twitter) she went out and got drunk, it seems that this pattern is not only exclusive to Avellone.

I won't even add the whole "i saw a guy who know a guy who saw a guy who told me that Avellone was going out with young females" bs. Its only there to bolster Karissa's "Avellone went after young and petite females!" narrative.

Truth is - Avellone was probably getting drunk a lot. And a lot of people wanted to be on his good side. So back in the day, when it was still not criminal (according to twitter court of justice) they partied and drink and fucked a ton. They had a good time and everything was normal (according to them). But years later down the line, for some reason Karissa decided to end Avellone for good. Why? Who knows. But they deliberately waited until the good moment presents itself, and used it to its fullest to end Avellone.

What upsets me the most, is that all these people are airing up their fantasies, dirty laundry and accusations that cannot be proven by anyone, yet that is enough to legit end career of one of the best writers in the industry. No courts and sentences needed. Just a good campaign.

I am also surprised how little it took to disprove them. With all this s*** going, I thought that at the very least some of them would be smart enough to erase the old tweets, so they not look like a retards with their praise of Avellone.

It's a sad day if even a notebook review site becomes a sex-rumor news site that doesn't even check its facts and spreads lies.

Wow, that is a large collection of deeply problematic stuff. I'm not intimately familiar with the case in question, so I'll refrain from commenting on the veracity (or lack thereof) of any factual claims regarding the case. That isn't the main issue here though - victim blaming is.

Firstly: groping is not "approaching" someone. Not even close. Groping is sexual harassment or sexual assault, depending on the severity of the case. Harassment or assault is in no way comparable to a flirtatious or romantic approach of a person. If you can't (easily!) tell the difference, you are clearly part of the problem. There is absolutely no problem whatsoever with being a victim of sexual harassment and simultaneously wishing for more romantic attention.

Second: whether a person is a prolific drinker and/or is part of a social circle that drinks heavily - even one with prolific casual sex - does not whatsoever remove a person's right to judge what is and what isn't an appropriate attempt at flirtation or other sexual approaches. The problem here is neither drinking nor sexual proclivity, but the inability to judge power dynamics in such situations, inability to understand how one's power might cause others to be afraid of disagreeing or saying no, and of course the very basic failure to judge whether something is mutual flirtation or a one-sided attempt at getting laid. The latter, when combined with the previous point, very often leads to rape. There is sufficient research done on this for this to be indisputable fact. It sounds like you should read up on the experiences of rape survivors, how people process trauma, how people act in situations like that, how self-preservation works, etc.

Avellone being a good (or even great) writer does not in any way take away responsibility for his actions from him, nor does it give him free rein to harass or assault people. It doesn't even give him the right to be an asshole to people without consequences, if that is all he is guilty of. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, but unapologetic serial sexual harassers or predators do not deserve prominent positions in any industry. Actions should have consequences. And until courts and legal systems are reformed to treat rape survivors as survivors and not suspects (tell me, in what other kind of criminal case is the default assumption that the victim is either lying or secretly wanted it to happen to them?), public shaming is the only tool available. I'm not a fan of cancel culture, but nor am I a fan of allowing actions to go without consequences.