Every year female game developers get sexually harassed at GDC in San Francisco. We are asking the people who run GDC to help do something about it.



A number of female developers have recently come forward about a specific man who's allegedly been harassing women at GDC for some time. He's an executive for Microsoft in charge of their indie games division. According to multiple women he abuses his power and tries to take advantage of young, female game developers who are often desperate to get published on Xbox.



I wouldn't be doing these women justice if I tried to describe their experiences second hand here. Instead, here are two links you can click to hear their stories first hand. You should definitely watch these videos.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlFkzB_fWlM



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR94DyLKIXk



To make matters worse, this man isn't just an attendee at GDC. He's a member of their advisory board named Chris Charla (https://www.gdconf.com/advisory-board).



He also speaks at GDC every single year, giving a talk aimed specifically at indie developers who are trying to get games onto Xbox One. This puts him in the perfect position to find and abuse the exact women he's allegedly preying on.



We're asking the people in charge of GDC to suspend Chris from attending the convention in 2020. He should not be allowed to speak at or attend the event this year. In his absence, women who spend the time and money travelling to GDC with aspirations of getting published on Xbox One will not be subjected to abuse. As an added bonus, they can also have their games judged fairly by the rest of the Xbox staff based on the merits of their game and not by their gender or physical appearance.



For those of you who didn't watch the videos linked above (you really should), here's one of the key points that stuck with me. According to the woman in the top video there isn't a single indie game published on the Xbox One in the ID@Xbox program made by a woman. The ID@Xbox program advertises that they've shipped well over 1,000 games. I searched myself to try verify or disprove her claim and I can't find a single indie game launched through ID@Xbox made by a woman either. Chris Charla is the head of the ID@Xbox program. That's pretty convincing evidence that there's a very real problem.



If this petition is successful we will also be sending it to Microsoft. If the people in charge of GDC don't take action to stop this from continuing, maybe Microsoft will voluntarily stop sending this man to the convention as their representative.



Please sign this petition if you would like female game developers to be treated fairly and respected at GDC.