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Alec Holowka (Night in the Woods, TowerFall) accused of sexual assault [Update: Alec Holowka has reportedly passed away] [See staff posts/threadmarks]
- Thread starter TacomaSCDisaster
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God... poor woman.
The shit she's already had to deal with and now this is probs gonna get the gater scum back on her case.
The shit she's already had to deal with and now this is probs gonna get the gater scum back on her case.
In my opinion Aziz is the perfect example of someone profiting off of supposedly changing when his material has shown the opposite. Using your job or influence to sexually harass someone even if no act occurs should absolutely get you blacklisted from whatever industry you are using to your own benefit.
This is super fucked up, my mind can't even comprehend how terrible of a experience that was for her
fuck this dude & good on Zoe for being ready to share all this mess, ugh
was really looking forward to the LRG release of night in the woods later this year...need to hear more from the rest of the team on this shit
was really looking forward to the LRG release of night in the woods later this year...need to hear more from the rest of the team on this shit
Zoë Quinn is a goddamn hero for coming out with this. As usual, it sounds like there was a pattern of abuse here, by a charismatic and well connected individual, and it takes a lot of courage to speak out against it. I'm glad that she did.
Also, she sounds cool, and it sucks when bad stuff happens to cool people, dammit.
Also, she sounds cool, and it sucks when bad stuff happens to cool people, dammit.
I want to preface this by saying I'm not arrogant enough to assume that my take on this is the objectively right one or that anyone who doesn't feel this way is somehow falling short, but I refuse to feel any guilt associated with his work. Night in the Woods is one of those pieces of art that was really important to me and really helped me hold myself together through an awful year. I still think Hockenberry and Benson deserve the lion's share of the credit for that, but I won't pretend I didn't spend a LOT of nights with that soundtrack pushing me forward when all I wanted to do was stop.
To be clear I absolutely believe Zoe and fuck that guy for everything he did, but I refuse to concede all the good things I got from that work to some abusive monster. He doesn't get to claim ownership of the mindspace of everyone who found knowledge and insight from something good he contributed to because he decided to be a piece of shit somewhere else. The work is finished, he let it out into the world long ago, and he doesn't get to be the only person who it represents anymore.
Again, anyone who feels differently is absolutely right to feel that way. If engaging with his work feels too much like engaging with him, you're under no obligation to force yourself to enjoy it. I just don't want anyone to feel a sense of guilt because the actions of a creator are tied to a work that still resonates with them, even after knowing too much. His baby is better than he is, and I'd rather spend time with it than with him.
PS: Obviously, this is not the most important idea of this whole Thing. It's just the only one I feel at all qualified to speak to, and if I don't put this down somewhere this splinter will be stuck in my brain for god knows how long.
To be clear I absolutely believe Zoe and fuck that guy for everything he did, but I refuse to concede all the good things I got from that work to some abusive monster. He doesn't get to claim ownership of the mindspace of everyone who found knowledge and insight from something good he contributed to because he decided to be a piece of shit somewhere else. The work is finished, he let it out into the world long ago, and he doesn't get to be the only person who it represents anymore.
Again, anyone who feels differently is absolutely right to feel that way. If engaging with his work feels too much like engaging with him, you're under no obligation to force yourself to enjoy it. I just don't want anyone to feel a sense of guilt because the actions of a creator are tied to a work that still resonates with them, even after knowing too much. His baby is better than he is, and I'd rather spend time with it than with him.
PS: Obviously, this is not the most important idea of this whole Thing. It's just the only one I feel at all qualified to speak to, and if I don't put this down somewhere this splinter will be stuck in my brain for god knows how long.
Twitter has been really hard to read today—even more than usual. I feel sick to my stomach. I hate that human beings can do this to other human beings.
Good for Zoe for coming out on this. I'm just worried that, knowing who she is, the terrible side of gaming weirdos are gonna be in arms again. She will be fine, she has been tru this before, but jesus christ I'm glad I'm not anywhere near social media anymore to have to read whatever the sociopaths will claim.
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Let today be a lesson:
1: Keep it in your pants, or at least consentual from both parties in an appropriate context. (a.k.a DON'T BE A CREEP)
2: Pay off your debts.
That is all.
1: Keep it in your pants, or at least consentual from both parties in an appropriate context. (a.k.a DON'T BE A CREEP)
2: Pay off your debts.
That is all.
Jesus... what a piece of trash. Also, fuck all the people who knew and just swept it under the carpet (I'm not talking about the victims, of course, they had their own shit to deal with).
That makes me feel better. I felt an emotional connection to the characters in that story. I am happy to know that a sexual predator wasn't involved in crafting them.
That makes me feel better. I felt an emotional connection to the characters in that story. I am happy to know that a sexual predator wasn't involved in crafting them.
In general, from what I've seen, they use it as proof that, "the abuse is actually coming from fake male feminists who use SJWism to get laid, not from real gamers, so it just proofs us even more right."
While I agree this is the kinda thing they twist into a weapon instead of trying to court the abuser, I wouldn't say that's quite what I've seen (in general)? It's usually the more simple "it's actually coming from the feminist men", or just "leftist men" really, to make that seem bad rather than saying they're faking it. Though I guess it wouldn't surprise me if they also try to use it as some "they're all white knights" thing at times, hmm.
Oh sure, there's some of that, but an underpinning of their argument is basically, "sure, they say gamers are sexist and abusive, so why do we only hear about male feminist developers or journalists abusing women. Sure, sounds like projection to me," ignoring the obvious facts of why we wouldn't hear about 'true gamers' getting called for their abuses and also them not understanding that just because part of a company is "SJW", doesn't mean those whole company is (see ArenaNet and other issues).
Please don't dismiss someone's contribution to a creative work because they are credited as programmer.
I'm sure you didn't mean anything towards the victims, but 'gross to each other' suggests that both parties are at fault.
Really sucks if true, Aquaria is one of my favorite games, which was made by Alec Holowka and Derek Yu. Interestingly, immediately after Aquaria was released the two parted ways.
Given the context I really don't see how you could take it that way, but okay. It's clear who is gross to who.
Sorry all, that was an incredibly poor post. Like, the dumbest thing I've ever posted.
I won't even go into what I was thinking and all that, it was just stupid.
I have to imagine this must extra suck for those who enjoyed Night in the Woods and related to a lot of it's mental illness themes.
This is definitely something I'm feeling right now. Though I'm honestly just sick to death of these industry folk turning out to be disgusting predatory scumbags, regardless of what they've worked on... Knowing they had a hand in something you're passionate about, something you identify with, just makes it sting that little bit more. It's disturbing to know how prevalent this kind of behaviour actually is.
It doesn't, though; "gross to each other" suggests that human beings treat other human beings in gross ways.
to be fair, he only did the programming, the real mind are the other devs
I appreciate this. Many people in this thread have strong ties to NitW, but I adored Aquaria and still do. I think I can appreciate Derek's work on it enough to still keep the game around, but it still hurts to see a strong influence on me sullied.
Anyway, screw Holowka.
There is no way to experience the elements separately. Its largely his game.
Perhaps for you. But the game, to me, is about the writing, and his abhorrent behavior won't color that for me.
If there's something that needs to be said from time to time again, the shitty behavior of an artist should never outshine a great artwork, even if said artist created the work. Holowka has always been a problematic figure, and these recent allegations only make it more so, but Night in the Woods is still a masterful work of gameplay-driven storytelling and political theming. The town of Possum Springs shouldn't be passed over simply because the people who built it are either a conservative death cult or an alleged sexual assaulter.
I hope that the way these stories are being received inspires others to tell their stories too. The fewer times people are silent about these legit stories of abuse, the more deterred the potential abusers will be from behaving this way. It also can drastically decrease the potential for these offenders to be in any future positions to continue their abusive behavior.
On the same token, games like the ones the offenders are involved with shouldn't be boycotted wholecloth or anything. That harms every other single non-abuser person involved in these projects.
On the same token, games like the ones the offenders are involved with shouldn't be boycotted wholecloth or anything. That harms every other single non-abuser person involved in these projects.
Fuck that. That's just selfishness. You don't want to make any adjustments in your life no matter what. There's plenty of great art in the world that doesn't support rapists directly. Valuing art & your own enjoyment above all else is BS.
Since you for some reason want to make this about me instead of the game, or Alec, or anything else – Night in the Woods taught me to stop trying to relive the past, and to discard my unhealthy nostalgic obsessions that have scared off my old friends and weight heavily on the ones I still had. So your claim that I'm "selfish" and "I don't want to make any adjustments" is simply untrue. You evidently have no idea what it feels like to have a novel, film, game, ect. change your life in such a fundamental way, so I'd suggest not trying to shit-talk other users into feeling the way you want them to feel simply because you disagree, or don't understand, their opinion or viewpoint on this game.
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Edit: Removed misleading content.
Just checking his old Twitter account, which for some reason Alec decided to protect and leave behind last January, in favour of a fresh Twitter account.
In 2014, we can see that Zoe Quinn and him likely do not talk to each other, since he mentions an intermediate person reporting what she told.
Edit: It might be some kind of sarcasm on his part, so take that with a grain of salt.
His last tweets, published in early August 2019, are unfortunate. Maybe be nice to "super vulnerable" people instead of taking advantage of the situation?
Just checking his old Twitter account, which for some reason Alec decided to protect and leave behind last January, in favour of a fresh Twitter account.
In 2014, we can see that Zoe Quinn and him likely do not talk to each other, since he mentions an intermediate person reporting what she told.
Edit: It might be some kind of sarcasm on his part, so take that with a grain of salt.
His last tweets, published in early August 2019, are unfortunate. Maybe be nice to "super vulnerable" people instead of taking advantage of the situation?
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Unfortunately, this is humanity laid bare. A lot of people in this world are like this, it's just not out in the open.
He also did all of the music for it, which I consider to be a HUGE part of the game.
Is it not okay to play Night in the Woods now? I have it downloaded on my PS4 and was looking forward to playing it. How involved was this guy with the product?
Alec Holowka doesn't show up on QLCrew's search of Giant Bomb content/guests, so probably not. QLCrew is pretty accurate about all things Giant Bomb.
(It's possible I'm wrong, I dunno.)
Tweet digging gets far worse if you filter for the "liar" keyword.
In 2013, he is calling her a "pathological liar".
In 2014, he is most likely ranting about her again:
In 2013, he is calling her a "pathological liar".
In 2014, he is most likely ranting about her again:
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In 2014, we can see that Zoe Quinn and him likely do not talk to each other, since he mentions an intermediate person reporting what she told.
His last tweets, published in early August, are unfortunate.
I would rather post the info now in case he deletes some stuff.
y'know that the eron noted is the guy who wrote the 5 guys letter that started GG.
Yup, that seems likely to be Eron Gjoni and given the timing - this tweet was a couple of weeks after Gjoni published "The Zoe Post" on Wordpress - and what has been disclosed now about Holowka, it makes me wonder about his own involvement in Gamergate...
Congratulations on having the worst take in the whole thread!
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