Firing an employee over the political leanings of those they follow on social media is not the type of behavior many want to see. But Limited Run Games’ decision to terminate an employee over her legal social media interests is turning out to be even worse than imagined. Did Limited Run Games terminate an innocent employee as the behest of a depraved and coordinated effort?
The following article takes no position on politics nor ideology. That Park Place is neither a political nor ideological website. We cover entertainment, including games. In this situation we must cover details of significance regarding the gaming industry. Observations and conclusions, should they be construed to exist, are only those of the author(s) of this article. That Park Place recommends only readers determine the veracity of the claims and of the evidence, should any such items be demonstrated.
Contributions for this article come from Jonas J Campbell and Steven JFG.
This is an update to our previous coverage of the Limited Run Games debacle. The original tweet from Limited Run Games has gone viral. As of the writing of this article, the tweet has been viewed more than five million times since Friday evening when it was written.
LRG respects all personal opinions, however we remain committed to supporting an inclusive culture. Upon investigating a situation, an employee was terminated. Our goal as a company is to continue to foster a positive and safe environment for everyone.
— Limited Run Games (@LimitedRunGames) January 6, 2023
It would seem the attention that Limited Run Games garnered by publishing a tweet about respecting all opinions was not the kind of attention that the company desired. Over the weekend, Limited Run Games turned off comments on their Twitter account. The feature limits a tweet so that replies can only be posted by other Twitter users who are directly mentioned in the tweet. This limit was placed on all tweets from the Limited Run Games account.
A Twitter service called Community Notes allows certain groups of users to tag tweets, adding additional context when users deem it necessary to avoid confusion. In this case, the Community Notes stated:
“Limited Run Games (LRG) apparently fired their community manager for activity on her Twitter account. Sources say that she followed controversial people, and others took exception to that. None of the sources pointed to a specific act that merited her being let go.”
The Community Note then cited and linked an article from Niche Gamer and a video from Yellow Flash detailing the situation.
Both the article and the video continue to pin the crusade to have Limited Run Games community manager Kara Lynne fired to an account by the name of “Purple Tinker hates elon.” The name Purple Tinker has been active online for at least a decade, and is the name of the founder of BronyCon. Purple Tinker appears to be another name for Jessica Blank. There also seems to be some link between the Jessica Blank identity and another previous identity, that of Jonathan Louis Blank (see the still image from the documentary “BRONIES: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony” below):
A “brony” has often been defined as an unironic male fan of the My Little Pony franchise, and specifically, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. In a Dazed & Confused interview in late 2012, Purple Tinker described being a brony as “very much the male equivalent of feminism” and “gender-transgressive as hell.” There are extensive Tumblr accounts dedicated to chronicling the alleged misdeeds of Purple Tinker. They cannot be confirmed, but if half of what is said is true, they speak to a very passionate and often-times abusive pattern of behavior.
As of the writing of this article, the Purple Tinker Twitter account has been deactivated.
An article from The Observer details some kind of police-involved disagreement in which Purple Tinker was accused of dealing with illicit substances at an Ohio-based My Little Pony Friendship is Magic fan convention called Canterlot Gardens. Purple tinker appeared to deny the charge in a Tumblr post.
In a five page letter posted to Brony forums, a person claiming to be Purple Tinker (and widely accepted to be Purple Tinker) describes themselves over and over again as “fandom’s worst internet bully” and apologies to “everyone… excluding trolls and bigots.”
More troublesome, this image appeared online seemingly linking Purple Tinker to a defense of adults engaging in certain acts with underage persons and that teenagers should legally be able to consent to them. Stating that certain legal and cultural norms deny “personhood and self-determination” to children.
While Purple Tinker’s Twitter account has been deactivated, prohibiting me from directly confirming the tweets, I was able to confirm that the single tweet in the thread not made by Purple Tinker on that day is legitimate. Note: That Park Place strongly condemns the content of the following tweet and does not in any way support the message therein. It is included for accurate investigative journalism purposes only.
having sex at all at fourteen isn't inherently rape; a 27-year-old teacher having sex with her ninth grade student is.
— ghost (@msmarveI) January 27, 2017
In addition, the interacting account made many tweets on that same subject, with many specific details in common with that thread on that day.
Based on this, we leave it to our readers to determine for themselves if the screen captures are legitimate.
If these allegations are legitimate, it would appear that Limited Run Games was not careful in their choice of what part of “all opinions” they respect. Do they respect the alleged opinions of Purple Tinker on this subject over the opinions of their community manager? Or do they respect the opinions of their customers, who they have blocked from replying to any of the Limited Run Games Twitter posts?
Ironically, Purple Tinker’s years-old alleged apology includes this quote:
“harassing anyone, even the worst person, seldom leads to a good outcome; in fact, it may perpetuate a cycle of abuse”
It seems like Purple Tinker might be eating those words today. Allegedly.
But beyond that, LRG may also be eating some words… if state law is enforced…
Perhaps it isn’t so wise to fall prostrate before the faceless mob when you don’t know who is leading it or what beliefs they might espouse. It can take you places you didn’t want to go. Companies would be wise to remember that.
SOURCES
Dazed and Confused (due to the type of content, we are not directly linking to this reference)
The Observer Original Article
Update: Minutes after publication, “Tinker” released the following statement:
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