A game developer and writer for an upcoming video game was forced to resign Tuesday from his job after feminists and social justice activists on Reddit uncovered politically incorrect statements he had once posted on a gaming forum.
Casey H., a writer contracted to produce content for the upcoming role-playing game Pillars of Eternity 2, was outed by members of the social justice community “GamerGhazi” on Reddit who managed to track down his posts to a forum called RPG Codex. They catalogued his posts, much of which they considered offensive in content.
Posting under the name “sser,” Casey H. remarked that feminist game critic Anita Sarkeesian was a “huckster,” and accused her of feigning interest in video games to push her progressive ideology. He also called Zoe Quinn, the game developer whose undisclosed relationships with game journalists served as the catalyst for “GamerGate,” a “sociopath.”
Casey was highly critical of social justice warriors in the video game industry, lambasting their efforts to shoehorn progressive storylines and characters into gaming.
“Basic fact is that some people can’t handle women in video games – literally speaking,” he wrote in one post. “They can’t handle them being shot, can’t handle them being roughed up, can’t handle them being sexual, can’t handle them being liberal, can’t handle them being conservative, can’t handle them being criticized…”
Criticizing the concept of “objectification,” Casey described the so-called “critique” of female characters in video games as a “double-helix of hypocritical bullshit that you never see applied to male characters.”
The writer also stated that while most Muslims are unlikely to be terrorists, a terrorist attack committed in Europe would likely be committed by a Muslim extremist. His statement, while seemingly offensive on the surface, is backed up by data.
Social justice activists on GamerGhazi offended by his opinions even took issue with a joke he made about a bad video game. Casey wrote: “The amount of levelups in this storyline is just insane. It’s like a poker game where all the chips are on the table, but people keep piling their car keys and watches, and soon enough it’s like fucking bonds and secret sex tapes and somebody’s bringing out the gimp.”
After being outed, he turned in his resignation to his employer, Obsidian Entertainment, and apologized for his comments critical of Islam.
On GamerGhazi, members who first called on Obsidian to fire Casey expressed joy at him losing his job.
“I guess that good can sometimes win after all, even in real life (and in GoT),” wrote one user.
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.