Game Developer Reports She Was Drugged While Attending GDC

Snow Rui, president and CFO of Hooded Horse, revealed that she was drugged while visiting San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last week. Rui shared her story on LinkedIn, laying out a full account of what happened as well as calling out "the complete indifference and inaction" of both GDC and the San Francisco Police Department.

According to Rui, she was drugged Thursday, March 21 while "unwinding" at her hotel's lounge with some of her Hooded Horse colleagues. Rui stated that her and her friends were "drinking approximately one drink per hour" and showed no signs of "impairment" or "intoxication," yet shortly before the bar closed, her colleagues noticed she had become nearly incoherent. They quickly tried to get Rui back to her room, yet by the time they reached her floor, she could no longer stand and had begun vomiting uncontrollably while "slipping in and out of consciousness." Rui's colleagues then contacted the San Francisco Police Department.

Rui and her husband were then taken to a nearby hospital while her friends explained the situation to the responding officers. However, Rui was later told that the officers "insisted [she] was simply drunk." Rui added that an accompanying firefighter told her colleagues, "there are only two drugs common in this area, fentanyl and methamphetamine, and she doesn’t show signs of either, so it’s my medical opinion that she simply drank too much.” It was only after her colleagues repeatedly insisted that they investigate what happened that the officers agreed to look into things.

Rui's reception at the hospital was just as cold, as she and her husband were told "there was no point running tests" when she merely "drank too much." Rui says her husband had to repeatedly demand hospital staff conduct a drug test analyzing her for traces of GHB, Rohypnol (roofies), and other date-rape drugs, which they eventually agreed to do.

A few days later, a doctor called Rui to tell her she had tested negative for cocaine, marijuana, and other common recreational drugs. When Rui asked about GHB and date-rape drugs, the doctor stated they had not tested for them as it would have consumed "too many resources." To make matters worse, Rui was then told that a police investigator would not be assigned to her until two weeks after the incident was reported--well after the majority of GDC's attendees would have left.

Rui ended her story by writing that she was scared this was the outcome "when multiple witnesses have been with the victim every single minute and are pushing as hard as they can for San Francisco's police and emergency services to investigate and gather evidence." While Rui was fortunate enough to be taken care of and protected through the ordeal, the story Rui told offers a glimpse at the reality for other GDC attendees who have reported similar situations.

Just last year, for example, GameIndustry.biz reported that four women and two men had their drinks spiked across four GDC-related events while multiple individuals came forward with claims of harassment and/or assault while on the conference's show floor. GameSpot reached out to both GDC officials and the San Francisco Police Department for comment, and while the SFPD has not yet issued a response, a representative from GDC said the following:

Safety is a top concern for the Game Developers Conference team, and to that end, the GDC extensively bolstered their safety measures this year to address possible concerns around both onsite incidents and those that can take place at satellite events and throughout the city. GDC established a series of initiatives to help keep all attendees safe during their time in and around the Moscone Center.

These measures included an increased security presence onsite at GDC, the offer of walking escorts to any attendee who required or requested them, the 24-hour GDC Safety phone line to field any safety concerns from March 14 through April 5, 2024, expanded training of GDC’s volunteer Conference Associates to flag and deal with harassment and other serious issues, the establishment of the GDC Travel Together program to help any attendees who wanted to form networking groups to walk together to and from the Moscone Center, and GDC’s partnership with San Francisco's Safety Welcome Ambassadors to assist attendees in navigating the city outside of the Moscone Center.

These safety efforts were in addition to the pre-existing set of safety precautions at GDC, which includes emergency phone access throughout Moscone; the publishing of guidelines and safety standards for navigating the conference and understanding how to discern between events that are affiliated with GDC and would have the GDC event and security teams present versus those that are not and would not; and GDC's partnerships with SF Travel and the City of San Francisco to ensure a safe environment for all attendees.

GDC's commitment to safety means constantly evaluating all incoming concerns from attendees and adding new safety measures while continually bolstering existing programs to ensure that attendees are safe during GDC. All GDC attendees are also required to abide by GDC’s strict Code of Conduct, which is heavily promoted throughout pre-event communications and signage at Moscone, that states that GDC will not tolerate any unacceptable behaviors including intimidating, harassing, abusive, discriminatory, derogatory or demeaning conduct by any attendees of GDC and related events, and that these behaviors can result in expulsion from the event.