The gaming industry is in the midst of its own #MeToo moment, and one of the industry vets who stands accused is popular composer Jeremy Soule, whom MMO players will recognize from his past work on the Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars franchises, among many others.
Indie game designer Nathalie Lawhead posted a piece on Monday directly accusing Soule of predation, abuse, and rape while she was working on a game in Canada a decade ago. (In fact, the detailed post exposes abuse on the part of her game industry employer as well, but he is not named.)
“I’m sharing this hoping that there will be information about him out there so other women can be informed,” she says of Soule. “He took advantage of an eager naive new girl that want to ‘break in’ by offering a lot of help, and acting like he will mentor me, and then forcing me into a position where I was taken advantage of by him.”
Soule has taken significant criticism from former fans since 2013 following a $127,000 Kickstarter for music that saw many years lapse before anything was delivered. Guild Wars fans also bear grudges over the inaccessibility of the original music for that game. His verified Twitter account was apparently active last month but has since been deleted, as has the Facebook page for the parts of the symphony he did release; his Patreon is still live but largely hidden from the public. He has not yet made any public rebuttal to the accusations; we’ll update when he has.
Guild Wars and Elder Scrolls franchise composer Jeremy Soule starts Patreon for exclusive music
Jeremy Soule releases a preview album for his long-awaited Kickstarter symphony
Another year passes and Jeremy Soule’s Kickstarter album is still unreleased
Where is Jeremy Soule’s Kickstarter symphony?
David Georgeson and Jeremy Soule are working together on a mystery project
