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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35502 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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June 22 2020, PCGamer - Chris Avellone accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women

"He got me blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime). He and two friends somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys. They left after a few moments (also drunk), and one of them told me what he had witnessed the next evening. I had very vague impressions that someone had made out with me when I woke up that morning, but thought it was a dream," she wrote(opens in new tab).

"When I asked Chris about it, he told me that I had eventually refused him. When more of the night came back to me, I realized the ONLY reason I was able to refuse him in my blackout stupor was because I was on my period that weekend. The ONLY reason."

Karissa said she witnessed Avellone act in a similar fashion with multiple other women at the event, and eventually reached the point where she, backed by two men who were also aware of his behavior, reported him to organizers, who immediately blacklisted him.

"His behavior didn’t stop, though. If anything, it got worse. It took years for his employer to finally fire him (I honestly don’t recall the exact reason he was given, it was a while ago and I wasn’t there personally—this was relayed to me by a friend who also worked there)," she wrote. "He moved to other studios. Other projects. Other conventions until they stopped inviting him on their own accord (whether due to behavior or relevance, I don’t know). I pushed him out of my memory, as did my dear friends, and we only discussed our anger and disgust if he happened to come up.

June 29 2021, PCGamer - Chris Avellone files libel suit over last year's sexual misconduct allegations

Barrows stands by her allegations. "The only statement I will make at this time is that I stand by my story," Barrows told PC Gamer when reached for comment this week. "I told the truth. I am not at liberty to speak further until legal proceedings have concluded."

Along with the lawsuit, Avellone published a blog post titled "It's Come To This"(opens in new tab), in which he claims that Barrows became antagonistic toward him when his relationship with a friend of hers soured. In 2020, Barrows claimed that her best friend "endured over a year of heartache, gaslighting, and emotional abuse at [Avellone's] hands." Avellone says that the friend in question did become "unhappy," but that they had not been in a committed relationship. (The friend is only identified in the post as someone named Jackie. She is not identified in the lawsuit, either.)

March 25 2023, Chris Avellone's blog - JOINT STATEMENT FROM KARISSA BARROWS, KELLY BRISTOL, AND CHRIS AVELLONE

Mr. Avellone never sexually abused either of us. We have no knowledge that he has ever sexually abused any women. We have no knowledge that Mr. Avellone has ever misused corporate funds. Anything we have previously said or written about Mr. Avellone to the contrary was not our intent. We wanted to support women in the industry. In so doing, our words have been misinterpreted to suggest specific allegations of misconduct that were neither expressed nor intended. We are passionate about the safety, security and agency of women, minorities, LGBTQIA+ persons, and every other community that has seen persecution in the video game industry. We believe Mr. Avellone shares a desire to protect and uplift those communities. We believe that he deserves a full return to the industry and support him in those endeavors.”

March 25 2023, PCGamer - crickets

March 25 2023, Kotaku - crickets

It's remarkable that rpgcodex had the coverage that aged best.

Erik Kain working his beat as a based games journalist as well.

I'm not sure what more to add to this that hasn't already been said. Mostly I felt like summing up the entire event from primary sources for posterity and clarity, so that it's obvious who the liars are, and who the good faith actors are.

In their forced apology letter, Karissa and Kelly spend half of it non-apologising.

It’s not our fault that we lied; if you believed our lies, it’s your fault for misinterpreting. We had no way of knowing our accusations of sexual abuse would be interpreted as accusations of sexual abuse; our campaign to accuse Chris of sexual abuse was not intended to accuse him of sexual abuse.

They spend the other half reiterating their allegiance to women, minorities, LGBTQIA+ persons. People whose safety and security matter. The safety and security of white heterosexual men, on the other hand…

It’s pretty funny that, even in a statement on falsely accusing a man of sexual abuse, they managed to allocate half of it to idpol preening. It’s also funny them doing so isn’t even surprising nowadays. Next steps for being better would be to include a stolen land acknowledgement and a reaffirmation of their commitment toward sustainability and combating climate change.

"He got me blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime).

“He got me,” not “we got” or “I got.” As if Chris beamed the Midori Sours into her stomach using a Star Trek transporter, with her having no role in the part. What happened to being passionate about the agency of women? Schrödinger’s feminism: Strong, independent #GamerGirls one moment and damsels in distress the next.

He and two friends somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys.

Okay, the image of Chris pouncing made me chuckle internally. Pounced, like a cat! And what would she claim his game-plan here was? Bang her in front of the other guys while they watched? Run a train in the spirit of “It ain't no fun, if the homies can't have none”?

Along with the lawsuit, Avellone published a blog post titled "It's Come To This"(opens in new tab), in which he claims that Barrows became antagonistic toward him when his relationship with a friend of hers soured. In 2020, Barrows claimed that her best friend "endured over a year of heartache, gaslighting, and emotional abuse at [Avellone's] hands." Avellone says that the friend in question did become "unhappy," but that they had not been in a committed relationship. (The friend is only identified in the post as someone named Jackie. She is not identified in the lawsuit, either.)

So it sounds like this whole thing started because Chris did not treat a member of his soft harem with the wonderfulness she and her friends thought she was entitled to, thus hoes maddening ensued. Between this and UVA, a takeaway is to avoid girls named Jackie/Jacqui.

Originally, I had no idea who these people were, so I did some googling (how does a video game writer, of all people, have so many groupies in the first place? Maybe I’m in the wrong profession). Jacqui’s Insta quickly came up, which like those of many young women, has a fair share of bikini pics, and outfits and poses to show off her rack. Including a bikini pic with one of the more blatant displays of camel toe I have seen on the app.

I was about to make a sarcastic comment like “ugh, stupid Chris. How could he proposition her over text message, thinking she’s that kind of girl?” But I returned to read some more about the situation.

Apparently, the Insta camel toe pic is just the tip of the thot-iceberg. Jacqui has actually done porn, a video with James Deen under the name “Violet,” evidence of which she has since tried to scrub away from the internet. However, NeoGAF commenters here have receipts in the form of screenshots, and tips on how to find the video.

One commenter remarked in that thread: “Now we know why she talks shit. She eats JD's ass!” Interesting, but I haven’t watched the video to verify. Another noted: “To her credit as a upstanding feminist, she doesn't seem to be among the ones that let Deen shove their heads into the toilet during sex.”

The irony of a porn actress pearl-clutching over some sexual text messages did not go unnoticed. For example, RPG Codex user ScrotumBroth declared: “A frigging porn cumbucket moralising sexual advances via text is a new peak.”

The existence of corners of the internet like RPG Codex and NeoGAF that still contain many based users gives me greater hope for the world.

I did a little search up on James Deen, it's a pretty sad story.

Deen was born in Los Angeles County, California and raised in Pasadena.[5][9][10][11] His father is a mechanical engineer and his mother is a computer electronic engineer,[12] and one of them worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[13]

According to Deen, performing in pornographic films was his ambition since he was in kindergarten.[14] Around age 15, he left high school and spent two years homeless.[15] He graduated from La Cañada High School in 2004.

After entering the pornography industry in 2004,

He's got two parents in engineering, one fairly prestigious and goes for pornography straight after high school, as soon as he can. Probably some serious conflict with his parents.

I don't see anything sad about this story.

Besides the "kid knowing about porn at a really young age" thing mentioned below, Deen was accused some time ago of sexual abuse or something along those lines.

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