Night In The Woods dev accused of sexual assault/rape EDIT: Dies of apparent suicide.

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PostNight In The Woods dev accused of sexual assault/rape EDIT: Dies of apparent suicide.
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 10:41 am

Content warning for detailed account of said assault:

twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/1166212080753528832



And yes this is that Zoe Quinn, one of the principle targets of GamerGate back in 2014. I can't even imagine the bravery needed to post this given all the gooseberry fool she's been through previously.

The guy she's accusing is Alec Holowka who founded NiTW developer Infinite Fall and has composed music for various indie titles including Towerfall Ascension.

strawberry float that guy.

EDIT:

Now Skyrim composer Jeremy Soule has been accused of rape.

http://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/calling-out

This...feels like the start of something.

EDIT 2:

Now Splash Damage dev Luc Shelton as well.

twitter.com/ohadelaide/status/1166232999349956608


Last edited by Tafdolphin on Sat Aug 31, 2019 8:32 pm, edited 12 times in total.
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PostRe: Night In The Woods developer accused of sexual assault
by jawafour » Tue Aug 27, 2019 11:26 am

It's shocking that the guy has allegedly treated some women in such a horrible way.

It's also rather dispiriting in that it casts a shadow over my love of the Night In The Woods game, too, but that's an obviously minor issue relative to the alleged behaviours.

Even so, I'd suggest that the accused's name could appear in the thread title; it would perhaps be right that he should be the focus for investigation rather than something he had worked on.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 11:47 am

The entire hook of the story is his status as a top tier indie dev, so it's important his biggest game is referenced in the title. If it makes someone think twice about purchasing the game and giving the guy their money, cool.

He should also be up there too so, done.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Pedz » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:09 pm

Am I missing something? I read the first twitter post, but, it reads like he didn't sexually assault her someone else did previously and he then took that opportunity to belittle, blame, assault and strawberry float with her which is strawberry floated up anyway. It sounded like the sex they had consensual.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:17 pm

Pedz wrote:Am I missing something? I read the first twitter post, but, it reads like he didn't sexually assault her someone else did previously and he then took that opportunity to belittle, blame, assault and strawberry float with her which is strawberry floated up anyway. It sounded like the sex they had consensual.


The tweet is 1 of 2.

EDIT: Posted second tweet for clarity.

EDIT2: The sexual assault from Holowka is clearly mentioned in the first tweet actually, so maybe read it again.

Last edited by Tafdolphin on Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Trelliz » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:26 pm

It seems that we can't go a week without a game developer being revealed as a creepy shitlord or a twitch streamer being racist/outed as a pedo.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Winckle » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:37 pm

Wow, I hope she takes this, and any evidence she has to the police.

We should migrate GRcade to Flarum. :toot:
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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Pedz » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:40 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:
Pedz wrote:Am I missing something? I read the first twitter post, but, it reads like he didn't sexually assault her someone else did previously and he then took that opportunity to belittle, blame, assault and strawberry float with her which is strawberry floated up anyway. It sounded like the sex they had consensual.


The tweet is 1 of 2.

EDIT: Posted second tweet for clarity.

EDIT2: The sexual assault from Holowka is clearly mentioned in the first tweet actually, so maybe read it again.


Still not seeing it, The only bit I see about the sexual assault and him at the same time is him blaming her for it.

Unless it's the "he'd jam his fingers in me" bit. I just assumed there that it was more like jamming his fingers in her side to hurt her, but rereading it, she says inside and walk me around by them, I can only read that he was sticking them up her and dragging her around, which, is even more strawberry floated up again. Nobody should have to deal with that kind of thing.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 12:42 pm

Winckle wrote:Wow, I hope she takes this, and any evidence she has to the police.


I'm going to take this as written rather than as a possibly sarcastic repudiation of her claims* but this happened a long time ago so, save the possibility of texts/emails that back this up and the testimony of other women that allege similar behaviour, like most cases of sexual assault I doubt there'll be any physical evidence of wrongdoing.

Pedz wrote:Still not seeing it


Yeah you got it.

*and apologies in advance if the latter is not the case. "Why didn't you go to the police lol" is a common reaction from those looking to pour disbelief on these particular incidents so forgive me for jumping the gun if I misread this.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Moggy » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:14 pm

Trelliz wrote:It seems that we can't go a week without a game developer being revealed as a creepy shitlord or a twitch streamer being racist/outed as a pedo.


Now you know how fans of 1970s Glam Rock feel.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev [EDIT: Skyrim composer too] accused of sexual assault/rape
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:16 pm

I've edited the OP but it seems a female dev has accused Skyrim composer Jeremy Soule of raping her in 2008

http://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/calling-out

EDIT: and Luc Shelton of Splash Damage has been accused of sexual assault too.

twitter.com/ohadelaide/status/1166232999349956608


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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by mic » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:35 pm

Obviously his behaviour is deplorable, but the sex sounded consensual to me, mostly because she isn’t accusing him of rape. His being ‘mean and violent’ during sex... well, does that amount to ‘sexual assault’? Why didn’t she involve the police?

Also, this isn’t new or unique to gaming and women have always been subjected to it. It would be encouraging if gaming culture could be the force for change, but hasn’t she been through this already? I wish her well in this crusade, but I fear it will end badly for her...

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:39 pm

mic wrote:Obviously his behaviour is deplorable, but the sex sounded consensual to me, mostly because she isn’t accusing him of rape. His being ‘mean and violent’ during sex... well, does that amount to ‘sexual assault’? Why didn’t she involve the police?

Also, this isn’t new or unique to gaming and women have always been subjected to it. It would be encouraging if gaming culture could be the force for change, but hasn’t she been through this already? I wish her well in this crusade, but I fear it will end badly for her...


So let me break this down:

- Not assault because... I dunno. It didn't meet your specific criteria
- She didn't call the police ergo not a crime
- This happens all the time so we cool. Nothing to see here.
- Gaming community abused her before so she should've learned her place and be quiet.

I desperately wanted to write something constructive, a Karl-esque response pointing out your prejudices and levelling them against hard datapoints and misconceptions of rape culture but I just can't.

This response is a trashfire.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by Moggy » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:47 pm

Reading her words it sounds like she is saying that she was sexually assaulted by somebody else before falling into this dickheads clutches. She then seems to say that he was controlling, manipulative and generally a nasty banana split, but I am missing where she accuses him of sexual assault/rape.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by OrangeRKN » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:52 pm

This all sounds awful, I hope some justice can get delivered.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:55 pm

Moggy wrote:Reading her words it sounds like she is saying that she was sexually assaulted by somebody else before falling into this dickheads clutches. She then seems to say that he was controlling, manipulative and generally a nasty banana split, but I am missing where she accuses him of sexual assault/rape.


Not rape, but sexual assault. A lot of folks seem to be bouncing off her intro and not getting to the actual story.

In short:

- he invited her out to Winnipeg under false pretences
- he physically confined her to his apartment (including refusing to give her the entry code to the complex)
- he regularly emotionally abused her (screaming for an hour due to her 'tone' not being quite right)
- he would penetrate her with his fingers and walk her around the house. Like, you know, a dog. Didn't stop when told he was hurting her.
- she had to be physically extracted from the apartment by friends, only after they asked if she was ok.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by Moggy » Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:01 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:
Moggy wrote:Reading her words it sounds like she is saying that she was sexually assaulted by somebody else before falling into this dickheads clutches. She then seems to say that he was controlling, manipulative and generally a nasty banana split, but I am missing where she accuses him of sexual assault/rape.


Not rape, but sexual assault. A lot of folks seem to be bouncing off her intro and not getting to the actual story.

In short:

- he invited her out to Winnipeg under false pretences
- he physically confined her to his apartment (including refusing to give her the entry code to the complex)
- he regularly emotionally abused her (screaming for an hour due to her 'tone' not being quite right)
- he would penetrate her with his fingers and walk her around the house. Like, you know, a dog. Didn't stop when told he was hurting her.
- she had to be physically extracted from the apartment by friends, only after they asked if she was ok.


I missed the finger penetration part, yeah there are very few doubts there that that was sexual assault.

He sounds a lovely chap.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev Alec Holowka accused of sexual assault
by mic » Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:09 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:
mic wrote:Obviously his behaviour is deplorable, but the sex sounded consensual to me, mostly because she isn’t accusing him of rape. His being ‘mean and violent’ during sex... well, does that amount to ‘sexual assault’? Why didn’t she involve the police?

Also, this isn’t new or unique to gaming and women have always been subjected to it. It would be encouraging if gaming culture could be the force for change, but hasn’t she been through this already? I wish her well in this crusade, but I fear it will end badly for her...


So let me break this down:

- Not assault because... I dunno. It didn't meet your specific criteria
- She didn't call the police ergo not a crime
- This happens all the time so we cool. Nothing to see here.
- Gaming community abused her before so she should've learned her place and be quiet.

I desperately wanted to write something constructive, a Karl-esque response pointing out your prejudices and levelling them against hard datapoints and misconceptions of rape culture but I just can't.

This response is a trashfire.


One of the women (Nathalie, I think), said this:

“When you defend rapists, and bemoan the cultural loss of their work when they get called out, think about the bigger loss that could have been the contributions of their victims. I have things to contribute too. I have art to put out there too. I matter too. Other victims do too.”

I totally agree, and find it horrendous that people’s careers and lives can be manipulated so callously by the powerful for their sexual gratification.

However, from what you posted above, Zoe doesn’t seem to be making accusations of rape (as Nathalie is), so the sexual assault stuff just seems to muddy the water, when her main point seems to be the perpetrator’s ability to maliciously affect her career after their breakup.

Also, I didn’t mean to imply that Zoe should have remained quiet - rather, I was complimenting her resilience, and hoping that she doesn’t receive the backlash from aspects of the ‘gaming community’ which I anticipate.

I think I should be able to make these observations without you getting offended.

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by Tafdolphin » Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:18 pm

I'm not offended. At all. I just think it was a gooseberry fool reply. I mean, you came out and said you didn't think it was sexual assault. No-one was asking you your thoughts on the validity of her claims and the fact this was your first impulse, to interject your own denial, speaks volumes.

I think this second one is gooseberry fool too as you seem to be implying that sexual assault is somehow...better than rape? Less serious, like the former is too far but the latter is almost fair game? And the career stuff is clearly, blatantly added as an addendum. It is Quinn reflecting on her own actions (ie regret about not talking up sooner) due to what she classifies as a selfish need to earn money.

EDIT: I know I have a rep for acting aggressively towards people who don't share my views on this stuff, but strawberry float. Both your replies are weak-ass deflections that seek to downplay the severity of her claims.

"Muddying the water."

:|

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PostRe: Night In The Woods dev, Skyrim composer, Gears 4 dev all accused of sexual assault/rape
by jawafour » Tue Aug 27, 2019 2:29 pm

I may be misunderstanding situations and how people are affected, but I am a little surprised at the route of social media being chosen as a means of raising these undoubtedly terrible incidents.

Before I explain that thinking, I'll be clear that calling out these cases is, of course, the right thing to do; they should not be accepted or hidden and the victims should gain justice.

The physical assault incidents sound like they should have the involvement of the police. I'm not sure how it works if people make allegations of assault on social media; how do the police gain awareness and would they automatically investigate? I absolutely understand that the victims may be suffering trauma and be uncertain about what to do but, in putting the details on social media rather than contacting the police, there is a risk that an ugly, divided response may be gained instead of the incident gaining the appropriate investigation.

For clarity, I'm not "blaming the victim"; it would just seem that faster, more appropriate action and help could be provided if the police were contacted.


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