A woman identified as working on the animations for the video game Mass Effect: Andromeda became the target of an online harassment campaign Saturday that saw her online accounts flooded with misogynistic messages.
Allie Rose-Marie Leost was bombarded with sexually explicit messages after she was identified as the lead animator in Electronic Arts' motion capture labs by a blog post at TheRalphRetort, Kotaku reported Saturday. The blog's author was apparently upset over the awkward facial animations in the upcoming role-playing game and went so far as to suggest that Leost got her job by performing sex acts.
The attacks were reminiscent of the death and rape threats directed at women beginning in 2014 over the GamerGate controversy, an online campaign against cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian, of the Feminist Frequency web series, and others for challenging the way women are portrayed in video games.
Sarkeesian was forced into hiding and canceled a speaking engagement at Utah State University after the school got emails threatening the "deadliest school shooting in American history" if she appeared.
However, it appears the most recent campaign of vile abuse was misdirected. EA subsidiary BioWare issued a statement Saturday afternoon condemning the attack and saying it was a case of mistaken identity.
Leost did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The blog's author could not immediately be reached for comment.
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