𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖗 🖤 · @tokyo_bat
23rd Jun 2020 from TwitLonger
My experience with Will Powers
I have been debating with myself on calling him out for 2 years due to my fear of having the script flipped on me and potentially ruining my career. After seeing so many stories crop up in the last few days, I feel that I can no longer stay silent. Fuck him and fuck this.
In 2018, I met Will through Twitter / Facebook. During this time, I had recently gotten out of a serious 4 1/2 year relationship, and I was lonely and vulnerable. I was also new to the gaming industry and had gotten laid off from my first gaming job. I loved the gaming industry and wanted to stay in it. Knowing my situation, he mentioned that he'd help me pass along my resume to people who knew at major gaming companies. I don't know if he actually did, but I was incredibly grateful regardless.
We basically talked every single day for a month. He'd FaceTime me in his hotel whenever he way away on a trip. Called and texted good morning / good night to each other. It felt like a pseudo-relationship. He was charming, held a higher position, and was well-connected in the industry. However, my feelings started to grow for him and that's when things got murky. He'd ask me to go to PAX West 2018 with him and offered to cover the cost of my plane tickets and hotel. He mentioned it would be a good opportunity for me to network with people seeing as I was a fledgling in the gaming industry. Of course, this would imply me staying with him in a hotel for a week and being intimate with each other.
As someone who is straightforward and honest, I asked him what he expected out of this. He gave me a vague response of "Let's see where things go." I stupidly said yes because I liked him so much and wanted to meet other people in the industry. I'd held onto hope that meeting each other in person would change his feelings towards me. Little did I know that he would lead me on just to use me for sex for 3-4 days while on his travels.
During the con, there were multiple people, including a close friend, who warned me about him both in-person and via text message. They warned me that Will had a bad reputation in the industry among women. He would date several women at one time, and made them believe that he was only seeing them. That was actually how i felt the entire time I was talking to Will. In public, we'd somewhat kept our distance but he made it known that we were there together. In private, he'd treat me almost like his girlfriend. Very confusing.
I took their advice with a grain of salt, and preferred to find out who he was on my own. This was a red flag and wish I had trusted them. During the trip, I felt that I initiated conversation with Will most of the time and we never discussed anything on a deeper level. Our "relationship" was never brought up that weekend.. until the last night of the trip.
We ended up at some party on Sunday night mingling with other groups of people. Someone who I didn't know came up to me to clear things up between me and Will. He then told me that Will had another date set up for Monday with another woman. I was hurt. Then, I asked Will to go outside with me to talk. At that point, I was drunk and indicated that I wanted a relationship with him. In the process, I started tearing up because it was the first time I had ever opened up to another guy in a while. I felt vulnerable. There was zero reaction from him and then he suggested to go back to the hotel. In hindsight, one month of talking was not that long at all but I was lonely and vulnerable at the time, plus I liked him a lot. Never did I act desperate or clingy with him, but even so, he shouldn't have treated me the way he did.
He barely said a word to me when we were in in hotel room. I brought up the fact that my friends warned me about him, and he stated how being burned by his ex-fiancee who cheated on him years ago made him treat women differently. He gave the impression to friends that he had changed; but hearing more stories from women clearly showed that he didn't. My flight was the next morning so I packed up my things and left. Once I indicated that I wanted a relationship, he basically went cold and ghosted me for 1-2 weeks. I asked him what was going on and he blamed it on work being stressful. He was nonchalant and acted like nothing happened between us. I was so angry that he used his position of power to take advantage of the situation. He deliberately planned the trip to fuck me and then toss me away. How he treated me and the situation was something is still something I could never bring myself to forgive him for. I told him that I had completely lost all my respect for him and shortly blocked him on social media afterwards. A few months ago pre-quarantine I ran into him at a birthday party and did not acknowledge his presence whatsoever.
The guy preys on women in the gaming industry and moves on to the next victim when he sees fit. He fetishizes Asian women and almost exclusively dates them based on his dating history. On social media, he touts about supporting women and says shit like "Believe women!" and "Women are being abused!" when he's a fucking scumbag towards women.
I'm so fucking terrified of what the outcome might be from posting this but I've been so angry ever since. He works in PR so he's likely going to try and spin this in his favor. I'm hoping I can find peace and help other women avoid getting hurt by him.