Brendan Frye / Miguel Sternberg / Zoe Quinn

Hi Folks,
Myself and my friend Zoe Quinn just went through an extremely f’ed up situation with Brendan Frye, editor (and I think owner?) of Comics & Gaming Monthly (C&GM). To put it bluntly I feel he is not someone we want in our communities if we want them to be safe places for women. For this reason I’m emailing pretty much all the prominent organizers and creators I know in comics & games, also a few of the freelance journalists I feel should know. I can tell you that he will not be welcome at any of the indie games events that I organize personally and that Spooky Squid Games will no longer do any interviews for the magazine.

Here’s the details and some background.

Zoe is one of the alumni of the Difference Engine, ironically an initiative the Hand Eye Society put together to encourage more women to participate in indie-games. She also recently started writing at C&GM, so Brendan was until about an hour or two ago, her boss.

Earlier this week he made verbal advances on her, she rejected him and was fired (in my mind this is enough, however it gets worse). Wanting to retain her writing work Zoe went through a drawn out process to talk him back into keeping her on as a writer. She had told me this, however I respected her wishes and kept this event to myself.

Between that time and today he pierced his lip to match Zoe’s piercing and started following several of her non-industry related friends on twitter and facebook.

Today at TIFFnexus and the TOjam Arcade (two big indie game events) he tended to follow her around, and once he’d gotten pretty seriously drunk basically followed her non-stop. He then followed myself Nadine, Zack Kotzer, and Zoe from TOjam to the Site3 Halloween party. We basically hoped he’d eventually give up and go home but he then followed Zoe downstairs when she went to use the washroom which was the last straw. Zoe told Alex Leitch a friend and one of the Site3 organizers what was up and to try to stall him while we left.

After turning onto Bloor we turned around to find he was following us down the street. Alex has told me that she tried her best to stall him but that he basically walked through her. Just to be sure he wasn’t simply drunkenly walking home we strategically slowed down, speed up and stopped in crowds. We briefly lost him in one of these and watched him crane his neck around to spot us when he reached the corner. After a few more stalling tactics in the hopes that he’d give up and leave, Zoe confronted him. He denied he was doing anything. We continued walking and he ran up and grabbed her hard by the shoulder, she yelled at him to never touch her again. He stormed off then stormed back and yelled at her, essentially firing her (basic words were in effect that she wasn’t going to the Montreal Game Summit to report on it, but yeah fired).

We went back to site3 for a bit to tell the folks we know what happened, where he phoned Zoe repeatedly and basically now I’m writing this email. We’re both pretty shaken and upset by this. Remember that all this is what he did when she was accompanied by a male friend.

Having read this I hope you folks will feel the same as myself, that we don’t want people like this to be involved in the comic and indie games community or to support their work by providing them with content.

Thanks,
Miguel Sternberg
Spooky Squid Games Inc.
The Toronto Hand Eye Society (not speaking for the other board members here, just me)

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It has come to my attention that there is a fair amount of misinformation going around regarding myself and Zoe Quinn. I am writing this email today to outline events and clear up any errors that may be present while still keeping information truthful and direct.



Zoe Quinn and I met as friends but after a few nights of spending time together the relationship turned physical. At many times during this physical relationship Zoe mentioned that she “liked me” (chat and text transcripts can be provided if necessary but due to the personal content on both sides would be preferred not) but it was also viewed that it was casual and nothing serious was going on with either side of the relationship. There was no business relationship what so ever at this time and was completely unrelated to C&G or any C&G operation. Other than the fact she was striving to do game design there was little to no overlap with work.

Around five (5) weeks into this relationship Zoe mentioned that she had “Real feelings” that I at the time did not return verbally. It was also at this time that she commented that she wished she could write about games since she has experience doing so for other websites. It was suggested on my part that she could submit work to C&G but I would have no part in the approval process and it would be left completely up to Mr. Wayne Santos, thus ensuring there is no bias in the acceptance of articles. It was also at this time she expressed a growing desire to attend MTL Game Summit. Again this was allowed but with the strict requirement that Wayne approve all articles that may be written from attendance. At no time was Zoe on any payroll or worked for C&G it was strictly a on article basis that I personally had no part in the approval or rejection of.

On Monday the 24th it was decided we should talk about the relationship situation and if we should change things. This conversation was done over MSN and as such a full transcript can be given if it is so required but because of the personal nature on both sides it is preferred not . In the end with talk on both sides that we would remain friends but there would be no more physical or emotional relationship. It was suggested by me that time should be spent apart to avoid confusion but also to ensure both sides are okay with the situation as it stands. Zoe rejected this idea saying it would “complicate a friendship” and that she wanted “to ensure we stayed close” but she also wanted to ensure we stayed “honest and open” friends. This was agreed upon.

By the Friday the 28th personally I had moved on and was now seeing another girl (Sarah who can be contacted if so required but sensitivity should be taken due to a new relationship) so viewed Zoe as a friend only. That night around 7 or so at night I learned a dear friend and Ex was in the hospital, at around 8 I learned she passed away. This hit me very hard and the fact I had been drinking this night made it worse. In my mind there were few people I knew at the ToJam event that I could talk to about personal matters and Zoe was one of them. A few attempts were made to talk but due to the sensitive nature of the information it was not something that is easy to talk to a stranger about. Later that night at a Site3 party I learned Zoe had left since I knew no one at the party I decided to leave as-well. On my way home a few attempts were made to call other friends but it seemed no one was picking up. I saw Zoe and Miguel walking and decided it would be better to not bother them. On a final attempt to reach a friend with no results it was decided that Zoe would be the best friend to talk to about the situation. Sadly and regrettably in my drunken state my attempt to pull her aside to talk did not work as intended. On the next day an attempt was made to apologize to Mr Sternberg with regrettable results

As was stated previously full text and chat transcripts can be provided if necessary but overall this is a regrettable and unfortunate misunderstanding and overall should have been a situation that was discussed behind closed doors rather than bring the community as a whole into it.

Brendan Frye
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C&G Monthly
Editor-in-Chief

Phone: 1.416.516.2894
Cell: 1.416.821.5873
Email: bfrye@cgmonthly.com
AIM: fryebrendan

Mailing Address:
225 Sterling Rd, Unit 20
Toronto, ON
M6R 2B2