Video Game Industry Rocked by Outpouring of Sexual Misconduct Allegations | Hacker News Reader

Video Game Industry Rocked by Outpouring of Sexual Misconduct Allegations

bloomberg.com

35 pointsKapura26 comments

It's good that this is finally happening. Games has been long overdue for a reckoning. There's a really strong culture of worshipping individuals in games, particularly lead designers/creative directors, and a whole lot of bad behavior by them is overlooked/forgiven.

Having worked in the industry I'd believe basically anything anyone told me about the horrors they've seen.

> Having worked in the industry I'd believe basically anything anyone told me about the horrors they've seen.

Can you (safely) provide any anecdotes? Genuinely curious - not doubting you.

Engineering manager asked a report to 'bend over and take it' from the only openly gay guy in the studio. Lots of off color jokes, (e.g. including animals having crudely animated sex in the background of builds that got sent to playtesters. Jokes about 'red rockets' and 'bearded clams' likewise), loud and angry arguments about whether characters were 'sexy enough' to appease the straight male player (and being 'excited' to see what cosplay of said sexy character would look like.), etc.

> asked a report

What does this mean exactly? Other than that, which I can’t really judge because I don’t understand it, it’s just people talking and having fun… No sexism, no discrimination, no abuse. I realize any expression of being a sexual being is frowned upon in Americas puritanical workplaces, but it’s hardly scandalous. Neither is expressly aiming at the market of heterosexual male adolescents. There is a lot of talk of working environments being “unfriendly” towards female coworkers, and it’s a legitimate problem, but it still falls very short of a “MeToo reckoning”.

TFA isn’t much better. The Avellone guy apparently got a women drunk and groped her. That’s a #MeToo worthy offense and it should be enough to prosecute and “cancel” him. The rest is him sending DMs and a weird drive-by cancel-attempt on one Omeed Dariani, who made an “unwelcome sexual overture”. The proposed party presumably said no and nothing more happened, or the article would mention it. I really don’t know what’s going on in the article. Avellone abused a woman. Dispense justice accordingly and stop trying to elevate any and all sexual behavior to the same level.

> What does this mean exactly?

"Hey you, lost the game, eh? Well, motherfucker, you better bend over and get ready to take it from <person>, you fucking loser, eh?" (Laughter)

I mean, maybe that's just joking around and having fun, but clearly not everyone there felt that way.

Sounds like fun, except the bend over part.

This is happening in the DOTA 2 community right now. A pro scene / streamer was outed and their affiliations have been dropping them. Other major streamers are discussing it. It’s all over /r/dota2.

Tangential question: how come the Bloomberg website recognises me in incognito mode (I have reached the limit on free articles) I how can I overcome it?

In incognito mode, the FileSystem API is disabled, so anyone can tell you are in incognito mode by checking it

Bloomberg actually has the best paywall fingerprinting in the business. Using a new browser won't help either

Reader View in Firefox worked for me

use a different browser?

Meghna Jayanth, who worked on the phenomenal mobile game 80 Days, among other things, has been retweeting a lot of the stories of abuse as they are coming out:

https://twitter.com/betterthemask

outlined: https://outline.com/szyfzv

Couldn't read article. Stupid paywall.

The video game industry is just like any other industry - sex, violence, corruption, success, failure. But because its so consumer-oriented, and probably because everyone who works within it is relatively young, everything receives excruciating attention.

The same stuff occurs in boring industries, but no one cares and it doesn't hit Twitter or Reddit.

I moved from making AAA games to other parts of the software industry in 2005. It is not "just like any other industry". The working conditions were bad/abusive, very open sexism, lots of young inexperienced employees (like myself at the time) who don't realize what's going on is not the norm elsewhere. I got paid in a class action settlement against one of my employers. I don't get the impression anything has changed.

Leaving games got me: cooler/more interesting work, much better pay, dramatically better work conditions. I never again experienced anything at the level of the unpleasantness of working for a game studio.

I also worked in the video game industry when I was younger (2000-2010 I think?) and had no idea that all the essentially terrible things that were happening were not really normal. Some companies were definitely worse than others but it was definitely quite bad looking back on it.

Some of the companies have had repercussions because of it now.

Having worked in software for the past decade, including 3 years in games, I'm inclined to say that the culture in games is more permissive towards bad behavior and unprofessionalism.

For instance, I once saw a manager tell one of his engineers to 'bend over and take it', then gesture to the only openly gay guy on the team (who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole exchange). Zero repercussions, not even a talking to. That shit wouldn't fly anywhere else I've worked.

There's something to be said about the mental health of employees in the industry. In my personal experience, gamers are not always the healthiest people. Sitting at a desk working all day then going home and sitting at a desk gaming all night. On top of that, these people are put through high stress, cut-throat, deadline driven environments, and you get a recipe for disaster. Now add the fact that people attracted to video games tend to edge on the anti-social.

I'd say the video game industry is quite distinct from other industries in that the consumers have great say in how the industry should operate. The selfishness and narcissism of our consumerist culture are quite prominent here and it shows in how exploitative the industry is. I mean 60-70 hr work week is the norm here. Which other 'boring' industry has that?

> Which other 'boring' industry has that?

Meatpacking and logistics (Amazon!).

Yes, those industries are exploitative and we've even had presidential aspirants take aim at those exploitative practices. But the OP seems to think that only the gaming industry gets special attention.

I think it's more the fact that gaming is a "cool" industry like fashion, music, acting, comedy (but on a smaller scale, obviously) where the demand for roles outstrips supply and so it's easier for people to abuse their position to demand "favours" to help people get ahead.

I'd imagine there is less of this for people competing to be java developer #128 at EnterpiseSoftware Co LTD.

Agreed, it's definitely more visible because it's consumer facing.

Last time this garbage happened a game dev killed him self. No trial no due process. Just straight up proxy execution.

Communist playbook.

How this garbage article from a garbage peddler made it to the front page is disturbing.

Trial and due process are tools that are unavailable to most victims. In most cases, the only way to deliver justice and protect others from harm is to speak out.

And if you think victims should be silenced by a system that has been designed from the ground up to work against them, then you are part of the problem.

Alec was not executed by proxy. He killed himself after his pattern of abuse was revealed to the world. He did not deserve to die, but trial and due process were never an option.

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