GDC Attendees Allegedly Drugged, Assaulted, And Generally Abused At Conference

Sev­er­al game devel­op­ers attend­ing GDC 2023 have report­ed some con­cern­ing, and high­ly ille­gal, behav­ior tak­ing place dur­ing the con­fer­ence on social media. Alle­ga­tions include severe preda­to­ry behav­ior, like drink-spik­ing and assault, to gen­er­al harassment.

Game devel­op­er Leena dan Deven­ter took to Twit­ter, stat­ing women at the GDC were “belit­tled and under­mined,” while being “hit on relent­less­ly,” which includ­ed drinks being drugged. They also said “Two women were even lured up to a hotel room by a man in a posi­tion of pow­er for a ‘pitch’, where he then assault­ed them.”

Women at GDC this year have been belit­tled and under­mined in their roles, been hit on relent­less­ly, and had their drinks spiked by preda­to­ry men.

Two women were even lured up to a hotel room by a man in a posi­tion of pow­er for a “pitch”, where he then assault­ed them.

— Leena 🌵 (@LeenaVanD) March 24, 2023

These alle­ga­tions were repeat­ed by gam­ing PR per­son Guy Blomberg, who helped to orga­nize a karaoke event where the report­ed drink-spik­ing hap­pened. “I’m furi­ous this not only hap­pened, but that it tends to hap­pen so fre­quent­ly that it’s become almost com­mon­place,” they stat­ed on Twitter.

I’m so very sor­ry they had to go through such a hor­ri­fy­ing expe­ri­ence, it’s absolute­ly not their fault, and we’re already in the process of track­ing down the fuck­ing scum­bag who did this.

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— Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg (@YugSTAR) March 25, 2023

The GDC has become well-known for this alleged preda­to­ry behav­ior (espe­cial­ly when it comes to drink-spik­ing) that devel­op­ers warn their col­leagues about it every year.