"I left Insomniac Games because of how they treat women" Ex-Employee speaks out
- Thread starter XaviConcept
- Start date
Is there a list of companies that have these issues? out of the top of my head I can only think of Riot games, Ubisoft and now Insomniac
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If he is their community liaison he should say something.
First Ubisoft and now Insomniac (along with many other unreported ones)... and it's not just one guy either, damn.
He should, but unfortunately many companies don't use social media employees as a channel for HR issues.
The community manager is someone with a vested interest. They are little more than puppets who are only able to say exactly what they are instructed to say. This is PR 101.
Exactly, his job is to shill, but it's ok for people on a forum that he's shilling on to expect more when his title is community manager.
That's not his job, in this capacity, and invoking his name over and over again in this thread simply shifts the attention away from where it needs to be.
You can tweet at Insomniac, make petitions, email them, leave them reviews for their games, and email prominent members of the press for coverage. All of those are far more effective avenues than trying to hold someone else accountable (so to speak) for a statement that needs to be delivered from people in positions of authority, not the community manager.
The difference for Ubisoft, CD Project, Eugen System or Riot is that medias conducted various investigations with many named or anonymised people, and exposed what could have happened hierarchically - than it even goes to trial..
Here we have a single testimony of an ex-employee speaking for others like a witness, and only one name of a possible fired abuser. So without more people to corroborate there is not much more that can be said for now.
No one else is saying he is accountable
He doesn't even have to reply, though a simple "noted" would be appreciated. It's his job to let his higher up's know the pulse of the community. Yeah I get it, there is a large group of people here that chose to ignore this and instead guess and ponder what their next game will be instead and if those people out weigh the people that have a conscience than yeah I can see the higher up's not caring. But then again this situation shows the higher up's don't care that much about sexual harassment if the one person is still there.
One thing this site has done before is limiting game conversation to a single thread and having a thread banner.
Seeing this news for the first time today. So it doesn't hurt to at least make people aware of problematic companies in the game threads.
I absolutely assure you that:
1) The higher ups already know. Just because you didn't get the courtesy nod as a spectator doesn't mean it didn't happen. This forum is very large, and James (as well as many others who work at the studio but don't post) are on this forum very regularly. The chance that the people in a position to address this don't know about it is incredibly slim.
2) People insisting that he respond to this on this forum in some manner are absolutely setting the stage for pinning him as a part of "sweeping it under the rug". It isn't his job to address matters this significant.
Again, it is best if James is left out of the conversation, because there is nothing he can or will say to anyone here. We need to keep the attention on the victim, and the management, and apply pressure to them through the avenues I suggested (or others). Badgering the community manager, who can't comment on this anyway, is not a resolution or productive means to resolve this issue. The best thing you can do is push for coverage by major media outlets, and hope that the victim finds justice and resolution for the abuse they endured.
It's also worth adding that if the community manager says something in response, depending on how that response goes, they're putting their job more at risk than the people in positions of authority that are allegedly doing this.
Demanding answers from the community liaisons also opens them up for more unsavory types to pressure them too. There was a very recent little known thing for a recent indie game called Solasta: Crown of the Magister, a DnD 5E-based cRPG that had been in early access starting last October and had fully launched at the end of May. At the full launch, the developers suddenly added in a bonus option during character creation for pronoun preference, though the way dialogue works in that game, it was generally more for roleplay purposes and not really used in-game at all (much like the ability to write a bio for your characters in that game as well).
A simple option at the end of character creation for a DnD-based RPG got a certain enthusiast website up in arms for about a week, demanding that the liaison respond about duping them or something (combined with the community liason publicly stating on Steam forums that they'll immediately ban anyone who posts in a discriminatory manner there, because lately, for whatever reason, a lot of cRPGs on Steam forums get people asking about 'wokeness' as if it's their primary criteria for purchasing a game). The community liason had been known to post in that website's forum in the months leading to the game's release beforehand. I think they've ditched that website since.
The reason why many people here likely have never heard of this is because it's a pretty obscure game. I almost don't want to signal boost this incident by bringing it up here to begin with, but it's the only example I can think of where I don't think most people here would even want the community liason to even entertain that sort of situation.
There really should be something done in regards to this. On the back of a high profile release this should be amplified and hopefully a few news sources pick it up again.
As for this site, I'd appreciate if the mods could update the title and that posters were more concerned with the wellbeing of the victim rather than the community manager.
There is no need for the discourse to turn in whether or not the community manager should respond to posters in this thread or not.
As for this site, I'd appreciate if the mods could update the title and that posters were more concerned with the wellbeing of the victim rather than the community manager.
There is no need for the discourse to turn in whether or not the community manager should respond to posters in this thread or not.
Stay on topic
Official Staff Communication
This thread is about the allegations that have been made, the victims and their experiences. This is not a thread for arguing about what a single poster's job title and responsibilities are. The discussion has derailed to the point where it is distracting from the very serious subject of the allegations and work culture at Insomniac. Please get back on topic and avoid further derails. Further derailment will be moderated.
CD Projekt? There's been no sexual harassment allegations (atleast publicly) on CD Projekt. Witcher 3 director left because of bullying accusations.
Naughty Dog allegedly fired a developer after filing sexual harassment report.
Former Naughty Dog Employee Says He Was Fired After Filing Sexual Harassment Complaint
A former employee of the highly-regarded video game development studio Naughty Dog has accused the company of terminating him after he says he filed a complaint that he was sexually harassed by someone else at the studio. In a statement, Naughty Dog says it has no record of these allegations. In...
kotaku.com
Would unionization in the video game industry address this abhorrent behaviour? It seems so widespread it's honestly disturbing to me.
What is it with these people.. It's a place of fucking work, maybe keep it professional.. But I guess it's all a part of some sick power game for them.
Very dissapointing to hear one of them is still at the company.
Very dissapointing to hear one of them is still at the company.
Yeah I wasn't mentioning sexual harassment specifically , but more how theses stories get exposed and covered, like the article you've linked about ND is detailed. Here it seems it goes in "mute" mode fast before any investigation (until now).CD Projekt? There's been no sexual harassment allegations (atleast publicly) on CD Projekt. Witcher 3 director left because of bullying accusations.
Naughty Dog allegedly fired a developer after filing sexual harassment report.
Former Naughty Dog Employee Says He Was Fired After Filing Sexual Harassment Complaint
A former employee of the highly-regarded video game development studio Naughty Dog has accused the company of terminating him after he says he filed a complaint that he was sexually harassed by someone else at the studio. In a statement, Naughty Dog says it has no record of these allegations. In...
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Steph mentioned it in a recent podcast when they were talking about playing Rift Apart. They said something along the lines of: I have to mention that this story happened when talking about an Insomniac game but even I almost forgot about it due to the Ubisoft news overshadowing it at the same time and its a shame because we shouldn't so easily forget a story like this.
It would provide representation, legal protections and trusted channel for employees to talk about misconducts and issues with their employer and/or work environment. Raising issues by proxy is so much easier than any single employee going head-to-head with their own employer. So it could help, but these studios and companies still would need to want to fix their own shit. They could still keep denying, hiding and protecting abusers.
It would help some, it's been discussed a lot I think in regards to devs needing to be part of a union but…..how does that even start. Who starts it and how does that work with publishers and game studios. Are they forced to Join it and adhere to those rules
OP
OP
Ah, I was wondering why this came back.
Worth pointing out that around that time last year a BUNCH of people at Insomniac got new jobs, not unheard of but still surprising as most of them were like "I did a bit of work on Miles Morales" or "did this for Ratchet before I left" and thats unusual as exoduses happen when development wraps, not starts.
My reckless speculation is a bunch of people quit in protest but I honestly have no idea, thats just how it felt at the time.
Worth pointing out that around that time last year a BUNCH of people at Insomniac got new jobs, not unheard of but still surprising as most of them were like "I did a bit of work on Miles Morales" or "did this for Ratchet before I left" and thats unusual as exoduses happen when development wraps, not starts.
My reckless speculation is a bunch of people quit in protest but I honestly have no idea, thats just how it felt at the time.
It's hard to keep track sometimes, there's so much shit going under the radar. I wonder if a "studios under allegations of misconduct" thread / OP that is regularly updated would be a good idea, so that people can use it as reference. Perhaps with positive examples from the industry as well.
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Microsoft workers shared dozens of sexual harassment stories on an internal email chain
Demeaning comments and requests for sexual favors
www.theverge.com
edit: Don't mean this as a derail. However these issues are much more commonplace in the tech industry than one would think, is my point (also see the Google story that broke this week). It's very unfortunate, and let's hope that more and more light is shined on them. I support all these brave women speaking up.
Wouldn't get my hopes up based on what happened with the alleged Naughty Dog incident and also this https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/former-sony-employee-alleges-sexual-harassment-and-ethnic-comments/2328861/?amp
They seem to be more about firing the victim, than about holding perperators accountable.
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Holy shit:
"The suit additionally alleges that Sony management hacked into her cloud drive and obtained intimate photos of her, then accused her of putting the images on her work laptop, according to the suit.
"Then Sony used the private materials to label (Pochue) a slut in a misguided effort to discredit her complaints about sexual harassment and sex discrimination," the suit alleges.
Sony management made the accusations against Pochue on the same day in June 2018 that they had promised to investigate her harassment allegations, the suit states.
Sony management fired Pochue a month later after telling her that the presence of the intimate photos of her on her work computer violated company policy, the suit states."
It's crazy that people get away with doing shit like this and are backed by the companies.
JFC. Did this ever get its own thread? If not it should, even if the article is over a year old. The more pressure on Sony for this kind of shit the better.
I'm not sure if it's PlayStation related, maybe why most people haven't seen it.
Here's one follow up btw: https://www.cflweb.org/former-asian-sony-employee-drops-trial-over-harassment-ethnic-comments/
Unsurprisingly not much more info at all, just an update on the status/ending of the trial.
I spent the last 6 months talking about Insomniac as one of the best studios not only for their output but because they just seemed such a cool place to work.
I honestly never learn. I feel like at this point every big studio has at least one story like this out there and I wonder how many more we don't know.
It's fucking depressing and it happens everywhere.
This culture of defending the abusers and firing the victims is everywhere and it fucking sucks.
Edit: btw is it just me or this resurfaced due to that Cory tweet a year later? If so, good to see someone with power bringing this up again.
I honestly never learn. I feel like at this point every big studio has at least one story like this out there and I wonder how many more we don't know.
It's fucking depressing and it happens everywhere.
This culture of defending the abusers and firing the victims is everywhere and it fucking sucks.
Edit: btw is it just me or this resurfaced due to that Cory tweet a year later? If so, good to see someone with power bringing this up again.
So they decided it was cheaper to utterly destroy that woman's life and reputation than to try to deliver to her some semblance of justice. What the fuck.
User Banned (Permanent): Dismissing and Downplaying Sexual Harassment; Account in Junior Phase
Do most people in these forums understand a thing called the law?
You know if this is in front of the courts right now - Insomniac really cant /shouldn't say much.
If one of their employees is found Guilty- then they need to talk after that.
Until someone is found Guilty legally -everyone here is assuming guilt without knowing all the facts.
You know if this is in front of the courts right now - Insomniac really cant /shouldn't say much.
If one of their employees is found Guilty- then they need to talk after that.
Until someone is found Guilty legally -everyone here is assuming guilt without knowing all the facts.
Always thought it was weird that it just sorta faded away from consciousness here, because even at the time last year Insomniac never really addressed it in any remotely satisfactory way, even when they issued a response to it.
Damn, imagine instead of trying to fix the issues and solve the problems you just up and destroy someones life and fire them instead