Two people have accused Mike Zaimont, lead designer of Skull girls and Indivisible, to make them feel uncomfortable with degrading and sexually suggestive comments. One incident recently occurred through private messages, while the other accuser occurred in person over the years.
Bunny is a popular Twitch personality with more than 1.5 million followers on her various social media pages. While he generally focuses on playing more popular games, Bunny recently became interested in fighting games like Guilty Gear Xrd and Skull girls. He got a lot of attention from the fighting game community, with many praising his willingness to learn as a beginner, so last week it was a surprise when Bunny announced that he was moving away from the genre.
“One big reason I’m taking a break from the fighting game community is the sexual harassment I received from a great creator,” Bunny explained on Twitter. “It was out of the blue and it really mortified me. I still don’t feel comfortable sharing her identity. I was really surprised at how intrusive they were. “
This morning Bunny stepped forward to shed some light on the situation, saying that his previous tweets were about Mike Zaimont, a veteran competitor and developer of fighting games. Skull girls and Indivisible. She described Zaimont’s private messages as “incredibly disrespectful” before finally sharing a Imgur Gallery of their conversations.
The screenshots show Bunny initiating contact with Zaimont in May to thank him for the Skull girls Representation of the female-to-female BDSM story mode. Zaimont quickly begins asking personal questions about her career on Twitch, specifically what she saw as her embrace of the “culture of thirst” in terms of the way she speaks and presents herself. What at first might be interpreted as a shocking flirtation soon passes to Zaimont and she asks Bunny if she gets validation of care and what does her family think of her profession, which Bunny described as “awkward” and “degrading”.
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“His responses are creepy and I really don’t think he talks to a man like this,” Bunny wrote in the screenshot.
As Zaimont had already been widely called for making a racially callous joke “I can’t breathe” during a recent Skull girls tournament, this was seen as the straw that broke the glass for someone who is already on thin ice. Several members of the fighting game community offered support to Bunny, including the cosplayer, tournament organizer, and writer Carbon Gray, who shared a video describing his own awkward encounters with Zaimont.
“I don’t know what Mike said to [Bunny]but I’m sure it sucked and I know this because Mike has been making weird sexual comments to me in and out of cosplay at fighting game events for real years, “Gray said.” I’ve been writing a lot because when I tell people say, ‘Oh, he’s like that, I’m sorry.’ And like, yes, he is a bit like that and has not changed in the last five years. Neither does anyone else in the fighting game community. And I think a lot of that is because when I tell my male friends or other tournament organizers what’s going on, they don’t do anything with that information. “
Kotaku contacted Zaimont and Skull girls developer Lab Zero Games for comments but did not receive a response prior to posting.
Skull girls It is one of the few games to be featured at Evo this year thanks to its flawless implementation of the GGPO network code, which facilitates a smooth and responsive online fighting experience. Zaimont has long been the face of the game thanks to his work designing his game systems, and he often competes and comments Skull girls However, as the previous allegations were made, several tournaments Skull girls The players have come forward to disavow Zaimont and any involvement they have had with him in the past.
“His actions do not speak for the Skull girls community at large, “noted fighting game competitor Dominique” SonicFox “McLean said in Twitter. “No one likes what she did here. Their actions do not reflect the integrity of the Skull girls community at all and we will make sure that the consequences are carried out properly. ”
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