Throughout the latter half of 2017, many individuals have been calling out personalities for sexual harassment, most notably in the realm of television and film. In light of these allegations, many others have come forward with their stories and personal experiences. Over the weekend, some spoke up to once again put Tyler Malka, the owner of the game-centered internet forum, NeoGAF, in the hot seat for sexual harassment allegations amongst other things.
A woman who shared her story about Malka, also known online by the alias, “Evilore”, discussed how he made unwanted advances towards her whilst on a road trip with friends. She described the incident and how she was berated for rejecting his advances. She also pointed out her inability to retaliate because of his position of power. Two people, one of whom is the victim’s brother, also came forward to support the story. According to US GAMER, a response to these allegations is being prepared by NeoGAF, but nothing has yet to be confirmed.
NeoGAF has been down since October 21st and is still down at this moment. Before the servers went down, core moderators of the website began to step down by either issuing public statements regarding their departure or receiving a ban from using the forums entirely. Many others have decided to jump ship as a result of the forthcoming evidence against Malka.
As of late, many others in the gaming community have also been coming out about their experiences with sexual harassment. In August, Polygon parted ways with one of their personalities after an investigation sparked by sexual harassment allegations, and in October, a former Naughty Dog employee came forward with his story and hardship due to sexual harassment in the workplace.
As this story develops, the future of NeoGAF is unclear as much as it is in jeopardy.
UPDATE:
NeoGAF is now back online again, and Tyler Malka has issued statement on the matter. In the response, he claims that the allegations made against him were brought on by his ex and that they were fraudulent. Malka also states that the temporary closure of NeoGAF came from the overwhelming amount of traffic the website received after the allegations. He used the time for maintenance, restructure, and repair, as well as figure out the future course for the website. Although most of the moderators are gone, Malka will continue to run the website and rebuild it for the future.