from years ago Electronic Arts carries out a program called Game Changers, who recruit different youtubers and streamers to become “ambassadors” of their games, and. presenting them with advanced access to their products and invitations to events. In the case of The Sims, these users tend to have direct contact with what is known as SimGurus, members of the development team interacting with the community. For months one of these Game Changers, who uses the pseudonym Dylan Simz, harassed several young members of the community by encouraging them to keep talks of sexual tone, exposing on camera and asking them intimate photos. But when one of the victims decided to report it to the company received no reply. Stuart (is not his real name) spoke with Dylan Simz for the first time in November last year, when he was the winner of a contest organized by the youtuber. Once in contact to make the delivery of the prize Simz began to send sexual messages describing an alleged dream in which both had sex. When the victim did not result to that Exchange Simz persisted, as he told Stuart website Kotaku, until Stuart blocked it on all networks. After a few weeks of contact with Dylan Simz, Tate (is not his real name) received a night in mid-December, a message of the youtuber that told him that he had had a “weird dream”. That dream, when Tate asked what it was, was “uploaded tone” and involved both having oral sex. In that then Stuart was 15-years-old and Tate 16. Dylan Simz, depending on the year of birth in their social networks, was 27 years old. During December Stuart and Tate met through their respective channels on YouTube, and after sharing stories decided to report to the Game Changer with the company (either both made the police report). Stuart sent a message to Kate Olmstead, the manager of The Sims community, and not get response decided to contact Steve Lansing, one of the developers of the game that usually participate in the official transmissions of Electronic Arts.Lansing repudiated of the situation and eventually forwarded the complaint to Olmstead, who finally told Stuart that he would speak with Simz. That was the last communication between the victims and the representatives of the company, who have not responded to the contact of Kotaku. Shortly afterwards Simz sent an apology to Tate assuring him that I did not know their age – something of which Tate disbelieved-.
Thank you for this statement Lyndsay. Simmers, please understand that we (including me) are unable to comment publicly on ongoing investigations. If you are being harassed or threatened please report to the appropriate individual immediately. https://t.co/02sp7nH2nM https://t.co/FsTNB1MQnI – ҜΔŦ € OŁΜŞŦ€ ΔĐ (@SimGuruKate) March 6, 2019 Olmstead remained silent until last week, when the allegation became public, explaining that he could say nothing because there was a “research in dev ollo”(we’ve included a few paragraphs above message). However he did not explain why kept Simz Game Changers program within three months after the testimonies of the victims. At the beginning of March, when young people learned that Simz continued harassing members of the community, they decided to share the situation with Tabitha, a youtuber dedicated to The Sims with over 250 thousand subscribers on its channel. Young made a live broadcast and then published a video denouncing the situation and pointing directly against Dylan Simz and equipment of The Sims for not taking cards in the matter.
“This is alarming for many reasons, but the most alarming of all is the fact that one of the victims contacted two SimGurus to tell them what was happening and report to this man, because it is a Game Changer, and did what? Nothing,”said Tabitha in her video. Immediately after the complaint Dylan Simz gave low all of your accounts in social networks and eliminated its YouTube channel. The video generated leave new evidence came to light, as the Daren, who was contacted by Simz in May last year with the excuse of helping with the growth of its Twitch.Daren channel told Kotaku that the situation escalated sexual comments to a opportunity in which, during a call on Skype, Simz alleged that it had to be changed and undressed front camera “by accident”.” Then he appeared in a seductive way. I had never been in a relationship, so it didn’t know it was like that,”explained the young man, who was 16 at the time. “I mistook his acts with love, real love. When we started a formal relationship [a través de internet] was sending sexual messages to me, masturbating in front of camera and asking intimate photos. Even when I told him that I didn’t want to do anything like that.” After some verbal abuse, Daren decided to end the relationship when Simz showed you a family photo that was with his 14-year-old brother and he replied “your brother is attractive”. “At that moment I gave is that I was not the problem and that Dylan is sick.” Daren retains some screenshots of the harassment suffered after inform Simz its decision. Although many of the records were lost when the youtuber deleted their accounts, images that agreed Kotaku confirms regular contacts every a few hours for several days. None of the three youths harassed spoke with the police and only one of them ensures having spoken with parents regarding this situation. Either they complained publicly Simz (who constantly highlighted its status as Game Changer) for fear of the influence that might have with the SimGurus and by the chance to put his followers to harass them. Two days after the publication of the video of Tabitha, Lyndsay Pearson, general manager of The Sims, published a statement on his official Twitter account. In it, the company responsible for the lack of real action after the initial complaint and ensures that, in addition to removing the youtuber in the Game Changer program, they have contacted authorities providing the information of the case and are carrying out a internal to determine at what point and why research was dismissed the situation.
“This is alarming is not sufficient and does not begin to describe how it affected the team of The Sims. “All react the same way: with disgust, anger and asking us many questions,” Pearson wrote. The reactions have been mixed. Tabitha and other youtubers considered never to play the game by the actions of the team, particularly because much of the community are minors. Others responded positively to the release of Pearson, trusting that the company will learn from the mistake and will improve their practices and policies. The victims, on the other hand, is relieved to have made public a situation that could have escalated and that perhaps prevented others suffer worse consequences.” It is likely that there are people who do not have contact with a person with a large number of followers who can talk about this,”said Stuart. “It is sad too, because I know that I was lucky.” In this note:
