Seattle police arrested Counter-Strike co-creator Jess Cliffe, 36, yesterday for sexual exploitation of a child. Police have not yet commented further on the case.
Jess Cliffe speaks during an interview in 2005.
The arrest record shows that Cliffe, who has been an employee of Valve since 2003, was booked at 1:17AM Pacific Time (8:17PM AEDT last night). He was denied bail, according to the record. Seattle’s local KIRO 7 news reports that he has not been charged with a crime.
Cliffe created Counter-Strike alongside designer Minh Le in 1999 as a mod to the critically acclaimed shooter Half-Life. Valve later obtained the rights to Counter-Strike, and it has been one of the most popular multiplayer games in the world for nearly two decades.
Valve says it has suspended Cliffe, telling Kotaku: “We are still learning details of what actually happened. Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offence. As such we have suspended his employment until we know more.”
Comments
22 responses to “Counter-Strike Co-Creator Arrested For Sexual Exploitation Of A Child”
And this, fighting game organisers, is how you act properly when someone is accused of something.
This is the true meaning of “listen and believe.”
it’s murkier than that, the problem is highlighted when a lot of the hollywood elite who’ve been accused recently haven’t been charged or even question. What does a company do when someone accuses their executive of a crime and the police don’t act on it?
Well, they’ve got to take it seriously. The correct course of action in my view would be to suspend the accused on full pay while an internal investigation is conducted by an independent party. Once the investigation is complete, the organisation can either reinstate the accused or administer a sanction in accordance with its policy on whatever misconduct has been found to have occurred. Look at the NFL’s investigation of Ezekiel Elliott for a rough idea of how this happens in practice. For the record, I think his punishment was too harsh compared to other similar incidents, and there were clear problems with the investigation and hearing methods, but in principle the process was a fair one.
Hope it ain’t true, for his sake.
For HIS sake? Are you fucking kidding me?
I don’t think Razor was being apologetic, but more a case of “prepare for eternal damnation”, for the sake of his soul, that kind of thing. (I’m not describing it well right now, but there’s a tone that’s pretty crucial).
You mean like hell? Well that just muddies a serious issue with fantasy and magical thinking. Which is not helpful.
How does it muddle It?
The myths of heaven and hell have been around for thousands of years as well as common use sayings around them.
Sounds like religion bashing for the sake of it.
This really isn’t the forum for religious bashing. The dude’s sentence was not structured in a way that read well by either interpretation. As you can see below, he still has sympathy for the alleged rock spider and not a thought for the child that was either A) sexually abused or B) currently being questioned by authorities about things of a sexual nature that did not happen.
But yeah, poor Counter Strike dude, right?
That was my thoughts when you started religion bashing.
It wasn’t the cleanest sentence, but the upvote to down bit ratio says to me most people understood what he was getting at.
He may have, but I was talking about your religion bashing so I don’t see the point of raising it in your reply as it was not the topic I was discusing.
Are you sure you were replying to me? You’ve really run off on your own here.
Something like that. It’s better to be accused and innocent than accused and guilty.
Also: Why are all my comments back to “Awaiting moderation” like I just joined up?
Answer my question please, mod. This is the only forum available to me to get an answer.
You’ve probably got a comment that was downvoted massively. You’ll be fine in a month.
Oh that post? I was merely a stating that a sex offender deserved to be stripped of his dignity and priveledge.
Wow. I’m taking time out from Kotaku.
This ain’t for me.
You spoke up against the nugget of alt-righters who cling to this site, that’s what you get. You ain’t allowed any of their FREEZE PEACH.
Nobody said on that post. You’ve commented on dozens of stories, it could be any of them.
It’ll be fine as more comments are approved, so probably a day or two. But it’s also the weekend, and you can contact me via email or on Twitter.
But again, it’s the weekend, so calm down.
Wonder the age of this child. When we think child we assume quite young but it can be a 16 or 17 year old also, which many places don’t consider children in these matters. I think Japan even goes as low as 13YO in some places, but that’s REALLY pushing it.
a child is a child in the eyes of the law.
Its not open for debate.
But for the record, its 16 in Seattle WA.
No. 16-17-year-olds having sex with a 36-year-old isn’t somethind permitted by law in most countries in the West, nor is it ethical seeing as these kids are affected by an undeveloped brain and raging hormones in comparison to a fully-grown adult. Rather, consent laws are relative to a certin age. 14-18, for example. Second, Japan’s age of majority and therefore full consent is 20. Though, Japan is kinda fucked up in that sense with many illogical laws under the mainframe.