So I know we don't really do drama threads anymore, but this story has been developing all week and because it relates to the indie scene I keep thinking of you guys when I see it.
If you haven't seen the news items, I'll briefly recap.
Jeremy Soule who composed the music for the Elder Scrolls games was accused of coercive rape. This spawned a lot of stories about other examples of sexual abuse in the games industry, including that accusing Alec Holowka of abuse by Zoe Quinn.
Alec you might know as the dev and musician of Aquaria, and co-developer of Night in the Woods. He also worked with Matt by doing the music for Towerfall.
A lot of corroborating stories then came out. Matt commented on it too.
https://twitter.com/xpatriciah/status/1166377951170113537https://twitter.com/christinelove/status/1166369805139619840https://twitter.com/MOOMANiBE/status/1166380600057425920https://twitter.com/benprunty/status/1166239618221494272https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/1166804301391360000Alec's current dev team cut ties with him as well, removing him from their new project.
https://twitter.com/NightInTheWoods/status/1166778779756314625Today Alec killed himself. His sister posted about it on Twitter. She explained that Alec was in a dark place but was recovering, and that she believed Zoe's claims.
Her tweets are now protected because of the inevitable onslaught of shit that people started responding with. Here's her statement:
Alec Holowka, my brother and best friend, passed away this morning.
Those who know me will know that I believe survivors and I have always done everything I can to support survivors, those suffering from mental illnesses, and those with chronic illnesses. Alec was a victim of abuse and he also spent a lifetime battling mood and personality disorders. I will not pretend that he was not also responsible for causing harm, but deep down he was a person who wanted only to offer people care and kindness. It took him a while to figure out how.
Over the last few years, with therapy and medication, Alec became a new person—the same person he'd always been but without any of the darkness. He was calm and happy, positive and loving. Obviously, change is a slow process and it wasn't perfect, but he was working towards rehabilitation and a better life.
In the last few days, he was supported by many Manitoba crisis services, and I want to thank everyone there for their support. I want to thank Adam Saltsman for staying up late talking with us and reminding Alec that there was a future.
My family has and always will be the most important thing to me. Please give us time to heal. We tried our best to support Alec, but in the end he felt he had lost too much.
I currently do not see a place for myself in games or on Twitter. I will not be looking at the responses to this post. I appreciate everyone who has reached out to me over the last few days. For anyone who is in a time of darkness, I encourage you to reach out for support. There are always people who will be there for you.
Shortly thereafter, Zoe deleted her Twitter account. I'm guessing she got just as many awful comments in light of this news.
That's where we're at now. Things seem tense. Zoe's history with gamer gate has gotten the foam-mouthed Gamerz even more riled up than normal.
I don't think this will have a happy ending.