Skullgirls Lead Designer Accused of Being Inappropriate

Last week, the news cycle was dominated by reports of sexual harassment in the gaming world, both within the culture and the industry at large. And if you thought that this was only going to last a week, well, I’ve got some bad news for you – turns out, we’re not done airing out our dirty laundry yet.

The latest person accused of being a grade-A creep is Mike Zaimont, a lead designer of both Skullgirls and Indivisible, critically acclaimed games from Lab Zero. The accusation won’t come as a surprise to long-time members of the famously misogynistic fighting game scene, especially considering he made a rather tasteless “I can’t breathe” joke at a recent event that I will not be linking to that proves he is not a creature of tact, but all the same it was disappointing to hear.

The accusations come from two women: one, a Twitch streamer called “Bunny”, detailed (and showed proof) of a creepy messaging session she had with the man in question that she described as “incredibly disrespectful.” The second is a community organizer, writer, and cosplayer named Carbon Grey, who shared a video on Twitter that, reportedly, showcases an uncomfortable encounter with Zaimont:
 

“I don’t know what Mike said to [Bunny], but I’m sure it was shitty and I know that because Mike’s been making weird, sexual comments at me in and out of cosplay at fighting game events for actual years. I’ve been writing a lot of it off because when I tell people, they’re just like, ‘Oh, he’s kinda like that, I’m sorry.’ And like, yeah, he is kinda like that and he’s kinda not changing for the past five years y’all. Neither is anyone else in the fighting game community. And I think a lot of it is because when I tell my male friends or other tournament organizers what’s happening, they don’t do anything with that information.”

 
So far, Lab Zero nor the man in question have commented on the accusations, but I anticipate a certain someone will be retiring from his position in the near future.