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Game Workers Unite member leaves after accusations of "exclusionary behaviour and bullying"

Game Workers Unite member leaves after accusations of "exclusionary behaviour and bullying"

Video games developer union Game Workers Unite UK has confirmed that its member Marijam Didžgalvyte has left the International organisation.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Didžgalvyte has left after allegations of poor conduct. In a public statement by Game Workers Unite's Seattle chapter, she is accused of "exclusionary behaviour and bullying" with that branch of the union lamenting the lack of any accountability.

In a statement made earlier this week, Didžgalvyte says the accusations came after Lionkiller developer Sisi Jiang asked that Game Workers Unite put out a statement condemning white supremacy. Didžgalvyte said that this should be handled by the individual, local GWU groups, rather than coming from the International Game Workers Unite. Furthermore, she claims that she didn't want the developers union to be too Western-centric.

Taking to Twitter, Jiang said that Didžgalvyte told her personally that GWU didn't want to "alienate game developers by condemning racism." Didžgalvyte says that these were "three clumsy sentences" and that she apologised to Jiang after.

This isn't the only incident in which Didžgalvyte is implicated, either. 80 Days writer Mag Jayanth called her a racist, which points to a broader pattern than just the incident mentioned with Jiang.


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Forbes-Calvin is a freelance writer and photographer, mostly operating within the games industry. Over his career, he has written for the likes of MCV, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, The Observer, VGC and Esquire. That's on top of writing books for Dark Horse on RuneScape, Assassin's Creed, Dead Island 2 and more.