The Completionist
The mess that is The Completionist’s charity scandal has taken on a new dimension. YouTuber The Completionist, Jirad Khalil, has been accused by fellow YouTubers Mutahar and Karl Jobst for keeping as much as $600,000 donated to his Open Hands charity for years instead of actually donating the money.
Khalil, for his part, issued a response to say that there was no malicious intent and he still has all the money that will indeed be donated after “looking for the right foundation to send money to.” At one point, Khalil appeared to threaten legal action against his accusers.
This whole saga is still ongoing, with Mutahar and Jobst still maintaining their claims. But since things do not look amazing for Khalil, despite his denials, he’s running into additional issues. Namely, his cameo in Sea of Stars, one of the best indie games of the year and Khalil’s personal game of the year, will be patched out. Here’s the statement from the developers, who before this, had a close and good relationship with The Completionist.
“A small patch will be going live on Steam and be submitted to consoles soon to replace the builder NPC in Mirth. We arrived at this decision after carefully monitoring events over the past few weeks, and while it is not our place to pass judgement, we do make it a priority to maintain a positive and optimistic space that reflects the spirit of our intentions, be they creative or otherwise.”
While they aren’t “passing judgement” they…sort of are, as they believe that there’s enough evidence to make the association with The Completionist a negative one.
This is somewhat reminiscent of when Call of Duty removed streamer NickMercs’ skin for sale after he made anti-LGBTQ comments. His friend, TimtheTatman, also requested his skin be removed in solidarity.
It raises the question if continuing to partner with streamers and YouTubers to the point of actually putting them in your game is a good idea. While the vast majority may have no attached scandal, these things can come from anywhere, as fans of The Completionist have been pretty shocked about these accusations.
As of now, they remain accusations. Both sides appear to be entrenched in their positions, and it’s unclear what the end result of this will be. But on Khalil’s side, it seems the tide of public opinion is pretty heavily against him at this point. Perhaps further evidence will be uncovered, but for now, Khalil continues to suffer embarrassing repercussions like being patched out of his own GOTY.
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