Game developers react to abusive tweets by donating to Girls Make Games
Positive fallout from recent Mass Effect: Andromeda attacks
Individual games creators have begun donating money to the Girls Make Games organisation in reaction to abusive social media messages.
Girls Make Games is an organisation set-up to encourage more women into the games industry, which includes running workshops and camps.
As reported by Kotaku, Naughty Dog artist Alex Neonakis started getting abusive Twitter messages after responding to the abuse that an EA animator received for her work on Mass Effect: Andromeda. Quoting those tweets, she wrote the message: "I just donated to @GirlsMakeGames in honour of these lovely boys. Thanks guys!"
She donated £1,000 overall (having doubled her money when the abuse kept coming), with fellow developers Neil Druckman (Last of Us), Jake Rodkin (Firewatch), Davison Carvalho (Ready at Dawn), Chris Wright (Hangry Studios), Mingjue Helen Chen (Disney), Jason Copeland (High Moon Studios), Stephen Coan (Blizzard), Sam Johnston (Naughty Dog), Ami Thompson (Disney), Richard Lyons (Naughty Dog), Max Dyckhoff (Naughty Dog), Matthew Rex (King), Andrew Eiche (Owlchemy Labs), Patrick Miller (Riot Games), and a whole host of others.
"I felt so beyond angry on behalf of that former Bioware animator," Neonakis told Kotaku.
"It can feel a little helpless to see this stuff and not feel there's anything positive you can do. I keep coming back to just trying to be supportive of the women that are currently in it and the women who want to be. I think something like Girls Make Games is so cool because it simply sparks an interest in creating games. Some of those girls will go into tech, some of them will pursue journalism, some of them will just love games and cosplay and be fans."