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[plagiarize]

This seems like a really backwards logic. First of all, how many of those people that made this still work there, and secondly, if this represents the culture there, then wouldn't the progressive stuff in their latest games as well? That logic leads nowhere

So nudity = sexual harassment now?

Get the fuck out of here with that broad paint brush of yours.

If animated (poorly at that) breasts that were HIDDEN in a game bothers you that much to the point that it makes people sexual deviants, maybe it's time you go back to that puritanical society you live in.

Has Naughty Dog made a statement on this at all?

Jesus christ.

Nudity does not equal a corporate culture of harassment.

I think you all need to reread what I wrote, because I just said I'm not surprised whenever I hear stories suggesting Naughty Dog aren't progressive. You know because they're the same company that thought it was cool or funny to hide BEWBS in their company logo.

Because I think it takes a bunch of immature men to do something like that. Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, the people who built Naughty Dog into the large studio that it is today, were the leads on that game.

If you don't think they can possibly have an influence on the corporate culture of a studio they built up, I'm not sure what to tell you.

I didn't accuse Naughty Dog of having a culture of harassment. I didn't say hidden nudity was sexual harassment or made people sexual deviants. I didn't say I believed the story, just that these stories don't surprise me.

Is it really surprising that a company that's fine with putting naked breasts next to their company logo in the nineties would be a place where there *might* still be a tolerance for people making jokes about women sleeping their way to success? That it might have a bit of a 'men's club' culture?

No, it's not is it?

If you're going to take that small a piece of criticism as some major unforgiveable knock on a video game company, then maybe you need to chill out.

 

[xxracerxx]

If you're going to take that small a piece of criticism as some major unforgiveable knock on a video game company, then maybe you need to chill out.

Not taking it as a knock, I am not Naughty Dogs white knight, just a huge stretch on your part. Now if they had made Custer's Revenge, that would be less of a stretch.

 

[plagiarize]

Not taking it as a knock, just a huge stretch on your part. Now if they had made Custer's Revenge, that would be less of a stretch.

A huge stretch to say I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of comment was common at a company that put naked breasts right next to their company logo a couple of decades back? I mean, do you think that was an appropriate thing for a company to do? I personally don't.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a lot of sexism went unchecked at a company like that. I'm not saying it's true... just that it wouldn't surprise me. :/

 

[jnWake]

I think you all need to reread what I wrote, because I just said I'm not surprised whenever I hear stories suggesting Naughty Dog aren't progressive. You know because they're the same company that thought it was cool or funny to hide BEWBS in their company logo.

Because I think it takes a bunch of immature men to do something like that. Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin, the people who built Naughty Dog into the large studio that it is today, were the leads on that game.

Considering that story you posted is from a game released 26 years ago, they probably were in fact immature men at the time.

I don't really see the point of bringing up something so old. Culture in the company has probably changed quite a bit since then.

 

[Laughing Banana]

If the first thought that came to your mind when hearing this is 'Naughty Dog's bottom line!' or 'TLoU 2's sales may be affected!' then you really should really look yourself on a mirror and realize that the person staring back is an arsehole whose priorities are whacked.

 

[Matt]

Sexual harassment is kind of like when someone gives you a pet. You may not have asked for a puppy, but now that you have one it's your responsibility to care for it. The term "cat call" actually comes from the olden days, when people driving by in their wagons would throw unwanted kittens at strangers, who would then have to take them home and raise them. You could never do that today because people are too irresponsible.

Umm, no it doesn’t. That would be weird and interesting, but the term has nothing to do with actual cats.

 

[plagiarize]

Considering that story you posted is from a game released 26 years ago, they probably were in fact immature men at the time.

I don't really see the point of bringing up something so old. Culture in the company has probably changed quite a bit since then.

I guess we'll find out what the culture is like, if stories like this and the other recent controversy end up being nothing, or not representative of the company culture.

Again, I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised given their early history. I didn't think it would be particularly controversial, and thought I might even be late to the discussion on that point. Stories like this point to (though come far from proving) the culture not having changed much at all from those days, but I'm not going to keep harping on about this point now, because I hopefully I've clarified what I was saying, vs what people thought I was saying.

 

[knee]

 

[xxracerxx]

I guess we'll find out what the culture is like, if stories like this and the other recent controversy end up being nothing, or not representative of the company culture.

Again, I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised given their early history. I didn't think it would be particularly controversial, and thought I might even be late to the discussion on that point. Stories like this point to (though come far from proving) the culture not having changed much at all from those days, but I'm not going to keep harping on about this point now, because I hopefully I've clarified what I was saying, vs what people thought I was saying.

Add HAL Laboratory to the list.

- The first Kirby game for Game Boy had a hidden vertical room where you scroll past a very suspicious series of blocks, each shaped like a different part of the female anatomy... including the nipples, the belly button, and the conveniently-placed fuzzy enemy in the crotch. Considering that this game is set in Dream Land, this probably means Kirby woke up all sticky.

The article is fucking grossly written but here is the link.

 

[BiGBoSSMk23]

If the first thought that came to your mind when hearing this is 'Naughty Dog's bottom line!' or 'TLoU 2's sales may be affected!' then you really should really look yourself on a mirror and realize that the person staring back is an arsehole whose priorities are whacked.

My first reaction wasn't exactly what you described, but perhaps just as bad.

I just thought how coincidental it was that the industry's darling studio is the one getting lumped in the recent streak of sexual harassment scandals.

But, then I thought, nobody is without dirt, especially not those with a squeaky clean reputation.

 

[plagiarize]

Add HAL Laboratory to the list.

I think it makes a difference when you put it on your logo, vs a level designer making a couple of vaguely rude shapes out of level blocks, but whatever. Naughty Dog aren't the only game company where something like this wouldn't surprise me. Shrug.

 

[Cynar]

She's a professional writer at the Verge. She's putting her credibility on the line to say something she obviously stands behind. Are you accusing her of making this up?

It is the verge to be fair. But we are also talking about naughty dog so really it's 50/50.

 

[danm999]

Looking more and more like Naughty Dog has some severe problems with its professional culture. Very disappointing.

 

[CannonFodder52]

 

[innervision961]

I don't know if anyone else has posted it yet, but I think this is the tweet they're talking about.

Thats the one, thank you.

 

[family_guy]

Looking more and more like Naughty Dog has some severe problems with its professional culture. Very disappointing.

A pattern hasn't been established and it is a bit of a disservice to label the entire company because of the actions of a few. You'll find bad apples at every company. The problem is those bad apples keep doing what they are doing because no one puts them in check. This stuff needs to be reported when it happens so those people aren't allowed to keep doing what they are doing.

 

[Kinyou]

Is it really surprising that a company that's fine with putting naked breasts next to their company logo in the nineties would be a place where there *might* still be a tolerance for people making jokes about women sleeping their way to success? That it might have a bit of a 'men's club' culture?

No, it's not is it?

If you're going to take that small a piece of criticism as some major unforgiveable knock on a video game company, then maybe you need to chill out.

Again, with the same logic someone could point at Left Behind or Lost Legacy and argue the opposite. It's pointless conjecture.

 

[nel e nel]

You can't fully investigate anything when it happened 17 months ago. Paper trail doesn't last that long, especially if it's electronic.

Putting an arbitrary amount of time on the investigation isn't going to change the fact that the evidence is most likely gone. You can choose to believe if there is or isn't evidence, but that isn't going to change Naughty Dog's statement.

Please be serious.

 

[nel e nel]

Sexual harassment is kind of like when someone gives you a pet. You may not have asked for a puppy, but now that you have one it's your responsibility to care for it. The term "cat call" actually comes from the olden days, when people driving by in their wagons would throw unwanted kittens at strangers, who would then have to take them home and raise them. You could never do that today because people are too irresponsible.

This utter bullshit and there is no evidence of this.

 

[ArtHands]

Add HAL Laboratory to the list.



The article is fucking grossly written but here is the link.

They are not even the same thing.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

honestly there shouldn't be people shocked by this. this kind of behavior is pervasive in all aspects of life in almost every industry.

i'm glad this reporter was courageous enough to come out and hopefully we can start to tackle this issue. i hope more come out and we can start to shine a light on and improve things so that no one has to put up with this shit.

It is the verge to be fair. But we are also talking about naughty dog so really it's 50/50.

no it's not and this is gross logic.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Umm, no it doesn’t. That would be weird and interesting, but the term has nothing to do with actual cats.

This utter bullshit and there is no evidence of this.

Could be wrong, but it seems to me like this was a joke post meant to highlight the sheer absurdity of WaterAstro's assertion that the victim must take responsibility for being sexually harassed.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Gosh, after reading this thread I just can't understand why out of all the industries that has sexual harassment it was video games that spawned Gamer Gate...

Jesus.

 

[Two Words]

Who gives a shit about a game in this situation?

To be fair, he isn’t talking about a game, but people who work at Naughty Dog. It is true that boycotting Naughty Dog would be hurting a lot of innocent deca. But this kind of logic protects the guilty because they are interweaved with the innocent. It would be like saying a murderer shouldn’t go to prison because he has kids who need him.

 

[Death Penalty]

To be fair, he isn’t talking about a game, but people who work at Naughty Dog. It is true that boycotting Naughty Dog would be hurting a lot of innocent deca. But this kind of logic protects the guilty because they are interweaved with the innocent. It would be like saying a murderer shouldn’t go to prison because he has kids who need him.

A more apt analogy is that you don't behead fifty people because one of them was a murderer.

 

[fabricated backlash]

A huge stretch to say I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of comment was common at a company that put naked breasts right next to their company logo a couple of decades back? I mean, do you think that was an appropriate thing for a company to do? I personally don't.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if a lot of sexism went unchecked at a company like that. I'm not saying it's true... just that it wouldn't surprise me. :/

Dude you are reaching like Dhalsim

 

[shimon]

Cant believe how low some Naughty Dog fanboys can be

I see he just can't help himself being such a great person...

 

[autoduelist]

Not that you asked, but I'm a huge ND fan. Bought every game from Jak onward. I'm boycotting the shit out of them until they deal with the issue appropriately.

Inb4 "Your loss"

We'll likely never know how exactly they deal with this situation. It's not really our business. We have no idea how much time or resources they're putting into this. It's more than possible they have no idea who said this, and I'm not sure they'd ever put out a press release that they contacted her and she refused to name names, since that would make it sound like they didn't care.

I'm sure they already had harassment policies in place, and I'm sure there are very aware of this issue and are 'on it'. But I'm not sure how you, outsider looking in, could ever know how much effort they put into this, or how much change occurred enough to ever judge when they dealt with it 'appropriately'.

Cant believe how low some Naughty Dog fanboys can be

You know, I always figure people that are that outlandish likely have no skin in the game. They're just being complete jerks, spreading hate. There's a decent chance they have never played a ND game. The reason I suggest this is you're implying their love of ND drove them to this level of hate, and I think it's more likely that's just what they do in their everyday life for every internet issue they come across.

 

[DataGhost]

Cant believe how low some Naughty Dog fanboys can be

Wow that's something. Did not see this yesterday. This is why people don't usually come out with this, because some extreme people take things to a whole new level and harrass them further, which may already exacerbate the situation

 

[xxracerxx]

They are not even the same thing.

They are both crude behavior. How are they not at least on the same spectrum?

 

[DataGhost]

They are both crude behavior. How are they not at least on the same spectrum?

They are within the same spectrum but one is more explicit. However, I don't see how something years ago could affect the current company culture, if it's not consistent. Hal and ND both don't hide these images in their games anymore.

Granted, it's not a proof of innocence either for ND

 

[uomoartificiale]

Seeing people struggle trying to rationalize this is quite sad. It's not rocket science: employees from Naughty Dog have been caught caught behaving in inappropriate manners and we expect Sony and ND to respond appropriately.
What makes it worse is that I'm quite sure most of the people defending ND here would severely condemn a company if this shit happened in an industry other than videogames. Videogames > people

 

[DataGhost]

Seeing people struggle trying to rationalize this is quite sad. It's not rocket science: employees from Naughty Dog have been caught caught behaving in inappropriate manners and we expect Sony and ND to respond appropriately.
What makes it worse is that I'm quite sure most of the people defending ND here would severely condemn a company if this shit happened in an industry other than videogames. Videogames > people

Though I expect a response, I do want to know why they have yet to respond to this compared to David's case as they responded within a day while this was left for several days. I hope that's not the case that they don't care but it leaves a bad taste when they were willing to defend themselves the first time quickly, but this time decide not to respond for several days. I wonder if they already knew about this

 

[CharminUltra]

Cant believe how low some Naughty Dog fanboys can be

Jeebus.

 

[Tucking Fypo]

People boycotting games and possibly harming many other innocent devs in the process, seems like a shitty way to deal with an even bigger, shittier problem that needs to be addressed directly with the person being accused.

The person who was sexually harassed needs to speak up and go directly to Naughty Dog with the guys name and any and all details that she can remember. It's the person himself who potentially sexually harassed the accuser that needs to be dealt with, not the whole company.

The person who is being accused needs to be made an example of, if it's found that he is indeed guilty of what he's being accused.
Simply harming the company won't do much in the way of addressing these serious claims. That's not how punishment works and those that think it is, well, good luck helping to erradicate sexual harassment in all forms.

Think about it. Say a Twitter campaign got started to boycott ND and their games, next thing you know, a lot of innocent people get laid off and then what? You've caused those people harm. Losing can cause people to do awful things such as harm themselves.

 

[DataGhost]

. double post

 

[DataGhost]

People boycotting games and possibly harming many other innocent devs in the process, seems like a shitty way to deal with an even bigger, shittier problem that needs to be addressed directly with the person being accused.

The person who was sexually harassed needs to speak up and go directly to Naughty Dog with the guys name and any and all details that she can remember. It's the person himself who potentially sexually harassed the accuser that needs to be dealt with, not the whole company.

The person who is being accused needs to be made an example of, if it's found that he is indeed guilty of what he's being accused.
Simply harming the company won't do much in the way of addressing these serious claims. That's not how punishment works and those that think it is, well, good luck helping to erradicate sexual harassment in all forms.

Think about it. Say a Twitter campaign got started to boycott ND and their games, next thing you know, a lot of innocent people get laid off and then what? You've caused those people harm. Losing can cause people to do awful things such as harm themselves.

Thankfully only a few are protesting by boycotting so it shouldn't have to much of an effect. Then again, it shows the unfortunate situation where not many people know about this as gaf is pretty silent on the outcry.

I don't think it would help even if they outed the person or went to the company to talk because it's been four days since this was revealed and Sony and naughty dog have remained silent compared to responding in David's case. To me, this worries me as I wonder if they are apathetic to the situation and stick to the belief they do not have a problem when they might have one

 

[NHale]

Thankfully, things haven't gotten that bag and only a minor amount of prime have called for a boycott. Sadly, this means that not many people are paying attention to this when purple should be. I'm guessing because it's ND, gaf had gone a bit more silent.

The sad thing is that it's been four days with silence from Sony and Naughty dig. I don't think it'll help the victim to go to them as they seem to be apathetic to this times allegations

You should really open your eyes...

 

[Kinyou]

Iam curious if we'll see another kotaku article.

Thankfully, things haven't gotten that bag and only a minor amount of prime have called for a boycott. Sadly, this means that not many people are paying attention to this when purple should be. I'm guessing because it's ND, gaf had gone a bit more silent.

The sad thing is that it's been four days with silence from Sony and Naughty dig. I don't think it'll help the victim to go to them as they seem to be apathetic to this times allegations

Last time people were mad that they responded too fast, now it's too slow

 

[Deeke[VRZ]]

Jesus how did I miss this? I never thought ND's name would ever describe their reputation. I guess anywhere there's people, there's scumbags. But how the hell can you say something like that to a reporter and not care?

It's insane. Probably the whole "sure, go ahead and tell everyone. I'll sue you, wrap you in red tape, and no one will believe you anyway" tactic. Despicable.

 

[DataGhost]

You should really open your eyes...

I mean in terms of this. This is two in a row for naughty dog, yet not many people seem interested / are refusing to believe that this might be possible. Not saying it's the truth with what little we have.

Iam curious if we'll see another kotaku article.


Last time people were mad that they responded too fast, now it's too slow

They took one day to investigate David's accusations but they have taken way more for Megan and has still remained silent

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Cant believe how low some Naughty Dog fanboys can be

Remember when a reviewer gave an 8 to Uncharted 3?

 

[TLZ]

They took one day to investigate David's accusations but they have taken way more for Megan and has still remained silent

Possibly they chose to remain silent and see no need to comment.

 

[Tiberius]

Possibly they chose to remain silent and see no need to comment.

Or they deal with it privately

 

[DataGhost]

Possibly they chose to remain silent and see no need to comment.

But why though?

 

[Thorrgal]

1 week later and nobody has come out to corroborate David's story or with more stories of harrasment inside ND. Doesn't look good for David

 

[DataGhost]

1 week later and nobody has come out to corroborate David's story or with more stories of harrasment inside ND. Doesn't look good for David

Not sure of you read the thread, but there has been another incident that Sony had yet to respond to

 

[norinrad]

Not sure of you read the thread, but there has been another incident that Sony had yet to respond to

What is their excuse for keeping quiet? I think men in general need re-education.

 

[DataGhost]

What is their excuse for keeping quiet? I think men in general need re-education.

No idea. Maybe apathy considering they responded to David's allegations quickly

 

[Machina]

Did Evilore work at Naughty Dog at any stage?