It was a relief to hear that this case has been settled, and hopefully positively, but given that in the very statement linked, Avellone says “I would ask everyone to respect the privacy of Ms. Barrows and Ms. Bristol and use this opportunity as a means to listen to all voices in improving our culture and our communities” my preference would be to do just that and not get into the potentially vexed issue either of what happened in this particular case or the wider issues of sexual discrimination or harassment, or false accusations thereof, in the world of games development. This is a topic I have strong private opinions about, but as a forum member I don’t want to get into it further here, so I am hoping others will be of like mind. I do agree with Saito Hikari that public forums on the internet are not the best place to litigate this stuff.
To be clear, I’m not speaking as a moderator trying to quash valid debate on this topic. Though I am nervous about the potential of it trampling over issues that are traumatic in people’s real lives, it is at least related to gaming so relevant here if we squint a bit and it’s no bad thing to at least make sure the statement concluding the case is well publicised. Personally, though, I am now happy to read the statements and consider the matter closed.
Well, yeah. This case can be what it is, and one can simultaneously observe that sexual abuse is an all-too-common, likely systemic problem in the world, including game development, that needs immediate observation and amplification of its status as a major issue. The result of this case does not change the fact that there are sociocultural problems which need addressing as they pertain to sexual abuse within the communities of a shared hobby/industry/interest.
Remember the human (This is a forum for a video game):
