Today's Jimquisition goes into some pretty heavy stuff.
Some REALLY heavy stuff.
As a result, this video must come with some content warnings.
I spare you the details,
But there is discussion of violence, sexual assault,
abuse, and mental illness.
Otherwise...
...where the fuck do you even start with this shit?
Ubisoft.
Ubisoft, it turns out, hurt my friends.
And when I say "Ubisoft" I mean Ubisoft, top to bottom.
Ubisoft.
Individual abusers committed acts of assault,
but Ubisoft covered for them.
Ubisoft ignored evidence.
Ubisoft ignored victims.
Ubisoft, you hurt my friends.
Fuck you.
A lot of people in the game industry,
an industry that openly and flagrantly abuses its workers
in a plethora of public ways,
have hurt friends, colleagues, peers, and dozens of others
who have come out to share their stories recently.
Sexual assault. Harassment.
Physical, domestic violence.
Emotional and mental abuse.
At the same time, the professional wrestling industry
has also seen dozens of abuse victims speak out.
If you follow the social media circles of either of these worlds,
you know how heartbreaking...
...just how heartbreaking things have been.
But all this rot festering under the surfaces of these businesses,
none of it disguised particularly well,
needed drawing out.
The stories of horrifyingly abusive situations
are published on social media.
The wrestling business in particular
using the hashtag #SpeakingOut.
For the sake of other staff working on this show,
and, hell, for the sake of myself,
I will not attempt to read these accounts.
In this case in particular,
they're not stories I feel.. respectful?..
..putting in my voice?
The stories are, nonetheless, traumatic and distressingly legion.
Among the notable names facing many allegations
are Fallout: New Vegas writer Chris Avellone.
Someone who I can confirm
has been a creep
to people I know.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla director Ashraf Ismail stepped down.
In wrestling, a number of people I looked up to
like Jimmy Havoc or Joey Ryan
have been accused of.. just terrible fucking things.
Ryan in particular facing a MOUNTAIN
of credible and corroborated stories.
The wrestling promotion I moved to Philadelphia to work with,
CHIKARA, has shut its doors
following its own swathe of allegations
towards the entire company's work culture.
At the time of writing this script,
Twitch has begun banning multiple popular streamers
accused of sexually harassing and exploitative behavior.
Games media has come under fire too,
most notably IGN has been implicated in horribly toxic culture,
as well as abusive and degrading management.
Those are just a handful of examples.
Like I said, there are DOZENS of accusations.
And none of this, I suppose,
should really be a surprise to anybody.
Look at the things the industry does
that are openly fucking shady.
We talk about those things on this very show all the time.
It's an industry that willfully, gleefully,
sometimes boastfully exploits vulnerable members of its audience
to milk cash out of them.
It's an industry that uses coercion as standard,
subtly threatening employees' job security
to force them into working unhealthily long hours.
It's an industry where people have only ever shared
stories of crunch, abuse, or even minor indiscretions
under the protection of anonymity.
Correctly afraid that industry leaders
will make them persona non grata.
It's an industry where investigative journalism is dissuaded,
by the threat of access revocation and blacklisting.
It's an industry where -- fuck you, Ubisoft --
control of the message is a matter of outright domination for major publishers.
It's an industry where unionization
has been fought and dismissed,
because companies don't want their workers
to have the kind of bargaining power that voice actors have.
It's an industry that openly advertises gambling to children.
It's an industry that pulls large-scale tax avoidance
to enrich millionaires and billionaires
who choose mass layoffs over bonus cuts every time.
It's an industry that never speaks up
when its members and its media are harassed en masse.
It's an industry that doesn't want people to TALK,
and an industry that doesn't want people to talk,
has a lot it doesn't want SAID.
That's a list of shit the game industry doesn't even TRY to hide,
a list of things it flaunts,
as I say, the OPENLY shady stuff.
I tell you that you can only IMAGINE
how grim the shit it HIDES gets,
but you don't have to.
The stories are out there.
It's quite CLEAR that what the game industry needs,
at the very LEAST,
is a full and frank INDEPENDENT investigation.
One put upon them,
not one they try to initiate themselves.
Ubisoft says it's having an external investigation done.
Fuck 'em.
I won't trust anything that company is doing
on its own fucking terms.
Because Ubisoft is a KNOWN liar,
and has been moving abusers around,
fucking COVERING for them.
And you can take me to court for any of this shit I'm saying, Ubisoft.
Just TRY me.
Because you know full well that I am being fucking RESTRAINED
in my references to YOU, and what you did.
Start with Ubisoft, work them from top to bottom,
and I guarantee, I promise you,
that actionable activities will be found.
Literally, and I mean LITERALLY
at the MOMENT I've been writing this bit,
breaking news hit.
I mean LITERALLY.
I took a break, looked at Twitter,
saw the post, and here we are.
"Ubisoft Places Two Executive on Leave Following Misconduct Allegations."
And now there's a fucking paywall on Bloomberg.
Apparently others have been suspended as well.
The events of recent weeks have been particularly affecting for me
as I've begun to come to terms with my own history.
While all of this talk of abuse is going on,
I've had a psychiatric evaluation
where I was confirmed to have Bipolar type II,
and Complex PTSD
as a result of what can only be described as a couple decades
of having my sense of identity systematically destroyed by caregivers,
followed by people convincing me I was making stuff up,
and that I wasn't even mildly depressed.
I won't go into too many details on this show for
the aforementioned reasons,
but I'll say that when the psychiatrist asked
if school was a reprieve from the abuse at home?
I burst out laughing for a long time.
As I cope with things being dredged to the surface,
I've struggled to just.. know what to say...
...to any of what's been happening to people in this industry.
Especially the women who have been so casually assaulted.
But I'm not equipped for this.
I'm not fucking any good at this.
I rant about microtransactions and time-wasting game mechanics.
This makes me uncomfortable.
This makes me sick.
This triggers shit for me, I got to admit that.
But it can't be IGNORED.
Because it's part and parcel of everything we talk about in this show.
It's the epitome of it,
laid bare in grotesque and ghoulish detail.
It's the result of an industry that has, for years,
been so fucking cloak and dagger about everything.
Something like that recent Last of Us Part II embargo,
where critics literally couldn't critique half the game?
On it's own, it's innocuous.
In no way actually comparable to systematic and personal abuse.
But it's what this industry DOES.
For petty shit.
For shit that it doesn't NEED to control
and restrict so obsessively.
And it does it all the time.
Leaders in the industry despise public record.
I've lost count of the number of times
I've criticized malicious behavior in the industry,
only to have the prick what done something tell me how I
"should have talked to them privately."
REGARDLESS of whether or not they ACTUALLY respond
or listen whenever reached out to.
And those that do, ohhh,
they ALWAYS want to talk on the phone.
Never in email. Never in clear text.
Any game journalist watching this knows EXACTLY what I'm fucking talking about.
As I've been shouting and shouting and shouting,
the game industry DESPISES accountability.
Whether it's answering for unethical business practices,
or dealing with the corrupt and criminal elements
within their own work spaces.
As I speak, companies are jettisoning known bad actors,
but as with everything this industry does,
it's a SHOW of contrition,
without the requisite remorse.
The stories go back years, DECADES at this point,
and these publishers knew those stories already.
Investigate EVERY executive.
At every game publisher.
Every last one of them.
And then burn the whole establishment to the fucking ground.
Accountability is for everyone.
Myself included.
My early career in games journalism is well-known,
and rightly criticized.
I've never hid it.
I've always owned up to it.
And I always will be fucking sorry.
I was a complete piece of shit.
An angry little man and a desperately edgy wanna be shock jock,
who thought that a joke -- by any means -- was okay.
Every shitty word, every shitty subject,
all of it was ripe for mockery to me.
And there is simply no doubt
that I contributed to a sexist, racist, homophobic culture.
And I am sorry, always.
I think about it a LOT,
and fill myself with regret
on a regular basis,
as anybody who's had to talk me down from a self-loathing episode can attest.
I promise myself around eight or nine years ago
that I wasn't going to BE that person.
That I would do my best to, if not make up for my awfulness,
at least use the platform I was blessed enough to have
to be as inclusive and welcoming and affirming to people as possible.
In the process, I got in touch with my own pansexuality and mental health issues.
And I like to think -- I hope --
that I've made the Jimquisition a very welcoming show.
BUT,
one hand does not so thoroughly wash the other.
I'll have to own what I was.
I'm proud of who I am now, but at the same time,
that does not entitle ME to forgiveness or trust.
And those who see no cause to lend me either
aren't people I can blame.
All I can do is what I've tried to do
for a while now.
Keep being better,
keep learning, and help others how I can.
The game industry won't hold itself to account.
It never has.
It's been known to contrive its own regulatory bodies
that give the appearance of culpability,
while plainly serving company interests.
It'll offer some human sacrifices to the altar of appeasement.
But it will always seek to punish those who speak out.
To destroy those who blow whistles.
That was talked about only this week,
amidst all of this abuse discussion no less.
Professional Hearthstone player, Janne Mikkonen,
is married to Twitch streamer, Christina Mikkonen.
Christina, also, happens to be a former Hearthstone community manager,
and among those notoriously laid off
by Activision Blizzard in 2019.
A year where the publisher enjoyed record revenue
but axed 800 jobs to keep up the illusion of perpetual financial growth.
Yeah, Christina's husband is allegedly banned from Hearthstone events
because she dared to have a voice.
She was, in fact, the one who pointed out
that Activision had begun posting job openings shortly after the layoffs.
She was right to do that, because that was fucking bullshit.
"My wife was part of the 800 layoffs and she spoke up about the injust practices of company."
Said the Hearthstone pro.
"I was told I am a liability because of who I am married to."
Blizzard has denied it.
I don't believe Blizzard.
I don't believe a company that just last year
was embroiled in a controversy
for literally suspending a Hearthstone player who spoke up about something.
I don't believe any company in an industry
where what Mikkonen describes is exactly what does happen.
Famously happens,
to people who talk about their experiences
without anonymity protecting them.
So investigate Activision Blizzard.
For everything.
For its dodgy tax bullshit.
For its sleazy money funneling.
And for whatever else a secretive company
in a secretive industry
might be fucking up to.
Investigate the fucking lot of them.
I don't know what else to say.
It's just.. fucked up.
Sorry if today's video is shit.
Well like I said, I'm out of my depth.
I don't even know whether it's in bad taste?
To dress up in my usual, big round cartoon self? Or..
..whether wearing something more somber
would just come across as like trying to hard or..
Or trying to do a very special episode.
The videogame industry is due a reckoning.
For all of it.
It's not sorry for anything it's done, it's not sorry for the abuse.
Umm, I shouldn't even say "the industry" as a nebulous thing.
The people running this industry.
The men in their nice little suits
know about all of this abuse and they don't.. fucking care.
They've never fucking cared and they've never been sorry.
Normally I say "Thank God for me" but this week
I'd just like to thank everyone who's come out and spoken,
people who have really braved the lion's den, really.
When people share these stories,
they open themselves up just for more abuse from the public.
And... it, it just takes a nerve of steel
to go out and just do that, and be vulnerable
[hand smacks twice]
and put yourself out there.
So, thank you to everyone who's come forward and told their stories
across the videogame industry, the wrestling business, and comics as well.
Which was a, you know,
it's only just happening as I was putting the video together.
Otherwise, just, thank you for watching, I'm sorry,
if the video was..
not that great and not that cheerful.
But... it had to be talked about, so.
That's that. [clap] Thank you.
[♫ "Fearless First" by Kevin MacLeod ♫]
♫ ♫
