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.
