AdventureQuest 3D Community Manager Accuses Developer Of Sexual Harassment

AdventureQuest 3D developer Artix Entertainment is currently in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal that has potential lawsuit written all over it.

Former Community Manager Taini Flaremist has accused a fellow developer of using private conversations to take advantage of her emotional vulnerability and making inappropriate and sexual comments towards her, as she recounted on Twitter. She also claimed that the said developer got drunk and called her offensive names.

Flaremist said that she filed a complaint with upper management and asked them to transfer the developer to another department. The bosses, however, allegedly downplayed the situation and instead asked her to take a month off before she decided on whether she would be willing to work with the said developer again. She also accused them of offering her self-help books and tapes before she eventually decided to resign from the studio.

“When this information, with screenshots/proof, was brought forward to my leads, they chose to do nothing,” she said. “This team member was not reprimanded, not demoted or removed from work channels, nothing.”

Artix CEO Adam Bohn issued an initial statement regarding the matter, expressing disappointment on Flaremist’s departure and attempting to clear up the matter from his point of view. Bohn claimed that Taini and the developer in question were involved in “a private relationship outside of work” and that by the time they learned about it the relationship had already ended and both parties continued to work together after the fact.

“At the beginning of this year, we learned that Taini had begun to feel uncomfortable working with the developer,” said Bohn. “As soon as we learned of that, we took immediate action to investigate. We spoke with them both to understand what was happening and resolve the situation. By the end of the talks, both were still interested in working together and as far as we knew, that was the end of it.”

The CEO also described Flaremist’s refusal to work with the developer as unprofessional and that she was asked to take a month of paid leave as a direct result of that.

“I’m sure that slanderous things are going to fly, as that is the nature of these emotionally-charged situations,” Bohn said. “But the facts remain the same. Two consenting adults who were both team members, both of roughly equal rank, had a private relationship outside of work. When we were made aware that she was uncomfortable, we took action with both parties to resolve the situation. No matter what other rumors start flying, that is what happened.”

As for Flaremist, she said that she had already resigned herself to letting the matter slide and expressed frustration on how the situation was poorly handled.

“You know what’s the saddest part of like this whole situation? I didn’t even ask for him to be fired or demoted at all originally,” she said. “I literally just asked for him to be removed from the Community Management channel so I could work without being around him. That’s it. Yes, that means if they removed him, I would probably just buried all of what happened to me and continued to work there. For y’all, because I love you. Then came the dismissal, the self help books, the stories. That’s not something I can forgive…”

Bohn followed up his original statement saying that new information has been brought to light and that they will be taking appropriate action.

“Since this post regarding Taini’s departure was originally written, we have been receiving and investigating new information,” he tweeted. “We will be taking action. Then, we will be making a follow-up post letting you know what actions and changes have been taken.”

“We do not condone any form of harassment, discrimination, or threats of violence. It is and has always been our policy to strongly urge any and all instances of the above be reported,” Bohn said in another follow-up tweet. “Our official policy prohibits retaliation against anyone reporting discrimination, harassment, threats of violence, or anyone participating in an investigation of such a report.”

Bohn and Flaremist have also penned a joint letter to address the matter. You’ll find the excerpts from the letter below:

“Adam Bohn

If you don't know what has been going on, just know that Taini and a junior AQ3D developer had a personal relationship that ended badly last October. While she continued to receive unwanted personal messages, she did not make that explicitly known to me until the end of March. That does not excuse the developer's reaction, but because she did not feel like the situation was addressed thoroughly enough, she chose to leave the team.

Today, we acknowledge what we’ve seen and heard from our staff and from our most important group – the community. The last three days have been an absolute whirlwind of emotions, and we know that the community has taken a huge hit because of it. We want to make it known that it is our commitment to you that we will be changing going forward and we could not do that without Taini’s help. This will be a long process, for both Taini and us, and we will all need time to heal.

Taini Flaremist

I have been a part of this community for at least half my life at this point, and while my recent actions may not have come across this way, I have always had its best interests at heart. Even in writing and posting everything I did, I did not want Artix Entertainment to crash and burn. I never even originally wanted to leave, and I want to be sure to reiterate that fact so that hopefully this course of action makes sense to you after everything.

Leaving, as well as my recent actions, are a direct result of frustrations I have harbored and not feeling heard, and there are better ways to solve these problems. I recognize that. It is an explanation for my actions, not a justification. I want to repeat that no, the harassment was not happening in the staff server. It was not happening in the community server. My leads were not watching this happen and ignoring it. I had to explain that it happened in private.

We can address that what happened was wrong and that Artix and AE are helping me heal without painting me as a drama queen. Helping me heal and the messages I received being unwanted are not contradictions. We are rectifying the situation together.

I now feel as if I have been heard, I feel safe in what has happened and what will happen going forward, and how things will be handled in the future. I feel as if justice has been served.”

You can check out the full letter on the AdventureQuest 3D official site. Flaremist’s Twitter account has since been deactivated.