Chris Avellone, an industry veteran and former screenwriter at Obsidian Entertainment, has participated in projects such as Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II or Torment: Tides of Numerara. His professional career has been full of triumphs, but everything changed after accusations of alleged sexual harassment. After a year of silence, the creative has published a statement in which he has denied the accusations, while announcing legal actions.
“Last year, a woman named Karissa He made some accusations against me, as did his close friend, Kelly. The accusations were surprising. They were referring to our first meeting almost 9 years ago and they were not true, ”he said in the statement. According to Avellone, over the past year he has allowed other voices to speak, but he has remained silent. “I was wrong about this,” he stresses.
Chris Avellone’s version
Always according to the version of the developer, the motivation for these attacks It’s simple: “Karissa and Kelly were upset about a breakup I had with their friend Jackie almost seven years ago. Jackie was the woman Karissa had encouraged me to flirt with in a bar at the same convention where she had met Karissa a year earlier. ” Avellone considers it “unusual” that he acted in this way considering that “they believed he was a sexual predator.”
The writer says that he saw Jackie for a year, although he maintains that they did not go out together and that they were not a couple: “We stopped seeing each other seven years ago.” He broke that relationship, allegedly, because Karissa got in the way, “something Jackie encouraged.” Avellone explains that does not understand why Karissa “waited so long with these accusations”But she suspects that the video interview posted on IGN was what prompted her to act. Avellone points out that IGN removed its female lead from the game. “I had nothing to do with it, the way they handled them upset me.”
In the statement, Chris Avellone charges against the press for not checking the facts and refuses to spend a night with Chrisry Dena, as the woman assured when the accusations began to appear. “It wasn’t even on the same continent,” he defends himself. During this time, he has gathered evidence to clear his name, while announcing legal action against the women who have accused him. “A good number of digital evidence and witness testimony have been gathered over the past year,” he writes. “With that in hand, I have filed a formal response last week, not to silence Karissa and Kelly, but to encourage them to talk more.”
When the allegations came to light, the companies he was working with published their respective statements to disengage from Avellone and condemn the alleged cases of harassment. “I didn’t fight this, you can’t. The culture of cancellation being what it is, companies cannot cope with it either, ”he continues. “Companies can’t even ask for time to investigate without being told that they are not believing the accusations, even if they are unfounded. Because even the delay or the desire to want to know more will be judged, so that they will also be canceled. Nobody wants to be canceled, even if it means turning their back on someone who is being canceled. Even someone you’ve worked with for years. ” He does not hold a grudge against Techland or Wild Cat, but he does admit that “it was painful” to read their statements.
Source | Chris Avellone
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