You say "quietly leaves" like he snuck off but he posted it on Twitter.
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Former Naughty Dog Employee Named in Sexual Harassment Claim
- Thread starter Jawbreaker
- Start date
This is such a messy situation and I don't see it being resolved. It's not hard to believe there might have been some kind of cover up here but even if there was it is hard to know how many people were complicit, it'll be difficult for Sony/ND to properly investigate, if they were even inclined to, since every known individual is no longer with the company. Ballard will still struggle to find any closure, assuming he's telling the truth which I see no major reason to doubt. The best I feel that can come from this is for ND/Sony to review how they deal with things like this in future so it hopefully doesn't happen again.
I thought I remembered the same. Any idea when the other named actors left? Maybe that is what caused confusion?
Yeah, Cogburn has been at ND for a really long time before this. 9 years and then... suddenly.
To his 5k followers. That's pretty quiet for a guy who worked at ND for 9 years.
This whole situation really sucks. Hopefully some form of resolution can come to this, however it may come.
I would imagine that loaded question should probably be directed at the people involved.
Precisely, labpleb
I'd have expected someone that senior/important to ND to have more than a forgotten one tweet sendoff.
Many leads left ND with a twitter message. The only ones who got a tweet from ND twitter were Bruce (director) and Christophe Balestra (CEO) of the company. Why did you expect him leaving to look like exactly?
There were articles all over, and I even remember posts here when he left. It was about the Avenger's Game rumor.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/uncharted-veteran-leaves-naughty-dog-to-maybe-work/1100-6455883/
https://www.reddit.com/r/unchartedm...l/looks_like_robert_cogburn_lead_multiplayer/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pprcr/hi_were_justin_richmond_game_director_and_robert/
It was not that 'quiet'. Just came right after the holidays, so it was quickly forgotten.
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I don't get your point. Didn't Straley leave and announce it on Twitter?
My "quiet" ascription notwithstanding, the facts remain that he left after the situation calmed and with little to no report of such beyond the tweet.
There is no contradiction here. Ballard says he told ND he couldn't work with him but doesn't mention the harassment, he only says he told Sony HR. I don't want to make judgements about what did or didn't happen but is possible for Ballard and ND to be telling the truth there
EDIT: Skip that. Completely missed the bit about Sony in ND statement although Sony could have lied to ND too I guess but that seems more unlikely
Again, I'm not going to make that judgment as a disconnected 3rd party based upon somebody else's idea of what the probability is. That probability figure itself has a margin of error significant enough to make it useless on an individual case basis. I don't have a need to believe either of them. Indeed I'm predisposed to believe everybody involved is coloring their story in one way or another simply because that is how the mind works.
I just don't see any value in making a decision like that, from a distance, sans evidence.
Thank god you posted this I was beginning to think I was the only person on here who knew this. It's always been innocent until proven guilty not the other way round.
How much time between the allegations and ND's response? There might be some indication to ND's thoroughness and willingness in the answer to that question.
I don't see him mentioned in that article? (My apologies if I missed it.)
And yeah, that's sort of my take away--it was "decent" timing.
There's no salient point, so I'm not sure what you're getting at. The timeline is clear, regardless of the word "quiet."
Sort of, but Sony and multiple employees claim they had not been informed of or were not aware of any such assault, and that it had never been brought to their attention till Ballard publicly stated it.
Another issue arose when Ballard sent a hostile email to an artist (not sure if this was Cogburn) and CC'd the entire company in to it, which landed him in the fire too.
https://kotaku.com/former-naughty-dog-employee-says-he-was-fired-after-fil-1819557683
What report did you expect? and many left ND since the situation unfolded and many joined. Again, no one of on his position got anything from ND or Sony as a statement or a farewell. Why do you expect him to be anything different?
I don't understand your question. Why do you think I expect something different? I merely typed out a timeline to try and figure out what in the hell is going on with the allegations.
I don't get why people are so insistent to judge on topics like this.
Naughty dog could be covering it up. The victim could be lying. How are you supposed to know who is in the right? We don't have any evidence of anything in front of us. Unless other victims come out in support then there's really nothing to add here because sexual harassers don't always stop at one person.
The only think I like to add is that didn't a few ND developers make a few crappy remarks to a female journalist.
Naughty dog could be covering it up. The victim could be lying. How are you supposed to know who is in the right? We don't have any evidence of anything in front of us. Unless other victims come out in support then there's really nothing to add here because sexual harassers don't always stop at one person.
The only think I like to add is that didn't a few ND developers make a few crappy remarks to a female journalist.
And tried to figure out something that isn't there with the timing of him leaving and how he left "quietly" despite it being what usually happens with people in his position.
Oops, I shared the wrong link... it was a reddit one that I meant to share.
https://www.reddit.com/r/unchartedm...l/looks_like_robert_cogburn_lead_multiplayer/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pprcr/hi_were_justin_richmond_game_director_and_robert/
I know what you mean on the timing.
The liar is ND, because they posted that less than a day later on what I believe was a holiday weekend, so how could they have gone through everything that fast?
Besides that, HR exists to protect the company so why is it hard to believe that they would delete an incriminating allegation from someone who left the company?
Wait. You mean to say it could have possibly went "I can no longer work with Robert" and then not give a reason? It is plausible, as coming out saying you've sexually harrased is a very sensitive thing. But I have a hard time believing he didn't give a reason, otherwise I don't know why he'd be so irrate (rightfully so) over the meeting between all of them and nothing coming of it. I know you were just spitballing, just thinking outloud
There's a lot of nuance nuance there where they aren't technically lying but Ballard could be telling the truth too. Receiving allegations would mean they looked at records of received complaints and didn't find any. If the meeting took place but paperwork was never filed, there would be no records and Ballard would be telling the truth. They released that statement within a day of the Twitter allegations being made. That's not nearly long enough for a proper investigation including speaking with staff who would have been off, etc.
Accusations made on Saturday and a definitive statement made Sunday means they ONLY checked for filed records.
Even Kotaku's reporting didn't turn up much at all.
Not saying nothing happened to Ballard, but it was probably such a messy situation with no paper trail at all.
Not saying nothing happened to Ballard, but it was probably such a messy situation with no paper trail at all.
With all due respect, neither of us have the information to accurately or precisely surmise what's there or what isn't.
Ok, so guys guys guys. Is there a criminal investigation going on? Is there any charges laid? The armchair detectives in here is a pretty shitty look i gotta say.
The proof lies on you since you claim there was something not on me to prove there was nothing, so unless you provide a proof other than some evidence that is not remotely true since his leaving circumstance are what happens usually i'm inclined to believe there's nothing.
As someone who has been falsely accused in the past and proven innocent, I don't.
I would be absolutely shocked if HR deleted a complaint, no way that happened.
What's more likely is that Ballard brought it up in a meeting about another matter and it never ended up being recorded as an official complaint.
I can't remember everything that was said when the story first came out but I don't recall Ballard ever suggesting he informed Naughty Dog directly about the harassment. He specifically said he told Sony HR which I assume was after the abusive email. It also sounds like it was a difficult thing to come to terms with so perhaps not unreasonable to think he wouldn't want to tell his boss. Like you said I am just speculating on what might have happened though which is all we can do unfortunately. I have edited my post though because ND said there was no record at SIE of it either even though there clearly should be.
EDIT: Just re-read the Kotaku article on the situation. I remember now that there was a suggestion of issues other than sexual harassment too so this may well have been the focus of the meeting with Balestra although it is still not clear
Kotaku said:
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User warned: Downplaying sexual harassment allegations.
Ok....so....has anyone been charged with anything? Is there an ongoing criminal investigation? Or is this just someone slandering another's name? Because from the beginning of this to the now nothing has happened. I'm just curious if this is just a bunch of nerds on a forum getting riled up over another person's business when they have no reason to be involved.
I don't understand what you're saying or why you're saying it and, at this point, we can just agree to disagree.
What?
Y'all are looking WAY too deep into this. It was a single tweet, and he wasn't generally well known to the outside gaming community. It's pretty normal for him to leave and only give one tweet.
ND should respond about how the harassment suit was handled. and both the woman who dismissed the complaint and the accused party should be taken to trial for this
I'll never regret anything more than using the word quiet, that's for sure.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Inappropriate comments about an alleged victim of sexual harassment, history of infractions.
Why is that Royce person tricking David into naming the developer publicly with that pushy bs?
Nothing good will come from this twitter crusade, they all left ND already. Seems like he's just craving the attention again after his story was forgotten and kinda debunked by Kotaku.
Nothing good will come from this twitter crusade, they all left ND already. Seems like he's just craving the attention again after his story was forgotten and kinda debunked by Kotaku.
Also worth noting that naughty dog and, iirc, Sony made statements saying they had no record of any allegations, so if they're telling lies an absolute shitstorm could and should go down.
Sorry but I couldn't disagree more. False accusations can wreck lives and even when the accused is cleared so many people have a 'no smoke without fire' attitude that it doesn't matter. The damage is done.