goddamn, this explains so much with their female characters and christ, only 16 women? and only now they're talking about the letter? fuckin' hell Rocksteady, you're garbage.
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If he had a spine he would have asked for his name to be taken from the credits, unless he couldn't because of guild reasons.
Perhaps that is, at least partly, why he didn't return for Knight.
Wow, Rocksteady are fucked. I feel bad when the very few big British developers turn out like this.
I haven't seen this interview of him with Kevin Smith, but I'm kinda wondering the same thing.
Rocksteady is a fam favorite developer and Ubisoft is a major publisher who many already disliked.
That's the unfortunate truth as to why the thread is moving so slow.
Holy shit. Fuck Rocksteady, fuck WB Games.
So they DID gaslight AND remove from the company the one woman that stood up against the sexual harassment that they tried to cover up.
Fuck Suicide Squad AND the other Arkham game as long as Sefton Hill and ALL THE ABUSERS are fired and this woman reinstated her job as Suicide Squad's senior writer. Fuck this bullshit.
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As soon as Suicide Squad is officially unveiled all will be forgiven for Rocksteady.
Same as Ubi with Assassins Creed.
People just don't care.
Same as Ubi with Assassins Creed.
People just don't care.
The more I see these, the more and more I wonder what happens in Japanese studios and how they're dealt with, if at all. Culture is part of it, I'm sure, but I don't want to just dismiss it, either, as this honestly seems at least less likely of an issue in Japanese studios and publishers, particularly in the last 2 decades, as there always seems to be more women higher up in companies making decisions or being large parts of their respective companies. To be honest, the only one I ever really heard much from was how notoriously shitty Itagaki was to the point where he got fired.
"Our new initiative to deal with these things: fire all the women"
That's super Orwellian even for the dirty parts of the games industry.
That would be one helluva shitty, yet somehow expected, move.
"Our new initiative to deal with these things: fire all the women"
That's super Orwellian even for the dirty parts of the games industry.
It's also at least a bit of a size issue. They've both done wrong, but Ubi was company-wide on a bigger company with even more going on and more to lose than "just" a developer. Not a defense for it being all but ignored or for the tilted discourse, but Ubi as a large publisher is a much bigger target.
this was really hard to watch, it made me so angry that they treated her, and other women like this.
Good on her for getting her name removed form the game. I really hope she is getting treated the way she should be while working on Fable.
This is bleak. Some heads clearly need to roll at Rocksteady.
The more I see people generalizing and saying things like "oh well, this is an industry issue", "what about the Japanese devs", "Ubisoft was different because it's a bigger company", the angrier I get. This isn't the first post doing this, so please don't take this personally, but fuck that.
You might not be doing this consciously, but when you try to claim that this is an wider issue or that this situation is different because of the size of the company, it reads an awful lot like deflecting and justifying what me and others have pointed out:
The fact that Rocksteady is a fan favorite unlike Ubisoft, especially and even more so among gaming enthusiasts, and how that colors the reaction when something as awful as it has been revealed happens. Thankfully, the actual real senior writer of their latest game went on video to expose them, because I don't think much would happen with just the Guardian article.
I think the OP needs to be updated with Kim MacAskill's testimonial.
As long as Rocksteady's CEO Sefton Hill and all the sexual assaulters that Kim denounced still have a job at the company, I'm boycotting WB Games content altogether. I don't care if Sefton Hill is involved directly or not. As the CEO, it was his job not allow the senior writer of their latest new game not be harassed and gaslit for calling out sexual assault at their workplace. She wouldn't have been removed if he didn't know about this.
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Video games aren't worth putting people through this. Nothing is, and protecting the abusers from this account benefits no one. Absolutely terrible.
It's probably the same or worse, but especially due to the way their culture works you're less likely to hear it.
Kim says in her video above that 97+% of the staff at the company are good people and don't deserve a boycott, but I hope her message gets out there and outs the director she mentions and forces big changes. Rocksteady are a good studio, their staff deserve better by the sounds of it.
I hear her, and of course that she wouldn't ask for a boycott of the game she and her colleagues worked on. She was thinly veiled threatened to not find jobs in her line of work and gaslit by her superiors on Rocksteady because she stood up against sexual assault.
Of course that calling for boycotts are in order, despite what she says. Why? It's not like the talented good people there would have problem finding work elsewhere, AND it's not like Rocksteady and WB Games are a ragtag team of indie devs. They are an important and acclaimed arm of WB Games, arguably the biggest. So fuck yeah I'm boycotting as long as justice isn't served and those that Kim denounced and the Rocksteady's CEO still have a job around there.
We get calls for boycotts and several threads and pages of discussion out of inane shit like Spider-Man being an exclusive character for a platform but go "oh well" with shit like this? Nah fam, fuck this shit. Voting with my wallet and all that.
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wow 16 women out of 239 workers sounds absolutely atrocious. I'm surprised anyone would want to work there.
Also explains their horrible representation of women in their games. Especially Catwoman who somehow ends up getting beat up and constantly harassed.
Also explains their horrible representation of women in their games. Especially Catwoman who somehow ends up getting beat up and constantly harassed.
So not only did they cover up and continually allow abuse to happen. FOR YEARS
But they then fired to one senior woman who continually spoke out against them.
There is disgraceful behaviour and then there is this shit.
But they then fired to one senior woman who continually spoke out against them.
There is disgraceful behaviour and then there is this shit.
So gross. Absolutely disgusting.
Do you mind sharing your experience?
There's no offense taken, but I also wrote my responses to those quotes as responses to those quotes, not as general statements. My comment about Japanese devs is one of genuine curiosity because I actually want to know if it's more or less widespread their and how they handle it when it is. that's also why I mentioned Itagaki, because it's easily the most notable one and was dealt with at least somewhat appropriately by firing him and him being outed as a total scumbag.
I don't honestly feel this is a "the whole industry is cracked" and it would be disheartening for it to be. It's always disturbing to hear/read and I'm sure extra terrible when it's a developer people care about in some way. It's not dismissal, not matter how you want to read it as such. That's not my intention.
You'll notice how I didn't say the situation was different but the reaction was different merely because of the scope. If you look at other industries or even just other companies, you see this a lot when a large company (say, google, Amazon, Microsoft) is accused of something bigoted in some way, whether racism, sexism or just shitty behavior, compared to when a smaller company that some may not even know, because the implications are much larger for larger companies with global reach. It doesn't solve or absolve the wrongdoing, but it will absolutely get more press and overall attention because of their size. "Ubisoft was different because it's a bigger company" is not the same as "the amount of press they get about their wrongdoings i different." You'd probably do well to read some posts more carefully and think about them critically about what's being said than just becoming angry because "yet another post saying this isn't as bad" is absolutely, positively not what I was saying or even said in my post.
Holy shit.
What is wrong with the people who get to run these companies? Incomprehensible and malicious incompetence displayed here.
The dishonesty in Rocksteady's response is intense. Management seem like scumbags.
The perpetrators need to get out and the people in management who protected them need to at least do some serious mea culpa, make amends and properly address their failures, perhaps by also getting the fuck out. Until then, instead of buying Rocksteady games I'll post reminders about this misconduct whenever I come across anything posted about them.
The dishonesty in Rocksteady's response is intense. Management seem like scumbags.
The perpetrators need to get out and the people in management who protected them need to at least do some serious mea culpa, make amends and properly address their failures, perhaps by also getting the fuck out. Until then, instead of buying Rocksteady games I'll post reminders about this misconduct whenever I come across anything posted about them.
Sales performance pay and dividends / profit shares are quite common in the games industry, they often amount to millions of dollars and are the leverage studios use to encourage often insane levels of commitment... I do think it would be wrong to do people out of rewards for their talent and labour if they had nothing to do with this behaviour. Especially if as Kim says this was actually a small number of people responsible, albeit including someone senior within the company..
Ideally - the pressure should be on Rocksteady to reform their HR practices, and enforce consequences now retrospectively (for those responsible) before the game ever comes to market. That way some semblance of justice can be done and people can buy in confidence. If they don't address this in any way, then of course I'm with you.
Alot of gaslighting and threats to their positions. Some of them feel trapped because if they won't be able to work elsewhere due to negative nepotism. I've been rejected at interviews due to things like this.
I am seeing a severe lack of interest and outcry myself too. By this time, the Ubisoft stuff had gotten about 20 pages at least with people crying foul. Heck, as Mandalorian said, people were up in arms because of an exclusive character for another videogame and it raged on everywhere.
Well, this is my contribution for now. This needs to be waaaaay bigger at this point in time.
Nothing but respect for Kim MacAskill, a great writer, and awesome person. I am glad she decided to speak up, and I hope she ends up at a way better workplace in the near future.
Well, this is my contribution for now. This needs to be waaaaay bigger at this point in time.
Nothing but respect for Kim MacAskill, a great writer, and awesome person. I am glad she decided to speak up, and I hope she ends up at a way better workplace in the near future.
And of course the misogyny always comes hand in hand with transphobia and homophobia. Jesus fucking Christ, this industry is rotten. The video is fucking heartbreaking. Fuck Rocksteady & WB Games, I really hope this ends up moving something, but also worry it won't with how the industry is.
I have seen Patrick Klepek in the replies to her Tweet though, so I hope it won't fall on deaf ears & will get a lot of coverage.
I have seen Patrick Klepek in the replies to her Tweet though, so I hope it won't fall on deaf ears & will get a lot of coverage.
Well, to paraphrase Kim MacAskill's mother, if the people that work there are the nicest people but know about this shit without going the lengths that she did for their colleagues that were sexually assaulted at their workplace, then they might not be that much of good people after all.
As long as heads don't start to roll from the top to all the sexual abusers and enablers that Kim denounced, I want absolutely nothing to do with Rocksteady, or WB Games for that matter.
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Wait, do you mean women aren't constantly stretching and posing mid-conversation? Oh weird!"Women don't dance while walking/talking"
Devs:
This hurt to watch, I think it deserves it's own thread so that more people can see it
That's fucking gross.
Sigh... another one for the pile of devs I'll need to avoid in future. This industry is such a shitshow.
Sigh... another one for the pile of devs I'll need to avoid in future. This industry is such a shitshow.
She states in the video that the company only internally acknowledged the letter she wrote last year (or the year before?) in correspondence to staff 4 days ago - and basically because the news / letter was going to break in the Guardian newspaper. So I don't think its fair to assume 200+ people knew about it actually...
Heads should certainly roll though, credits be removed, bonuses withheld - for those responsible - and not after one of those lengthy sounding investigations either.
