In case you don’t know or haven’t read the full discussions and tweets shared across Twitter and other social media platforms, one of the members of the EA Game Changers Program has broken all the rules – both the ones that should be the concern of EA and the law enforcement. This EA Game Changer was crossing the lines of civil behavior and was harassing and sending out sexually explicit messages to minors over private conversations on social media.
The affected minors have contacted both SimGuruKate, Community Manger for The Sims over Twitter and SimGuruSteve, Maxis Build Engineer over Discord in late December 2018 (right when EA’s offices closed down for the holiday) to express their concerns about this Game Changer. Although SimGuruKate has confirmed to one of the minors that the situation “has been taken care of” and that “it won’t happen again” – recent proof has shown that for some reason this EA Game Changer wasnt removed from the program after the first report. The situation is even more confusing considering that there was a similar allegation against a different EA Game Changer sometime during Summer 2018 where immediate action was taken and the content creator had to step down from the program.
SimGuruLyndsay, General Manager of The Sims Franchise went to Twitter to both explain the situation and tell what their current actions are to prevent this from happening again:
— Lyndsay (@SimGuruLyndsay) March 6, 2019
— Lyndsay (@SimGuruLyndsay) March 7, 2019
SimGuruKate has retweeted this tweet with a message saying that she won’t be able to comment on this situation for now considering that it’s now a part of an internal investigation over at EA:
Thank you for this statement Lyndsay. Simmers, please understand that we (including me) are unable to comment publicly on ongoing investigations. If you are being harassed or threatened please report to the appropriate individual immediately. https://t.co/02sp7nH2nM https://t.co/FsTNB1MQnI
— ҜΔŦ€ ØŁΜŞŦ€ΔĐ (@SimGuruKate) March 6, 2019
Two days ago one of the victims of this Game Changer’s behavior was willing to reach out to me to elaborate on the situation:
[Game Changer] messaged me one night at three in the morning saying “Go to sleep!” to which I replied, “i never sleep”. He then out of the blue said “That was weird,” and when I asked what it was about, he told me about the dream that he had which is extremely inappropriate considering his rank as EA Game Changer. He continued talking to me for a couple days after until I contacted a friend and he told Kate, who said that [Game Changer] might not have known I was sixteen (which sounds stupid since I have numerous YouTube videos where I mention my age – ESPECIALLY my birthday video). That was all Kate said in the conversation, though I don’t blame her at all for what happened as if I was in her place I would have done the same given the circumstance. SimGuruSteve was also contacted, to which he said he couldn’t discipline “private” conversations between two people despite knowing it was sexual harrassment (and also knowing both our ages). I have yet to see anything said by Steve as it’s disappointing that everyone blames Kate for doing her job.
I believe Kate was doing her job given what she had been sent by the person who contacted her in December 2018. She knew [Game Changer]‘s age however I do agree that I didn’t place anywhere other than in one of my YouTube videos about my age so it is possible he had no idea how old I actually was. SimGuruSteve told this user that private conversations cannot be disciplined, although he knew I was underage and that [Game Changer] was 27.
Kate is a lovely person and I know if she had been given more information as to [Game Changer] knowing my age and such that she would have a more appropriate response. It upsets me that she’s being blamed completely whereas nobody knows what Steve said nor do they understand that they couldn’t have fully disciplined him. She did although tell him to apologise to me, which he did a day or so after she was DM’ed.
If I’m honest, I do sort of blame myself for not doing anything about the situation though. It sucks that he was talking to me for months after he first got told to apologise. I didn’t talk to him for a couple weeks until one day I felt bad (thank you anxiety) and had to message so I could apologise. I sort of think it was manipulation too since he would always shout me out, make me feel good about myself and my videos.
On a more personal note, I have been AFK during this whole situation due to the much needed vacation I booked a few months ago.
I’m deeply disappointed that a situation like this has striked a loving community full of creators, storytellers and a plethora of diverse players. As an EA Game Changer myself I am mortified that a person like this was a part of this program. This is a person who I managed to meet up with in real life a few months ago and who was also watching and supporting my livestreams and never would I have guessed that this person would be capable of doing such things.
I am truly sorry for all affected by the behavior of this Game Changer and I hope The Sims Team is doing the right things to prevent this from happening again.
I just don’t get how someone can be stupid and digusting enough to sexually harrass people, let alone underaged ones.
I am moved by this young man’s candid revelation … #whataguy
Kudos TSC and Jovan Jovic for a great piece that came straight from a source without embellishment.
In the past week, I have read so many horrors from folks who are speculating with little knowledge and stirring up such a muddy mess.
As a GC I can say I have never been silenced on this subject nor am in fear of losing my position. Such assertations are ridiculous.
The horrible reality is, that there are predators among “us” and they are GOOD at hiding who they are. They manipulate both their victims and those who are in some (unfortunate) way affiliated with them. This affront was a grievous injury to the victims (I think a lot more than we know – he was a full on bully to some), a serious black eye for EA, and filthy smudge on a good program where there are many wonderful creators who work hard at their craft. The only one appearing to slither away unscathed (let’s hope NOT) was the perp.
This makes me sick, i do just want to say though that the guy from summer 2018 wasn’t a game changer. They had already stepped down way before that incident and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as recent events as that was between fully grown adults and not minors! Im still shocked at how disgusting this all is.
Mind if I ask who the game changer is?
The name was Dylansimz.
#BlameSteve???
At first I was mad at the Gurus for how they handled the situation, but I guess they just didn’t know how to deal with it back then and they know what they have to do now if it happens again. It is a difficult situation to deal with, so I can’t really blame the Gurus. Yes, they could have removed him from the GC program immediately and not tell the victim to contact the predator, but I think they know better now. It wasn’t on their platform, so they couldn’t do much about the situation anyway. Social media outlets like Twitter are FULL of sexual predators, so it would be best to just block them and not talk to them at all if they harass you. I really hope this is the last case of paedophiles in the community that I love (there are many great people in it) and I hope we never hear of this particular predator again.
I understand the community will want to be empathetic towards The Sims team, but this is a global franchise that attracts a young audience and someone within the team is clearly at fault for not reacting appropriately to these allegations when they were received in December 2018. They’ll have (or should have) policies in place to ensure the safeguarding of their user base, not only those that interact on their own platforms like the official forum, but also those within external spaces like Twitter, Facebook and Twitch where they have an “official” presence. All the team members with an online presence representing The Sims should be aware of this policy and it’s imperative that they follow it. Unfortunately, from Lyndsay’s second statement, it appears whatever internal policy they have in place wasn’t followed properly in this situation, and sadly, I think that also means someone should take responsibility for this – while it’s great they’ve been quite transparent about where they’ve fell short and recognise where they need to improve, in any other situation this type of negligence would lead to someone’s resignation or termination of contract.
Could someone have hacked into his account?
Very unlikely. Pastel Sims fom Youtube made a video about the incident a few days ago. There’re a lot of screenshots/evidence pointing to the guy.
I think what need to happen in the sims community is for Xbox one player and playStation player we need the gallery it would make me so happy
Why doesn’t this appear prominently on the front page like all other news? And why don’t you name the Game Changer?
The predatory guy’s name was Dylansimz.
I’m proud of you guys for talking about this. It really is awful, especially because the victims are blaming themselves.
“loving community”
You mean the same community that rips apart anyone for saying they prefer S3’s graphics? Or assumes everyone loads their game up with “realistic” cosmetic mods? Or calls anyone who has any criticism about Sims 4 a “hater”?
Anyway, this kind of incident doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve seen similar ones on other Sims forums, even the official one. Though in the incidents I’ve seen, the admins covered up the harassment and expelled the victim, so I guess at least the Sims team didn’t blame the players.
Years ago, a friend of mine was banned from a Sims forum because, sum it up, the admins would’ve had to take the harassment to the police since my friend was underage at the time. Banning her was the easier option. I was banned from r/thesims on Reddit for getting into an argument with another about preference between Sims 3 and Sims 4 (I like 3, the other user liked 4; he insulted and called me names, I retaliated, they banned me and not him; no prizes for guessing why). My point is harassment in the Sims community isn’t that rare, nor is it shocking. At least, not to me, even when it comes from an admin.
i had just searched up how to contact sims Community so I could ask when are they gonna put cc and mods on the console then i saw this omg so terrible
“loving community”
You mean the same community that rips apart anyone for saying they prefer S3’s graphics? Or assumes everyone loads their game up with “realistic” cosmetic mods? Or calls anyone who has any criticism about Sims 4 a “hater”?
Anyway, this kind of incident doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve seen similar ones on other Sims forums, even the official one. Though in the incidents I’ve seen, the admins covered up the harassment and expelled the victim, so I guess at least the Sims team didn’t blame the players.
Years ago, a friend of mine was banned from a Sims forum because, sum it up, the admins would’ve had to take the harassment to the police since my friend was underage at the time. Banning her was the easier option. I was banned from r/thesims on Reddit for getting into an argument with another about preference between Sims 3 and Sims 4 (I like 3, the other user liked 4; he insulted and called me names, I retaliated, they banned me and not him; no prizes for guessing why). My point is harassment in the Sims community isn’t that rare, nor is it shocking. At least, not to me, even when it comes from an admin.
Could someone have hacked into his account?
Very unlikely. Pastel Sims fom Youtube made a video about the incident a few days ago. There’re a lot of screenshots/evidence pointing to the guy.
I just don’t get how someone can be stupid and digusting enough to sexually harrass people, let alone underaged ones.
#BlameSteve???
This makes me sick, i do just want to say though that the guy from summer 2018 wasn’t a game changer. They had already stepped down way before that incident and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as recent events as that was between fully grown adults and not minors! Im still shocked at how disgusting this all is.
Mind if I ask who the game changer is?
The name was Dylansimz.
I am moved by this young man’s candid revelation … #whataguy
Kudos TSC and Jovan Jovic for a great piece that came straight from a source without embellishment.
In the past week, I have read so many horrors from folks who are speculating with little knowledge and stirring up such a muddy mess.
As a GC I can say I have never been silenced on this subject nor am in fear of losing my position. Such assertations are ridiculous.
The horrible reality is, that there are predators among “us” and they are GOOD at hiding who they are. They manipulate both their victims and those who are in some (unfortunate) way affiliated with them. This affront was a grievous injury to the victims (I think a lot more than we know – he was a full on bully to some), a serious black eye for EA, and filthy smudge on a good program where there are many wonderful creators who work hard at their craft. The only one appearing to slither away unscathed (let’s hope NOT) was the perp.
At first I was mad at the Gurus for how they handled the situation, but I guess they just didn’t know how to deal with it back then and they know what they have to do now if it happens again. It is a difficult situation to deal with, so I can’t really blame the Gurus. Yes, they could have removed him from the GC program immediately and not tell the victim to contact the predator, but I think they know better now. It wasn’t on their platform, so they couldn’t do much about the situation anyway. Social media outlets like Twitter are FULL of sexual predators, so it would be best to just block them and not talk to them at all if they harass you. I really hope this is the last case of paedophiles in the community that I love (there are many great people in it) and I hope we never hear of this particular predator again.
I understand the community will want to be empathetic towards The Sims team, but this is a global franchise that attracts a young audience and someone within the team is clearly at fault for not reacting appropriately to these allegations when they were received in December 2018. They’ll have (or should have) policies in place to ensure the safeguarding of their user base, not only those that interact on their own platforms like the official forum, but also those within external spaces like Twitter, Facebook and Twitch where they have an “official” presence. All the team members with an online presence representing The Sims should be aware of this policy and it’s imperative that they follow it. Unfortunately, from Lyndsay’s second statement, it appears whatever internal policy they have in place wasn’t followed properly in this situation, and sadly, I think that also means someone should take responsibility for this – while it’s great they’ve been quite transparent about where they’ve fell short and recognise where they need to improve, in any other situation this type of negligence would lead to someone’s resignation or termination of contract.
I think what need to happen in the sims community is for Xbox one player and playStation player we need the gallery it would make me so happy
Why doesn’t this appear prominently on the front page like all other news? And why don’t you name the Game Changer?
The predatory guy’s name was Dylansimz.
i had just searched up how to contact sims Community so I could ask when are they gonna put cc and mods on the console then i saw this omg so terrible
I’m proud of you guys for talking about this. It really is awful, especially because the victims are blaming themselves.