On Friday, July 20th, 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with Judges Jacqueline Nguyen, Eric Miller, and Daniel Collins presiding, upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Penny Quinteros against InnoGames, the developer of the online game Forge of Empires.

Quinteros, who played the game nearly every day from 2016 to 2019 for over 10,000 hours under the username "TwoCents," alleged she suffered harassment during gameplay. She claimed that InnoGames employees, acting as moderators, were involved in continued harassment through their management of the game's chat feature. Her complaint included accusations that an InnoGames employee accessed and released her personal information, including a photograph, to third-party players.

However, the court found that Quinteros's negligence claim failed because she did not allege that the moderator acted on behalf of InnoGames. Under Washington law, an employer is not vicariously liable if an employee pursues personal objectives outside the employer's purposes. Additionally, Quinteros did not plausibly allege any physical injury resulting from the defendants' conduct, which led to the dismissal of her claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Her gender discrimination claim also failed as it was based on a speculative assertion without supporting facts.

The Ninth Circuit further denied Quinteros's motion to retroactively seal court records and proceed under a pseudonym, noting the case had been public since 2019 and she identified no new privacy threats.

The decision affirms the district court's ruling by Judge Ricardo Martinez (W.D. Washington), effectively ending Quinteros's legal challenge related to harassment in the Forge of Empires game.

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