Coty Craven is a queer, disabled dog-walker turned video game accessibility expert who had risen in prominence due to 'his' romantic relationships with high-profile disability advocates within the gaming industry, who were noticed by numerous developers and studios. These individuals and the publicity and social media engagement around their identity and circumstances were heavily involved in Craven's successful launch of
Can I Play That and
Game Content Triggers Database, websites and services for disadvantaged gamers.
- From 2012 - 2019,
Susan Banks, a deaf, Muslim, queer immigrant from Turkey who worked as a model, a financial advisor and a deaf-studies professor before being known as a high-profile video game disability advocate. She became a double amputee after dropping a cake mixer on her foot and died from a stroke while livestreaming video games. An award was created honoring her posthumously.
- From 2020 - 2021,
Tubi Hamid, Banks' sister, also a deaf, Muslim queer non-gamer disability activist who had a prosthetic eye and suffered a brain tumor. She abruptly disappeared.
- From 2023 - 2024,
Deborah Vaughan, a black, deaf, queer therapist specializing in PTSD and trauma and suffering from stage three colorectal cancer. Her posts decreased rapidly in frequency.
Coty also published an article featuring
Bess, Vaughan's 97 year old mother who took a liking to games including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Coty reported that she died half a year later.
If these spectacularly unfortunate people sound like a DEI activist's wet dream, you're not alone. After years worth of suspicion, inquiries, cross-referencing testimony, scouring government and hospital records and contracting private investigators,
IGN has released an article revealing that all four of these individuals, with work spanning nearly a decade, almost certainly never existed, and were created by Coty (formerly
Courtney Lynn Craven) for publicity, access and fundraising. Coty requested IGN not publish the piece and has quickly DFEed.
st. | Posted by
@NoReturn, who also took the initiative to archive Coty's remaining digital footprint.
Coty's dox by
@a hapless toad
