Sexual harassment

[Lilseph]

Personally, I don't condone the actions of the guy being accused, but I also don't condone enacting a witch hunt against the guy in this fashion. I've heard the recordings and while I sympathise with the victims, there just isn't enough information to be completely sure. It doesn't really help their case when you look at the way they treated one of the GMs when reporting the issue to them. Why would you even mention that "you wouldn't buy Stormblood" when reporting someone for something as serious as sexual harassment? It just takes away from the real issue - which also included the absolute refusal to give the GM the name of the accused so they could start a proper investigation. I get that this issue is serious and that the guy needs to be punished in some way, but that shouldn't give anyone the right to harass the GMs let alone anyone that has a different opinion.

One other thing to also mention is a recent post where the guy being accused threw a curveball and accused the group of posting a cropped screenshot taken out of context. It wouldn't have mattered if the group didn't respond to that accusation, but alas, they did. While it doesn't seem like much, the problem here is that the group has been proven to be willing to post a cropped screenshot that had been taken out of context. This does bring into question on the credibility on all of their other screenshot evidence - whether or not any of the other screenshots that they had posted had also been heavily cropped and taken out of context too.

[Alleo]

One other thing to also mention is a recent post where the guy being accused threw a curveball and accused the group of posting a cropped screenshot taken out of context. It wouldn't have mattered if the group didn't respond to that accusation, but alas, they did. While it doesn't seem like much, the problem here is that the group has been proven to be willing to post a cropped screenshot that had been taken out of context. This does bring into question on the credibility on all of their other screenshot evidence - whether or not any of the other screenshots that they had posted had also been heavily cropped and taken out of context too.

That guy told one magazine that he could prove that he is innocent and that those are all lies but does not feel like he wants to...why? If those would truly be lies I would prove my innocence because otherwise your whole reputation could be gone. So for me that feels more like he has nothing on his hand but wanted to say something anyway. He also posted a discord screenshot but marked all the sentences that are not his with black markers. Why? How is that in any kind of form better evidence and not some form of manipulation? Also we had a chat screenshot where one of the victims talked to the other friend that wanted them to go back and they never denied that the guy would try to blackmail them.

Heck even the guy itself posted to one of his newest "lovers" that its all a game for him with the other females and that she is the one and only..

I am really sorry but the evidence does not look really good for him.

[Lilseph]

If those would truly be lies I would prove my innocent because otherwise your whole reputation could be gone.

Not to defend him, but when you put things into perspective, his reputation immediately hit rock bottom the moment the allegations started to surface. At that point, he really can’t refute the allegations because a lot of the community didn't trust his word from the get-go. Just look at the Reddit threads and see how many posts denounced him as human scum before he could get a single word in. Tell me, would you have extended the same courtesy that you gave to the group of believing every single word they said to the guy being accused had he refuted the claims much earlier?

Why? How is that in any kind of form better evidence and not some form of manipulation?

It’s one of the only few pieces of evidence that both sides have presented that remained consistent with each other. All other forms of information are very one-sided and are circumstantial regardless of who gave the statement. Evidence that both the guy being accused and the group having “blackmail” material came from chats of other people, not the guy or group respectively. Again, it doesn’t make the guy being accused innocent, but it does paint a bad picture of the victims.

Edit: For clarification, I agree that the guy being accused should be punished for this kind of behaviour regardless of the outcome. However, we as a community need to treat this situation with utmost case so as not to repeat a similar situation with the false allegations and defamation of a content creator over on another game’s subreddit.

[QT_Melon]

That guy told one magazine that he could prove that he is innocent and that those are all lies but does not feel like he wants to...why?
Heck even the guy itself posted to one of his newest "lovers" that its all a game for him with the other females and that she is the one and only..

He actually posted more than that recently - might want to look at his twitter where he pinned his blog. I didn't want to originally post the info because he was using their real names, looking like an attempt to dox them, or have them doxxed.

Like I said in earlier posts, he still doesn't refute the other allegations where he'd keep women around by threatening self harm. Or the fact he'd become verbally abusive if the women interacted with other men - or people he didn't approve of. He chose his victims well for the most part. I mean the argument isn't if these are "upstanding women, that have done no wrong" - it's if he was doing a pattern of manipulative behavior based on sexual interest or gender.

[Okamimaru]

Let's stop using the phrase "witch hunt".... I know it's a popular phrase right now but the witch hunts were literally just making stuff up against people you had a grudge against and often led to the accused's death... not quite the same thing... it's hyperbole and dismissive... and again the case in the article was just what got me thinking about this as an issue in gaming... despite what you think of the article itself lets think beyond one particular instance and on to the rest of the community... I think that raising awareness that this type of thing being possible goes a long way to help curb this behaviour... letting people know they can speak out without victim shaming and the community making it clear this behaviour is not accepted should also have a positive impact....

[Lilseph]

Snip

The phrase really depends how you view the meaning of it. Setting an entire community to target a specific person can be considered a "witch hunt", but it's not the only usage of the phrase. I agree with you that raising awareness of these issues is important so this sort of thing doesn't happen again, but as a whole, we're all kinda backed into a corner. If these allegations prove true, then yes, more people can speak out about their experiences without fearing backlash, but that also presents an opportunity for others to abuse this fact to maliciously target someone. On the other hand, if this turns out to be a coordinated hoax, then this brings up the credibility of future claims and ruins it for other victims; not to mention that we, as a community, managed to let this fester. We have statements from both parties now, and honestly I'm still not too sure - though, there seems to be more evidence pointing towards the latter.

[QT_Melon]

The phrase really depends how you view the meaning of it. Setting an entire community to target a specific person can be considered a "witch hunt", but it's not the only usage of the meaning.

Well if the Janes in the initial outbreak take to legal matters, or the offender will since he also has a rebuttal blog that is for them to work out. I am not here to say whether or not he should go to jail or even encourage a campaign like that, it is a definite witch hunt.

I think though after multiple women are giving warning about the same problematic behavior from an individual it stands to note it is more awareness. They also mention it interfering with gameplay because of the relationships they made. It is for either other victims to come forward, or for people to remember the precautions when going online.

The problem is when people are not understanding that after this saying things in the "should have known better" in regards to the women victimized and even males, because apparently men were also ostracized from the ordeal, either because they weren't liked or part of his approval list.

That's the thing, no matter how you want to paint a Jane as a cheater, or other derogatory words for her sexual choices. The accused decided to beg the question of the various Janes motives in all this.

Well, the thing is the accused didn't refute anything about ostracizing users or yelling at the various women when they interacted with other males in the game. He didn't refute using tactics as stating he would engage in self harm if the relationship didn't go his way. He didn't refute that he was asking women to read his erotica or bring up sexual topics when completely inappropriate. I mean I get when people make a sexual joke or flirtation here and there, and a person asks or declines the conversation continue - and the person agrees. It is abuse to keep persisting in hoping the person will eventually go along with it.

[Lilseph]

Snip.

I agree with you for the most part. However, due to the nature of the situation, the guy being accused has been given very few options to refute the claims towards him - none of his statements are taken seriously anymore. It's not that he won't refute the claims moreso the community pushed him into a corner to the point where he can't refute the claims and be taken seriously. Mind you that this doesn't make him innocent. Honestly, I think both sides handled the situation very poorly which limited the scope for discussion.

[QT_Melon]

However, due to the nature of the situation, the guy being accused has been given very few options to refute the claims towards him. Mind you that this doesn't make him innocent. Honestly, I think both sides handled the situation very poorly which limited the scope for discussion.

Oh he made his own blog and people are already jumping on the bandwagon of shaming the women.

The problem was, the women came forward because it became about using the same logs he's trying to use against them now to blackmail. I mean no matter how much you sorry for the word "Slut shame" as I said before he didn't bother refuting any of the other complaints - which far goes beyond the more solacious bits... because he was worried more about refuting revenge porn even when it came to light one of the women also did something as bad in terms of privacy. Unfortunately, yes this whole thing is a mess because unlike when media breaks about these things, these women don't have a PR agent to properly put forth the information.

[Okamimaru]

Again I was trying to see if this was an isolated issue or more widespread and if it is more of a problem than one particular group of people what can we the players do going forward... I'm well aware that this one case isn't something we can really judge but that's not the point... the point is to raise awareness of a possible threat to a vulnerable part of the community and find ways to protect them should the need arise...