loomy wrote on Mar 27, 2023, 17:59:
There is literally 0 chance 102 women all lied about this guy being a creep.

Maybe these two ladies are creeps too, and that's how he nailed them with this lawsuit. Both things are possible at the same time.

Unfortunately all the details of this settlement will probably remain a mystery, and we'll have people theorycrafting about it for the next decade.

PS: If you can't understand why the press release is creepy, just trust us. ONE reason is that the two women don't apologize or say they lied; instead, they imply they never said what they said. So either they're insane, or the statement is coerced, or he wrote it for them. It's very weird.

Read his lawsuit.
He didn't deny anything that occurred between him and the women... he just said that it was defamation to call him a "sex predator" and proving as much would be impossible for the two women he sued... And oddly enough, the other part was that they claimed he bought girls drinks on the company dime.. he took issue with that as well, and that's why this settlement statement also references that of all things.

Unlike what reading-challenged people in this thread believe, the women did not recant anything they said, nor did they apologize for anything they said.
What the settlement does essentially say, is that they don't have personal knowledge of any of those implications that he took issue with (and would not be able to prove it in a defamation case).

The part that is believable, even only using Avellone's own admittances rather than anything the women posted on social media, is that he is a major creeper.
A 40 year old man making it a regular habit to attend conventions and pursue sexual encounters with much younger (but not underage) women who are fans and are intoxicated... yeah it's creepy behavior.

Should his life be ruined? No. Should people be careful about their specific claims? Yes.
Should the women not have said anything at all? Absolutely not.
They're free to call him a creepy guy all they want within the context of what they do specifically know about him.

His lawsuit was very specifically crafted to only address specific things that couldn't be proven, like "sex predator", non-consent, underage girls, and misuse of company funds. All things those women should not have accused him of if they didn't have specific proof of those... but even in the posts he included in his lawsuit, most of it is implied rather than outright accused.

The lawsuit: https://bit.ly/40iJuhu
Sorry about the URL shortener, but it's basically impossible to post long links here.

The bolding* is his from the lawsuit, drawing attention to the pieces to be used in the defamation case.
It shows claims that can't be proven, and desire to cause malicious harm (get him fired).
(*I also added underlines since bold is hard to see in italics here)

ZERO interest in anything from a man who spent so much time preying on
young women (no age check), getting them drunk & taking them to hotel
rooms, showing up to panels late & wasted if at all, & treating fans/fellow
industry SO badly, he was blacklisted from at least 1 big con[vention].

While we’re at it, here’s another man to add to the gaming industry predator
garbage pile. Yesterday was the fist time I said something publicly about this, and
I’m done being silent, despite that fuckstick in the reply telling me to shut up. I
WILL NOT.

I witnessed, and experienced, [Avellone’s] behavior firsthand. He got me
blackout drunk on Midori Sours (on the company dime). He and two friends
somehow got me back to my room, where he pounced in front of the other guys.
They left after a few moments (also drunk), and one of them-
-told me what he had witnessed the next evening I had very vague impressions
that someone had made out with me when I woke up that morning, but thought it
was a dream. When I asked Chris about it, he told me that I had eventually
refused him. When more of the night came back-
-to me, I realized the ONLY reason I was able to refuse him in my blackout
stupor was because I was on my period that weekend. The ONLY reason. (The
shame society places on menstruation actually came in handy for once, smdh.)
Other nights, I watched him do the same to-
-other girls, some of whom looked FAR younger than me in my late 20s (at the
time, and I have always looked young for my age). He would disappear with one
or another, come back, then come back to me. The entire con[vention]. I did not
get drunk with him again, and he was a gentleman-
-about my refusals, including the one where I was drunk off my ass, and when he
escorted me to the subway station at 4:30am the morning I left to go home. That
kind of behavior is what not only kept me in denial about what was actually going
on, but drove me to introduce him to-
-one of my best friends, who then endured over a year of heartache, gaslighting,
and emotional abuse at his hands. It was much easier to see then, and ALL of us
who knew what was going on told her to get out. Eventually, she did, but not
before he raged out of a restaurant-
-drunk as fuck (as usual), leaving her behind after which point she wandered the
downtown streets of a major convention city late at night, ALONE, looking for
him because she was worried he would get hurt due to how drunk he was. This
was my breaking point.
I went to two men I worked with at this convention and reported the situation.
Interestingly enough, they were already discussing his terrible behavior when I
found them together to report it. With my testimony added, he was blacklisted
right then and there.
His behavior didn’t stop, though. If anything, it got worse. It took years for his
employer to finally fire him (I honestly don’t’ recall the exact reason he was
given, it was a while ago and I wasn’t there personally - this was relayed to me by
a friend who also worked there).
He moved to other studios. Other projects. Other conventions until they stopped
inviting him on their own accord (whether due to behavior or relevance, I don’t
know). I pushed him out of my memory, as did my dear friends, and we only
discussed our anger and disgust if he-
-happened to come up. I’ve said something to some friends in journalism if he
came up. Emily [the other game writer featured in the IGN interview] reached out
to me after seeing my tweet to apologize. For what, I asked her? [sic] She didn’t
know what he was like and carried no fault in this. Most didn’t know unless they
saw it.
Still no one said anything except in closed circles. *I* didn’t say anything except
in closed circles to warn people about his behavior. I have not idea if he’s
remotely better than he was then, but given how protected he’s been from true
consequences for his actions, I doubt it.
The actions I witnessed myself occurred between 2013 and 2015. Those I was
told by friends who remained around him occurred up until 2017 or 2018. This
was recent. Who knows how long it had been occurring before then; he was
clearly no stranger to doing this when I met him.
I didn’t bother blowing this up until today due to work being insane all week, but
I’ve got time now. Chris Avellone is an abusive, abrasive, conniving sexual
predator. People tried to get him help. He refused it and continued. Stop
glorifying him

What Avellone admitted to:

On August 30, 2012, the evening before the Atlanta convention “Dragon Con”2
was scheduled to begin, Avellone and Barrows met for the first time at a bar filled with fellow
convention-goers. Later that night, Avellone and two fellow computer game writers escorted
Barrows to her hotel room, where her roommate was settled in for the night. When the four
arrived, Avellone and Barrows kissed and heavy-petted outside her hotel room door. Moments
later, when Barrows told Avellone that “this is not a good idea,” the sexual nature of their
encounter stopped. Avellone and Barrows never had any sexual contact again.

Neither of the women claimed that he sexually assaulted them... they claimed he was a creeper, and then went too far with specificity of their claims regarding other women who shared their experiences with Avellone. These are the 100 mystery defendants that Avellone refers to, essentially sticking his tongue out and saying, "Find them for me and then I'll address their claims."

This comment was edited on Mar 27, 2023, 19:13.