Harebrained Schemes Dev Says Every Sexual Harassment Accusation Is True, Resigns

'There doesn't need to be any inquiry because, frankly, everything is true.'

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The Harebrained Schemes team will have to wait a bit before popping the champagne on their new deal where the BattleTech developer was acquired for $7.5 million by Paradox Interactive.

Waypoint reports that, after a few days where at least six women detailed sexual abuse and harassment by Harebrained designer Tyler Carpenter, Carpenter has confirmed the allegations and resigned from the company after three years.

“My bullshit is not the kind of thing HBS [Harebrained Schemes] stands for or tolerates, and HBS had no idea any of this happened,” Carpenter told Waypoint. “Because of that, for the good of HBS and my victims, I've resigned from HBS effective immediately. There doesn't need to be any inquiry because, frankly, everything is true.”

Paradox and Harebrained Schemes also confirmed to Waypoint that Carpenter was no longer with the company and gave this statement:

“There has been communication between Paradox and Harebrained Schemes on this matter and it has already been dealt with internally,” said the companies in a joint statement. “Tyler Carpenter has been dismissed from the company with immediate effect. All of this took place prior to the acquisition deal between Paradox and Harebrained Schemes being finalised, so therefore Paradox have no comment to make.”

One of the accounts of Carpenter's confirmed harassment came from cosplayer and streamer Lauren Bond, who worked with him on streams. He stated sexual feelings for Bond, even openly flirting with her in front of her girlfriend. In other instances, he's engaged in in-person harassment, sent messages and left unwanted comments on Facebook, and outright grabbed a woman's rear and said "too bad" when she stated her displeasure with the abuse.

“Believe every accusation,” Carpenter told Waypoint. “I don't recall each one, and some I have a different recollection of, but obviously the sheer mass of shared experiences means that I'm the one who's got a faulty memory, not them. I hurt, emotionally manipulated, and wrong [sic] every one of those accusers due to my own selfishness, thoughtlessness, and need for validation.”

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 7, 2018 2:25 PM

    Charles Singletary posted a new article, Harebrained Schemes Dev Says Every Sexual Harassment Accusation Is True, Resigns

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      June 7, 2018 2:37 PM

      Don't we have a shacker who works there?

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      June 7, 2018 2:38 PM

      Must be hard to treat women like people *sarcasm. Jesus, what year is it?

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      June 7, 2018 2:49 PM

      I was there when one designer left and ended up at Arena net, but I didn't realize all this went on. Horrible situation when someone fears for their career like this. From watching the purple man of Jessica Jones, being persistent can easily become someone's nightmare.

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      June 7, 2018 2:55 PM

      Huh. You don't get praise for admitting you are a shit lord but I am surprised.

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        June 7, 2018 4:04 PM

        [deleted]

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        June 7, 2018 11:42 PM

        [deleted]

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          June 7, 2018 11:54 PM

          There’s a pretty wide gulf between it being praiseworthy and him committing suicide, don’t you think? Come on man.

          It’s the best route for him to take here, but I’m not going to pat him on the back. Something tells me this contrition would be non-existent if his back wasn’t up against the wall with people coming forward.

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            June 8, 2018 12:03 AM

            [deleted]

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              June 8, 2018 12:15 AM

              It’s clearly worthy of consideration and discussion, as this thread demonstrates. He is on the right path and has taken a different approach from most people who get called out for behavior like this.

              But it is a personal road he will have to walk to overcome this in his life. Nobody said anything about eternity but it will be longer than a couple days and involve more than releasing an apologetic statement. It can be done, and I hope he succeeds.

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      June 7, 2018 3:09 PM

      Wow. Awful of him to do that stuff but this is owning up to it to a degree you rarely see.

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        June 7, 2018 3:50 PM

        Not really. If you read the Waypoint article, he hasn’t made any private personal apologies to any of the people involved, which is something more likely to give closure to an individual than just a general “I suck. Bye” to the Internet.

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          June 7, 2018 3:51 PM

          That's true. "Owning up" and "confessing" aren't the same thing.

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            June 7, 2018 4:11 PM

            At this point, there have been so many of these exposes, that I’ve been dividing them into whether the person reaches out directly to the involved individuals in a human, person to person way or if they just make a statement to the general public online, plus a third category for the ones who deny they did anything hurtful and do that “I’m sorry you feel the way you do” bs.

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              June 8, 2018 3:08 AM

              So in all cases guilty until proven innocent?

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      June 7, 2018 5:04 PM

      [deleted]

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      June 7, 2018 11:08 PM

      He's trying to have his high horse and ride it too.

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      June 7, 2018 11:26 PM

      Wow, this hits kinda close to home. I don't know the guy personally but have interacted with him on some forums. I have some friends that work on the Shadowrun tabletop rpg and they know him via Shadowrun Returns related stuff.

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