Alec Holowka (Night in the Woods, TowerFall) accused of sexual assault [Update: Alec Holowka has reportedly passed away] [See staff posts/threadmarks]

[Kewlmyc]

That was painful to read. My heart goes out to her.

From what she wrote, it seems that he went to therapy and doesn't act that way anymore, so there's that at least, but that doesn't undo the years of damage he's done to her.

 

[grunkleFungus]

That was painful to read. My heart goes out to her.

From what she wrote, it seems that he went to therapy and doesn't act that way anymore, so there's that at least, but that doesn't undo the years of damage he's done to her.

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I think she was talking about someone else at the beginning there, for context.

 

[Kewlmyc]

I think she was talking about someone else at the beginning there, for context.

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Rereading it, and yeah you're right. My mistake.

 

[TheIdiot]

Edit: Nvm, just caught up to the staff post

 

[Mesoian]

Oof. This is a rough one.

But yeah....

 

[Deleted member 82]

I'll have to read the thing later, but man, it seems Zoe Quinn can't catch a break.

Sidenote, but I'll admit I was completely out of the loop back when GamerGate happened. What's the best* rundown of the whole thing out there? Video or text, I don't mind either way.

* By best, I mean not so unbelievably long and comprehensive that it gets confusing (I remember the thing being too complicated for me to bother back in the day), yet still informative, objective, with receipts, examples of harassment and proper contextualization that really show why it wasn't just "about ethics in journalism" or industry collusion like the shitheels would have you believe.

 

[OmegaX]

[Cartoon of sweaty neckbearded incel looking back and forth between two buttons labelled "Zoe Quinn is a lying bitch who hates videogames" and "Programmer of acclaimed left-wing indie game is a rapist"]

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You are thinking it too hard. They'll just point and say "See? It's those leftists degenerates that are the real rapists". It's a win-win for them.

 

[Mesoian]

I'll have to read the thing later, but man, it seems Zoe Quinn can't catch a break.

Sidenote, but I'll admit I was completely out of the loop back when GamerGate happened. What's the best* rundown of the whole thing out there? Video or text, I don't mind either way.

* By best, I mean not so unbelievably long and comprehensive that it gets confusing (I remember the thing being too complicated for me to bother back in the day), yet still informative, objective, with receipts, examples of harassment and proper contextualization that really show why it wasn't just "about ethics in journalism" or industry collusion like the shitheels would have you believe.

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For clarity (Mind you, this is circa 2014-2015 and new factors have come to light that make the GG movement even more horrific).

GamerGate's original claims are that Zoe Quinn slept around for coverage favors. This was debunked literally months ago. And yet it persists.

• Kotaku shows that Nathan never wrote the articles he was accused of writing
  On March 31, Nathan published the only Kotaku article he's written involving Zoe Quinn. It was about Game Jam, a failed reality show that Zoe and other developers were upset about being on. At the time, Nathan and Zoe were professional acquaintances. He quoted blog posts written by Zoe and others involved in the show. Shortly after that, in early April, Nathan and Zoe began a romantic relationship. He has not written about her since. Nathan never reviewed Zoe Quinn's game Depression Quest, let alone gave it a favorable review.
• Rock Paper Shotgun: This is the only article Nathan ever wrote on Rock Paper Shotgun that mentioned Depression quest.
• GamerGate has not provided any other evidence to back up this assertion
• Even though Nathan Grayson is the journalist accused of this unethical behavior (and he never actually wrote the articles he was accused of writing), and GamerGate insisting this is about "ethics in journalism", they can't seem to stop talking about Zoe Quinn (not a journalist) and Anita Sarkeesian (also not a journalist)

Other bullshit about Zoe Quinn

• Zoe Quinn was and still is today regularly accused of doxxing herself.
• Zoe Quinn was and still is today accused of faking death, rape, and other threats.
• Zoe Quinn doesn't actually sell the game she's accused of sleeping around to get coverage of. It's a free game about Depression, called Depression Quest, created to help others learn to live and deal with the disease. She does take donations, and was accused of lying about giving those donations to charity. However, the charity confirmed the donations were actually received
• When accusations of those lies first arose, GamerGate started donating to that charity in her place. After the charity confirmed receiving the donations, GamerGate started harassing the charity and threatening it with legal action because they claim they "didn't disclose publicly" they had received donations from her (even though that is not actuall illegal). This is a charity is made up of volunteers and a part-time paid intern, helping people deal with depression
• Zoe Quinn is frequently accused of winning an award (instead of Papers Please) for Depression Quest because she slept with someone. In actuality, her game didn't receive an award, but just an honorable mention. Papers Please did indeed win the award. No evidence backs up the claim she slept with someone to get the....honorable mention.
• Zoe Quinn was accused to have "deliberately sabotaged, DDOSed, doxxed, and shut down" TFYC ("The Fine Young Capitalists") because they were "competition" for Rebel Game Jam. The reality is that it's yet another bunch of bullshit accusations against her.

Other bullshit about Anita Sarkeesian

• Anita Sarkeesian was similarly accused of faking threats. Still happens regularly.
• The FBI confirmed the threats were real, currently under investigation.
• Anita Sarkeesian needed to cancel an appearance for a talk at a university because of extremely specific and violent threats against her and the students.
• Reminder: Anita Sarkeesian is not a journalist. She makes videos about video games, and that's it. Any attack on Anita Sarkeesian masquerading as "a fight for ethics in journalism" is automatically and instantly misplaced.

Even more bullshit

• There is a mailing list in which games writers talk to each other. Warning: Breitbart link. This fact was presented as inherently controversial, but not really explained why. Absolutely nothing worthy of discussion was ever found on this mailing list. Just people who happen to share the same job, joking with each other, and asking each other uncontroversial questions.
• One frequent accusation of journalist collusion is that there was a collected and coordinated effort to write "gamers are dead" articles to attack gamers. In actuality:
  • The first article, written by Leigh Alexander, was targeted at developers (the audience of Gamasutra), explaining how the gamer stereotype no longer has to be their focus, since games are so much broader. She wasn't attacking gamers, she was attacking the outdated stereotype
  • The subsequent articles are all related to and reactions of the first, not indepedent takes at a coincidental time indicating collusion.
  • Rock Paper Shotgun is often accused to have written their own "Gamers are dead" article. They didn't. They quoted one in a weekly round-up.
• Jenn Frank was accused of failing to disclose a conflict of interest. She actually did disclose this in her initial draft, but before publication this was "removed by editors because [it] did not fulfill the criteria for a “significant connection” in line with the Guardian’s editorial guidelines."
• Maya Kramer was accused of colluding/sleeping with the IGF chairman to secure an award for The Stanley Parable, a game she'd done PR for. This award was actually the Audience Award, and is decided by a public vote on the website and consequently immune to this alleged impropriety.
• Phil Fish, developer of the game Fez, is acused to have fixed the IGF 2012 awards. But while Fez's backers were part of the judges, they did not actually have a say in the vote since they weren't a part of the jury that makes the decision.
• The Escapist ran a horribly misguided attempt at interviewing GamerGate supporters who are developers. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.
  • Titles of the articles are "game developers" and "female game developers". Um. What?
  • None of the female game developers felt safe to share their actual identities
  • The questions are ridiculously loaded
  • The male game developers were sourced straight from 4chan...you'll never guess what happened next
  • One of the male developers interviewed was directly involved in coordinated attacks against Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and others including baseless accusations like tax fraud.

So what is GamerGate, in actuality?

• It's a carefully coordinated attack on women in gaming, orchestrated by the underbelly of 4chan, deliberately masquerading itself as a "concern about ethics in game journalism" because that's the only way it would gather mainstream support
• It's an attack on ethical journalism, the exact thing they have claimed to fight for:
  RubberJohnny said:
  ]1) The main target of #GamerGate is not a journalist. She’s a video game developer. Holding her accountable for “ethics in journalism” is like telling your accountant that it’s his job to negotiate peace treaties in the Middle East.
  
  2) The second biggest target of #GamerGate is an exemplar of clean journalism. If what you don’t like about gaming journalism is that it’s too cozy with the industry and therefore the writers are afraid to be critical, then your fucking hero should be Anita Sarkeesian. She funded herself with Kickstarter and not industry money. She is harshly critical of video games, even as she is a fan. She is the ideal of what a critical gaming journalist should be: Knowledgeable, critical, fair, thorough and utterly non-corrupt.
  
  3) The biggest victory to date of #GamerGate has been an attack on ethical journalism. One of the most important ideas when it comes to ethical journalism is that there’s a wall between advertising and editorial. #GamerGaters hate this rule of ethics, because, as opponents of ethical journalism, they wish to control what journalists say and censor any ideas or opinions that they don’t want to hear. And so they have been targeting advertisers, trying to get them to pull ads from gaming websites that publish ideas they wish to censor.
  
  5) The most recent target of #GamerGate was selected because she engages in ethical journalism. If Brianna Wu had kept her mouth shut and just quietly developed video games, she probably would have been left alone. Instead, she dipped her toe into the art of writing ethical journalistic pieces. But, because they are opponents of ethical journalism, #GamerGaters attacked Wu like they do any other young woman that doesn’t just churn out mindless pro-sexist propaganda.
  
  6) One of the main leaders of #GamerGate works for Breitbart. Milo Yiannopoulos has been up front, rallying the troops of #GamerGate and even helping them select the inevitably young, female targets for harassment. He also works for Breitbart, an organization whose hostility towards ethical journalism is legendary. No surprise there, because #GamerGate is also opposed to ethical journalism.
  
  In other words, #GamerGate is about “ethics in journalism” in the same way Fox News is “fair and balanced”, which is to say “not in the slightest and, in fact, they are the opposite”. Fox News called itself “fair and balanced” to cover for a not-exactly-discreet intention to be unfair, unbalanced and frequently just straight up misleading. And so #GamerGate claims to be about ethics in journalism, when in fact it is about the opposite: Bullying gaming journalists until they get in line with a corporate-friendly agenda of uncritically marketing “games pitched at the intellectual and emotional level of a 16-year-old suburban masturbator“. Anyone who actually tries to talk about anything interesting or intellectually engaging, particularly if female, will be drilled out with harassment.

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[riq]

The best to come out of me too movements like this is making abusers think twice before assaulting or manipulating vulnerable people. Zoe, Natalie and everyone else that speaks up are saving people from suffering like they did and I sincerely hope that this comforts them. Brave, brave women.

What's scarier is that he might not be pretending. People who abuse aren't monsters unlike the rest of us, they are often just sick people themselves who don't get the help they need to avoid harming others. Full accountability for anyone who is assaulting or raping, but they aren't "special bad guys" all that different from other people. Seeing the worst in others should cause us all to look in the mirror and see the small ways those impulses and controlling narratives live in us.

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I'm gonna agree with you but I'm afraid of people misinterpreting you as victimizing abusers.
As a white cis male, understanding that abusers are not some kind of supernatural evil but sick people with fucked problems has helped me be more critic of how I interact with women and non bin folks, questioning if maybe there's a little of that in me.
I was able to identify that I was controlling and sexist with girls I dated. Since then, I've been working hard to improve and have been in a healthy relationship for a couple years, but deconstructing yourself and your privilege is something you're never conpletely done with.

 

[whatsarobot]

The best to come out of me too movements like this is making abusers think twice before assaulting or manipulating vulnerable people. Zoe, Natalie and everyone else that speaks up are saving people from suffering like they did and I sincerely hope that this comforts them. Brave, brave women.

I'm gonna agree with you but I'm afraid of people misinterpreting you as victimizing abusers.
As a white cis male, understanding that abusers are not some kind of supernatural evil but sick people with fucked problems has helped me be more critic of how I interact with women and non bin folks, questioning if maybe there's a little of that in me.
I was able to identify that I was controlling and sexist with girls I dated. Since then, I've been working hard to improve and have been in a healthy relationship for a couple years, but deconstructing yourself and your privilege is something you're never conpletely done with.

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Good thoughts. We have to be clear when we talk about "everyone having some of this shit in them" that having it in you, and acting out on it, are different levels of consequence. But the way so many in this forum describe "the bad guys" makes me worried we're deceiving ourselves as much as Alec did with all this pro-women tweets. Talk is cheap. Action matters, and self-awareness/critique matters, and being around others who don't let you get away with your shit... that matters.

 

[garion333]

Jezus. I'm not a big fan of Zoe, but this is nuts.

 

[OmegaX]

Is this the same guy?



If so, there is nothing worse than men who pretend to care about women and then turn out to be the biggest abusers of them all.

That's the first tweet that comes up on Google when searching "Alec Holowka twitter"

That being said, I hope this lady gets justice.

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Like clockwork. Another "male feminist" that turns out to be an abuser.

This doesn't surprise me. Men who truly are allies know the most useful thing they can do is shut their god damn mouths for once, listen, and amplify the voices of women instead. Performative crap like this is a big ol' red flag in my book.

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This. I don't take anybody "being woke" on Twitter seriously anymore. Too many people doing shit for the likes and e-fame.

 

[EdibleKnife]

Christ this industry is poisoned with entitled monstrous manchildren

 

[gdt]

Jezus. I'm not a big fan of Zoe, but this is nuts.

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What has Zoe done to lose your liking of her?

 

[Wintermute]

if anyone is here to write

"i'm not a big fan of [...] but"

have a word with yourself and walk away from your keyboard.

 

[HanSoloCup]

That's terrible. I hope she finds the peace she is looking for, and I hope he finds the inside of a jail cell.

 

[Kazaam]

First, I just want to show my support to Zoe. What she did was incredibly brave and important in not only uncovering who Alec Holowka really is, but also in giving a voice to other developers who might be in similar situations. The fact that she also talked about rehabilitation instead of punishment after having gone through all that abuse shows what an amazing strength of character she has. I hope coming out with this will give her back at least a sliver of the peace of mind she deserves.

Night in the Woods is one of my favourite gaming experiences this generation and while I know he wasn't one of the writers, I can't stop from being baffled that a person so deeply involved with that game could act in such a manner. Given the nature and sensibility with which the game approaches its themes, this would've been the last game I would've suspected to hear news like this about.

 

[Novocaine]

What a rotten bastard. No one deserves that.

 

[adumb]

What has Zoe done to lose your liking of her?

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You can't be a woman on the internet and get away with it.

 

[ElephantShell]

This kind of story is way too common. Manipulative pricks. Hope she continues to work in the industry she loves and is able to not have this fucker ruin it for her.

 

[Sagroth]

Zoe Quinn has been through so much shit. Brave of her to come forward like this.

As for the game: it's one of my favorite indie titles, so it sucks to have this hanging over it. But Holowka appears to be a serial abuser and overall toxic fuck, and the industry will be better off with him blacklisted.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Jezus. I'm not a big fan of Zoe, but this is nuts.

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Imagine coming into a thread about someone recounting their painful experience of being assaulted to say you're "not a fan" of that person

 

[Deleted member 56069]

The frequency that this kind of thing happens in the games industry is quite disgusting. This story is awful. I'm glad she spoke out and hopefully more people will come forward too people like him and Jeremy Soule can be brought to justice.

 

[HollowDash]

I Just removed both Skyrim and Night in the Woods from my Stream Gamelist and i'll never give any more money on projects including these two monsters. I suggest you guys do the same.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

That's awful.

Matt Makes Games made Towerfall, what was this guys role with that?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Jezus. I'm not a big fan of Zoe, but this is nuts.

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Posts like this confuse and sort of disgust me. What has your opinion of someone got to do with them being sexually assaulted? You really couldn't comment on the awful nature of the statements without saying how much you dislike them? Honestly this post is baffling and I can't comprehend how you thought that was a relevant and appropriate comment to make.

 

[Garlador]

That was painful to read. My heart goes out to her.

From what she wrote, it seems that he went to therapy and doesn't act that way anymore, so there's that at least, but that doesn't undo the years of damage he's done to her.

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Yeah, I initially thought it was important to know he got help and she'd forgiven him...

... But that was a different dude. Ugh.

 

[nitekrawler]

This world doesn't deserve the strength, courage, and tenacity that women like Zoe Quinn, Nathalie Lawhead, and Adelaide show despite being on the receiving end of the worst humanity has to offer. I hope that one day the mobs form for their abusers instead of them. I hope that one day no one will have to endure this kinda stuff because they live in a world where they know they do not feel alone and feel they will be believed.

 

[Askherserenity]

Props to her for coming out with this shit even after all she's been through. It must've taken a lot for her to finally let it all out.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Damn. Maybe someday Zoe can be free of all this but after all the shit she has had to go through and now being a victim of more abuse and sexual assault

I dont know how she still functions. Makes me fearful of what my daughter will have to face as she ages

This shit needs to stop

 

[Bane]

And of course it's Zoe Quinn. Fuck, that lady cannot catch a damn break!

All the props and support to her for opening herself up to this shit again, I see people already have their fuckboy attitudes on display.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

Jezus. I'm not a big fan of Zoe, but this is nuts.

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Gotta let the world know you don't like her before you give empathy about what she went through right?

 

[ghibli99]

That was so hard to read. My blood ran cold. I love NITW. I bought the LP. I have merch. Gregg and Angus. <3 And... it all seems so pointless/meaningless at a time like this.

 

[Craymond]

Welp I hope gamers vote with their wallet here... (not that Americans specifically know how to place accountability on individuals and corporations)

No one deserves this shit, its up to white cis males to fucking stand up for once instead of being cowards.

BLACKBALL
Alec Holowka
PERIOD.

 

[Sailent]

"He'd jam his fingers inside me an walk me around the house by them when I told him it hurt"




Men abusing her position of power to abuse other people.

 

[Hailinel]

Only just now saw this thread and holy shit.

 

[AwShucks]

That's awful.

Matt Makes Games made Towerfall, what was this guys role with that?

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Yeah I was confused about the Towerfall mention, but apparently he did the music.

 

[Deleted member 82]

For clarity (Mind you, this is circa 2014-2015 and new factors have come to light that make the GG movement even more horrific).

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Thanks! Wasn't this summary from the old place? I remember seeing something similar on there back then.

 

[Oneself]

Wtf is wrong with this world? We're getting "news" like this everyday now. It's terrible. :(

 

[Mesoian]

Thanks! Wasn't this summary from the old place? I remember seeing something similar on there back then.

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It was, and it's outdated because we found out more things about GG like Steve Bannon using it as a platform to fund gold farming companies in China.

Wtf is wrong with this world? We're getting "news" like this everyday now. It's terrible. :(

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It's always been this way. People are slowly just becoming comfortable enough to talk about it.

 

[gogojira]

Yet another monster in the industry, imagine that.

Not at all comparable but I've refused to buy games he's involved because he was a total fucking dick to me about 15 years ago. I actually owned the InfiniteAmmo.com domain (I used to run a couple of game blogs) and him and his team at the time desperately wanted it. After a few Skype calls and some fake ass (on their end) friendliness, I said if they could just make me a nice banner for a new site (ResetGlitch.com, which I only moved to because I let them have InfiniteAmmo.com) they could have the domain.

After multiple delays from some PR guy or another (I'd already given them the domain), they gave me some utter shit I didn't even use and when I called them on their BS Alec wrote me a few shitty emails basically implying I was in the wrong. I wish I still had the emails, but I stupidly tied them to an old work email, I believe (again, many years ago when he was creating some Marionette-like game).

I guess what I'm trying to say is fuck him and this is totally believable.

 

[Mesoian]

I Just removed both Skyrim and Night in the Woods from my Stream Gamelist and i'll never give any more money on projects including these two monsters. I suggest you guys do the same.

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I mean, he already got your money for Skyrim and NiTW, nothing to be done with those except discourage new purchases. I'd bet that Jeremy Soule is all done considering his response to all this was to flee.

But yeah, Alec Holowka is all done.

Or rather, he should be. I doubt this is the last time we will see that name.

 

[ArjanN]

Just a side-note, I don't think you need to automatically go "welp, there goes my like for this game" or "welp, not buying this game now" just because someone shitty worked on it, otherwise that would encompass a lot of games. Statistically speaking, sadly, some of your favourite games may have been worked on by terrible people, but that's no reason to throw their less terrible co-workers under the bus as well. The vast majority of games are collaborative efforts. Sometimes you have to put a little more effort into thinking about whether it's worth not supporting a game to spite a specific person or whether it's still worth supporting the other devs even if a little bit of your money might go to that shitty person, because a lot of the time said other devs aren't aware of the terrible stuff their co-worker did, and in the case of the other NiTW devs, just as appalled and horrified about hearing about it as we are.

In this case, I think it's best to hold off until the other folks who were working on NiTW make their own proper statements and settle Alec's involvement (or likely non-involvement, hopefully) in any current and future NiTW material going forward.

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Yeah, just saw this relevant tweet by Austin Walker:

 

[Teenage Fansub]

I wonder if she was going to bring this to light in the Scarlett Johansson-Zoe Quinn biopic. Was she writing that?

 

[lazerface66]

Fuck, that's fucked up. Jesus.

 

[Deleted member 5764]

I read the story this morning and still feel horrible for Zoe. I can't imagine how much courage it took her to speak out, but I'm glad that she did. I'm just as glad to see so many people being supportive here. I hope that brave women like her can get us to a point where other women don't feel powerless to speak out against abuse like this.

 

[reaganstein]

I mean, he already got your money for Skyrim and NiTW, nothing to be done with those except discourage new purchases. I'd bet that Jeremy Soule is all done considering his response to all this was to flee.

But yeah, Alec Holowka is all done.

Or rather, he should be. I doubt this is the last time we will see that name.

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If Chris Hardwick is any proof, Alec is most certainly not all done. See also, Nick Robinson.

 

[Mesoian]

If Chris Hardwick is any proof, Alec is most certainly not all done. See also, Nick Robinson.

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I mean, FWIW, Nick Robinson didn't rape anyone, he was a creep. It's not illegal to be a creep. It's unprofessional, it might get you fired, but you haven't hurt anyone. Aziz Ansari is a creep, but I don't think you should get canceled because you're a creep. You should work on yourself to not be a creep and treat other people with respect.

Chris Hardwick should ABSOLUTELY be canceled and I find it absolutely insane that he's still on tv.

And you're right, Alec Holowka should be all done....but I bet he'll be back.

 

[Deleted member 56909]

This hurts alot I spent the last hour crying because of how awful the news is. NITW is such a special game to me that it really helped mecope with both my existential dread and depression and reminded me of the memories of growing up in a small town. I really identified with the characters and it just helped me sort my emotions and made me actually feel things during a time I was struggling with my life itself. This game had such an impression on me and not just that I was one of the first people to get excited about the game and tried to spread the word as much as I could. And as soon as I got the game I actually cried tears of joy. It was one of the happiest most emotional experiences of my life and seeing this news just hurts my soul. What a peice of shit and I hope Zoe gets justice but at the same time I wish I honestly didn't know I wanted to live with the fact that some beautiful game touched my heart in such a way and keep that experience in my life. Im like super emotional now typing this but like my heart is in two.

 

[TheIdiot]

Just a side-note, I don't think you need to automatically go "welp, there goes my like for this game" or "welp, not buying this game now" just because someone shitty worked on it, otherwise that would encompass a lot of games. Statistically speaking, sadly, some of your favourite games may have been worked on by terrible people, but that's no reason to throw their less terrible co-workers under the bus as well. The vast majority of games are collaborative efforts. Sometimes you have to put a little more effort into thinking about whether it's worth not supporting a game to spite a specific person or whether it's still worth supporting the other devs even if a little bit of your money might go to that shitty person, because a lot of the time said other devs aren't aware of the terrible stuff their co-worker did, and in the case of the other NiTW devs, just as appalled and horrified about hearing about it as we are.

In this case, I think it's best to hold off until the other folks who were working on NiTW make their own proper statements and settle Alec's involvement (or likely non-involvement, hopefully) in any current and future NiTW material going forward.

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I was actually about to write something similar before seeing someone quoted you.

I fully agree. I think the priority here is listening to the victim, and keeping our ears to the ground to see how the story progresses and what happens to the abusers. Automatically blacklisting full games because of one person is rather extreme, and unfair to others that worked/collaborated on a game. The creators and writers of Night in the Woods allegedly didn't know about Alec's behavior, so it's not a fitting response to suggest others to not play the game ever again, especially when the news is still developing. Likewise, associating this event to Towerfall is rather unfair to the creators of it/Celeste.