Brad Wardell is a Living PSA Cartoon: Stardock Sexual Harassment Case

Unwarranted surveillance, stalking (and, damned creepy) with voyeuristic overtones... and that's maybe not harassment, but it surely is grounds for a whole load more of additional odds and ends that adds up to a very ugly picture. <shudders>

And, talking about other people behind their back to somebody who obviously finds the topic uncomfortable and requests you stop... and then you keep on doing so? Harassment of the person you're talking to.

edited 8th Sep '12 4:22:37 PM by Euodiachloris

Wow.

He did not even deny it. He flat out said what he was, completely honest, and even went as far as a purity test on his target. Damn, those are some cards that man is carrying.

I mean, its like he was something out of an 80's PSA about workplace sexual harassment.

Its almost like he never grew up from high school, or he thinks life is like an H-Comic.

EDIT: Nope.

edited 8th Sep '12 11:34:14 PM by Wulf

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised everyone else is so surprised. I mean, I hadn't heard of the guy before this. But this is basically what people who sexually harass others believe - that they have a total right to do such things. This guy just happens to own the company.

Actually, his comments on 'I'm a vulgar and embarrassing person and I'm not going to change that for anybody' stance kind of reminds me of a thread we had here not so long ago - the one on bullying. Plenty of people in that were also of the view that making people stop being sexist, racist pricks in the workplace was an infringement of their rights.

God. I mean the one I worked at had a foot-in-mouth guy, but nowhere near this caliber.

Huh, that's unfortunate (I like their games). Seems out of the blue to me that the company's work environment would be so toxic. Did he lose the sexual harassment case or what happened?

edited 9th Sep '12 2:54:22 AM by breadloaf

He lost the bid to get the sexual harassment case thrown out, and is now going to get taken to court (as well as, general legal opinion has it, to the cleaners).

Also, since he really is the gift that keeps on giving, here's a series of tweets between him and his PR lady, in which he complains that a Sins Of A Solar Empire game is getting too high a score on Metacritic and that he might consequently have to give his employees bonuses. He probably meant it as a joke, but given what we already know about the Stardock work environment...

Well, I'm glad that I bought the newest SOASE game through Steam during the Summer Sale. I feel slightly better knowing that I didn't pay full price for it to end up in this sleazeball's wallet.

Dammit Wardell, you were a cool guy once...now you're just an a-hole...

@Loni Jay: I'm surprised because he also tried to help champion the rights for gamers before (and his heavy anti-DRM stance)...just never imagine that he'll act like this...

edited 9th Sep '12 6:20:08 AM by onyhow

It's an important lesson: Just because you agree with someone on something doesn't mean they're a good person. Sort of the opposite of Hitler Ate Sugar.

The biggest thing I think is that he's trying to fight for rights of a group of people, but abusing other's rights...it's just...weird...

edited 9th Sep '12 8:04:05 AM by onyhow

Apparently the handicap parking spot photo was staged. According to him, anyway, because they thought it was funny.

Ha! It's funny because handicap people need that spot! Hilarious! I also saw that the first thing on his twitter was a repost railing against socialist practices in France. I smell an objectivist.

EDIT: "as a conservative, it is nice that there's one station where my values aren't ridiculed. I don't have some 'thing' for Fox." Even worse, a fox news conservative.

edited 9th Sep '12 1:31:10 PM by thatguythere47

because how dare the rest of the world ridicule me for living in a world that doesnt exist!

I don't think I have bought a starthingy game in my life so no comment on that. On the guy in question though, dick isn't the word to describe him. Not strong enough.

@Iaculus: It seems like even his PR lady thinks he's a complete idiot who needs to learn when to shut up. Just look at her response right under that!

That was indeed part of what I was pointing out.

I figured. But no one else seemed to pick up on it (or comment on it), so I figured it was worth pointing out.

Meh, I'm getting free games off them from them as some sort of apology over Elemental War of Magic so, as far as the company business practices go, I'd pretty happy about it. If he's a jerk to his employees that looks to be resolved by the courts, however, if he's taken to the "cleaners" as one person said, it mostly means the company goes out of business and all those people lose their jobs. So it's going to be hard for those guys to balance what they'd like for compensation over a toxic work environment. It'd be easier for them to quit after this fiasco though depending on how other game companies see it and how they spin why they left.

"I left because he's a jerkass, and now I can prove it: did you expect references from this kind creep for walking out citing workplace law? It's why I didn't, before." Subtext: that, and the place is likely to go under, thanks to the cost of this whole fiasco.

Hey... even rats deserting a sinking ship are doing it because they know that swimming to land is easier closer to the shore then when stuck in the middle of the ocean.