Haven't read it all yet, but start here:
It's not just video games — tabletop gaming has a harassment problem too
One of the things that made me skeptical:
Really? The part about the rape drug thing, yeah, that could happen I guess. That was Bill Cosby's MO, wasn't it?++++
I am at Keycon, waiting for a friend to finish her Shadowrun game. One of my male friends hands me a pepsi. I take it and thank him.
I wake up in a hotel bed I don’t remember. A man’s hand is inside me, jabbing and painful. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I try to move but I cannot. After what feels like a lifetime, I stagger away, ripping his hand out of my jeans. The convention whirls around me like a nightmare kaleidoscope as I beg for help. Eventually, someone takes me aside.
“This is a safe convention. We have a reputation to protect. If you go to the police, we’ll say you were never here.”
I nod numbly. I think I am crying, but no tears fall. I stumble into a bathroom in the lobby coffee shop and sob until I can’t breathe. When I am calm, I call the police and report the attack.
“You sound drunk. Were you drinking? I’m not filing a report for some drunken slut.” The officer hangs up.
I have no more tears.
++++
But then when you try to report it to either the conference of the police, that is the response?
I suppose yeah, if that happened there would be a record of it. If the police are really that terrible though.++++
It is 2009. A man at my game store has been sexually harassing me, talking about how much fun he would have raping me. When no one is in the store, he traps me against a wall and rubs his genitals against me. I call the police.
“This is a matter for your manager. If he touches you on the street, then you can call us.” The officer hangs up.
The owner refuses to expel the creep and fires me instead. Three years later I win a precedent-setting human rights case against him.
++++
Some mixture of truth and hyperbole?