• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Nick Robinson (Polygon) involved in sexual harassment allegations [Suspended]

Status
Not open for further replies.
BiGBoSSMk23

BiGBoSSMk23

A company being excited for their new game is a huge slap in the face to all the fans that liked their old games.
Squire said:
I have a mutual on twitter who was affected by this. You don't need more evidence. It's real.
Click to expand...

Not to play devil's advocate or anything, but isn't this considered hearsay?

Similar to false/inaccurate twitter reports in the immediate aftermath of a calamity?
 
J

jett

D-Member
Just based on the Overcooked tweets he seems like an asshole. Shit went nuclear after that. Hopefully he ends up ostracized. This this guy really wield so much "power" in this industry?
 
M

Mael

Member
TomWaitsForNoMan said:
Nick tweeted that he'd jack off to Krystal. Multiple people in the industry said they felt creeped out by it while heavily implying there was history of creepiness. Outside observers decided those people were overreacting thinking it was just about that one tweet
Click to expand...

Oh god, why does this industry attract such creepers >_<'
 
R

RumbleHumble

Banned
Mael said:
Can some kind soul be kind enough to fill in the blanks here?
Click to expand...

I can't pull up the tweets right now, but essentially:

Nick made a joke on twitter about masturbating to Krystal from Star Fox: Adventures when he was young.

Frem Frequency's twitter retweeted while captioning that behavior like this was emblematic of the problems game industry men have in how they feel ok to casually talk like this publicly to others and joke about treating female characters in games as objects for masturbation.

Various women in the industry started retweeting, stating that not all women are super cool with hearing about what Nick's penis was doing when Nick saw Krystal.

It didn't make a whole lot of sense, until all this comes out. The tweet just comes off mega creepy.
 
T

Telfo

Member
psyfi said:
Aw man, that's dissapointing. I hope Nick is able to be accountable to this, it'll take years for him to proce his sincerity and repair his reputation, but I hope he tries. I think he's a good person, but he really needs to do whatever mental/enotional/gender work it takes to stop being predatory.
Click to expand...

it would appear that is extremely not the case.

Thinking you actually "know" creative types whose work you follow is a mistake people will always make. Listening to someones podcast, watching their videos, reading their writing etc. is nothing close to actually knowing them. Recognizing that fact and not idolizing people who you ultimately know very little about is important imo.
 
L

L Thammy

Member
People are calling this vague, but it seems clear enough from what is being said that

1. he ask women to send him nudes
2. he's done this a bunch
3. it's unsolicited

Right? That's enough to form a strong opinion already.
 
LordRaptor

LordRaptor

Member
I think most twitter drama should stay on twitter, but if someones response to being asked for simple repro steps from a small developer when reporting a bug is
"fuck you, I already gave you &#65332;&#65335;&#65317;&#65326;&#65332;&#65337;&#12288;&#65316;&#65327;&#65324;&#65324;&#65313;&#65330;&#65331;, I ain't helping with shit"...


...that person is probably a cunt.
 
H

Hero

Member
Is there anything besides the tweet screens in the OP?

Like what did he actually do? Sent women in the industry DMs?
 
B

BiggNife

Member
YuriLowell said:
I still think we need more evidence than a couple of vague tweets before we all dog pile on the guy.
Click to expand...

Considering multiple credible people (Ali West, Gita Jackson, HBomberguy, Aurahack, among others) have talked about this on twitter in a way that heavily suggests this was an open secret among journalists and game devs, I think that's evidence enough. I've talked to other people (not giving names, so don't ask) who have heard similar things about Nick. Also Matt Kessler, who has been friends with Nick for a long time, said he's no longer going to do a podcast (PodBurglars) with him, which to me says he's heard confirmation.

I actually heard rumblings about this a few months ago and it's a fucking bummer that it's true. Especially since he hangs out with a lot of legit good people that are probably equally disgusted by this behavior.

Wuthering_Heights said:
I'll wait for actual evidence.
Click to expand...

You're not going to get "actual evidence" because the second one of his victims posts a chat log there will be thousands of gamergaters doxxing her and sending her death threats and claiming she fabricated the logs to destroy Nick's reputation

Do you not know how the internet works
 
D

DorkyMohr

Banned
TomWaitsForNoMan said:
Nick tweeted that he'd jack off to Krystal. Multiple people in the industry said they felt creeped out by it while heavily implying there was history of creepiness. Outside observers decided those people were overreacting thinking it was just about that one tweet
Click to expand...

Are we talking about the blue fox here?
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
jett said:
Just based on the Overcooked tweets he seems like an asshole. Shit went nuclear after that. Hopefully he ends up ostracized. This this guy really wield so much "power" in this industry?
Click to expand...
Yeah. All else aside, the series of Overcooked tweets are just... I mean, the most sterile way of putting it is "offbrand", if nothing else.
 
I

Iksenpets

Banned
This flared up in a smaller way once a few months ago, but this definitely seems like a sort of "where there's smoke, there's fire" situations. Seems like it was sort of an open secret among industry women. That's too many people putting too much on the line to talk about this for something not to be up. Also, Kessler's tweet reads like someone at least privately shared some details with him, especially given that Ben Pack liked it, too. Seems like even his friends believe the allegations.
 
B

Bahorel

Member
BTA said:
The really Fun thing about this is there's rumors that dude cheated on his wife going around right now too.

So going by Twitter now there's 1. people who thought the wife cheating thing was also this Nick, and accidentally brought it into the conversation and 2. people who think the entire thing was just the journalist cheating getting confused for this Nick, when that's absolutely not the case.
Click to expand...

Is he actually married or is the wife talk confusing him with someone else?
 
Y

YuriLowell

Member
While I do think it's damning that a lot of people are coming out against him. I still want to see his side of the story before I start putting labels on the man.
 
P

psyfi

Banned
Telfo said:
it would appear that is extremely not the case.

Thinking you actually "know" creative types whose work you follow is a mistake people will always make. Listening to someones podcast, watching their videos, reading their writing etc. is nothing close to actually knowing them. Recognizing that fact and not idolizing people who you ultimately know very little about is important imo.
Click to expand...
Of course I'm not in a position to give any holistic assessment of what he's like or how he is, I'm simply acknowledging some goodness I've seen from him with a hope that he'll get his shit together and stop harassing and hurting people.
 
D

Drey1082

Member
As someone who doesn't really understand the industry dynamics that well, what power does some polygon producer / ex- rev3 host really wield that he can be a creep and get away with it? I guess I just don't get how this guy was in a position of that much power.

I guess coming from the Finance world, all the assholes are the Scaramucci-type guys who have insane clout and power over people's careers and livelyhood. I just don't get where a video producer at polygon has any sort of clout. I can see if women don't want to come forward just from embarrassment or undue shame, but what does this guy really hold over anyone's head? Review scores? game coverage? I guess I never considered Polygon that big of a deal.
 
R

Robaperas

Junior Member
I enjoyed Car Boys, so this sucks. It's always sad to learn that the people that created something you like are idiots or creeps.
 
P

Par Score

Member
It's disgusting that the state of the games industry is such that these women haven't felt comfortable coming forward until now, and even at this point are so worried about potential blow-back that they have to rely on vague hints.

This goes beyond gaming, of course, but getting your own house in order is the first step to wider change.

RumbleHumble said:
In retrospect, the Frem Frequency reaction and other industry women's to Nick's tweet about Krystal makes SO much more sense.

This is a damn shame. There might not be criminal activity here, but Nick's behavior benefits from exploiting the murkiness of the lines between networking, friendship and sexual harassment.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this makes a few other weird interactions make a lot more sense in retrospect.
 
D

DorkyMohr

Banned
Iksenpets said:
This flared up in a smaller way once a few months ago, but this definitely seems like a sort of "where there's smoke, there's fire situations". Seems like it was sort of an open secret among industry women. Also, Kessler's tweet reads like someone at least privately shared some details with him, especially given that Ben Pack liked it, too. Seems like even his friends believe the allegations.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was surprised by the strong reaction of Kessler who I guess pinned for being more "aloof." Good on him for making a stand on this though.
 
T

Telfo

Member
Wuthering_Heights said:
I'll wait for actual evidence.
Click to expand...

hmmm yes because its possible lots and lots of different people in the industry just coordinated an attack on him and made up a bunch of stuff to vaguely describe in tweets, pretending to fear the backlash, all for.....reasons.

They should definitely all post a detailed account of everything on the internet as "evidence" for randoms on the internet to feel better...this surely won't lead to all kinds of harassment and attacks on the victims themselves.

(I would hope the sarcasm here is obvious)
 
T

TomWaitsForNoMan

Banned
YuriLowell said:
While I do think it's damning that a lot of people are coming out against him. I still want to see his side of the story before I start putting labels on the man.
Click to expand...

What could he say that would possibly excuse the allegations? Everyone's lying? It's a conspiracy? "Send nudes" was a bad autocorrect?
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
The one thing I don't get and I'm trying not to be a dick here, but if the people he harassed don't want more people coming after them why would they even post something about it without proof? Like I get telling somebody else and having them talk about it, but it seems like some of the twitter threads are from the harassed themselves? If so what would be the issue in just posting screencaps, it's not like there's anything in there that would even be embarrassing for them, it's all on Nick... And I know they're gonna get neckbearded assholes harassing them even if they prove it's real, but I figure that would at least help ease the doubt in anyone rational.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Drey1082 said:
As someone who doesn't really understand the industry dynamics that well, what power does some polygon producer / ex- rev3 host really wield that he can be a creep and get away with it? I guess I just don't get how this guy was in a position of that much power.

I guess coming from the Finance world, all the assholes are the Scaramucci-type guys who have insane clout and power over people's careers and livelyhood. I just don't get where a video producer at polygon has any sort of clout. I can see if women don't want to come forward just from embarrassment or undue shame, but what does this guy really hold over anyone's head? Review scores?
Click to expand...

All of polygon's video series and stuff have given him and the McElroys a following/fanbase even beyond people who just follow video game news - especially young and female. He also has a pretty big following on twitter and tumblr. It's not like he was a Jeff Gerstmann-esque figure, but he was a decently well-known person, he was pretty young, came off as pretty immature and got into the industry after years of being a fan, and so that kind of thing probably gets into your head, clouds your judgement, and needless to say leads to thinking you can get away with really, really bad stuff. There's also always the fear of people like that using that following as a shield to always defend them or sic on people.
 
B

Bendo

Member
Well shit. The fact that even Polygon employees are unable to treat women in games as normal human beings is depressing as fuck. I hope he at least has the decency to own up to it.
 
B

BTA

Member
BiGBoSSMk23 said:
Not to play devil's advocate or anything, but isn't this considered hearsay?

Similar to false/inaccurate twitter reports in the immediate aftermath of a calamity?
Click to expand...

I mean, none of this is false or inaccurate but to go behind that: this isn't a court of law. "Hearsay" doesn't matter and other does "innocent till proven guilty". Make your judgements but I'm gonna suggest going with the numerous people talking about what they and/or friends have gone through.

Slate Soda said:
Well, this obviously reflects poorly on Polygon especially since several victims are apparently connected to the video game industry
Click to expand...

I can mostly agree, but I'm also sure some of the people who will connect this to Polygon have also been mad about some of the things women affected by this (or the actions of similar dudes) have written on Polygon.
 
T

Tregard

Soothsayer
As a big fan of Cool Games Inc. and the like, this is really difficult to hear. Hoping against hope there's some way for this to be a misunderstanding, but that's all pretty damning.

Never grow too attached to internet personalities, I suppose.

Hot Coldman said:
please believe women
Click to expand...

Pretty much. So many independent sources lying about this would make no sense.
 
D

Dineren

Banned
Drey1082 said:
As someone who doesn't really understand the industry dynamics that well, what power does some polygon producer / ex- rev3 host really wield that he can be a creep and get away with it? I guess I just don't get how this guy was in a position of that much power.

I guess coming from the Finance world, all the assholes are the Scaramucci-type guys who have insane clout and power over people's careers and livelyhood. I just don't get where a video producer at polygon has any sort of clout. I can see if women don't want to come forward just from embarrassment or undue shame, but what does this guy really hold over anyone's head? Review scores? game coverage? I guess I never considered Polygon that big of a deal.
Click to expand...

He has almost 90k followers on twitter. After GG, I have no doubt many are afraid of being targeted by them.
 
L

LuffyZoro

Member
I found out this morning,
it really sucks. I liked Nick a lot. I'm not writing him off completely yet, but there's definitely something here.
Drey1082 said:
As someone who doesn't really understand the industry dynamics that well, what power does some polygon producer / ex- rev3 host really wield that he can be a creep and get away with it? I guess I just don't get how this guy was in a position of that much power.

I guess coming from the Finance world, all the assholes are the Scaramucci-type guys who have insane clout and power over people's careers and livelyhood. I just don't get where a video producer at polygon has any sort of clout. I can see if women don't want to come forward just from embarrassment or undue shame, but what does this guy really hold over anyone's head? Review scores? game coverage? I guess I never considered Polygon that big of a deal.
Click to expand...
He has a lot of fans and Twitter followers, that's pretty much it.
 
A

akotchbot

Neo Member
Has Ben Pack said anything? I haven't seen anything on his twitter but OP and others have said that some tweets have been deleted so I'm curious. I'm very big into Giant Bomb and I'm glad Kessler has seemingly got in front of this very quickly. Hope Ben does the same.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Every “chronically online” conversation is the same [Vox]
Social Opinion Drama
47
4K
Lord Panda replied
My first 3 months with a PS5 is kinda a mixed bag...
2 3 4 5
200
12K
TropicanaTwista replied
Persona 3 Reload | Review Thread
Analysis Review Hype 2 3
106
7K
Ferdimage replied
A Windows user's experiences with Linux (should you switch?)
Opinion Analysis 2 3 4
190
13K
twilo99 replied
The State of Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks: A breakdown of all the Confirmed Projects, Leaks, and Rumors
Opinion News Rumor 2
84
9K
Ozriel replied
Top Bottom