Night in the Woods Creator Alec Holowka Accused of Abuse by Zoe Quinn

Night in the Woods creator, Alec Holowka has been accused of abuse by fellow game developer, Zoe Quinn, creator of Depression Quest.

[Jimboms]

Yea just read about this, it's awful.

[Mr Pumblechook]

This is an awful situation. It's not right if I or any other un-related person uses our personal feelings to determine innocence or guilt; public opinion and social media must not be used to determine the role of either party, the best thing is to involve the police and let this go to trial. People on the internet shouldn't attack or abuse her or him.

It's important to let the courts get involved because sometimes the internet can wrongly condemn a person.
YouTuber Andy Signore had an allegation of sexual misconduct made against him by a woman he was in a relationship with. He had many on the internet condemn him and he was fired from his job. Fortunately for him, proof was discovered that disproved the allegations and Defy Media settled a lawsuit he bought against them paying him an undisclosed amount of compensation.

Speaking generally, the law is not perfect but police and lawyers do everything they can to get justice for victims of sexual assault so it's important that victims get the police involved to start proceedings.

[rainslacker]

While I agree that police should be involved, or at least some authority depending on the situation, when someone goes to social media as a first resort, or before retaining a lawyer, then it calls the whole accusation into question.

I understand the need to have support, but people need to realize that anonymous people on the internet are not a proper or sufficient support group.

That said, leaving all bias aside, when someone has been exposed as propagating false claims in the past, and has made extreme exaggerations about the treatment they received from a community to try and vilify that same community, anything brought to social media is going to bring even more unwanted attention.

My guess, having watched Quinn in the past, she will use that as yet another reason to vilify the community, thus devaluing the claim. Whether it's true or not is rather inconsequential when it comes to social media.

That said, you talk about the law, but my wife is a lawyer who has seen more cases fall apart because people take these things to social media prematurely, or at all. First thing she would tell any of her clients is to not talk in public forums about it.

[ginganinja]

@rainslacker
'leaving all bias aside' - proceeds to be biased as fu..
If you read through the replies to her tweets there's several other people making similar accusations against the same person.

It's strange how everybody here is 'doubtful' of her story, yet believed everything her ex said without question all those years ago (even still, when large parts of it have proven to be bs).

[rainslacker]

I'm not saying I'm leaving bias aside, just that the following sentiment is based on the practical nature of how people react to others. My personal feelings about it are that no one deserves to be abused, but I don't really just take quinn at her word, because she is the very definition of a drama queen, and has purposefully made statements to discredit others, and get attention for herself. Her history is against her, but if she has valid proof, and wants more than just to cause public outrage towards this person for whatever reason like she's done in the past, then there are much better outlets of recourse than going to twitter to defame someone.

I'm personally not taking a side with either of them about who did what. I don't know this holowka guy, and never heard of him before. I also wouldn't really listen to any twitter reply support either. It's not conclusive of anything.

All I can say is that taking it to twitter doesn't do anything but spread trouble. There's a pervasive idea that nothing can be done about this, so some people don't seek real justice. All I know is that people who run to twitter to accuse and try someone in the court of public opinion often ruin any chance they ever had at getting justice. A public trial proving this would mean something. A bunch of he said/she said, means nothing, regardless of supposed witnesses who have not been verified in the least.

In any case, I question if this is even gaming news. This was a personal relationship between a game developer and a self proclaimed game developer. It's one thing if this is happening within a studio, and that may have some effect on a game, but in this case, that's not the case.

[ginganinja]

@rain...
Have you ever considered that all your beliefs about her are founded on nothing but bs. What if their was a wolf every time and you were just too blinded by the internet rabble to see?
You take every allegation against her as gospel despite any proof, yet are unwilling to believe in this case despite corroborating stories from colleagues and others in the business.

[TK-66]

@ginganinja

"It's strange how everybody here is 'doubtful' of her story, yet believed everything her ex said without question all those years ago"

Let's just address the elephant in the room which is CON. Her organisation which only cares about you if you're a big name public figure and was shown to actually be guilty of doing the sort harrassment they claim to be fighting against. Also well known for telling people to not go to the police which is the dumbest advice you can possibility give.

The story she's tweeting about could be 100% true. But If you're trying to say she's not equivalent to a Gloria Allred in regard to her desperate levels of attention seeking, by injecting herself whenever possible into a story then you need to rethink your position.

[IamTylerDurden1]

What exactly does she claim? She says the two dated and she was staying with him and then goes on to lambaste him for being a controlling jerk with mental issues. She vaguely mentions sexual assault and claims someone saw it and he threatened her Visa or wouldn't pay for her plane ticket home? Am i missing something? I dug a little, but am i missing the smoking gun? They were dating, he was manic, and she vaguely refers to some sexual assault or..? Idk..

Were they dating while she claims he assaulted her or was it at the office? Were they broken up? She says she flew home and emailed him a breakup letter. Wtf? This makes no sense. She was assaulted but didn't breakup until after she flew home and she was assaulted while she was living with him? So he assaulted his girlfriend?

Why is she going on Twitter as opposed to the authorities? This woman seems off in the way she describes things, almost petty in some cases. She denigrates him for berating her for the tone in her voice once. You accuse the man of sexual assault and you drone on in the same paragraph about how he reprimanded you about your bitchy tone? That seems petty, why bring it up?

I have no idea what happened, but Quinn has a tainted past and this series of tweets appears strange.

[Smokehouse]

Since when did twitter become the place to air out your dirty laundry? If your boyfriend is abusive you need to call the law. Posting the shit on twitter just screams shady attention whore. Trying to make some indie developer look like Harvey Weinstein lol.

[Rachel_Alucard]

The best part is how she says he stuck his fingers in her then walked around her around the house as if this was a consensual thing.

[Xaevi]

I can't take accusations like these seriously. Report it to the authorities, not on a Tumblr/Twitter post. All this does is send an angry mob of idiots to attack who you're accusing, it's happened before. This isn't how things of this matter should be dealt with, it isn't brave, it's reckless.

[mixelon]

That’s not how it works. You can’t prove this sort of thing legally and she’s not interested in him being criminally liable. People want to move on, but people also want to protect others from the same happening. It’s very good to speak up about stuff like this to shine a light on behaviours that keep happening.

You seriously think people are supposed to report things like this at the time when the whole account relies on one person controlling the other and breaking them down?

[SuperRaccoon]

That's exactly how it works, because that's how the legal system works. Unfortunately for the victims, something like this is closer to libel than anything else. No one said it was easy, but if you can't gather the courage to speak up in a timely manner then no one can help you.

Innocent until proven guilty is the way we operate. If a court of law can't pass a verdict, then he is innocent, unfortunately. Thus, this is libel seeking to incite mob justice. A better way to protect others is to talk about how you should ask for help when it happens, so people actually have a chance to find justice.

[Imalwaysright]

SuperRaccoon

" If a court of law can't pass a verdict, then he is innocent, unfortunately" You lost me with the word "unfortunately". It's not "unfortunately", it's fortunately otherwise it would be anarchy and chaos.

[BlackTar187]

@mix you're a demented person. Wake up or someday your assumption of guilt will bite back.

[rainslacker]

Bullshit. Stop spreading this ignorance. Going to the authorities will give you an infinitely higher chance of getting justice than just saying something on Twitter. If she doesn't even try, then that's wrong. The police, and her lawyer if she retains one, and any prosecutor, would tell her to not go around telling everyone her story. That only hinders any investigation.

There are ways to prove abuse through systematic investigation, and outside some really rare cases, there is always some evidence, or witness, even if after the fact. Even if it seems that the evidence is thin, it can lead to much more if the person actually did abuse someone because abusive people typically aren't abusive only to one person in their life.

I wouldn't think this is Quinn trying to protect others, because her history doesn't support anything more than her being a self-serving drama queen. All she wants is attention, and even if this is something that's true, her own actions in the past, on Twitter no less, make any accusation she makes instantly questionable. If she wants to protect others, then try to do it right and get his ass thrown in jail, or at least have an official public record of it. Even if she doesn't get justice, at least if he does it again, which abusive people usually do, there will be an official record of it to give the potential the next person can get justice. Sex offenders, which some of this abuse would be classified as, are never going to be free of people knowing what they did. With Twitter, what he did will be a distant memory in the near future.

But, what it comes down to is that she has tons of resources that don't involve going on Twitter and publicly shaming someone. She is trying to try this man in the court of public opinion, and the public is irrational and never bothers to know the facts. I'd take attempted and failed justice over public shaming which will achieve nothing but making her feel better about herself, and find support from random anonymous people on the internet.

[Servbot41]

You basically just said "guilty until proven innocent" in a roundabout way. This woman is a notorious liar and is known to do things like this to get attention. Sorry, but you can only cry wolf so many times until people stop ever believing you.

[IamTylerDurden1]

She claimed there was a witness, why not go to the police?

[CaitSith]

Ditto @BlackTar187

[bangoskank]

Her game is called "Depression Quest"...
I wouldn't be so quick to throw Holowka on the rack just yet.

[staticall]

I'm sorry, but i can't believe anything Zoe Quinn says, she was lying for how long, six years? And isn't her whole career is one big sex scandal? And Twitter or Notes app on your iPhone is not a credible source. Is there any court case or report to the authorities? No? Yeah, no, i don't believe you.

And look at her tweet, how many dumb people repeating the «we believe you» mantra, it's very scary. Imagine (just an example, not saying about current situation) if some (in)«famous» person will occuse you about something bad and a whole gang of those «we believe you, Zoё» will start harassing you.

[Servbot41]

Yup, she just wants to be in the spotlight again. Shes a notorious liar and uses sex as a way to further her career. Why should we believe her now?

[GameBoyColor]

Ye whatever, keep your crap private. Im only dismissing this because this is the chick that slept with a bunch of journalists and started gamergate. I don't really think I can believe what she says now lol

[Smokehouse]

Lmao I knew that name sounded familiar! Wow drama sticks to her like flies to shit.

[DaDrunkenJester]

Well when you're constantly looking from drama and a scandal to make a living... of course you will find it.

[PlatinumGX]

Don't know how anyone can take her seriously, she just wants the attention.

[Segata]

She has a knack for opening her legs and dating supposed assholes. Then she cries for attention all the time and has been found lying before. Yeah taking everything she says with a grain of salt.

[AnotherGamer]

Didn't she lied before and blowing things out of proportions?

[rainslacker]

Yes. She is one of the catalysts that set off gamergate, and was the bridge between it being about the collusion of the gaming press that it started as, to it being about gamers being sexist misogynist. She used the fame to make one really crappy game, and I have no clue what she's done since, but I don't think it was anything of worth, because we haven't heard of anything but her own personal drama whenever her name comes up.

[quent]

She's still at it

[DaDrunkenJester]

Zoe Quinn isn't exactly such a trustworthy person. She is kind of known as a massive liar in the industry... I'm going to reserve judgement on this one until more info or an investigation is taken place.

[rainslacker]

There is no investigation. She's just making public statements on a public forum. An investigation would be by someone with authority, like the police or district attorneys.

This will blow over, and she will have achieved defaming a man publicly who even if he could prove his innocence, some wouldn't believe him, and while I doubt it will have any long term repercussions on his career, its likely some will harass him for it, or decide to attach whatever he does to this alleged scandal.

[antikbaka]

isn't Zoe Quinn the one who always somehow gets abused? so strange

[Servbot41]

Yeah, it's almost as if shes a liar and has lied about this before..

[Majin-vegeta]

It's just karma biting her back for taking advantage of people

[Giblet_Head]

Considering this isn't the first time she's baselessly accused someone that went nowhere you'd think she'd wear a gopro on her person at all times. Unless she has evidence she's setting herself up for a defamation lawsuit.

[AK91]

I need to see what the police/law say about this, Quinn is known as a liar and someone who tells half-truths.

[lellkay]

I'm out of the loop with this. What did she lie about before?