Battletech developer Tyler Carpenter has officially resigned from Harebrained Schemes earlier this week after numerous sexual misconduct allegations arose. Carpenter himself admitted that the allegations were in fact true and he even told Waypoint that he understood why his “bullshit” was no longer tolerated.
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“My bullshit is not the kind of thing HBS [Harebrained Schemes] stands for or tolerates, and HBS had no idea any of this happened,” Carpenter told the site about his resignation. “Because of that, for the good of HBS and my victims, I’ve resigned from HBS effective immediately. There doesn’t need to be any inquiry because, frankly, everything is true.“
The allegations against him had a wide spectrum of involvement, from casual commentary, to full on physical contact. During one gaming session on Geek Space TV playing the Exalted RPG, he was even filmed groping one of the women. Guild Wars 2 writer Elan Stimmed added that she had “lived in fear of [Carpenter] for years,” while Jessica Price of the ArenaNet narrative team described him bluntly as “a gaslighting, assaulting, harassing abuser.”
The studio themselves issued a statement following Carpenter’s Twitter account going on lockdown, stating:
“Harebrained Schemes needs to address the recent situation involving one our ex-employees, and allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. The moment this situation came to our attention, we placed the employee on immediate leave while we conducted a full investigation. We determined the best course of action was that Harebrained Schemes would part ways with the employee, and that action was taken immediately.
“We are committed to providing a safe workspace for all our employees and will always take immediate action to maintain a safe, positive, respectful, and collaborative environment.”
Carpenter was a part of Harebrained for more than three years, “Believe every accusation,” Carpenter Waypoint. “I don’t recall each one, and some I have a different recollection of, but obviously the sheer mass of shared experiences means that I’m the one who’s got a faulty memory, not them. I hurt, emotionally manipulated, and wrong [sic ]every one of those accusers due to my own selfishness, thoughtlessness, and need for validation.”
Luckily, the situation has been handled and the studio took the necessary steps in making sure the allegations were taken seriously. It’s unfortunate, but it is good to see companies learning that brushing this sort of behaviour under the rug is no longer in their best interest.
