Alex · @2Alexmae5
24th Jun 2020 from TwitLonger
My experience with Method Josh.
Recently, so many people have been speaking up about sexual abuse and harassment they have experienced from streamers and people with a big social media platform. It's very difficult to share these things as you are always facing the fear of being called a liar, being asked where the evidence is, and generally not being treated with any empathy or respect. I will share my experience of grooming and general emotional abuse from the streamer Method Josh (who was actually permanently banned from Twitch as a result of issues arising with another woman).
This happened 3 years ago now (around June 2017), I am 19. This means Josh was actively speaking to and encouraging sexual activities (online only) with a 16 year old girl. While the age of consent in the UK is 16, any revealing pictures of someone under the age of 18 is considered child porn and is strictly illegal.
To begin with though, I first came into contact with Josh through a public discord for discipline priests in WoW after I had posted about killing a difficult boss with my very small guild. Even then, a few months before he started streaming, he was notorious for paying particular attention to women and often dm'ing a woman on discord once he had figured out they were female. It was of course 3 years ago so I can't remember exactly how our initial conversation went, however I do have these screenshots from one of our first conversations: https://imgur.com/a/xiXksEL (4 screenshots included). It could be considered a lighthearted joke to someone - whilst in bad taste, not necessarily harmful in anyway - but this conversation set the tone for later stages of our interactions. Even if you assume it's a joke, could you even consider saying these things to a girl you KNOW is 16 years old? It's utterly disgusting and reading through these images make me feel sick.
Over the first couple of weeks after having spoken to Josh, he regularly messaged me - usually about WoW related topics or raiding as he was progressing Mythic KJ at the time, something that actually made him fairly popular from playing disc priest. However, whilst my naive, young self was actually happy at receiving some attention from someone for once after not experiencing anything like it before, I realise now that Josh effectively groomed me and abused my naivety and depression for his own sexual satisfaction. This may sound extremely far fetched as it was only through online contact, however I struggle to see a point of view where encouraging sexual pictures and videos from a 16 year old girl isn't some form of abuse through lack of experience, knowledge and self-worth.
It was about a month or two after he first messaged me when things gradually became more sexual (an example here, one of the first snaps he sent to me after I got his snapchat a couple of weeks after having spoken to him https://i.imgur.com/eB4rypC.png). He started to talk more and more about topics of a sexual nature, even at one point saying something along the lines of "I will drive down to your house" and hinting at sexual connotations. I cannot remember exactly how these conversations went and I don't want to create sentences he did not type, however it is important that you understand these types of interactions did happen.
When Josh started actually asking for pictures of revealing types, unfortunately I obliged. It is extremely embarrassing to think and talk about as I regret it immensely, but looking back now I can understand that my 16 year old self was depressed, had lacked any type of attention from "crushes" or interests of any sort, and was shocked and amazed at the fact that someone from Method (which honestly felt almost like getting attention from a small celeb of sorts) took an interest in me. When these interactions begun, he would extremely rarely message me about anything that wasn't beneficial to him of any sorts - meaning he pretty much dropped all contact with me besides when he wanted something sexual. This was horrible for my 16 yo self, I had terrible anxiety issues and this only further worsened them - I still am affected by these anxiety issues to this day and it had greatly affected some friendships I have with people. The anxiety of wanting Josh - the man from Method that had took interest in irrelevant little me - to just message me and be my friend was excruciating. He would go 2 weeks and longer of not contacting me whatsoever, even when I begged him to say something to me, as I was scared and upset that this "celeb" like person suddenly stopped interacting with me.
The only times he did randomly message me were usually on snapchat after I had probably snapped him something relatively normal such as a sunset on my way home from school. It was like he suddenly remembered I existed and immediately asked me to send revealing pictures. This carried on until early the next year. Here is just one example of when I was speaking to my friend about it (an extremely trusted friend who I won't be exposing, we spoke about this in a lighthearted manner) and I noticed Josh was typing https://i.imgur.com/XPVS62n.png.
Possibly the worst time was when Josh wished to call me after a meeting for Mythic Argus. It was late and I was falling asleep, but I stayed awake to call him. I did know that the call was going to be sexual before I accepted it as Josh had stated what mood he was in an hour or so beforehand DURING the meeting. Again, I regret being so naive and going through with these things, however I do forgive myself for not knowing any better. Here is a summary of what happened during the call https://i.imgur.com/LlViJV1.png (the deleted user is my previous discord account), as well as this, I specifically remember him saying he wanted to "breed" with me and "milk" me, I was so anxious during this call that whilst he asked for pictures and any recording of myself, I was trembling so incredibly hard. I have never felt so anxious and nervous in any situation as I did then, and I feel so so sorry for myself for actually going through with it. As incredibly embarrassing as this is to share, I need to put out there the shit Method Josh did with a 16 year old girl.
Not only did he take advantage of my depression, age and experience, it so happens that my mother unexpectedly passed away during this time (September 2017) which hit incredibly hard. It can be easy to assume from this that any attention or "intimacy" with someone could become quite obsessive during a raw and upsetting emotional conflict. He KNEW about my mother's passing and yet still initiated these acts, even around a week after she died if I do recall correctly.
Here are additional screenshots from around February time when I was raiding with him and his old guild in an alt raid: https://i.imgur.com/KHUuRa6.png + https://i.imgur.com/IQ6KKPC.png.
I find it utterly disgusting and vile that Josh is still able to represent the "community loving" Method brand. What kind of perception of the company are you hoping to achieve when you allow people like Josh to remain with Method, stream for Method, and play and most likely receive money for competing in the World First Race. There is no world where any company allows this, ESPECIALLY after there have been other women reporting harassment from Josh and yet no punishment at all. Absolutely disgusting and I hate the fact that it might even take this post for anything to happen at all, which even now I doubt me sharing this will make any difference. Wake up and take action that should have been taken a long time ago.
This is entirely unrelated to the kotaku allegations and is my personal experience.