Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/08/28/game-developers-composer-name.html
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Not the least bit surprised. A lot of these gamedev types were complete incels before they had any kind of fame.
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But I thought it was about ethics in games journalism?
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It makes me mad that Jeremy Soule is a rapist. What’s with men and their need to be doing that? Like wtf.
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I (a male) completely share you’re utter befuddlement. How hard is it to take “no” for an answer? I hate my gender some days.
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I was reflecting on the looming dread I feel about finding out that people I like, people I look up to, and people who made things I like are rapists. Like the other day when I wanted to paraphrase Desmond Tutu and felt that before I did so I had to do a google search to see if there were sexual assault allegations.
And then I imagine if - instead worrying what I’ll see when I google strangers - I had to worry that I was in danger of being raped by the same proportion of people in my own life.
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Dammit. I really, really liked Night in the Woods, and it’s both disappointing and angering that Alec Holowka is a scumbag.
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I haven’t thought terribly highly of him since he compared music piracy to the Holocaust (and then went into business with his brother to “sell” CDs of his music that they both perpetually failed to deliver to such a degree that they have an F from the BBB and are a running joke in the Guild Wars community). I’m depressingly unsurprised that anyone with that degree of over-inflated self-importance is also unwilling to take “no” for an answer.
If it makes you feel any better, the game’s co-creators (and the ones seemingly responsible for the parts worth noting) are equally angry.
I still haven’t gotten around to buying it (it’s been on my wishlist forever), but this reaction makes me feel less awful about doing so in the future.
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Did anyone involved work in the development of Skyrim (aka The Elder Scrolls V)? Cuz that’s a picture from Skyrim, and I was all, “No! What part of Skyrim did any of the abusers contribute to?”
I was relieved not to see any mentioned, but then confused when seeing the screen shot.
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Jeremy Soule did the soundtrack for Skyrim.
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And Neverwinter Nights and I think a couple other D&D Bioware games.
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I’ve found that was more gamers than game developers. But a lot of those gamers are trying to become game developers now, so…
The problem we’re seeing with game developers is that they’re just run-of-the-mill creeps and abusers. But the industry is heavily male and totally male-dominated when it comes to management positions, so harassment/abuse issues (much less how to resolve them) just haven’t even been considered until recently. Now they’re finally being addressed… badly.
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Add Brandon Boyer to the list.
edit: I just noticed this is from April 4th 2018, so apparently he’s been known about for a while. I just saw he was added to the list today.
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Well, poop. Sorry to hear it.
Yeah, he composed the soundtrack for Icewind Dale, which is excellent.
Also outed just today as a serial predator was Alexis Kennedy. This makes me sad because I’ve been a big fan of his games, have been following him on Twitter, and thought he was a cool guy. But I’m seeing it from a whole lot of women, some of whom I already trusted and admire, and I have no reason to doubt them.
It also goes together all too well with his story about how he got together with his current fiance when she was working for him, which always seemed slightly off at best.
Yikes. That’s a pretty broad brush you’re using there.
Only a tiny fraction of us obsessed computer nerds are rapists. Where things go awry is when important employees are put up on a pedestal and the power they have over management and their peers is so great that they can literally get away with crimes.
It almost doesn’t matter what industry you’re talking about. Music, acting, politics, finance, software, etc. The wrong person thinks he’s unstoppable and he’ll use that power to harm and assault others with the justification of simply taking what he wants or what he thinks he deserves.
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Unsurprisingly, there are similar issues within the tabletop RPG design community.
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As someone that is part of the statistics I’m sorry to say that I was shell-shocked that someone that I had known for years, worked together daily, knew the kids (he’s a single dad to his daughter!!!), beloved and trusted by everyone I knew, still was not only a rapist but a fucking sadist.
Rapists are spiders that use unaware people to weave their webs that seem safe and solid, until they get you - and this fucking farce they spin around them protects them from consequences so they get to make more victims. Being part of the web isn’t your fault, knowing that you are and staying, on the other hand, is problematic.
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