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Former Naughty Dog employee says he was sexually harassed by a lead in late 2015

Zemm

Member
Genuinely asking, but would any heterosexual man actually be upset if a woman made sexual advances toward them?
Almost every straight guy I know would just view such a scenario as "suprise sex."

Unless David Hallard is homosexual, I'm going to assume his harasser was a man.

I don't even...

What?
 

Cranster

Banned
Ill bet 85% of the blame goes to the sony hr department on this one. The rest is on Naughty Dog pres for not properly managing his house. That would be E. Wells during this period?
How many other Sony employees get $20,000 in hush money though? The guys at the top have to have some knowledge on where that money was coming from!
 

Hoje0308

Banned
Genuinely asking, but would any heterosexual man actually be upset if a woman made sexual advances toward them?
Almost every straight guy I know would just view such a scenario as "suprise sex."

Unless David Hallard is homosexual, I'm going to assume his harasser was a man.

Sounds like you know a bunch of desperate nerds and none of you get out of the basement long enough to learn about the human experience and, you know, how to empathize with perspectives beyond your own.
 

v1oz

Member
It all seems like GAF is very quick to jump to conclusions without having access to all the facts. Remember there is always two sides to any story. I wouldn’t be so quick to call the ND Lead a bad person until we know his/hers account of things.
 

Soulflarz

Banned
I don't watch porn... like ever.
Witnessing other people have sex is absolutely disgusting to me.

Unless I'm mistaken, David Hallard never mentioned he was sexually harassed within the confines of the office - it could have occurred in a private setting.

In any case, thank you for actually answering my question.

As a guy who is rather normal with offers...yes?

I have standards and don't really want offers from random creeps, kindly screw off with that mentality.
I don't care if you personally are willing to do stuff with anyone, it doesn't suddenly invalidate others and them not wanting to.
 
OK, that is NOT how you handle a sexual assault allegation in your company. WTF was HR thinking? Huge lawsuit right there.

Edit: Harassment, sorry. There is a huge difference. However, the rest of my post stands.
 

Loudninja

Member
It all seems like GAF is very quick to jump to conclusions without having access to all the facts. Remember there is always two sides to any story. I wouldn’t be so quick to call the ND Lead a bad person until we know his/hers account of things.
Nah there is no question that its a bad person.
 
I'm not on the "Let's boycott Sony" train, but this argument that you should either fight every injustice or fight no injustices is really shitty and tired at this point.

Same here. It's a tricky thing, if that's the right way to word it. I mean we now know about Ben Affleck, are we all going to boycott his movies from now on? I wasn't a big fan of his stuff but that's besides the point. Let's say a scandal comes out from LG, should we all boycott LG and get rid of our TVs and other devices? This isn't the first one to come out and certainly won't be the last one. I'm guessing more will follow and from different companies too.

I can definitely understand that people feel very odd about Sony and ND now though. For sure I can. But this "screw ND I'm done with them." is maybe a bit too soon, for all we know only a few at ND are in the know.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
Holy shit, I thought Naughty Dog was a progressive environment to work at, considering their games. This is horrible, here's hoping this guy can move on from this shit and land a much better job. I also hope he has had support from friends and family through this ordeal.
 

Kawngi

Member
Seems like some people in the topic are only willing to blame Sony/ND if every single employee was doing something similar...
 

Boke1879

Member
It all seems like GAF is very quick to jump to conclusions without having access to all the facts. Remember there is always two sides to any story. I wouldn’t be so quick to call the ND Lead a bad person until we know his/hers account of things.

We don't even know who said person is. I believe the story. But you have people trying to vilify an entire dev company for the actions of one person. That person and the HR company should get heat.

But you have way too many comments in this thread hoping Sony gets bad press. Rather than encouraging more people to speak up.

This is bigger than ND, it's bigger than Sony. Shit like this happens way too much. The more people that speak out and put a light on it and it hopefully encourages some change.
 

sublimit

Banned
One thing i don't understand is how the hell someone who has experience working on some of the most high profile games ever made is still unemployed for 17 months now??

WTF?
 

orochi91

Member
If this dude has any evidence/proof to back-up his claims, then he should seriously consider a lawsuit or something.

Why on earth would you stay quiet about something that traumatic for 2 years?

I'd have immediately gone scorched-earth on ND or that HR team.
 

Boke1879

Member
You trying to deflect attention away from this story. Come the fuck on.

From what fucking story.

Not everything is console war bs like you seem to be implying it is.

I simply said if people are shocked it happened at ND just imagine how much it's happening around the industry. How in the fuck is that deflecting?
 

Replicant

Member
Genuinely asking, but would any heterosexual man actually be upset if a woman made sexual advances toward them?
Almost every straight guy I know would just view such a scenario as "suprise sex."

Unless David Hallard is homosexual, I'm going to assume his harasser was a man.

This is a very gross attitude to have. Just because a guy is straight it doesn't mean he wants to have sex with any and all women out there. Without a consent, a woman's sexual overture towards a guy is a harassment.

Also, it's fucked up that Sony HR tried to cover this up. This person must be high in chain at ND. As someone who once got screwed by HR, I always always try to tell people never to trust your life in their hands. Their interest is in the company and not the employee's well-being.
 

labaronx

Member
How many other Sony employees get $20, 000 in hush money though?

Impossible to know, but id venture if they had to pay over a million in hush money, a. someone would have noticed and b. They probably would have fired the person peoe were complaining about
 
One thing i don't understand is how the hell someone who has experience working on some of the most high profile games ever made is still unemployed for 17 months now??

WTF?

Yeah a goddamn shame too. The reason he told people why he left ND shouldn't even be all that relevant to potential future employers. You'd think he would be working at another big developer now. Real shame.
 

sublimit

Banned
If this dude has any evidence/proof to back-up his claims, then he should seriously consider a lawsuit or something.

Why on earth would you stay quite about something that traumatic for 2 years?

I'd have immediately gone scorched-earth on ND or that HR team.

Yup.And as i said before i'm sure some top dog lawyers would love to take this case and probably completely free of charge.
 

Boke1879

Member
OK, that is NOT how you handle a sexual assault allegation in your company. WTF was HR thinking? Huge lawsuit right there.

Edit: Harassment, sorry. There is a huge difference. However, the rest of my post stands.

This is how HR pretty much handles most shit in regards to complaints. They don't have your best interest as an employee.
 

GeoramA

Member
One thing i don't understand is how the hell someone who has experience working on some of the most high profile games ever made is still unemployed for 17 months now??

WTF?
He told interviewers that he left ND because he was tired of the crunch work. Guess that's a big red flag.
 

True Fire

Member
It all seems like GAF is very quick to jump to conclusions without having access to all the facts. Remember there is always two sides to any story. I wouldn’t be so quick to call the ND Lead a bad person until we know his/hers account of things.

Regardless of whether or not there’s two sides to this story, the ball is in Sony and Naughty Dog’s courts. They need to respond.
 

IKizzLE

Member
I'm not on the "Let's boycott Sony" train, but this argument that you should either fight every injustice or fight no injustices is really shitty and tired at this point.

I'm not saying that sexual harassment in the workplace shouldn't be addressed, but boycotting something that is created by hundreds or thousands of people is definitely not the way to change anything.

And it seems to when it comes to business or services, sexual harassment is low on the totem poles of things to address, or we wouldn't have people like Donald Trump as president or Harvey Weinstein still producing movies.
 
It all seems like GAF is very quick to jump to conclusions without having access to all the facts. Remember there is always two sides to any story. I wouldn’t be so quick to call the ND Lead a bad person until we know his/hers account of things.

This is not how we support victims and encourage them to speak up about assaults. I wouldn't doubt anyone's sexual harassment claims.
 

Hoje0308

Banned
They wanted to silence the thing... why would they try to expose the person ?
Makes me love sony even more now if that's true.

Do you not know how these words work, or are you a terrible person?

This is not how we support victims and encourage them to speak up about assaults. I wouldn't doubt anyone's sexual harassment claims.

You can be supportive without claiming the know the claims are absolutely true. Most people that make these claims aren't lying, but an attitude like yours, if it became widespread, could change how easy it is to get away with a lie.
 

george_us

Member
One thing i don't understand is how the hell someone who has experience working on some of the most high profile games ever made is still unemployed for 17 months now??

WTF?
Industry is all about who you know and not what you know. I imagine a Lead at somewhere like Naughty Dog has connections out the ass. Said Lead may have gotten the accuser blacklisted. Speculation of course.
 

Cranster

Banned
Impossible to know, but id venture if they had to pay over a million in hush money, a. someone would have noticed and b. They probably would have fired the person peoe were complaining about
Or it's more common than we think and even they know it.
 

leeh

Member
If this dude has any evidence/proof to back-up his claims, then he should seriously consider a lawsuit or something.

Why on earth would you stay quite about something that traumatic for 2 years?

I'd have immediately gone scorched-earth on ND or that HR team.
Why on earth would people not talk up about Jimmy Saville or about Harvey Weinstein even though it occurred over decades?

STFU and listen to him. I love how he's "lying until proven true".
 

tribal24

Banned
We don't even know who said person is. I believe the story. But you have people trying to vilify an entire dev company for the actions of one person. That person and the HR company should get heat.

But you have way too many comments in this thread hoping Sony gets bad press. Rather than encouraging more people to speak up.

This is bigger than ND, it's bigger than Sony. Shit like this happens way too much. The more people that speak out and put a light on it and it hopefully encourages some change.

agreed this is happening everywhere major companies just get more press. It's good that people are speaking up. People pushing a different agenda are sick.
 

True Fire

Member
One thing i don't understand is how the hell someone who has experience working on some of the most high profile games ever made is still unemployed for 17 months now??

WTF?

His big connections are with Naughty Dog. He mentioned that the atmosphere at work became toxic after the assault. It’s likely that his performance and reputation were affected by his breakdown. It’s easy to see why he’d be blacklisted.
 

labaronx

Member
New investigation, statement, commitment to staff education and procedures so it doesn't happen again? Just to name a few, first logical steps to take...

Yeah im all for that but thats likely head of Sony corporations. Outside of adding a personal hr rep to every studio all that wont prevent it from occurring again imo
 
Mods asleep?

THere are some trash posts in this thread.
--------------

I am sorry that the person had to go through any of this, and I hope once its veracity is verified, that those responsible for cover up and for the actions themselves, are held accountable.
 

kinggroin

Banned
Genuinely asking, but would any heterosexual man actually be upset if a woman made sexual advances toward them?
Almost every straight guy I know would just view such a scenario as "suprise sex."

Unless David Hallard is homosexual, I'm going to assume his harasser was a man.

I've been on the recieving end more than once, in the same scenario you describe, and not once did I feel like I was lucky. If it even matters, they were attractive too.


What's wild is that at first I'm like...oooook, haha, funny, but let's stop this pls. Then later I felt like dog shit.
 

leeh

Member
We don't even know who said person is. I believe the story. But you have people trying to vilify an entire dev company for the actions of one person. That person and the HR company should get heat.

But you have way too many comments in this thread hoping Sony gets bad press. Rather than encouraging more people to speak up.

This is bigger than ND, it's bigger than Sony. Shit like this happens way too much. The more people that speak out and put a light on it and it hopefully encourages some change.
Sony offered money to give silence and they shouldn't get any bad press or heat from it? Come on now.

This is about morals and decency not fanboy wars.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
If this dude has any evidence/proof to back-up his claims, then he should seriously consider a lawsuit or something.

Why on earth would you stay quiet about something that traumatic for 2 years?

I'd have immediately gone scorched-earth on ND or that HR team.

When something like this happens, the last thing on your mind is anger/revenge/attention. A good part of the reason, I imagine, that a lot of allegations and people coming forward years after something has happened is because it took that long to cope with their situation (depression, being out of work, etc.).

And when you look at the shape of the fanbase for games these days, do you really think a majority of them would go to bat for a man claiming sexual harassment against a major beloved video game studio?
 

sphinx

the piano man
This is not how we support victims and encourage them to speak up about assaults. I wouldn't doubt anyone's sexual harassment claims.

absolutely this.

the victim spoke in plain terms with nouns and verbs.

yes, it's sony/ND turn to speak up but shit has hit the fan and it's flung straight at them, they have to explain themselves and take actions.
 
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