Death of Alec Holowka
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♥ | This article is dedicated to Alec Kolowka (1983-2019). |
Death of Alec Holowka | ||||||
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This is an ordeal that proves why making accusations without proof can actually be a harmful and dangerous thing, so thank Quinn for causing this.
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Alec Holowka was a game developer famous for his work on games like the freeware, I'm O.K. A Murder Simulator made in response to Jack Thompson, was the composer for Kyle Pulver's Depict1 and was one of the designers behind Night in the Woods, as well as the composer.
Background
Zoë Quinn, the creator of the game Depression Quest, falsely accused Holowka of sexual assault and abuse on Twitter which led to claims all over social media of supposed assault. This led to condemnation, and even shortly after, without any evidence or just allegations, the creators of Night in the Woods cut ties with him.
This pushed Holowka over the edge and on August 31, his sister, Eileen Holowka, announced her brother had taken his own life. She explained that while he was indeed mentally ill, he had been getting treatment and was about to get his life back on track He even claimed he wished the best for Zoë.
After the news broke that Holowka had committed suicide, Quinn, along with Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry (Alec's former colleagues and coworkers for NitW) had all nuked their Twitter accounts, which is highly likely they did so as a cowardly measure to negate any incoming backlash they could've inevitably received. Quinn reactivated their account five days later, citing mental health reasons for the account deactivation, and insulted their critics calling them "opportunist creeps", as well as refusing to take responsibility for Holowka's death.
As for Night in the Woods by other team members, they have continued to remain in hiding and no one has heard a peep out of them since the allegations surfaced. Alternatively, the allegations not only got Holowka booted out of the video game industry, it also ended up ending his video game on a very poor taste.
Aftermath
In the weeks following Holowka's suicide, one website, The Millennial, called Quinn's accusations into question by deconstructing their tweets, which resulted in the site getting DDoS'd (Distributed Denial of Service attack, which is a federal offense in the US, and outlawed in the UK). But despite attempts to silence Quinn's critics, people continue to speak out against them by pointing out that they (Quinn) now had blood on their hands, worsening their already terrible reputation (mostly gained from their previous scandals) and further bringing the type of person they are to light.