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Games

We Discuss Nick Robinson, Harassment, and Power Dynamics on Waypoint Radio

It was a long weekend, folks.
Image courtesy of Team17

Polygon video producer Nick Robinson was suspended last Friday, "pending a thorough Vox Media inquiry" regarding allegations of serial sexual harassment by Robinson. As of this writing, no updates have been made about the status (or findings) of the investigation.

"I've heard the allegations re Nick Robinson and am taking them seriously," said Polygon editor-in-chief Chris Grant on Twitter.

Robinson, best known for podcast (Cool Games Inc.) and video (Car Boys, Touch the Skyrim) collaborations with Polygon's Griffin McElroy, has not publicly commented since.

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The allegations themselves came slightly out of nowhere, a response to an aggressive (and quickly criticized) tweet regarding Robinson's distaste for the developers of the Switch port of Overcooked asking players to capture video footage of the game's problems themselves.

Soon after, another Twitter user remarked "Nick would have time to help the Overcooked devs if he wasn't in every woman in games' DMs all the time." From there, several chimed in with stories, albeit ones light on details and heavy on insinuation. (Since then, more detailed anecdotes have come out, often from now-private social media accounts, people who don't wish to have their experiences made public. We're respecting that, and won't link to them.)

You might not be surprised Waypoint Radio's crew Has Some Thoughts. In light of Vox's ongoing investigation, we've decided to hold off on publishing stories related to what may or may not have happened. On the podcast, however, myself, Austin, Danielle, and Rob used this moment to discuss the confusing world of power dynamics in the social media age, what it's like to have a favorite creator accused of something grotesque, and why we should avoid demanding "receipts" from people who come forward with stories of harassment. Elsewhere, we celebrate our recent chicken dinner in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Danielle gushes over Atomic Blonde, and Rob tells us why Battle Brothers is giving him pause.

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(If you want to skip right to our conversation about Robinson, go to 00:32:54.)

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Make sure to swing back to Waypoint on Friday for the next episode.