Video Game CEO fired over pro-life social media post

[EricaMeeran]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.

As you may be aware, John Gibson, CEO of the company that made the popular video game series Killing Floor (now former CEO), recently got fired aka "stepped down" for making a comment supporting a law outlawing abortion. A view shared by AT LEAST 40% of the nation.

What you may not be aware of is that this is patently illegal, and we can do something about it. The Georgia Fair Employment Practices Act (GA Code Sec. 45-19-20 et seq.) expressly forbids discrimination based on religion among many, many other things.

Now I know what you're thinking. "He stepped down, he wasn't fired!" We know that's complete nonsense, so will the Attorney General's office of Georgia, especially if we can get other republicans to politically pressure him.

But more importantly than that, another thing that was blatantly illegal was fellow game studio Shipwright Studios canceling their contracts with Tripwire Interactive over it. You cannot refuse to do business with someone due to their religious beliefs. You MUST bake the cake for Christians in Georgia, sorry(not sorry). They ALSO happen to be located in Georgia.

They'll only get away with this if we keep letting them do it. The law is on our side, it's time to use it.

Here is what I have done, and suggest you do - in order of usefulness.

Contact the Georgia REPUBLICAN Attorney General here (see form letter below if you're a lazy **** and just want to e-mail them) -
Chris Carr -
(404) 458-3600
https://twitter.com/georgia_ag
Log into Facebook

File a Georgia Consumer Complaint (You do not have to live in Georgia or even the US to do this).
Consumer Complaint Form

Contact the Georgia REPUBLICAN Governor and Lt. Gov (I know some will irrelevantly claim they hate Trump - this doesn't matter. This isn't about republican politics, it's about the right for religious people to not be discriminated against. Besides, they still say they're "conservative christians," even if they hate him). This is mostly to put pressure on the attorney general, Carr - neither of these gentlemen can do anything themselves, but they can certainly tell someone else to and actually be obeyed:
Brian Kemp -
(404) 656-1776
https://twitter.com/govkemp
Log into Facebook

Geoff Duncan -
(404) 656-5030
Geoff.Duncan@ltgov.ga.gov
https://twitter.com/GeoffDuncanGA
Log into Facebook

If you actually live in Georgia, also consider sending a message via Constituent Services or directly to your specific republican senator/rep. Or even your democrat one. Everyone else ignore this (or don't, if you're friends with one).
Constituent Services

Here is the contact info for Tripwire and Shipwright, you will need to file separate complaints for each, and if you happen to send a letter expressing your disapproval to each and informing them that you'll be filing complaints... well, that's nice too.

Tripwire -
Tripwire Interactive LLC
1775 Woodstock Rd, Roswell GA
770-993-5155
business@tripwireinteractive.com

Shipwright -
Shipwright Studios LLC
(couldn't find a phone #)
3500 Parkway Lane Ste. #400
Peachtree Corners, GA 30092
contact@shipwrightstudios.com

****** Form Letter, feel free to change this up and make it nicer. I whipped it up in a few minutes so I know it's garbage. I HIGHLY recommend you write your own spiel, this is just for what I hope are the few of you too lazy to do that:

Dear PoliticianNameHere,

I'm writing to you inform you of a company blatantly and illegally flouting Georgia's anti-discrimination laws in full view of the public square. Recently, John Gibson - CEO (formerly, now) of Tripwire Interactive LLC, a game studio located in Georgia, made a social media post coming out in support of the recent Texas pro-life law. Not only was he fired from his position for this post in clear violation of The Georgia Fair Employment Practices Act, but another entertainment studio in Georgia, Shipwright Studios LLC announced their cancellation of all contracts with Tripwire Interactive, another clear violation of Georgia law - they also did in full view of the public square on social media.

If we allow companies to flagrantly discriminate against Christians and other religious people in full view of the public with zero repercussions, why do we even have an anti-discrimination law at all?

I'm sending this to you in order to beg you to act, or at the very least enforce the law as it is written. If they can do this to John, they can do this to anyone.

Sincerely,
YourNameHere

I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's right like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.

If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

 

[Nithavela]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.



I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's wrong like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.View attachment 305546
If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

If you use a newer version of windows, you don't need to use paint, since windows comes with a "snipping tool" that you can use to directly copy parts of the screen.

Open Snipping Tool and take a screenshot

 

[iluvatar5150]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.



I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's right like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.View attachment 305546
If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Before you spend a bunch of time petitioning these elected representatives, you would do well to take a few minutes to familiarize yourself how anti-discrimination laws actually work.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.



I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's right like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.View attachment 305546
If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Hard to take his claim of being a "pro-life game developer" seriously when the game he developed is "Killing Floor"...

• Killing Floor is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed and published by Tripwire Interactive.

 

[bèlla]

John Gibson has the liberty of making controversial statements. He walked away with a severance package and will have little difficulty finding a job. Being a former CEO and all.

Exercising your freedom of speech has consequences. No one should threaten their livelihood without a clear word from God on the matter. Voicing opinions is great. Crying foul afterwards is common. Choose wisely.

~bella

 

[Nithavela]

Hard to take his claim of being a "pro-life game developer" seriously when the game he developed is "Killing Floor"...

• Killing Floor is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed and published by Tripwire Interactive.

I don't see why developing a "first-person shooter video game" (bolding yours) and being pro-life should be mutually exclusive.

 

[Paulos23]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.



I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's right like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.View attachment 305546
If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

This isn't government censorship, this is corporate. And if he is doing this as an official of the company, then yes they can fire him for that if they wish, especially if it goes against corporate policy.

It is one thing to say it in private, it is another to say it trying to use your company soapbox.

 

[EricaMeeran]

Hard to take his claim of being a "pro-life game developer" seriously when the game he developed is "Killing Floor"...

• Killing Floor is a cooperative first-person shooter video game developed and published by Tripwire Interactive.

It's funny because I brought that up with my son. He told me it was about zombies, not people. I'm not exactly a "gamer" myself. Too old!

Before you spend a bunch of time petitioning these elected representatives, you would do well to take a few minutes to familiarize yourself how anti-discrimination laws actually work.

I'll admit I haven't looked at specific Georgia statutes, but this seems to me that it would clearly fall under The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Georgia must follow. Public pressure is never a bad thing, either.

 

[EricaMeeran]

This isn't government censorship, this is corporate. And if he is doing this as an official of the company, then yes they can fire him for that if they wish, especially if it goes against corporate policy.

It is one thing to say it in private, it is another to say it trying to use your company soapbox.

That's absolutely not true. You can't be fired for religious beliefs in any state, even in states that lack specific anti-discrimination laws.

Religious discrimination is illegal everywhere, and the 1964 civil rights act covers private actors. For the same reasons you can't refuse to hire someone because of their skin color, you cannot fire them because of their religion.

 

[Belk]

My son recently sent me a post from a video gaming forum he frequents, and I was concerned enough to finally stop browsing this forum and actually make an account to post myself after I didn't find it anywhere here or in the gaming forum. It also finally gave me an excuse to read the rules just to be sure I wasn't breaking them with this post.

While this concerns video games I believe it's more politics than anything else, so I'm posting it here. I'm going to copy some of what my son sent me verbatim, but I have heavily edited the text in the image he sent me to remove any profanity. I try my best, but teenagers... and he didn't say any of it himself.

I triple checked the information on the public officials, and it's all available for the public. I didn't want to accidentally post anyone's private information, so I can promise you there's none of that below.



I wanted to spread this here in the hopes that others will stand up for what's right like John Gibson tried to do. This is bigger than him now, it's about all of us and our right to not be fired for holding a view that most of the country does! Over eighty percent of America believes there should be at least some restrictions on abortion, and forty percent believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. This is a religious belief, so it's protected by law.

I live in the South in the U.S., and have already sent messages to my Governor and Lt. Governor on facebook and left voicemails with both of their offices. I don't have that other social media website listed, but I encourage anyone who does to send messages.

My son exclusively uses gaming forums, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one here had heard about this. I certainly hadn't!

It took me a while and judicious use of MS Paint, but I managed to crop out an image of John Gibson's social media post that started that for everyone here to see.View attachment 305546
If we can't even say this much without discrimination, then the law isn't worth the paper it's written on.

You have been misinformed. You don't get to avoid the consequences of being fired simply because your opinion is based on your religion.

 

[Nithavela]

It's funny because I brought that up with my son. He told me it was about zombies, not people. I'm not exactly a "gamer" myself. Too old!

Basically, it's a cooperative shooter where several players work together to defend themselves from zombies, which are controlled by the computer.

It's also from 2009, which is really old in video game terms.

 

[Belk]

That's absolutely not true. You can't be fired for religious beliefs in any state, even in states that lack specific anti-discrimination laws.

Religious discrimination is illegal everywhere, and the 1964 civil rights act covers private actors. For the same reasons you can't refuse to hire someone because of their skin color, you cannot fire them because of their religion.

I see. So since the Rastafarians have a religious belief in Marijuana they can't be fired for failing a drug test? You should likely do a little more digging into how the law actually works.

 

[EricaMeeran]

You have been misinformed. You don't get to avoid the consequences of being fired simply because your opinion is based on your religion.

I'll never understand why so many people are misinformed that private business owners can do whatever they want. It hasn't been true for decades and it's only gotten less true over time.

You can't fire someone for their religious beliefs, race, nationality, or gender. If you said, "I didn't fire him because he was a Christian, I fired him because he was a Christian against abortion!" you would get laughed out of any court in the country.

 

[Paulos23]

That's absolutely not true. You can't be fired for religious beliefs in any state, even in states that lack specific anti-discrimination laws.

Religious discrimination is illegal everywhere, and the 1964 civil rights act covers private actors. For the same reasons you can't refuse to hire someone because of their skin color, you cannot fire them because of their religion.

Sorry, I don't see his tweet as religious as he didn't specify his statement as being such. Second, Tripwire has made it clear that his statement does not represent the company culture. I know this part is a big deal in many gaming companies since the number of problems with discrimination against women in these companies has come to light, and this can be seen as such.

Third, this could be the last straw from a number of broken straws between him and the company. Just because he is CEO doesn't make him the owner or above company rules.

Is it fair that his private Twitter account is observed by the company? Probably not, but once you get in a highly visible position (like CEO) in an organization and start saying things agast company policies and views (or even the company desired image) there will be consequences.

Note, he was not prevented from making the Tweet, but the company he worked for made it clear that he didn't represent them. Free speech does not be any consequences from the rest of society, just the government.

 

[Tiberius Lee]

Tripwire interactive is not other mega gamming company. I couldn’t find much information of company wealth. But if you are CEO of a big company, some of the restriction applies to you which doesn’t apply to most of us. I work for a Christian organization. As an employee if I express my view outside work, I wouldn’t be reprimanded. But our CEO , he can’t just go online and express his view openly. He will be fired. It all depend on company policy.

 

[EricaMeeran]

Sorry, I don't see his tweet as religious as he didn't specify his statement as being such. Second, Tripwire has made it clear that his statement does not represent the company culture. I know this part is a big deal in many gaming companies since the number of problems with discrimination against women in these companies has come to light, and this can be seen as such.

Third, this could be the last straw from a number of broken straws between him and the company. Just because he is CEO doesn't make him the owner or above company rules.

Is it fair that his private Twitter account is observed by the company? Probably not, but once you get in a highly visible position (like CEO) in an organization and start saying things agast company policies and views (or even the company desired image) there will be consequences.

Note, he was not prevented from making the Tweet, but the company he worked for made it clear that he didn't represent him. Free speech does not be any consequences from the rest of society, just the government.

It's absurd that you'd claim that, given he clearly states his pro-life position. The only possible argument the company could make, legally speaking, is an attempt to claim in court that anyone can be against abortion, even the non-religious. The next question from any competent defense attorney is going to be whether or not they knew he was religious, at which point it becomes a farce and you've annoyed the judge, which is why no one would even try to make that argument.

Second, it doesn't matter if his statement does not represent the company culture. That doesn't change existing religious discrimination laws. Private corporations are not exempt because of company culture. The civil rights act only allows for very, very narrow exemptions. For example, you have a for-profit company selling atheist clothing marketed specifically towards atheists. They could refuse to hire/or fire a religious person for a job involving outreach towards fellow atheists, but not for something like say, accounting. It doesn't matter if their entire organization is geared towards atheist products for atheist people, they still have to hire anyone regardless of their religious background unless that job's function requires atheism. They also have to prove it, and the standards are very, very strict.

You're trying to trot out the 'freedom from consequences' nonsense I see constantly, but the law is very clear on this, and not on your side.

 

[Belk]

I'll never understand why so many people are misinformed that private business owners can do whatever they want. It hasn't been true for decades and it's only gotten less true over time.

You can't fire someone for their religious beliefs, race, nationality, or gender. If you said, "I didn't fire him because he was a Christian, I fired him because he was a Christian against abortion!" you would get laughed out of any court in the country.

It is not a catch all. You can't fire someone for being a Christian, but simply having an opinion based on religion is not protected. There are multiple examples of this in action. I told you of the Rastafarians but there are multiple other areas that could go to showing why this was not illegal and why he does not have a case. That is why the company fired him. Do you really think the CEO would be somehow unaware if it was illegal and needs you to contact your representatives?

 

[Paulos23]

It's absurd that you'd claim that, given he clearly states his pro-life position. The only possible argument the company could make, legally speaking, is an attempt to claim in court that anyone can be against abortion, even the non-religious. The next question from any competent defense attorney is going to be whether or not they knew he was religious, at which point it becomes a farce and you've annoyed the judge, which is why no one would even try to make that argument.

Second, it doesn't matter if his statement does not represent the company culture. That doesn't change existing religious discrimination laws. Private corporations are not exempt because of company culture. The civil rights act only allows for very, very narrow exemptions. For example, you have a for-profit company selling atheist clothing marketed specifically towards atheists. They could refuse to hire/or fire a religious person for a job involving outreach towards fellow atheists, but not for something like say, accounting. It doesn't matter if their entire organization is geared towards atheist products for atheist people, they still have to hire anyone regardless of their religious background unless that job's function requires atheism. They also have to prove it, and the standards are very, very strict.

You're trying to trot out the 'freedom from consequences' nonsense I see constantly, but the law is very clear on this, and not on your side.

I think it should also be clear, the company statement says he wasn't fired but he stepped down. That could mean he was threatened by the board to either step down or be voted out with no severance package. It could be argued that is the same as firing, but it is something very different legally.

That said, you can be Christian in a company, but fired for harassment if you try to witness to others in your company and were told repeatedly it was unwelcomed by the company. I see this fall under that category.

 

[EricaMeeran]

It is not a catch all. You can't fire someone for being a Christian, but simply having an opinion based on religion is not protected. There are multiple examples of this in action. I told you of the Rastafarians but there are multiple other areas that could go to showing why this was not illegal and why he does not have a case. That is why the company fired him. Do you really think the CEO would be somehow unaware if it was illegal and needs you to contact your representatives?

It absolutely is when that belief is a major tenet of your religion.

The EEOC ruled against frito last year for firing a seventh day adventist for refusing to work on Saturdays. The EEOC also ordered a company reinstate a pentecostal woman (again, last year) because she wanted to wear a skirt instead of pants because her religion tells her to dress modestly. They're also seeking backpay, compensatory damages, etc etc.

I'm not trying to be rude, but you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It's funny because I brought that up with my son. He told me it was about zombies, not people. I'm not exactly a "gamer" myself. Too old!


I'll admit I haven't looked at specific Georgia statutes, but this seems to me that it would clearly fall under The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Georgia must follow. Public pressure is never a bad thing, either.

Support for a particular law does not equate to a religious belief. Nor does it seem (from what I've seen) that he was actually fired. He stepped down after other companies threatened to pull their contracts.

Sorry, I don't see his tweet as religious as he didn't specify his statement as being such. Second, Tripwire has made it clear that his statement does not represent the company culture. I know this part is a big deal in many gaming companies since the number of problems with discrimination against women in these companies has come to light, and this can be seen as such.

Third, this could be the last straw from a number of broken straws between him and the company. Just because he is CEO doesn't make him the owner or above company rules.

The last game they developed in house, Maneater, barely cracked a 70 on Metacritic. So yeah, I think there are probably one or more pre-existing broken straws.