[Warning - Trigger Topics] Chris Avellone wins libel suit against accusers

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Honestly as it stands now I have to side with Avellone on this. There have been no criminal charges against him and his accusers have settled out of court and retracted their statements, presumably because they lacked sufficient evidence to support their claims. Maybe he is guilty of what they say, and certainly if new evidence or more accusations come to light in the future I will change my stance. But as it stands I don't know that and so I have to give Avellone the benefit of the doubt.

[Psicose]

Anyway, does anyone know what his career looks like now, I assume it's going to be hard for him to get any work after this case.

[Nicolas Milioni]

We don't HAVE to presume anything about the man. No criminal charges were brought, and the defamation suit ended in out-of-court settlement. Legally, nothing has been established either way.

The COURTS must presume him innocent. WE don't need to. WE can make whatever judgements we like.

i'd advise to be careful to not believe rumours and gossip though,believing in gossip and rumours might hurt people. case in point,a group of teens all the way bak in 2014 had a whole scheem made to spread rumours about me through the whole school,with the goal og stopping me from making friends

[Lysander]

i'd advise to be careful to not believe rumours and gossip though,believing in gossip and rumours might hurt people. case in point,a group of teens all the way bak in 2014 had a whole scheem made to spread rumours about me through the whole school,with the goal og stopping me from making friends

That is a shitty thing for people to do. But children and teenagers are cruel.

[Lysander]

Anyway, does anyone know what his career looks like now, I assume it's going to be hard for him to get any work after this case.

I’m guessing that he will still can get work, but it maybe lesser fare like what we seen with Mel Gibson and others. People will believe whatever they want to believe regardless of the facts of a case.

[Heavy Arms]

Then my initial statement stands and I have to presume chris' innocence. Since what anyone has on him is bugger all even if it does leave a slightly bad taste in the mouth.

Not to mention that we should wait for all the story to be told before jumping the gun. Recent events have proven and even old cases like The JonBenet Ramsey case have borne out.

Again though, this is ignoring a simple factual truth:

Chris Avellone has waived his right to have the full story told, and instead chosen to make sure the full story is never told.

You can presume what you'd like, but the evidence is that Chris chose to silence the full story instead of telling the full story. He chose a narrative that he wants, rather than the jury system to analyze everyone's statements and evidence and come to a conclusion.

His confidence in his innocence wasn't enough to finish a court case he initiated.

His decisions means we never get the full story. This is as much as we're ever going to know. That's why people push to settle cases: because silence is something at least one side values more than airing the truth.

[Nicolas Milioni]

That is a shitty thing for people to do. But children and teenagers are cruel.

cheers i'll drink some soda to that

[AnubisXy]

Avallone sounds like kind of a scummy person, cruising conventions for sex and pressuring women into having sex with him. I recall there were texts from a neighbor of his where he was trying to get her to have sex with him. Still, from what I've heard from people who have known him for a long time though, he isn't a serial assaulter, predator or rapist. But, I'm guessing that's why he'd rather not have the full story get out, because even if he didn't sexually assault anyone, he doesn't really want the public attention on the fact that that he's an absolute horndog and kind of scummy person. Getting a settlement and having his accusers retract their statements is good enough.

Anyway, it's clear those allegations hurt him financially and, beyond just Avellone, ended up significantly hurting other people as well (those allegations against Avellone were likely the reason why his work and Mitsoda's work was cut out of Bloodlines 2 and the game had to be completely redone), so the monetary settlement to him seems reasonable. If nothing else, he's a pretty good writer and I hope to see more of his work in the future.

And I am curious what effect, if any, this will have on Bloodlines 2 and if his work and Mitsoda's will end up being reincorporated, in some form, into the game.

[Heavy Arms]

I don't see how this would have impacted Mitsoda's work? According to Paradox, Avellone's work on Bloodlines had been tossed out well before the accusations were made against him. While the accusations were made right around when Mitsoda was let go, according to him, he was shocked and that it was very sudden. I can see why it looks suspect on casual glance, but the details don't add up.

[AnubisXy]

I don't see how this would have impacted Mitsoda's work? According to Paradox, Avellone's work on Bloodlines had been tossed out well before the accusations were made against him. While the accusations were made right around when Mitsoda was let go, according to him, he was shocked and that it was very sudden. I can see why it looks suspect on casual glance, but the details don't add up.

I was under the impression that there was disagreement between Mitsoda and HLS over Avellone getting canned and Mitsoda ended up getting canned as a result. They obviously can't talk about what happened but the two were pretty supportive of one another over social media. Paradox only publicly noted that Avellone's work was being completely excised from the game after the allegations against him came out, and maybe without those allegations it's possible that at least some of his writing would have remained in the game.

[21C Hermit]

His confidence in his innocence wasn't enough to finish a court case he initiated.

Uh, this… sounds dangerous.

[Hades]

People's shitty politics out in full force tonight.

[Nicolas Milioni]

we musn't forget,the women told us they were lying. whatever else is under scrutiny,whateve is still udnsicovered,the fact they lied is not,the fact they for whatever reason spoke falsehoods is undeniably true

[Bluecho]

I'm not really willing to take a retraction of an accusation, made after settling a defamation suit out of court, at face value. It doesn't tell me the women were lying. It tells me one side had more money to throw around in a case than the other, making it financially advantageous to settle.

I generally prefer to believe the women in cases involving alleged sexual misconduct, as a general rule. Nor do I have much confidence in the court system to actually see justice done.

[CTPhipps]

Interesting, sexual abuse accusations are notoriously hard to convinct but innocent until proven guilty is a thing. Without personal knowledge of him or his accusers I reluctantly have to presume chris' innocence.

I mean, his accusers have publicly retracted their statement. Which could theoretically be under financial pressure but could simply be sincere.

It was settled out of court, ie both parties (while being advised by their lawyers) came to an agreement to end the matter without going through a whole trial. Considering how it ended (with the statement and seven-figure-payment to Chris Avellone), it's clear who had the stronger hand in those negotiations. But there's a lot that goes into considerations like this: money, time, the invasion of privacy etc. There are lots of reasons to settle out of court before getting bogged down in a trial. But at the end of the day, it's just two parties who came to an agreement. We don't have all the facts and we don't know what these negotiations were like. So, really knowing who's right or wrong in a situation like this can only be speculative.

I mean, that's the big thing of the article from my perspective. Not that Avellone won, it's the fact his accusers have not only retracted their statements but state they never actually accused him of being a sexual predator and don't believe he is.

Which means you either believe they're lying about their retraction (perhaps for financial or legal reasons) or Avellone is actually innocent.

Notably, they state they never meant for him to actually be accused of anything.

I'm not really willing to take a retraction of an accusation, made after settling a defamation suit out of court, at face value. It doesn't tell me the women were lying. It tells me one side had more money to throw around in a case than the other, making it financially advantageous to settle.

I generally prefer to believe the women in cases involving alleged sexual misconduct, as a general rule. Nor do I have much confidence in the court system to actually see justice done.

Very possibly.

On the other hand, what is the actual avenue for addressing a false accusation? 99% of all accusations of sexual misconduct are true but the unfortunate 1% do exist as DNA evidence has occasionally exonerated individuals.

Like those two guys who kept trying to hire women to claim Democratic politicans attacked them.