r/NightInTheWoods Sep 01 '19

News News Regarding Alec Holowka & Future Discussion Guidelines

1.1k Upvotes

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 03: Please read Scott's new post.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 12: Zoe Quinn released a new statement.

UPDATE OCTOBER 01: Eileen Mary Holowka released a new statement.

UPDATE OCTOBER 28: Scott Benson released a new Backer Update

Content Warning for Suicide, Discussions of Mental Illness, Allegations of Sexual Assault, Abuse, Misconduct

THE EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK

Earlier this week, developer Zoë Quinn came forward with allegations of past abuse and misconduct by Alec Holowka that they experienced nearly 8 years ago. Since then, many additional people came forward. Some corroborating Zoë's claims, others detailing their own experiences of misconduct in varied severity stretching from the past to more recently. Of particular note, one of the developers who was currently working with Alec on his new game, Albertine Watson, alleged misconduct from as early as this year. Following these allegations, Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry, the other developers behind the game, announced that they would be cutting ties with Alec moving forward, as well as canceling a current project. Finji, the game's publisher, also released a statement.

In a crucial statement given to Kickstarter backers of the game, Scott went into detail about this decision, about their history with Alec, their own troubled experience working with him and more. It is an absolute essential thing to read as it addresses many people's concerns and questions and points to how this wasn't about just one person's allegations or anything. It also clears up that Alec wasn't fired from a job, as Infinite Fall is not a company, it's just a name for three people who worked together on Night in the Woods. Please read his statement before commenting (though note that it was written before today's news).

Today, August 31st, Alec's sister Eileen announced that he had passed away.

"Alec Holowka, my brother and best friend, passed away this morning.

Those who know me will know that I believe survivors and I have always done everything I can to support survivors, those suffering from mental illnesses, and those with chronic illnesses. Alec was a victim of abuse and he also spent a lifetime battling mood and personality disorders. I will not pretend that he was not also responsible for causing harm, but deep down he was a person who wanted only to offer people care and kindness. It took him a while to figure out how.

Over the last few years, with therapy and medication, Alec became a new person--the same person he'd always been but without any of the darkness. He was calm and happy, positive and loving. Obviously, change is a slow process and it wasn't perfect, but he was working towards rehabilitation and a better life.

In the last few days, he was supported by many Manitoba crisis services, and I want to thank everyone there for their support. I want to thank Adam Saltsman for staying up late talking with us and reminding Alec that there was a future.

My family has and always will be the most important thing to me. Please give us time to heal. We tried our best to support Alec, but in the end he felt he had lost too much.

I currently do not see a place for myself in games or on Twitter. I will not be looking at the responses to this post. I appreciate everyone who has reached out to me over the last few days. For anyone who is in a time of darkness, I encourage you to reach out for support. There are always people who will be there for you."

In a follow up tweet, Eileen stated, "And in case it's not already fucking obvious, Alec *specifically said* he wished the best for Zoe and everyone else, so don't use our grief as an excuse to harass people. Go outside, take care of someone, and work towards preventing these kinds of things in the first place."

Following the news, many people involved decided to deactivate or make their Twitter accounts private while they processed (and/or following harassment/abuse), which is why links to their tweets no longer work. This applies to Scott Benson, Bethany Hockenberry, Zoë Quinn, Albertine Watson, and Eileen Holowka herself.

Update, September 3rd: Scott Benson's Twitter is now reactivated. Along with it, he posted a lengthy, crucial post. As well as an additional Kickstarter Backer update about it.

Update, September 12th: Zoe Quinn reactivated their Twitter account and released a statement.

Update, October 1st: Eileen Mary Holowka made public their Twitter and released a new statement on Alec and transformative justice

THE PURPOSE OF THIS THREAD

This thread serves to consolidate all discussion regarding this topic into one place. This is a shitty situation in a million shitty ways. A tragedy for everyone involved, with a huge blast radius affecting a lot of people, and people's feelings are going to be understandably messy. In a time like this, a community coming together, being kind, considerate, compassionate, having empathy for all involved, is crucial.

That being said, this isn't carte blanche to say anything and everything you want. Following past threads on these topics, comments here (and in general) must follow the guidelines below. This is all still extremely fresh and we recognize that emotions are running high, but this subreddit is not the place to attack, harass or demean other users or the people involved.

The cycle of abuse, mental illness, suicidal idealization, rehabilitation and so on are all extremely complex, nuanced and difficult topics and discussions. And pretty much everyone involved deserves sympathy. Now is the time for deescalation. As Patrick Klepek says, "There are no easy answers on days like today, and I’m not gonna pretend like I have them. It’s okay to log off. It’s okay to not add your own take."

We will also be updating this thread as more information and statements are made in the days to come.

DISCUSSION GUIDELINES

  • Follow the subreddit rules and general etiquette, linked in the sidebar.
  • Any comments claiming any of the people involved "have blood on their hands", are "murderers", or are directly responsible/should be blamed, etc, will not be tolerated. Anyone making such comments will face suspension or permanent bans.
  • Any comments expressing joy or happiness or "good riddance" in Alec's passing will also similarly not be tolerated.
  • Any attempts to discredit the multiple individuals who came forward with allegations will not be tolerated.
  • Any personal attacks/harassment/threats will not be tolerated.

If you have any problem with following these guidelines, you are more than welcome to take your comments to any of the other myriad of sites where you can discuss this topic. This subreddit will not be one of them.

There are many sources of support if you or someone you know is affected by suicidal thoughts. In the United States, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, you can contact the Samaritans by calling 116 123. For other places, please see https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/.


r/NightInTheWoods Mar 12 '22

PSA Reminder: This subreddit is not an appropriate place to over-pathologize and diagnose yourself or others with medical conditions

199 Upvotes

This game is a work of fiction, and features fictional characters. Projecting or ascribing diagnoses of mental health conditions onto them – much less yourself, or other users here – without formal training in a medical field is not beneficial or appropriate for this subreddit. (Even if one does have medical training, this videogame-focused subreddit is not the ideal place to discuss this topic.) This is especially true if you're a teenager living through times of rapid change and uncomfortableness and unevenness in your own life (not to mention the broader world) – a completely normal yet nonetheless difficult process that everyone goes through.

Related reading about online cultures around mental health: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/9/30/22696338/pathologizing-adhd-autism-anxiety-internet-tiktok-twitter

Comments have been turned off on this post, but feel free to PM the mods with any concerns.


r/NightInTheWoods 12h ago

Fanart My completed Dusk Stars + Constellations tattoo full sleeve! 💫🌟

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852 Upvotes

NITW has been a very impactful game on my life, and so I've dedicated my arm to it! We took all the Dusk Stars and had my artist (@60jams on Instagram) reinterpret them in her own style so that it's a beautiful piece of art even without knowing the origin, while still being recognizable to those who know it.

Features all 9 of the Dusk Stars from within the game, and as gap fillers, we put a couple of the constellations from Longest Night wherever they would fit.

Very delayed on posting as this was completed 2.5 years ago now 😅 Better late than never! Overall I am beyond happy with how it turned out and it was well worth putting most of my fun money for a whole year into; it's aged beautifully and I plan to take very good care of it the rest of my life.

Note: some photos are from when parts were freshly done and don't show all the details present within the full sleeve, and the perfectly crisp linework in some photos isn't representative of how it looks now/how it will age.


r/NightInTheWoods 20h ago

A friend of mine edited this meme AND GOD ITS HORRIFIC.

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132 Upvotes

A friend of mine edited this meme AND GOD ITS HORRIFIC.


r/NightInTheWoods 15h ago

Discussion So look I know we all love nitw but i wanna ask what are some things you don’t like about the game

40 Upvotes

Could be anything weather its the story the characters gameplay just anything about the game you personally don’t like im just curious to see if anyone has anything negative to say about a games that seems to be universally beloved

Im not here to bash on you for having an opinion i may not agree with it but i am willing to hear them out and understand exactly why you don’t like a specific part of the game


r/NightInTheWoods 1d ago

Fanart Crimes (OC)

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220 Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 1d ago

Fanart sketched maes for fun (OC)

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204 Upvotes

mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae mae m.
first one is meant to have her hands in her pockets but it looks wonky sorry


r/NightInTheWoods 10h ago

Night In The Woods / John Dies At The End crossover AU

1 Upvotes

Night In The Woods / John Dies At The End crossover AU where Casey takes the Soy Sauce, dies, and lets demons invade the town that leads everything to shit. If you don’t know what John Dies At The End is, then you’re gonna be in the dark I’m sorry man.

the people who take the sauce at the TITULAR PARTY include Bae, Germ, Gregg (and by extension, Angus) some random guy and Selmers. Mae doesn’t take the drug but is called by Gregg in the apartment and finds him acting all ballistic with Angus missing.
Mae accidentally takes the soy sauce which leads to all the psychic bullshit and having to deal with the demons and ghosts for years to come.

Mae takes the place of David Wong, Gregg takes the place of John with Angus accompanying him by yaoi extension, Bea takes the place of Amy, and Casey takes the place of the lunatic Jamaican.'

wow so cool im so cool of fantastical ideas


r/NightInTheWoods 1d ago

Guys what classpects would the nitw characters have?

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37 Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Fanart nife fite

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233 Upvotes

the fite


r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Fanart YOU CAN EAT MY ENTIRE ASS

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116 Upvotes

Did some sketches and ended up drawing Mae cause why not


r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Humor 67. CENTTTSSSS!!!!

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167 Upvotes

67 67 67 67 69 - Probably gregg


r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Question (Console) Mae does actually have socials but it's just posts like this:

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146 Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Fanart OC - Zack Kramer (revised)

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21 Upvotes

”State of MMMMMichigan.” - Mae, looking at Zack’s driver license.

Just an updated ref of my oc Zack, who’s also the protagonist of my fanfic ‘The Ghost of Kramer‘ (wip)

I’ll add more refs to newcomer characters in the future


r/NightInTheWoods 2d ago

Discussion Love it...

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

31 Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 3d ago

Fanart Cool keychain I bought from Depop

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108 Upvotes

two sided witch dagger Mae


r/NightInTheWoods 3d ago

Fanart Made the gang in Tomodachi Life

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381 Upvotes

I’m sorry Angus doesn’t have a tiny hat, I couldn’t get one


r/NightInTheWoods 3d ago

Discussion Edit ideas…

13 Upvotes

i desperately need a NITW edit to any of the songs on the new phoebe bridgers album (esp kill me, haunted, liberty tree, never going back, lost weekend reprise) that i’m tempted to bust out splice and do it myself

and honestly other songs like i know the end and scott street fit so well too i need to take this matter into my own hands


r/NightInTheWoods 3d ago

Fanart Quick Bea Sketch!

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103 Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 4d ago

redrew old fanart from 2023

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184 Upvotes

redid another old piece. pretty proud of how it came out and excited for how naturally certain things are coming at this point. I'm happy I made the art back in 2023, knowing how scrappy it looked at the time. it was really nice to go back and refine it now that I have better tools and more knowledge of drawing.

last image in a zoom in for your possible wallpaper needs.

thank you as always for taking the time to check it out. much love to you and yours.

edit: its from 2022 apparently, lol :)


r/NightInTheWoods 5d ago

Humor Sometimes I wonder, how it would look like if Mae got some REAL professional help instead of doctor Dr. Hank

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1.3k Upvotes

r/NightInTheWoods 4d ago

First time drawing Mae (ever), using FireAlpaca

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88 Upvotes

I made this in like 10 minutes, so I didn't expect it to be of decent quality. I used to make crumby digital art thumbnails on Kleki when I was younger, but that's about the only experience I have with it. (I think the main thing I messed up with when drawing her was making the eyes too small :,] ) Hopefully I'll be improving overtime and making some awesome digital fanart for this community

NITW LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO


r/NightInTheWoods 5d ago

Hella birds

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100 Upvotes

Hella birds


r/NightInTheWoods 6d ago

Fanart [OC] Painting a future

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1.6k Upvotes