Wigglegiggles · @Wigglegiggles1
24th Jun 2020 from TwitLonger
My experience with Method
First off I just want to say I am so proud of everyone who has come forward, and I am so grateful for what has turned into a much needed movement for change in this industry. To those who do not feel ready to come forward, who worry about reactions or repercussions, or who would prefer to keep their experiences completely private, this is your story to tell or not to tell and we care about you no matter what. Something is finally being done to help prevent others from getting hurt and to provide a safer environment for everyone.
The purpose of this statement is to hopefully help clarify that there is an ongoing issue with Method’s handling of complaints about their employees, and I hope this will ultimately result in a healthier and more effective management structure at Method and/or other companies.
For the purposes of this post I won't get into the details of my personal involvement with Josh, as I don't think it is relevant to what is going on right now, and thankfully I wasn't a teenager when he came into my life. Suffice it to say I was pretty severely affected by the way he treated me, hearing all the stories from people who were brave enough to come forward and talk to me, and trying this entire time to get him to stop hurting people.
Towards the end of January 2019 I sent Method an email about MethodJosh, on behalf of someone who felt unsafe to come forward otherwise, notifying them of unprofessional and abusive behavior towards girls/women in general (or “just memes” as his community would say). This email included a statement written by her (18 y/o, 17 when they were involved), explaining she had been severely negatively affected by his behavior: she felt pressured into doing things in order for him to stay in contact with her; was bullied by him publicly on his Discord in text- and voice chat; was instructed to behave crazy and obsessed for entertainment value; and who had serious concerns about his behavior in general as well as specific things that were said and done to her privately. We made it clear that we had screenshots of conversations from our private conversations with him as well as others’, and how he conducted himself publicly in his community, if any proof of this behavior was required (although with Darrie and others in Method having been part of his Discord community early days when he was at his worst, this stuff shouldn’t really come as a surprise).
This email was immediately circulated between Darrie and other members of the “management” team at Method, as well as Josh himself. Method responded to the email after 24 hours (Josh asked them for 24 hours to handle the situation), by notifying us that this situation would only be taken seriously if she as a victim would be willing to go to the police. By this point we already had to deal with Josh privately and agreements were made (and ultimately not kept) in order to hopefully ensure this behavior would not continue. I thanked Method for handling this in such a professional manner and for allowing the person in question to have a day to figure out who might have made this claim so he could pressure them into compliance some more. We hoped going forward his behavior would improve, it did not.
See https://kotaku.com/when-your-favorite-streamer-turns-out-to-be-a-creep-or-1832734851 for further information. Shockingly enough even after we felt it necessary to speak to a reporter because his behavior wasn't improving, this still wasn't enough of a problem for Method. Why would a company be concerned when one of their employees is being accused of being really into girls between the ages of 14-18, after we also told them about this in our email to them.
Fast forward a few months of demeaning women on stream; crashing his car, with a fan he’d just picked up inside, after nearly driving it into a tree; and then talking in detail on stream about how he was racing his car and behaving recklessly with a fan inside his car (not the first time). None of this seemingly was an issue for Method, after having already received a pretty serious complaint. Because as long as this behavior doesn’t turn deadly or into a lawsuit, it’s all fun and games.
Then a while later a couple days of streaming followed with a female streamer which turned into a pretty severe shitshow, and Josh ultimately disappeared off the platform. I will not be sharing further details of this to respect her privacy and because it isn’t my story to tell. Method was again obviously aware of this situation, it being more severe than the last or otherwise he wouldn’t have disappeared from Twitch. They didn’t pull his stream (it was a personal choice for legal reasons), they continued to keep him on their raiding team, they (Sco) kept trying to get him back on the platform until recently when Twitch finally told them the ban was permanent, Sco and Djarii were even considering living with Josh in a streamer house after his predatory behavior had already come to light (this plan ultimately fell through), Method seemed to be backing him no matter what.
I came to find out that this female streamer had reported him to the police, in which case Method had previously said they would take the situation seriously and in their words “a thorough - and proper - investigation could occur”. They further said in their email about the initial complaint that “Should a police report result in an arrest/charges, I (meaning Darrie) can personally assure you Method would take the appropriate steps to dissociate ourselves professionally and publicly with anybody engaging in illegal and immoral behavior such as you described.”
https://imgur.com/a/uK7k7eA
We did not expect this to mean that they would continue to raid with him, hang out with him at Blizzcon, and try their hardest to get him back onto the platform he got banned from.
Who should we expect to be able to hold these people accountable, who should we expect to step in and say something? Who should we expect to have our backs when these big streamers have an army of colleagues and fans to back them up and to even gang up and demean and intimidate their victims because of their supposed baseless claims? It would seem that the management teams aren’t really managing anything except for optics.
This is how Darrie publicly handled this situation and general allegations towards people in the gaming community:
Two weeks after they received our email and she found out about another streamer being a predator, who wasn’t tied to the company she worked for: https://imgur.com/a/RV7DPUo
https://twitter.com/methoddarrie/status/1194737446031896576
https://twitter.com/methoddarrie/status/1275068751185014792?s=20
https://twitter.com/methoddarrie/status/1275161339263156235?s=21
https://twitter.com/methoddarrie/status/1275831960783319040?s=20
https://twitter.com/methoddarrie/status/1275843492296527873?s=20
Ahh, Darrie. You delightful hypocrite. I just want to say on behalf of everyone, you're such a garbage person it is actually unreal. Thanks for nothing.
How Djarii handled this:
https://twitter.com/djarii/status/1092585502564327424
https://twitter.com/djarii/status/1275024528649990146?s=19
How Darrie’s husband now finally spoke up:
https://twitter.com/methodjdotb/status/1275833546557489154?s=19
I wonder what Scott might have to say about Josh’s good character.
https://twitter.com/SaschaSteffens/status/1275830344256716800?s=20
And finally how Method as a company after all this time decided to end their relationship with Josh, still not acknowledging any knowledge of wrongdoing or any other general statement towards those affected.
https://twitter.com/method/status/1275840178737811459?s=21
To the people at Method who have now finally managed to gather the balls to speak out or break ties:
Thank you all so much for finally doing something with your platform to help others, and making yourselves seem like heroes. Thank you for not further enabling people so you don’t have to feel uncomfortable or rock the boat in your company, and to make sure it wouldn’t affect your sponsorship deals and connections by having a stain on your record. If you had been able to do this sooner, when you already knew and saw this happening around you, and people were literally hitting you in the face with accusations and willing to provide evidence, it would have meant the world to the victims. You created a safe haven for predators to get away with anything as long as they wouldn’t end up behind bars; you created a toxic fraternity while calling it a family; you treated someone you knew was abusive, manipulative, controlling and a potential real danger to others as your golden boy/cash cow. Now we all get to watch as the victims gather the courage to speak out because you couldn’t find it within your hearts to help others instead of keeping yourselves comfortable. You stood idly by as you continued to enable this predatory behavior, the pain of which will stay with these victims for the rest of their lives. They were counting on you to help them, to take them seriously, to provide any accountability. You can shift blame, claim ignorance and post all the performative twitter statements you like, but you had the responsibility to do what was right and you’re not fooling anyone.