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IndieStatik Founder apologizes for "inappropriate" comments to female game dev

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benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
http://kotaku.com/reporter-apologizes-for-crude-sexual-comments-to-female-1505393796

Kotaku has learned that the journalist involved in this conversation was Josh Mattingly, the founder and CEO of the indie gaming website IndieStatik.

Full apology on his tumblr:
http://joshmattingly.tumblr.com/post/74003803734/regretfully
There has been a recent situation that I regretfully put myself into involving a woman who I consider a friend in the industry. I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for the way I acted and the words that were exchanged. I am mortified by my behavior as it was not only completely inappropriate, but it was fueled by alcohol and depression. My younger brother committed suicide last year and ever since then I haven’t been myself. A tragedy like that is something I hope no one has to endure. Even though I’m aware that alcoholism runs in my family, I have been using it to cope with the pain that I feel every day. It’s compounded my depression and clearly clouded my common sense and dignity.


Contrary to what I drunkenly typed, I have nothing but respect for this person. She has always been a positive ray of sunshine and I got very carried away in a conversation that I never should have started. Just because someone is nice to me doesn’t mean I can act inappropriately or say whatever I want to them. Especially since I have been such an advocate of women in games and treating everyone with the same level of respect and decency. I was a complete hypocrite and I am more mad at myself than anyone else will ever be with me. Since the other night, I have taken the steps to get into therapy to deal with the loss of my brother as well as regular AA meetings to deal with my self destruction.


I want to be perfectly clear, I’m not using my brother as a scapegoat to give me cart blanche or excuse my behavior. I know that women in the industry have to deal with these sorts of things every day and I hate myself for adding to it. What I did was completely wrong and something that I, myself, take responsibility for. I only bring up my own depression and loss to try to find the root of my poor choices.


Once again, I am terribly sorry. All I’ve ever wanted to be is a positive influence and I let my metal health and alcohol abuse get the best of me.

-Josh

Fully unblurred conversation here, take note of the timestamps.
kQ6XlXZ.png

The guy allegedly has a history of this behavior:
smVTf5N.png
 

Painraze

Unconfirmed Member
That conversation is cringe worthy. He sounds so pathetic.

And his apology... he blames his dead brother for him being an asshat. Gotta love it.
 

Marcel

Member
Shades of Penny Arcade's Gabe. I guess there's always an excuse for being a sexist asshole who gets caught and rightfully shamed.
 

J.ceaz

Member
I I'm kinda speechless. I hope he's truly learned his lesson. And instead of retreating socially seeks professional help for the behavior that led to this.
 

Doombacon

Member
That conversation is cringe worthy. He sounds so pathetic.

And his apology... he blames his dead brother for him being an asshat. Gotta love it.

Clinical depression makes you do really dumb shit sometimes. I think it's worth giving him the benefit of the doubt since he came forward on his own and just assume he has poor communication skills.
 

maltrain

Junior Member
"Actor, Entertainer, Indie Gamer".

Not "journalist".

Just for putting things clear considering previous post about this topic.
 
It was obviously a fucked up thing for him to do. Inexcusable really.

Aside from that though, I hope he can get his personal issues worked out. They don't excuse his behavior but I wish him the best in his recovery. Battling depression and alcoholism is never easy.
 
Erm, does it seem to anyone else like he's using his loss as a sort of scapegoat? Not to sound like an arsehole, but for a public address like this I don't see the need to go any further than "family loss" at the very most. Seems like he wants to go for the proverbial pity jugular.
 

Tripon

Member
Clinical depression makes you do really dumb shit sometimes. I think it's worth giving him the benefit of the doubt since he came forward on his own and just assume he has poor communication skills.

He didn't come forward on his own. The guy's been trying to delete his tweets and any internet footracks related to this while everyone in the Gaming industry was trying to figure out who it is. My twitter feed from game journalists were piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiised off at this situation. There was no way Josh Mattingly was going to come out of this unscaved from this.
 

Zabant

Member
I'm guessing [URL="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/877458309/indie-statik]the people that funded the kickstarter for his entire website (indiestalk)[/URL] might not have if they knew this was the type of man they were giving their money to.

GpJEckz.png


Well said alex.
 

jcm

Member
Let he who has not offered to kiss a casual business acquaintance's genitalia cast the first stone.
 

culafia

Member
He acted like a cock and deserves the hate, but if he is sorry, everyone short of cold-blooded murderers and rapists deserve a second chance IMO.
 

Marcel

Member
Erm, does it seem to anyone else like he's using his loss as a sort of scapegoat? Not to sound like an arsehole, but for a public address like this I don't see the need to go any further than "family loss" at the very most. Seems like he wants to go for the proverbial pity jugular.

People caught in their position typically lean to very detailed sob stories to distract from the nasty, disgusting shit they got caught doing. Just look at PA Gabe's recent apology blog if you need even more after-school special levels of self-pitying bullshit.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
what a shit ass apology
I don't think there is a good way to apologize for such behavior, but he did it... Everyone makes mistakes. He pretty much killed any kind of career in the gaming industry anyway.
 

J.ceaz

Member
Erm, does it seem to anyone else like he's using his loss as a sort of scapegoat? Not to sound like an arsehole, but for a public address like this I don't see the need to go any further than "family loss" at the very most. Seems like he wants to go for the proverbial pity jugular.

I don't like to think so because that would make him an irredeemable scumbag who can't even own up to his own shortcomings. I think for now it would be best if we took him at his word. That being said I do think that the swiftness of this response and the support shown from other journalists should help women who face something similar in the future feel more comfortable exposing it.
 
Erm, does it seem to anyone else like he's using his loss as a sort of scapegoat? Not to sound like an arsehole, but for a public address like this I don't see the need to go any further than "family loss" at the very most. Seems like he wants to go for the proverbial pity jugular.

You're not an asshole, using grief and the loss of another to justify your sexual harassment is just more classless behavior.
 

Gestault

Member
That's an astonishingly tasteless set of comments. Also, equally astonishing self-control from the person on the receiving end.

Let he who has not offered to kiss a casual business acquaintance's genitalia cast the first stone.

Flawless, lol
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
You're not an asshole, using grief and the loss of another to justify your sexual harassment is just more classless behavior.

I'm not sure that saying "My shit is fucked up, I'm a fuckup, I need to get my shit together, I'm sorry" is trying to justify sexual harassment. I mean, if you think the apology is insincere or whatever, then by all means fire with both barrels, but it seems to me that if you take him at his word in the text, he's not justifying sexual harassment, he's apologizing for it by means of pointing out that he's pretty seriously messed up.
 

striferser

Huge Nickleback Fan
That was fast.
Well, at least he's man up and apologize. Should not have done it in the 1st place. I feel bad for his brother and depression, but that's different issues

Super off-topic but what anime is that from?

I;m not that poster, but it's Magi
 

JDSN

Banned
Basic rule of apologies: If your apology has an "I" at every sentence people are not only gonna think you are fake, but also a bit of narcissist.
 

Batigol

Banned
The only thing he corrected was 'near' in that sentence about his penis. Not the fact he kept talking about :lol

What a desperate twat
 
I'm not sure that saying "My shit is fucked up, I'm a fuckup, I need to get my shit together, I'm sorry" is trying to justify sexual harassment. I mean, if you think the apology is insincere or whatever, then by all means fire with both barrels, but it seems to me that if you take him at his word in the text, he's not justifying sexual harassment, he's apologizing for it by means of pointing out that he's pretty seriously messed up.

Plenty of us are seriously messed up and don't go on to sexually harass another individual. I'd rather he just own up to it without playing a sympathy card.
 
He didn't come forward on his own. The guy's been trying to delete his tweets and any internet footracks related to this while everyone in the Gaming industry was trying to figure out who it is. My twitter feed from game journalists were piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiised off at this situation. There was no way Josh Mattingly was going to come out of this unscaved from this.
The journalist rage was a bit bizarre, to be fair. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that game journos wanted an excuse to take to their high horses, but I got the distinct impression they were more concerned with directing the rage than with getting the facts. Hell, look at Schrier's "awful exchange" tweet to the person who posted the original image. Bias out the ass. That's how bloggers and opinion writers roll, not so-called journalists.
 
For context, here's the original thread of the conversation in question.

Opinion: he should probably resign, lest this tarnishes Indie Statik's name further. Certainly, if he was an employee of a company, he would have been fired for it. I would also be entirely unsurprised if some of Indie Statik's writers jump ship over this.

Thanks for posting to the locked thread. Appreciate it. Glad it came out so quickly.

Fully understand the Mods locking it to stop detective GAF and the accusations that were being thrown out in there as well.

Really didn't expect it to come out so quickly. Good work from Laralyn McWilliams for posting it and for Jason Schreier for following it up.

I'm actually supporting a good friend of mine through the suicide of a close relative at the moment, so all I can say is I can appreciate it makes people do pretty strange things sometimes, including something as shameful as this. A sad situation all round...
 
That was one of the most cringe-worthy things I've read in a while.
"Let me know if you need a penis in the near future."
I don't think you could be more awkward if you tried.
 
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