#MeToo hits gaming: I just wanted to shoot shit.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > #MeToo hits gaming: I just wanted to shoot shit.

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OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

Journalists: Famous for never editing articles after publication for any reason other than facts.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 05:59

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 05:10

Hub Cat: Aug 3, 2011; Trunk Lover

That editor's note is so goddamn petty. They had two chances to do the right thing, take the L and stop making it worse.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 06:12

fez_machine: Nov 27, 2004

In other news, Alexis Kennedy is trying to sneak back into game development:
http://weatherfactory.biz/jan-1-acrasia/

Going to be publishing a book, probably heavily eliding his actions.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 06:35

Patware: Jan 3, 2005

was there ever any doubt

# ? Jan 21, 2020 08:11

Herstory Begins Now: Aug 5, 2003; SOME REALLY TEDIOUS DUMB SHIT THAT SUCKS ASS TO READ ->>

A loving games journalist of all people speaking like some definitive elder-journalist proclaiming that articles are never edited after publishing is the weirdest poo poo. Like that has no grounding whatsoever in how journalism (and especially digitally published journalism) works.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 09:23

Prokhor Zakharov: Dec 31, 2008; This is me as I make another great post

Good luck with your depression!

Viewtiful Jew posted:

Kotaku finally removed the part Nathalie wanted removed and both the author of the piece and the editor said some words but like, I don't think either of them actually said they were sorry in any specific manner.

Like there's a lot of words there from the former Kotaku author, but it's almost like she's writing around having to say that she hosed up on this one and refuses to take the L.

The really suspicious part of the reporter's response is that she tries so hard to sidestep Nathalie's accusation. Her objection was that a second phone call was made by Kotaku where they said in order to clear the article legally for publication they needed a statement for their lawyer on the details of the assault. The reporter then took those details and published those and only those. It 100% doesn't matter what Nathalie thought was and was not on the record, the reporter falsely represented themselves by claiming that the details were for their lawyer when it's clear that absolutely isn't true. It's awfully telling and tremendously suspicious that the reporter doesn't even address this, instead claiming that nothing from the second call was used and effectively calling Nathalie a liar.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 12:44

Dr. Stab: Sep 12, 2010; 👨🏻‍⚕️🩺🔪🙀😱🙀

Zeeman posted:

I mean, if what they're saying is accurate, then Nathalie made the quotes in the on-the-record part of the interview (and there's a recording of it) and then didn't read the article before publication to confirm that she still wanted those quotes in. It's a lovely situation, but they don't seem to have done anything wrong if that's the case, aside from maybe being a bit quicker in taking down the quotes now.

She emailed them asking to fix it and their hands were tied and then suddenly, a day after she wrote an article about it that got popular, they managed to fix it.

I'm sure they were just taking their time and it was a coincidence.

# ? Jan 21, 2020 16:42

The Bramble: Mar 16, 2004

Alexis spoke more openly and thoroughly than ever before during Weather Factory's year 2 update post. While the characterization of the events as a "smear campaign" motivated by economic gain are, uh, controversial, it's still an interesting read. The behind the scenes look at a tiny business weathering a PR crisis is fascinating and you have to admit that their willingness to be so transparent (about the business at least) is novel.

Regardless it sounds like they're moving ahead with Book of Hours and consider the accusations yesterday's news at this point.

quote:

On August 27th and 28th, a larger competitor went public with a smear campaign against both me and Lottie. It hit the week before our Kickstarter, and on the one-year anniversary meeting of Coven Club (Lottie�s feminist initiative, for which she�d just got funding after a year of Weather Factory paying for it).

Most of you reading this will already be aware of these events, in outline if not in detail. I want to talk about it dispassionately and usefully. The story of this year makes no sense without it, but also, it�s extremely rare for a small business facing catastrophic PR to talk openly about the detailed effects. Posterity, you�re welcome.

It might be difficult to understand what follows without understanding the mechanism of operation of this kind of attack. That mechanism is this: a minority of people will believe the smears, think badly of you, and act accordingly, but the majority will mostly be worried that other people will think badly of you, and distance themselves accordingly.

Commercial effects

The BOOK OF HOURS Kickstarter never ran. We had to cancel it two days before launch. The team�s last two months� work was rendered obsolete.

All three of our new employees left. When the extent of the damage to the company�s reputation became clear, we offered them either or both of (i) a week�s paid leave to think things over (ii) a bonus payment of one month�s salary in addition to their month�s paid notice if they chose to resign. They were caught in a situation that they hadn�t expected, and we wanted to give them all the time and space we could.

In the event, all three left. They liked their jobs (�Working here is honestly a dream come true,� I�d been told in a one-on-one the week before the attack) but it was too traumatic and miserable, and the potential damage to their careers was too great. (�I thought I could weather it, but I can�t,� said the last to leave.) We don�t blame them, and they left with our regretful blessing.

BOOK OF HOURS was indefinitely postponed. We couldn�t make the game as originally envisaged without the two developers I�d hired to make it, and I was incapable of working for some months in any case. (We�ve since resurrected the idea in a different form with a much lower budget.)

�Procopius�, our more ambitious second project, was permanently cancelled. There�s no way we can make it now.

Our community was devastated. We were particularly vulnerable to this form of attack because we�d invested so much in a friendly and transparent relationship with our fan base, many of whom now didn�t know what to believe. A civil war erupted inside our community. I had to leave the fan Discord after one of the mods joined in the personal attacks. All told, our mailing list and social media followings � the result of two-three years� promotional work � were reduced by on average around 25% in the space of a month. (If 25% doesn�t sound as bad as you expected, imagine losing 25% of your home or your salary.)

Around half of our business partners terminated their contracts and/or their upcoming deals with us. There are legal reasons why I can�t be specific about which and how, here.

Revenue from Cultist Simulator went into free fall. Here�s our Steam revenue in the two weeks before the smear campaign hit, and the two weeks after. Any indie looking at this will experience a violent lurch in the pit of their stomach. Sorry about that.

Valve are still a little nervous about sharing sales figures at this level of granularity, so I�ve had to cut off the labelling on the Y-axis, but the delta should be clear: in the course of a week our daily sales plummeted by 75%, and hit their lowest day ever. We had no idea whether that was rock bottom, or whether they�d continue to drop.

If we hadn�t had an exceptional previous year, Weather Factory would have gone out of business rather quickly. (Of course, if we hadn�t had an exceptional previous year, we wouldn�t have registered as a threat to our competitor�s prestige.) In fact, without one stroke of unexpected good timing, we would still probably have gone out of business. I was largely unable to work by now, and would remain so for some months. Lottie was better, but demoralised and overwhelmed nevertheless.

This was the stroke of unexpected good timing:

On September 12th 2019 we released the Simplified Chinese localisation of Cultist Simulator on the beta branch. This is what it did to our sales graph. We saw another uptick the following month, when we released the full public localisation, by which point Lottie was in good enough shape to do some promotional work.

Eventually, as the months passed, it gradually became clearer what was going on, or people decided they didn�t really give a stuff either way, and our sales recovered to about where they had been. But it was a close thing. The loc release had been scheduled for months. I had often been quietly sceptical of the benefits of a Chinese release, given the time and effort involved in translating the text. It had been Lottie�s initiative from the start; she was right; and it saved the studio.

Effects on industry contributions

Mentoring. All but one of our mentees withdrew from our mentoring scheme. We had to shut it down.

Coven Club. Coven Club was the subject of some particularly vitriolic online personal attacks. Lottie had to put it on indefinite hold.

Wings Fund. Lottie was asked to step down from her volunteer work at Wings Fund on the basis that (unspecified) allegations had been made against her character.

Talks. All our speaking invitations were withdrawn.

I�m happy to say, however, that the salary spreadsheet is still going as of the time of posting.

Personal effects, a.k.a. health and wellbeing Year 2

The most significant of the effects of this kind of experience is, unmistakably, the toll it takes on your state of mind, and that shaped the last four months of 2019 for us. It�s especially difficult to talk about this part dispassionately. So I am going to try for a tone of dry flippancy. But I don�t want the tone to suggest that this is a trivial thing, so I�d like you to be aware that as I type this, I am remembering last August and September, and my hands are shaking, and yes, I did indeed have a full-on couldn�t-look-after-my-child, emergency-mental-health-referral, Lottie-had-to-explain-to-the-GP-because-I-couldn�t-speak-coherently, Internet-access-restricted breakdown from which I am still recovering. I don�t recommend it. I�ve been through a rancorous divorce, and I�ve been through my brother killing himself. This was worse than either.

I was largely out of action until the end of the year, I still find it difficult to communicate with people unless I know them very well (if you�ve emailed me, sorry, I have to work up to responses!) and I�m unlikely ever to speak publicly again, but I�m now capable of working at my usual pace on light medication. Lottie�s morale and health have suffered (she has a problem at the moment with recurring nightmares), but she was less dramatically affected and she�s mostly recovered. Some days we�re quite cross, most days we�re pretty cheerful. We�ve mentioned previously that Lottie�s mother was also targeted for some unpleasantness, but she�s a tough lady, she was on the periphery of it, and she�s fine.

On the flip side, the work-life balance issues that I mentioned in last year�s post have been less of an issue lately.

# ? Feb 28, 2020 20:55

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

he said last year about that "smear":

quote:
"I'm ashamed of the emotional immaturity and anger and cruelty I brought to the table in our marriage. In the years since then I've tried -- am trying -- to use that shame to be better than I was. I know this doesn't help you, but I'm sorry."

Whoops, wrong abusive rear end in a top hat.

Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Feb 28, 2020

# ? Feb 28, 2020 21:30

baka kaba: Jul 19, 2003; PLEASE ASK ME, THE SELF-PROFESSED NO #1 PAUL CATTERMOLE FAN IN THE SOMETHING AWFUL S-CLUB 7 MEGATHREAD, TO NAME A SINGLE SONG BY HIS EXCELLENT NU-METAL SIDE PROJECT, SKUA, AND IF I CAN'T PLEASE TELL ME TO
EAT SHIT

wasn't that the kingdom of loathing guy

The Bramble posted:

Alexis spoke more openly and thoroughly than ever before during Weather Factory's year 2 update post. While the characterization of the events as a "smear campaign" motivated by economic gain are, uh, controversial, it's still an interesting read. The behind the scenes look at a tiny business weathering a PR crisis is fascinating and you have to admit that their willingness to be so transparent (about the business at least) is novel.

I dunno, if you're going with "it was all a smear by a big competitor and we're the victims here" then going into detail about how much you've suffered isn't especially novel

# ? Feb 28, 2020 21:36

Arsenic Lupin: Apr 12, 2012; This particularly rapid💨 unintelligible 😖patter💁 isn't generally heard🧏‍♂️, and if it is🤔, it doesn't matter💁.

You're right, I confused the Kingdom of Loathing guy with the Cult Simulator guy. Alexis was accused by (at least) two indie games developers, , Leigh Alexander and Meghna Jayanth. And they aren't particularly large companies; Alexander wrote for Reigns and its sequel -- and has now left the industry -- and Jayanth was lead writer on 80 Days. This isn't Godzilla stomping on Legoland.

# ? Feb 28, 2020 21:47

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

Dean Takahashi (of minor Cuphead infamy) wrote a terrible puff piece trying to repair the reputation of Quantic Dream after a French-language outlet reported on their sexual harassment and racism problem.

It's bad.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1233476544946999303

# ? Feb 28, 2020 22:01

The 7th Guest: Dec 17, 2003

yeah i just read that. lol

how can david cage be bad, he tought someone how to ride a bike!!!

do they even have a game they're working on right now or are all their resources going into damage control

e: lol i forgot detroit become human took 5+ years to make

# ? Feb 28, 2020 22:16

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

gi.biz also covered Quantic Dream losing their original lawsuit in English.

# ? Feb 28, 2020 22:33

Cynic Jester: Apr 11, 2009; Let's put a simile on that face
A dazzling simile
Twinkling like the night sky

I've seen press releases with less of an obvious slant than that VentureBeat puff piece, jeez.

# ? Feb 28, 2020 22:48

Samovar: Jun 4, 2011; I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻

Now there's a good reason to dislike Takahasi besides from the terrible attempt at a tutorial level.

# ? Feb 29, 2020 14:19

Warthur: May 2, 2004

Arsenic Lupin posted:

You're right, I confused the Kingdom of Loathing guy with the Cult Simulator guy. Alexis was accused by (at least) two indie games developers, , Leigh Alexander and Meghna Jayanth. And they aren't particularly large companies; Alexander wrote for Reigns and its sequel -- and has now left the industry -- and Jayanth was lead writer on 80 Days. This isn't Godzilla stomping on Legoland.

The "larger competitor" thing is really, really strange. Alexis is clearly being very deliberate with his words there and I think the use of the singular noun is deliberate - he is trying to allege that a single, specific company is responsible for the smear campaign, without directly specifying who it is. That's a hell of an allegation to make without presenting any evidence, and I guess he's trying to bank on the idea that if he doesn't directly name whoever it is, it becomes difficult to say his remarks are defamatory.

That said... I cannot work out who the "larger competitor" is supposed to be other than Failbetter, whose Adam Myers put out a very damning Medium post on the subject which largely substantiated the story about Alexis failing to disclose that he'd been dating Lottie and keeping her in his reporting line for some time after the relationship began.

From that perspective, the "A larger competitor tried to smear us and prevent my reputation from overshadowing theirs" narrative is, whilst still far-fetched and bullshitty, at the same time an argument you can understand Alexis making for a bunch of reasons.

- Perhaps most importantly, by centring the narrative on the "smear" put out by "a larger competitor" - IE. Myers' post - Alexis gets to pretend that Leigh Alexander and Meghna Jayanth either a) did not say anything, or b) were put up to it by Failbetter. He gets to recast the situation as a small independent publisher being targeted with libel by a big bully, rather than a man with organisational power over women abusing that power.

- The idea that Alexis's reputation as a designer and writer might, at some point, have ended up overshadowing Failbetter's is plausible, even if the idea of Failbetter going full Public Relations Black Ops on him to stop that is far-fetched.. If you don't like the direction Failbetter has gone with their games since Alexis left, you might be inclined to say "Alexis was the real talent there and everyone else was his hangers-on". The general aesthetic and tone of Failbetter and Weather Factory's outputs are very similar, due to Alexis being the prime mover behind Fallen London and Fallen London being the primary basis of Failbetter's subsequent work. They 100% qualify as larger than Weather Factory, and are perhaps the closest thing to direct competitors Weather Factory has. If you were inclined to believe Alexis and were clutching at straws for reasons to do so, "Failbetter wanted to ruin him" is a tempting-looking straw.

- It probably, on some level, also serves Alexis's ego to believe this himself. "My wayward creation tried to destroy me" allows you to cast yourself as the hero of the story. "The consequences of my actions came home to roost", less so.

# ? Mar 4, 2020 15:11

baka kaba: Jul 19, 2003; PLEASE ASK ME, THE SELF-PROFESSED NO #1 PAUL CATTERMOLE FAN IN THE SOMETHING AWFUL S-CLUB 7 MEGATHREAD, TO NAME A SINGLE SONG BY HIS EXCELLENT NU-METAL SIDE PROJECT, SKUA, AND IF I CAN'T PLEASE TELL ME TO
EAT SHIT

It's an easy way to reframe the scandal, so instead of "being accused of abusive and predatory behaviour by multiple people and corroborated by many more" it's now "oh a bigger competitor tried to sink us with vague nefarious tactics". He's not even addressing what he was accused of anymore, he refers to it as "the attack", "the smear campaign", there's even a bit where he says

quote:

Eventually, as the months passed, it gradually became clearer what was going on, or people decided they didn�t really give a stuff either way, and our sales recovered to about where they had been.

the whole thing is spin - it's not about calling any one competitor out (in fact it makes it easier if they're never specified, just an anonymous them), it's about rewriting the story so it's about some cold, calculated attack by a rival (which everyone now recognises, they realised "what was going on" sales went back to normal). Or more accurately, the "attack" is the setup for the story, not talked about in any detail at all, just a bad thing the rival company did - the actual story is about Alexis and his wife's life, how they've been affected, how bad things have been for them, what they've lost, all framed as them being passive victims you're meant to empathise with and root for, and want to support going forward

so it doesn't seem that weird to me - it's not an allegation, that would mean perpetuating that whole issue and litigating it. Instead it's just vague background in a retelling that smoothly erases the original story and makes it all about something completely different. It's not just defending himself by putting forward his take on the accusations, arguing with his accusers, he's sweeping it away by acting like nobody was ever talking about that stuff in the first place. The guy's a talented writer, it's all deliberate and with a purpose

# ? Mar 4, 2020 16:00

Warthur: May 2, 2004

baka kaba posted:

the whole thing is spin - it's not about calling any one competitor out (in fact it makes it easier if they're never specified, just an anonymous them), it's about rewriting the story so it's about some cold, calculated attack by a rival (which everyone now recognises, they realised "what was going on" sales went back to normal). Or more accurately, the "attack" is the setup for the story, not talked about in any detail at all, just a bad thing the rival company did - the actual story is about Alexis and his wife's life, how they've been affected, how bad things have been for them, what they've lost, all framed as them being passive victims you're meant to empathise with and root for, and want to support going forward

I think the post is constructed to nudge readers (especially those who know a muddled subset of the facts but not all of them) into concluding for themselves that he is referring to Failbetter, if only because there really isn't anyone else he plausibly could be referring to. (Failbetter wrote a tweet saying they believed the victims, their CEO wrote a Medium post; nobody who could be mistaken for a "larger competitor" did even a fraction of that much.)

You're correct that the primary point isn't to kick off some crusade against them or make any specific accusation - it's just to provide a context which people who are not especially well-informed about what happened could find plausible, and to shift gear into the "poor us" narrative. On the other hand, my hunch is that in the future we'll see people spouting the idea that Failbetter tried to do a character assassination on Alexis as fact, only to find that the root source for that belief were a) this blog post, which seeds the idea that it was a corporate attack and b) Failbetter and Myers' original statements, despite the fact that those were responses to something other people said.

# ? Mar 4, 2020 16:33

baka kaba: Jul 19, 2003; PLEASE ASK ME, THE SELF-PROFESSED NO #1 PAUL CATTERMOLE FAN IN THE SOMETHING AWFUL S-CLUB 7 MEGATHREAD, TO NAME A SINGLE SONG BY HIS EXCELLENT NU-METAL SIDE PROJECT, SKUA, AND IF I CAN'T PLEASE TELL ME TO
EAT SHIT

oh yeah, it definitely points in a particular direction for people who want somewhere to look. And I think you're right, people will probably push that idea later - but Kennedy being non-specific means there's no particular claim to rebut, it's harder for whoever to talk about why they did it (the abuse accusations) because they have to claim he's talking about them and also how it actually wasn't an attack on a competitor, so the reframing is a lot smoother

and if the community wants to start whispering about how it was Failbetter and putting the pieces together and affecting their reputation, all the better. Kennedy's hands are clean and the whole issue's been sufficiently clouded, y'know?

# ? Mar 4, 2020 17:21

Hav: Dec 11, 2009; Fun Shoe

baka kaba posted:

and if the community wants to start whispering about how it was Failbetter and putting the pieces together and affecting their reputation, all the better. Kennedy's hands are clean and the whole issue's been sufficiently clouded, y'know?

It�s just business, it�s not personal. Almost as cliche as turning up to court in a wheelchair.

# ? Mar 6, 2020 03:21

Hub Cat: Aug 3, 2011; Trunk Lover

Hub Cat fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Mar 6, 2020

# ? Mar 6, 2020 05:04

Warthur: May 2, 2004

baka kaba posted:

and if the community wants to start whispering about how it was Failbetter and putting the pieces together and affecting their reputation, all the better. Kennedy's hands are clean and the whole issue's been sufficiently clouded, y'know?

Of course the big flaw with the theory is that damage to Kennedy's reputation would be expected to have significant blowback on Failbetter as well. Yes, sure, he doesn't work there any more - but Fallen London/Echo Bazaar was his baby, he designed the setting, the original browser game, and helmed the Sunless Sea project, to my knowledge both of those games still include great scads of his prose, and the rest of the writing in them (and Sunless Skies) is at least attempting to be consistent with the style and tone of his material. Their entire business is built on the back of a setting which has his fingerprints indelibly all over it, particularly since the writing style is so distinctive that to move away from it would be immensely damaging to the aesthetic of the thing.

Sure, Weather Factory's stuff was more vulnerable to a sales dip because that's where he was actively working at the time, but the conspiracy theory seems to rely on Failbetter having confidence prior to launching the smear campaign that it would would succeed enough to damage or destroy Weather Factory without burning their own games' reputation to the waterline.

# ? Mar 6, 2020 14:31

claw game handjob: Mar 27, 2007; pinch pinch scrape pinch
ow ow fuck it's caught
i'm bleeding
JESUS TURN IT OFF
WHY ARE YOU STILL SMILING

Well, this is depressing.

https://twitter.com/SJBsMama/status/1274175397337411586

the twitter thread posted:

While we�re at it, here�s another man to add to the gaming industry predator garbage pile. Yesterday was the first time I said something publicly about this, and I�m done being silent, despite that fuckstick in the reply telling me to shut up. I WILL NOT. Thread:

I witnessed, and experienced, his behavior firsthand. He got me blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime). He and two friends somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys. They left after a few moments (also drunk), and one of them-

-told me what he had witnessed the next evening. I had very vague impressions that someone had made out with me when I woke up that morning, but thought it was a dream. When I asked Chris about it, he told me that I had eventually refused him. When more of the night came back-

-to me, I realized the ONLY reason I was able to refuse him in my blackout stupor was because I was on my period that weekend. The ONLY reason. (The shame society places on menstruation actually came in handy for once, smdh.) Other nights, I watched him do the same to-

-other girls, some of whom looked FAR younger than me in my late 20s (at the time, and I have always looked young for my age). He would disappear with one or another, come back, then come back to me. The entire con. I did not get drunk with him again, and he was a gentleman-

-about my refusals, including the one where I was drunk off my rear end, and when he escorted me to the subway station at 4:30am the morning I left to go home. That kind behavior is what not only kept me in denial about what was actually going on, but drove me to introduce him to-

-one of my best friends, who then endured over a year of heartache, gaslighting, and emotional abuse at his hands. It was much easier to see then, and ALL of us who knew what was going on told her to get out. Eventually, she did, but not before he raged out of a restaurant-

-drunk as gently caress (as usual), leaving her behind, after which point she wandered the downtown streets of a major convention city late at night, ALONE, looking for him because she was worried he would get hurt due to how drunk he was. This was my breaking point.

I went to two men I worked with at this convention and reported the situation. Interestingly enough, they were already discussing his terrible behavior when I found them together to report it. With my testimony added, he was blacklisted right then and there.

His behavior didn�t stop, though. If anything, it got worse. It took years for his employer to finally fire him (I honestly don�t recall the exact reason he was given, it was a while ago and I wasn�t there personally - this was relayed to me by a friend who also worked there).

He moved to other studios. Other projects. Other conventions until they stopped inviting him on their own accord (whether due to behavior or relevance, I don�t know). I pushed him out of my memory, as did my dear friends, and we only discussed our anger and disgust if he-

-happened to come up. I�ve said something to some friends in journalism if he came up. Emily reached out to me after seeing my tweet to apologize. For what, I asked her? She didn�t know what he was like and carried no fault in this. Most didn�t know unless they saw it.

Still no one said anything except in closed circles. *I* didn�t say anything except in closed circles to warn people about his behavior. I have no idea if he�s remotely better than he was then, but given how protected he�s been from true consequences for his actions, I doubt it.

The actions I witnessed myself occurred between 2013 and 2015. Those I was told by friends who remained around him occurred up until 2017 or 2018. This was recent. Who knows how long it had been occurring before then; he was clearly no stranger to doing this when I met him.

I didn�t bother blowing this up until today due to work being insane all week, but I�ve got the time now. Chris Avellone is an abusive, abrasive, conniving sexual predator. People tried to get him help. He refused it and continued. Stop glorifying him.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 08:21

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

END ME SCOOB posted:

Well, this is depressing.

https://twitter.com/SJBsMama/status/1274175397337411586

Jesus loving Christ.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 08:27

Carew: Jun 22, 2006

On brand for RPG Codex superstar Chris Avellone

# ? Jun 20, 2020 08:43

Mokinokaro: Sep 11, 2001; At the end of everything, hold onto anything; Fun Shoe

Carew posted:

On brand for RPG Codex superstar Chris Avellone

Yeah it's unfortunately not surprising once he started hanging out in the Nazi grognard rpg forum.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 08:54

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

I can't bring myself to be that surprised. The stories going around about him and how much he drinks, the company he keeps, the bridges he's burning with wild lawsuits.
Success went to his head a long time ago. Unfortunate that nobody called him out and it went this far.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 08:56

Mokinokaro: Sep 11, 2001; At the end of everything, hold onto anything; Fun Shoe

Yeah it's not surprising at all and unfortunately I fear this'll get buried as he's still such an industry darling

# ? Jun 20, 2020 09:09

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

Mokinokaro posted:

Yeah it's not surprising at all and unfortunately I fear this'll get buried as he's still such an industry darling

I get the impression his consulting roles are getting shorter and shorter. He's not being kept for anything long term these days, I think people are already avoiding working with him. Maybe some fans will still put him on a pedestal but hes not taking on lead staff roles.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 09:13

Fair Bear Maiden: Jun 17, 2013

Oh poo poo, I couldn't find the thread until now. It's disgusting to see Avellone apparently got away with that kind of behavior for so long.

I had some problems with how he handled the split with Obsidian, but ultimately they seemed minor, and I could understand that feeling ousted by a company you founded might leave someone quite angry. It also didn't seem like his public split made him any enemies in the industry, so I figured hey, if he has the clout to air grievances with his previous colleagues, good for him. In the end, I didn't consider those red flags.

But this is on another level. I really hope this gets reported more.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 09:42

i am tim!: Jan 5, 2005; God damn it, where are my ant keys?! I'm gonna miss my flight!

Mokinokaro posted:

Yeah it's unfortunately not surprising once he started hanging out in the Nazi grognard rpg forum.

Seriously. I�ve been having a hard time appreciating some of his work since he made those his haunting grounds, now it feels like a no brainer.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 09:49

NewMars: Mar 10, 2013

Mokinokaro posted:

Yeah it's unfortunately not surprising once he started hanging out in the Nazi grognard rpg forum.

i am tim! posted:

Seriously. I�ve been having a hard time appreciating some of his work since he made those his haunting grounds, now it feels like a no brainer.

It's rather depressing that I have to ask for you to specify, but which particular nazi grognard rpg forum is this?

# ? Jun 20, 2020 10:49

Shirkelton: Apr 6, 2009; I'm not loyal to anything, General... except the dream.

RPG Codex, I believe.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 10:59

claw game handjob: Mar 27, 2007; pinch pinch scrape pinch
ow ow fuck it's caught
i'm bleeding
JESUS TURN IT OFF
WHY ARE YOU STILL SMILING

Yep. Roughly since the whole screaming about "FEARGUS STEALS ALL THE MONEY AND IS RUINING OBSIDIAN" ranting when he left/was kicked out of the company, that's been his main hub online.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 11:01

Orv: May 4, 2011

The Nazi man who exclusively writes reprehensible rear end in a top hat characters is an even deeper pile of scum? Odd.

Hopefully this does actually level some consequences for him though since the era of big name CRPG kickstarters seems to be over he might already be kind of dead in the water.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 11:09

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Let the record show that I've always been a proud Chris Avelhater.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 12:30

Mokinokaro: Sep 11, 2001; At the end of everything, hold onto anything; Fun Shoe

Orv posted:

Hopefully this does actually level some consequences for him though since the era of big name CRPG kickstarters seems to be over he might already be kind of dead in the water.

The last thing I know of him being attached to is Dying Light 2 which is in development hell.

A lot of rumors are it being due to him being a fickle diva about the game design.

# ? Jun 20, 2020 13:02