Jennifer Scheurle (chair of IGDA Women in Games SIG) accused of emotional abuse and manipulation (UPDATE: Scheurle apologizes)

[MDSVeritas]

Glad that she's acknowledging it and, I think, taking the right action here in stepping away from major public-facing and advocacy work for a while. I feel really sad for all the people hurt in these situations that have been brought up, and I hope real actual and positive change comes moving forward.

 

[Mesoian]

That's a better apology than I was expecting.

But she needs to STAY gone.

 

[Nida]

I can't read the apology because it's an image, but why did someone say she attacked someone's appearance?

 

[kaftan]

I feel that's a weak apology. That wasn't some mishap that she did. That raport given to IGDA includes testimonies from 10+ people. Most assuredly there are many, many more. Her whole advocacy and persona she put up was clearly entirely fake and served primarily to gain clout and this apology doesn't reconcile with that fact nor does it hint at any form of meaningful introspection and actual regret for harm done, not the damage to her career, but rather a surgically very well done set up for an eventual comeback. I fully believe in rehabilitation, but I also believe there are positions and institutions where you have to be of spotless character and you're only given one shot at it. She blew it and I don't believe she ought to be welcomed into any leader or leader-adjacent place in the community in the future.

Doc Burford (Adiós, Paratopic) did a lot of narrative work on Shipbreakers, too. I'm guessing more cool folks were behind that game that contributed to the space working class and anti-capitalist narrative.

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I'd be cautious about that. There has been some kind of major rift between Burford and two other developers of Paratopic. The latter often allude to being victims of a toxic narcissist and there was this really weird bit where the former said something like "I was made aware that some of my previous collaborators are going to attack me, accusing me of some shit, it's all untrue" which morphed quickly into "if you say anything, I will sue you into oblivion, you breached your contract with me and I have archives of our conversations where you admitted to breaking the law and I will report you" which really smelled of "if bury me, I will bury you with me" mutually destruction kinda thing - and with so many of his longtime colleagues cutting ties with him (even someone working on Adios)... yeah, I'd be cautious.

 

[headspawn]

Just posting this in here because in case anyone was interested.

IGDA's response:



They apparently claim that they had already investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.





I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to feel any confidence in reporting anything to them if this is what an exhaustive complaint yields.

 

[Messofanego]

I'd be cautious about that. There has been some kind of major rift between Burford and two other developers of Paratopic. The latter often allude to being victims of a toxic narcissist and there was this really weird bit where the former said something like "I was made aware that some of my previous collaborators are going to attack me, accusing me of some shit, it's all untrue" which morphed quickly into "if you say anything, I will sue you into oblivion, you breached your contract with me and I have archives of our conversations where you admitted to breaking the law and I will report you" which really smelled of "if bury me, I will bury you with me" mutually destruction kinda thing - and with so many of his longtime colleagues cutting ties with him (even someone working on Adios)... yeah, I'd be cautious.

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I'm aware of that but I've heard it was the former than the latter and so I'd rather not comment further and leave it to them to bring it up. It's messy for sure.

 

[Feign]

Just posting this in here because in case anyone was interested.

IGDA's response:



They apparently claim that they had already investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.





I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to feel any confidence in reporting anything to them if this is what an exhaustive complaint yields.

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From an outsider's POV, this all feels fairly political. Jennifer mentioning believing in the process and choosing to step down removes future accountability when she can claim she was cleared of any wrongdoing. If manipulation wasn't a part of this story it wouldn't feel as bad, but because of the framing and the refusal to contact accusers, it's hard to see things otherwise. To be clear, I agree wholeheartedly with what Dr. Monkey said. This is on IGDA and their lack of follow-through.

 

[dskzero]

I'm a bit confused about this.

Jennifer mentioned the IGDA dismissed the accusations?

 

[CATM]

Man, we live in crazy times. Jennifer Scheurle's career could be over in a heartbeat (maybe rightfully so), simply based on twitter allegations.

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Where have you been? This has been the case for years now.

 

[Polyh3dron]

The OP clarified there was nothing sexual about her behavior and that grooming may have been the wrong word to use. Either way, it was abuse.

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The term "grooming" has very very specific connotations when it's used to describe abuse, and if it's not the whole priming-an-underage-person-for-a-sexual-relationship-once-they-come-of-legal-age thing, the term shouldn't be used in this context because that is exactly what people reading it will think is being described, and for good reason.

 

[Deleted member 51789]

I'm a bit confused about this.

Jennifer mentioned the IGDA dismissed the accusations?

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Based on the replies to their tweet, seemingly the IGDA didn't properly investigate despite saying they did so thoroughly.

It's also a bit of a weird thing for Scheurle to mention in an apology, makes it seem kind of empty if she also says she believes in IGDA's processes that found her innocent.

 

[Deleted member 5491]

Noni Ochs, the person who kicked this all off, went to uni with him.
Read this thread and then this "apology" from Jennifer again.



Sorry, but Jennifer should stay the fuck away from this business and stop pretending that she did some mistakes.
She is a manipulator, a snake and should stop pretending to be a good person

 

[Nida]

 

[Messofanego]

Click to shrink...

That's horrible.

 

[Nida]

That's horrible.

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Incredibly so. Seems like she went from country to country ruining people.