"I left Insomniac Games because of how they treat women" Ex-Employee speaks out

edryr · Jun 23, 2020

PlanetSmasher said:
HR's job at the end of the day is to manage employee compensation and protect the company from legal action. That's the long and short of it. They don't exist to be friendly or empathetic.

In the end i know, but maybe i'm too naive and still want to believe in something better. When it comes to rapes, they maybe should think more about defending the victims employees.
It's because of trash who totally forgot they humanity like them that things like this happen too. They are not the rapist/harasser, but they are accomplice and should be punished really heavily for covering shits like this. That's what my morality tells me. But again, too naive i guess...

ody · Jun 23, 2020

That IG response is weak as hell. Expected far better from them.

score01 · Jun 23, 2020

Kyuuji said:
Weak response. Sol's point was that they knew and didn't take appropriate steps to remove these people.

Yeah, This is just not acceptable. I get that no company can ever secure themselves fully from some bad apples but it seems that the processes and procedures in place to deal with these situations when (sadly, not IF) they do occur aren't close to being competent.

No one should have to deal with the shit these people have had to go through.

Antrax · Jun 23, 2020

HR exists to protect the company, not the employees.

"But the employees make up the company!"

Ah, but companies are modern day ships of Theseus. You, the individual, do not make up the company.

Megabreath · Jun 23, 2020

I am amazed these companies can think that they can carry on covering these dirt bags.

Doctrine Dark · Jun 23, 2020

I wish women didn't have to deal with this type of stuff.

XaviConcept · Jun 23, 2020

Kyuuji said:
Did you mean we're? If so that's part of the issue since they reference nothing in the present tense. "We were aware of the allegations made in a former employee's tweets today and had taken numerous steps to address them" is all about past action, like they consider the matters resolved.

Yeah Im not defending it and I dont write copy for any PR department so I dunno man, haha. Im sure this wont be the last piece of communication from them.

klauskpm · Jun 23, 2020

That is awful. I'm so sorry to read that... Fuck. I expected so much more from Insomniac.

Both on how they dealt and are still dealing with those issues, and that blank weak response...

As others said, people are hopeless when it comes to HR not being able to do a thing or to actively work against you. I've worked in a place where the HR would tell to the accused person who did the complaint. So yeah, we feel hopeless.

ToddBonzalez · Jun 23, 2020

It's a hugely disheartening to hear that shitty things are happening at an acclaimed studio (and one that has a rep as a good place to work). At least it sounds like those responsible have been fired and it's not a systemic issue at the company. I have a huge amount of those that have chosen to be brave and speak out.

timedesk · Jun 23, 2020

All these stories coming out make it clear that the gaming industry needs to seriously change. The professional and commercial culture are toxic. Harassment seems to have been allowed to run rampant for way way too long. Whatever changes companies have tried to make behind the scenes isn't enough. I truly hope all this recent attention helps truly push this issue forward and this toxicity can be directly addressed. IG's weak response isn't heartening, but hopefully they will have to back up their weak claims at being inclusive and talk about how they are going to protect their employees from this king of harassment in the future.

Kyuuji · Jun 23, 2020

Raging Spaniard said:
Yeah Im not defending it and I dont write copy for any PR department so I dunno man, haha. Im sure this wont be the last piece of communication from them.

For sure! Just pointing out that Insomniac weren't saying they were addressing it, just that they had addressed it. I'd be appalled if there wasn't a follow up considering the wider testimony that has come out agreeing with Sol

CaviarMeths · Jun 23, 2020

I don't think it's helpful for people to continually post in this thread that this isn't a video game industry specific problem. We all know it isn't. But it is the problem on the docket in front of us right now. Saying "every industry is like this" just comes off as handwaving and dismissive. The rampant sexual abuse, discrimination, and misogyny in tech/geek fields is absolutely worth discussing on it's own without kicking it down the road to deal with in a wider, more general conversation at a later date.

sn00zer · Jun 23, 2020

I was wondering why there were a bunch of people on my Twitter feed saying they worked on the Ratchet reveal but we're saying it in the past tense.

That1GoodHunter · Jun 23, 2020

sn00zer said:
I was wondering why there were a bunch of people on my Twitter feed saying they worked on the Ratchet reveal but we're saying it in the past tense.

Why would they say it in the present tense, if the reveal happened a while back?

Deleted member 51691 · Jun 23, 2020

This is unequivocally shitty. The gaming industry has some huge culture issues it needs to tackle. Insomniac was supposedly one of the good studios, too.

TsuWave · Jun 23, 2020

Disappointing, horrible stuff. They better clean house.

grosvenor92 · Jun 23, 2020

I imagine we'll continue to see others speak out and will have worked for developers we wouldn't expect to be apart of this behaviour.

At least the one guy was fired and hopefully the others who continue to act like this will be as well

sn00zer · Jun 23, 2020

That1GoodHunter said:
Why would they say it in the present tense, if the reveal happened a while back?

People were saying it in a way that indicated they had since left insomnoac

Dragon1893 · Jun 23, 2020

data said:
A lot of industries are, it's not just limited to gaming, but the gaming community (as a whole) can be quite toxic.

This has happened before and I can only hope that change happens but Insomniac's brand response doesn't do them any favors.

Bruceleeroy said:
I know because we're on a videogame forum that its easy to have a myopic view of all this and think it's inherently a problem with the videogame industry but you would be wrong. It's just as prevalent in pretty much every industry out there. It was just something women for a long time have had to tolerate under the guise of -"Working with the boys". Thankfully they are now given the platform and support they need to start speaking out. This is an inherent problem of society and corporations that are operating business just as they always have and they are all in for a shocking awakening.

Hence why I said the world. They're everywhere.
Unfortunately the gaming industry seems to be getting worse and worse.

data · Jun 23, 2020

Dragon1893 said:
Hence why I said the world. They're everywhere.
Unfortunately the gaming industry seems to be getting worse and worse.

Or, it's likely it was already bad and now things are getting more public. It's just we weren't aware of it before

@dedmunk · Jun 23, 2020

Wow insomniac thats a big ol nothing burger tweet. I expected more smfh.

Dragon1893 · Jun 23, 2020

data said:
Or, it's likely it was already bad and now things are getting more public. It's just we weren't aware of it before

That's definitely the case but I was referring more to the consumer side, the toxicity is out of control and seems to be getting worse by the day.

Jogi · Jun 23, 2020

I don't get why people expect more from fucking companies. They aren't your friends, you don't break bread with them on the daily, they are profit driven and skew heavily toward cis white males in leadership roles. Fucking sucks the way women have been treated at these studios, but I think once we all realize that just because a company makes a thing we like doesn't mean their isn't some vile shit going on, then we can start to push for real change.

Watershed · Jun 23, 2020

Given that there reported to be multiple women subjected to this behavior and multiple men who were known to perpetuate this behavior and that the women left before the men, this sounds like more of a work culture issue than a lone sexual predator.

DSN2K · Jun 23, 2020

sadly I dont think their is a job in the world where somebody hasnt been abused or poorly treated. People Suck. Im not trying marginalize whats happened here either but ive worked in multiple fields in the last 15 years and same shit crops up, same scummy people appear.

LiftGammaGain · Jun 23, 2020

Jogi said:
I don't get why people expect more from fucking companies. They aren't your friends, you don't break bread with them on the daily, they are profit driven and skew heavily toward cis white males in leadership roles. Fucking sucks the way women have been treated at these studios, but I think once we all realize that just because a company makes a thing we like doesn't mean their isn't some vile shit going on, then we can start to push for real change.

Totally agree.

solis74 · Jun 23, 2020

this is so sad :(

Deleted member 25042 · Jun 23, 2020

This is just disgusting...
The fuck is wrong with this world..

Sadist · Jun 23, 2020

Jeez. Speechless

Scuffed · Jun 23, 2020

This is not just one person this is multiple people so ya things at Insomniac are genuinely fucked up. Their response is trash.

Toriko · Jun 23, 2020

Oops double post

Toriko · Jun 23, 2020

Shits fucked up :(. Someone who currently works at Insomniac posted this so hopefully this no longer happens and those who are involved are fired

Arkaign · Jun 23, 2020

____ said:
This isn't the thread for me to explain, but I've had some rather scary interactions with HR with regard to ethics violations and racial discrimination. Eye-opening what HR is really there for, to say the least.

THANK YOU!

On the subject, the whole idea of signing arbitration rights needs to be abolished, because it creates a kind of moneyed immunity to the corporate fascists. There was a particularly horrific case of rape and unlawful detainment of a young woman working I believe for Halliburton or similar a while back, and of course the Republicans voted against reform that would have brought about protections for such victims and removed the evils of abritration. Look it up if you want something truly soul shattering. We've got to start making substantive change for the better.

Rosebud · Jun 23, 2020

Toriko said:
Shits fucked up :(. Someone who currently works at Insomniac posted this so hopefully this no longer happens and those who are involved are fired

That's good to know, hopefully things have changed

unfashionable · Jun 23, 2020

Toriko said:
Shits fucked up :(. Someone who currently works at Insomniac posted this so hopefully this no longer happens and those who are involved are fired

"I have had large numbers of male Insomniacs come to me and tell me they have my back"

Thats a bizarre statement to make if you are working at a good company, why would they need to "have your back"

Forearm_Star · Jun 23, 2020

Glad this is out.
Get rid of the people left who are problematic and if needed get rid of the people who did all the protecting as well.

Aminga · Jun 23, 2020

That tweet from insomniac is trash.

Toriko · Jun 23, 2020

Rosebud said:
That's good to know, hopefully things have changed

Yeah I hope so too.

Otnopolit · Jun 23, 2020

unfashionable said:
"I have had large numbers of male Insomniacs come to me and tell me they have my back"

Thats a bizarre statement to make if you are working at a good company, why would they need to "have your back"

Definitely suggests there's an ongoing problem. I hope they truly have been on top of allegations like this, and as I said in a previous post, I will not be satisfied until we get a look under the hood at what they do to create a safe and equitable workplace. Until then, I'm having a hard time imagining myself supporting the studio in the future.

Forearm_Star · Jun 23, 2020

Boke18 said:
HR is NOT your friend. They are there to protect the company. Not you.

This can't be said enough!

Rosebud · Jun 23, 2020

unfashionable said:
"I have had large numbers of male Insomniacs come to me and tell me they have my back"

Thats a bizarre statement to make if you are working at a good company, why would they need to "have your back"

She said she was targeted by an ex employee

cyrribrae · Jun 23, 2020

Hmm.. I'm hearing the "privacy concerns" thing about why companies can't divulge info.. but I'm not sure why people are giving companies a pass for that on here. Or perhaps the better question is: what do people here think the appropriate public response should be here, given the privacy concerns/legal considerations?

"We did something/are doing something, but we can't say what"
"We punished the person, but can't say how"
"We took this seriously, but we can't say how nor show how much"

It kind of feels like you can't take privacy stuff for granted AND ALSO demand a satisfying public statement. Which makes these threads such a landmine - incompatible expectations combined with exceedingly strong passions. Personally, I'd have liked them to at least denounce the types of things that happened and are being accused - rather than just "we know these things happened and we did stuff". And then skip that second tweet entirely.

unfashionable · Jun 23, 2020

Rosebud said:
She said she was targeted by an ex employee

ok...good for her but she doesnt mention any other colleagues only her personal situation, and as a current employee its good PR for her within the company to tweet this

maybe the company has changed somewhat but it makes me feel a little sick this whole situation, given how much praise I have for insomniac and their games

Nothing will happen now. the lawyers at the company will protect those who did wrong and it sounds like the abuse was such that there was clever tactics such as always doing their moves in private location away from any witnesses etc to create a "he said she said" situation

spiderman PS5 will still sell like gangbusters

OtterMatic · Jun 23, 2020

Their response still doesn't address the third person that still work within Insomniac.
It's also pretty shitty that they only start firing some of them after MeToo.

Deleted member 64241 · Jun 23, 2020

risq_au said:
Wow insomniac thats a big ol nothing burger tweet. I expected more smfh.

Agreed

SpankyDoodle · Jun 23, 2020

"and that often means not firing serial abusers, because to fire them would somehow be an admission of wrongdoing by the company. While I am utterly heartbroken by your story, HR departments refusing to take action no longer surprise me"

This quote from one of the tweets, I just... don't understand how the "mind" of HR works in a situation like this.

- Someone at the company is being a fuck
- Fire them for being a fuck
- Bad PR???
VS
- Someone at the company is being a fuck
- Fire the snitch and cover up the issue
- Good PR!?!!

PAFenix said:
I don't get it. You can still like the games. I've just finished Platinuming Spiderman. I'm still playing through it's final DLC and I don't plan on stopping. I still support this ex-employee and hope Insomniac does something more to change the culture of its space (Even though I doubt we'll ever actually see any of such changes).

Blindly defending these companies just because they made something you enjoyed is just mind boggling.

They're not talking about being halfway through Spider-Man and throwing it away. They're talking about the moral dilemma that now exists where people want to play a future game by a company they now know fosters a hostile and abusive work environment. You can "not care" and buy the game, giving money to the company that's treating its employees like shit, or you can not buy the game, making a statement if enough people do it too. Doing the latter can also hurt the good employees that worked hard and deserve recognition, but the over-all message from buying the games in the future is, "Yeah, it sucks that they're abusive and sexist, but, I want to play the new Spider-Man game on PS5"

eyeball_kid · Jun 23, 2020

That Insomniac response was a non-apology word salad. People are looking for them to display the right tone and they totally failed on that. I get that they are probably bound legally to some extent, but there's still a way to be vague but also underscore how seriously you take sexual harassment.

PAFenix · Jun 23, 2020

WordAssassin said:
They're not talking about being halfway through Spider-Man and throwing it away. They're talking about the moral dilemma that now exists where people want to play a future game by a company they now know fosters a hostile and abusive work environment. You can "not care" and buy the game, giving money to the company that's treating its employees like shit, or you can not buy the game, making a statement if enough people do it too. Doing the latter can also hurt the good employees that worked hard and deserve recognition, but the over-all message from buying the games in the future is, "Yeah, it sucks that they're abusive and sexist, but, I want to play the new Spider-Man game on PS5"

I know. I didn't want to say anything about that because I'm not one that buys many games day & date. I'm very interested in Miles Morales, but I wasn't going to buy it when it comes out anyway, so a statement of "I'm definitely not going to get it now" wouldn't hold much water. I probably should have specified that much though.

Even if I were one who would have wanted to buy Miles Morales when it releases, there are means of getting the game second hand so as to not support Insomniac, while at the same time enjoying the work the good employees put in.

ElephantShell · Jun 23, 2020

Rosebud said:
She said she was targeted by an ex employee

People can have different experiences, doesn't mean that a toxic culture doesn't exist. Can't throw out one person's reality just because somebody else had it different.

Edit: not trying to say that's what you're doing... just commenting on the situation.

SpankyDoodle · Jun 23, 2020

PAFenix said:
I know. I didn't want to say anything about that because I'm not one that buys many games day & date. I'm very interested in Miles Morales, but I wasn't going to buy it when it comes out anyway, so a statement of "I'm definitely not going to get it now" wouldn't hold much water. I probably should have specified that much though.

Even if I were one who would have wanted to buy Miles Morales when it releases, there are means of getting the game second hand so as to not support Insomniac, while at the same time enjoying the work the good employees put in.

Oh totally, everything you're saying is right I was just trying to clarify that they didn't mean that, in light of this, people should just stop playing any Insomniac game they're currently playing. Bless the second hand market. It sucks that the initial purchase gave money to the shitty company but that's something that's completely out of your or my control :\

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