Influential games forum NeoGAF is back following chaotic weekend

It's a long and slightly convoluted story so let's start at the beginning: at the weekend, influential video game discussion board NeoGAF went offline. This followed sexual assault allegations leveled at its owner, Tyler Malka (aka 'Evilore'), though the outage seemed to follow the walkout of the board's moderators.

Once the allegations—which are outlined in this Waypoint article—began circulating widely, and the moderators downed tools, the board basically imploded, as this Twitter bot which auto-tweets new forum topics documented. What followed were days of silence, with no comment by Malka and no sign the board would ever return.

Until now. Following the publication of Waypoint's report, which includes comments from both Malka and the woman who leveled the allegations against him, the forum back, and with it a statement from Malka has been posted.

The original allegation was made by Texas filmmaker Ima Leupp on Facebook. "I couldn't come out about this situation because the perpetrator is a semi-famous man who would have retaliated and I couldn't afford to defend myself," she told Waypoint.

The Malka statement is here, and flatly refutes all allegations made against him. "An allegation of sexual misconduct has been made against me by an ex," it reads. "It's not true, the individual making the accusation isn't credible, the story doesn't reconcile logically with the facts, and there's plenty of evidence and witnesses to corroborate that. It'll be a process."

As part of the same statement, Malka also announced that, apparently due to to the increasingly divisive mood of the internet, the website will lose its "off-topic" section in favour of focusing purely on games discussion.

When the site returned earlier today replies to the statement were split between those strongly condemning Malka and others who were simply glad the board was operational again. As things stand it would be best characterised as an ongoing mess.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.