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[Adry9]

"Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet recently parted ways with writers Jessica Price and Peter Fries, who were involved in a contentious Twitter discussion with Guild Wars 2 Twitch streamer and YouTuber Deroir, who is also partnered with ArenaNet through its content creator program."
https://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-writers-fired-following-heated-twitter-exchange-with-streamer/

Personally, I think the guy was being respectful and she lashed at him for no reason other than the fact that he was man and wanted to make it a sexism thing. Otherwise, if she didn't want any sort of input, even constructive and respectful one, why post that on an open twitter?

PS: Sorry I can't flesh out the post a bit more, I'm on my phone.

 

[Harlock]

The dev was very douchebag. Two errors at once. The first, believing that any criticism, even the most fair and polite, is some form of sexism. The second is that, using the false sexism card, feel free to insult people who play your game. Is like the behavior of a spoiled child.

 

[Whitecrow]

Deserved.

 

[GrayFoxRJ]

So you fire someone over a heated misunderstanding on Twitter, without even giving her the chance of retracting her statement? What a nice company, it cares a lot for their employees.

It reminds me of my begining in teaching. A biased student who I had just met tried to intentionally make me look bad after misinterpreting my questioning in the first day of class.

Fortunately, my coordinator and the direction backed me up given the sudden situation and the records with the problematic student, but I'm quite sure plenty schools would simply fire me over blind reclamation.

 

[cormack12]

Whatever is happening, it's sad that people are losing jobs - especially that Peter guy, didn't really see anything too OTT in his tweets just support of a colleague? This direction is unsustainable and it's largely being self created at this point. I mean that response to the guy was just disgusting. She basically (as a dev), tweeted that she doesn't think it's possible to create a compelling character in an MMORPG because each player will have different expectations of the RP side of things.

The person who responded (as a player of GW2 and content creator) directly addressed the Living Stories content she creates (which needs to have the same player ending), was saying that it's not necessarily about making the journey different. It's about giving more options to allow the player to express their RP side.

She seems a highly charged individual either way, and I'm not sure if any extensions were made by the company to right the wrong (maybe invite the person in and show them the studio and design process, maybe make a public apology?). She was getting criticism from her response by men and women but chose to highlight she had only hurt menfeels, whatever they are? Anyway, she seems an awful person in general playing to the current political climate, but I can't really get behind job loss when there were probably alternatives?

 

[Revolutionary]

Inb4 Naughty Dog picks them up

Seriously though, what an overreaction on that woman's part. Also, the write up at PC Gamer severely downplays just how much of a douche she was in that exchange, and then ends with "it's no surprise that women in gaming have a harder time" shit. What a joke.

 

[Dunki]

So you fire someone over a heated misunderstanding on Twitter, without even giving her the chance of retracting her statement? What a nice company, it cares a lot for their employees.

It reminds me of my begining in teaching. A biased student who I had just met tried to intentionally make me look bad after misinterpreting my questioning in the first day of class.

Fortunately, my coordinator and the direction backed me up given the sudden situation and the records with the problematic student, but I'm quite sure plenty schools would simply fire me over blind reclamation.

You just do not communicate with fans that way it is a pretty easy rule. He was NEVER insulting it was never about gender she made it about gender and bullshit ideologies. He wanted to start a discussion and when you publicly attack fans in this way because he respectfully disagreed than you should see this coming. It was the right decision . and I bet they now go to the rest of the staff and warn them to do something like this.

 

[AV]

Good. Don't put yourself out on Twitter as a professional and then act ridiculously unprofessional (whilst pulling an irrelevant gender card) when someone validly criticizes your professional work. If I tried to pull shit in my current job you'd better believe I'd face the consequences.

without even giving her the chance of retracting her statement?

What good does retracting a statement do exactly? She obviously means it. I don't think she'd take it back given a chance.

 

[Dunki]

Good. Don't put yourself out on Twitter as a professional and then act ridiculously unprofessional (whilst pulling an irrelevant gender card) when someone validly criticizes your professional work. If I tried to pull shit in my current job you'd better believe I'd face the consequences.



What good does retracting a statement do exactly? She obviously means it. I don't think she'd take it back given a chance.

And even if she would just do it because the fear of losing her job not because she realized it was it was wrong.

 

[recma12]

She seems a highly charged individual either way, and I'm not sure if any extensions were made by the company to right the wrong (maybe invite the person in and show them the studio and design process, maybe make a public apology?). She was getting criticism from her response by men and women but chose to highlight she had only hurt menfeels, whatever they are? Anyway, she seems an awful person in general playing to the current political climate, but I can't really get behind job loss when there were probably alternatives?

The women is simply a victim of our current climate IMO

If you, as a woman, are told that men don't respect them every day over and over again you probably start to believe it.
Stuff like #metoo or memes like "fragile masculinity" have added to that charged enviroment.

Then she probably had a bad day and a DM flies in that rubs her the wrong way......

Even tho I agree that firing her and the other guy maybe a little extreme, it's also par for the course. What if a pizza delivery guy adressed a customer as "rando asshat"?
When you engage with customers via Twitter you simply can't lash out like that.

 

[klosos]

LOL good , she jumped straight on the misogyny / sexism bandwagon to defend herself . Even tho the comment was a very well thought out comment and not a slur on her at all.

do i feel bad for her losing her job ? NO , tough shit she lived by the sword , die by the sword , according to the comments in the article someone commented that she celebrated the death of TB. that tells me what kind of person she is and nothing of value will be missed now she is gone from Areanet.

regardless the amount of talent you have or what politics /ideology you believe in , if you talk shit online which hurts the company's profits you will be out on your arse , cause in the end thats all that matters

 

[Dunki]

Also she celebrated Total biscuits Death I would have fired her already at that point.

 

[Adry9]

So you fire someone over a heated misunderstanding on Twitter, without even giving her the chance of retracting her statement? What a nice company, it cares a lot for their employees.

It reminds me of my begining in teaching. A biased student who I had just met tried to intentionally make me look bad after misinterpreting my questioning in the first day of class.

Fortunately, my coordinator and the direction backed me up given the sudden situation and the records with the problematic student, but I'm quite sure plenty schools would simply fire me over blind reclamation.

She directly attacked one of their customers, and doesn't strike me as the person that would apologize if the company asked her.

 

[B_Signal]

losing her job just for this seems massively harsh, although she clearly was in the wrong. For all we know more stuff has gone on in the past behind the scenes, but if this is just a one off have a word with her, there's no reason for it to turn in to anything bigger than that

 

[GrayFoxRJ]

So SJW asshatting justifies firing someone when the person who did that is called.out by the company, but the other way round (when employee is picked up conveying not so popular opinions against sjw'ism) not?

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

 

[MilkyJoe]

I followed that from afar, She was a complete cockwomble, i don't generally get any joy from people getting in trouble, but I make the exception for her.

 

[Dunki]

So SJW asshatting justifies firing someone when the person who did that is called.out by the company, but the other way round (when employee is picked up conveying not so popular opinions against sjw'ism) not?

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

Giving the Total Biscuit tweet and probably other stuff like this they needed this to finally fire her. I do not think this was the only reason she got fired.

 

[Harlock]

Also she celebrated Total biscuits Death I would have fired her already at that point.

Is another example of people feeling free to say the most shit things possible using the victim shield. And reveals your true colors, being a very shit person in reality.

 

[Adry9]

So SJW asshatting justifies firing someone when the person who did that is called.out by the company, but the other way round (when employee is picked up conveying not so popular opinions against sjw'ism) not?

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

This is not about her opinions, in fact, she didn't give any opinion, she picked up a customer and threw him to the lions.

 

[NeroDaGod]

No intelligent person can possibly misconstrue an argument like this to reach the conclusions these people usually reach
>Does mediocre job
>Randomer disagrees
>OMG MYSOGINY!

It's just a poor defense mechanism for someone who has no argument

 

[American]

And even if she would just do it because the fear of losing her job not because she realized it was it was wrong.

Exactly. Her apology would be insincere, forced and fake, not because she has genuinely learnt the error of her ways.

She deserved to get fired. Someone responds to her posts and the first thing that comes to get mind is 'how dare you question me, I'm a woman!'

As for her knight in shining armor, also implying she is being questioned because she's a woman, he deserved to get fired too.

They can use their writing skills to write for Vice.

 

[Jack Videogames]

Imagine if you went to a bakery, purchased some bread and, trying to make smalltalk, you said "Ah, I make bread at home too! I use splenda instead of sugar though because I think it's healthier" and the baker rolled her eyes and said "Thanks for telling me how to do my job, my dude" and encouraged other customers to point and laugh at you.

I think this is a clear "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" case. A random customer tried to enter in some engage in some polite discussion, something that happens all the time in the MMO business (frankly, I think he was more polite than most) and instead of ignoring him or entertaining him, she cried MANSPLAINING and tried to ridicule him publicly. That's not good PR, that's not PR at all.

 

[American]

So SJW asshatting justifies firing someone when the person who did that is called.out by the company, but the other way round (when employee is picked up conveying not so popular opinions against sjw'ism) not?

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

She should have thought about her job and her companies image when she started publically calling one of her companies customers (and content creator) an asshat just because he wanted to have a discussion with her.

ArenaNET owe her nothing.

 

[GrayFoxRJ]

Well, each of their own. ArenaNET might have had more than this to back their decision yo fire her, but I still find it pretty harsh nonetheless. Didn't know about Totalbiscuits' tweets though.

Still think the way they handle their collaborators regarding this one specific social media thing was very poor, even though the writer really crossed the line of the reasonability, something that is not even as harsh as Naughty Dog's puppet whiny on tweet a week ago

 

[Spukc]

I don't know her, but celebrating someone died due cancer is fucked up.
I bet she was on close watch after that tweet by the company.And her recent freak out caused it.
It is horrible to lose a job.
But i really hope this will learn her a lesson.
I also hope she will never get cancer or lose someone close to her by cancer.

 

[B_Signal]

Imagine if you went to a bakery, purchased some bread and, trying to make smalltalk, you said "Ah, I make bread at home too! I use splenda instead of sugar though because I think it's healthier" and the baker rolled her eyes and said "Thanks for telling me how to do my job, my dude" and encouraged other customers to point and laugh at you.

I think this is a clear "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" case. A random customer tried to enter in some engage in some polite discussion, something that happens all the time in the MMO business (frankly, I think he was more polite than most) and instead of ignoring him or entertaining him, she cried MANSPLAINING and tried to ridicule him publicly. That's not good PR, that's not PR at all.

I'm not massively disagreeing with your point, just your analogy. This is more like the baker is sat outside a pub talking to some other customers and he leans in.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

Typical modern female attitude of "criticism = harassment" coupled with "oh it's so hard to be a woman in the game industry" persecution complex.

Boo hoo hoo, I'm glad she got fired lol

 

[Jack Videogames]

I'm not massively disagreeing with your point, just your analogy. This is more like the baker is sat outside a pub talking to some other customers and he leans in.

I see your point, but that's also not totally correct - it was more like the baker was discussing bread with a large audience, and one of them intervened. You can't expect to speak publicly on social media and having nobody retorting. But yes, it was not the best analogy.

If she wanted to speak privately with her hugbox the people that agreed with her, perhaps she should have made a subreddit.

 

[B_Signal]

I see your point, but that's also not totally correct - it was more like the baker was discussing bread with a large audience, and one of them intervened. You can't expect to speak publicly on social media and having nobody retorting. But yes, it was not the best analogy.

If she wanted to speak privately with her hugbox the people that agreed with her, perhaps she should have made a subreddit.

yep, or just set her Twitter to private. I don't have her reach and I've still had random people respond on twitter, it's a bit unsettling, but if you put something out publicly there's always the chance someone is going to respond. You'd think she'd know that by now

 

[JORMBO]

I don’t think she should be fired over just this tweet. It is a ridiculous tweet and she never should have made, but I think it’s something they could have her apologize for.

Seeing the Totalbiscuit tweet makes me wonder if there may be other things involved with her firing. A lot of companies will stick up for a great employee when they make a mistake, but they may not stick up for an employee that has a history of problems.

 

[Mecha Meow]

So SJW asshatting justifies firing someone when the person who did that is called.out by the company, but the other way round (when employee is picked up conveying not so popular opinions against sjw'ism) not?

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

I went without a job for 4 months back in 2002, was homeless for about a month, and didn't eat for a week straight. She'll live unless she's a total dipshit.

Maybe this incident will give her some much needed reflection on her extremely warped views on fellow humans and how to interact with them better in the future.

 

[recma12]

Dude, we are talking about JOBS. People working to feed for themselves. Let's put these political views aside. She shit the bed? Absolutely, but I still think it is nothing she couldn't have apologized for, and even the company could have handled it better.

Yes. Losing a job sucks. That's why employees normally don't publicly call influential customers "rando asshats" on twitter.
Unless the employee was provoked (she wasn't), management HAS to take the customers side.

I feel for everybody that loses a job. But Mrs. Price had plenty of options to prevent her firing:
a) anwer politely to that tweet
b) ignore that tweet

Mrs. "Twitter Fingers" Price chose to attack a customer (not any customer, a Twitch streamer) that did nothing wrong. She was also dumb enough to do it writing, for the whole world to see. And then she doubled down.
Could she have apologized? Yeah, but that ship kinda sailed the moment her job was at stake.

 

[American]

Well, each of their own. ArenaNET might have had more than this to back their decision yo fire her, but I still find it pretty harsh nonetheless. Didn't know about Totalbiscuits' tweets though.

Still think the way they handle their collaborators regarding this one specific social media thing was very poor, even though the writer really crossed the line of the reasonability, something that is not even as harsh as Naughty Dog's puppet whiny on tweet a week ago

I was reading on the Guild Wars subreddit that there may have been more to it then just the tweets. Maybe behind the scenes stuff going on, and these tweets were the straw that broke the camel's back. I have no sympathy for her at all.

But I have changed my mind on Peter Fries.

The guy spent many, many years at ArenaNET. It's practically his life. Maybe there is more to it with him too, but if he was sacked because of his misguided defence of his colleague, that does indeed suck. This thread makes me feel very sad for him:

 

[Dr. Claus]

So you fire someone over a heated misunderstanding on Twitter, without even giving her the chance of retracting her statement? What a nice company, it cares a lot for their employees.

It reminds me of my begining in teaching. A biased student who I had just met tried to intentionally make me look bad after misinterpreting my questioning in the first day of class.

Fortunately, my coordinator and the direction backed me up given the sudden situation and the records with the problematic student, but I'm quite sure plenty schools would simply fire me over blind reclamation.

Price has had a long history of petty, childish retorts using baseless accusations of "sexism" on anyone who calls her out. The firing is more than worth it. If you worked in any other job and routinely insulted customers, why would you keep said job? The answer is very simple: you wouldn't.

I am glad that the company has finally taken action against a poor employee. Maybe Price can learn that her words have consequences and that she should keep quiet next time instead of making such accusations.

I don't believe I have seen Fries engage with such petty/childish retorts prior, but his words also required action by the company. Though maybe things were going on in the background that we don't know about for him.

 

[Basoes]

I don't believe I have seen Fries engage with such petty/childish retorts prior, but his words also required action by the company. Though maybe things were going on in the background that we don't know about for him.

with the many years he spent working at arena, I wholeheartedly believe it had to do with something behind the scenes, what he did here was only worth at the most a talking down to.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

dude was super respectful by early MMO/WoW standards lol.

gracious and polite compared to what Tseric had to go through before he and Blizzard parted ways.

especially in the context of the AMA and the general fans/community leaders interacting with devs about game design, seems weird to lash out in general (not even opening the sexism can of worms, even that first reply 'tell me how to do my job'). if you don't wanna debate rpg game design then don't fucking post about in in a public forum that invites debate ;p probably could have been let go for that alone (even before the sexism thing or that total biscuit thing)

better ways to handle that. in WoW beta, the devs sometimes kinda just hinted they were focused on other areas at the time (e.g. this phase we wanna focus more on lv1-30 leveling or deadmines balance, not redesign the MMO wheel). in WAR beta, Marc Jacobs literally just paused beta for a month -- feedback was getting heated and though it was kinda a harsh response to beta testers (thanks for your heated feedback, we have enough for ! lol) but it was still handled rather formally. he could have easily lashed out since beta was getting pretty aggressive/pessimistic with its feedback at that point. no need to say something like, 'thnx for telling me how to do my job.' especially with online rpgs -- i mean, if there's one thing old school MMO or ORPG players love more than playing rpgs, it's theorycrafting the 'ideal' rpg haha

 

[joshcryer]

I think she had a meltdown look at her posts from a few days ago about being tired out. It's mind boggling to me that people can lose their jobs over dumb Twitter posts. And I still maintain that Twitters main attraction is harassment and toxicity. I mean you get notified of any response to you or like of your post unless your profile is private / friends only. People thrive off of getting likes and getting retweets so they will say the most asinine shit which will attract other people who kinda agree with it but don't want to say it themselves to click like.

Since they booted two people from the narration team and since at least one of them was tired out and stressed by the job I think that it's safe to speculate something behind the scenes was going on. I mean what prompted the original tweet storm she wrote out? Possibly something at work? Maybe being told they needed to work on more interactivity in the game? Causing her to tweet out about how difficult it is to make the characters that way. Then some player chimes in with theory craft and she just snaps...

Also she celebrated Total biscuits Death I would have fired her already at that point.

The absolute irony about this tweet is that TotalBiscuit was not pro-GG, he was anti-crappy journalistic practices (like getting gift boxes and stuff before reviews and such, like not saying they were sponsered), but by the same token he was anti-online harassment. A lot of the replies to this very fucking tweet are assholes literally saying they wish she'd die. Yeah it's only a few of them but they're still shitty comments. But like I said Twitter is a harassment magnet machine.

 

[diablos991]

Also she celebrated Total biscuits Death I would have fired her already at that point.

Hopefully she learns a tough lesson on how to be a decent human being after all this.

 

[Kreydo]

What a mediocre MMORPG writer could possibily know about game design? Guild Wars II is probably the worse case scenario, a game called Guild Wars who first don't even feature war between guild, that must be played online but focus on solo content.
Her tweet about Totalbiscuit is unbelievable..

 

[Ogbert]

Excellent stuff.

She comes across as an utterly obnoxious, mean spirited dickhead.

Time to brush up on your manners; you'll need it to land another job.

 

[American]

Hopefully she learns a tough lesson on how to be a decent human being after all this.

She won't.

She and her allies will push the narrative 'Gamer Gaters force out another female dev'.

I'm not being facetious. That's just what will happen

 

[Two Pikachus]

I think she had a meltdown look at her posts from a few days ago about being tired out. It's mind boggling to me that people can lose their jobs over dumb Twitter posts. And I still maintain that Twitters main attraction is harassment and toxicity. I mean you get notified of any response to you or like of your post unless your profile is private / friends only. People thrive off of getting likes and getting retweets so they will say the most asinine shit which will attract other people who kinda agree with it but don't want to say it themselves to click like.

Since they booted two people from the narration team and since at least one of them was tired out and stressed by the job I think that it's safe to speculate something behind the scenes was going on. I mean what prompted the original tweet storm she wrote out? Possibly something at work? Maybe being told they needed to work on more interactivity in the game? Causing her to tweet out about how difficult it is to make the characters that way. Then some player chimes in with theory craft and she just snaps...



The absolute irony about this tweet is that TotalBiscuit was not pro-GG, he was anti-crappy journalistic practices (like getting gift boxes and stuff before reviews and such, like not saying they were sponsered), but by the same token he was anti-online harassment. A lot of the replies to this very fucking tweet are assholes literally saying they wish she'd die. Yeah it's only a few of them but they're still shitty comments. But like I said Twitter is a harassment magnet machine.

You hit the nail on the head my dude, Twitter and Facebook are self-feeding hate machines that take in normal people and churn out monsters. Doesn't matter the ideology or political leaning or whatever, this kind of feedback loop from like-minded individuals perpetuates an aggrandizing feeling of self-importance and "I'm right, look how many people agree." It doesn't matter what's reasonable in the end, all that matters is getting those likes and RTs. I find I'm much happier when I don't scroll through FB for a few days.

 

[Ogbert]

It's mind boggling to me that people can lose their jobs over dumb Twitter posts.

Well, this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back. If her Total Biscuit message is anything to go by, she's a weapons grade c**t with no sense of decency or decorum.

She chose to berate and insult an extremely significant (and polite) member of her employer's community. If I did the same at my work, I'd fully expect to be kicked into touch.

 

[Nymphae]

Just wanted to say that Resetera is a goddamn joke. They have a hundreds of pages long thread about "Why women are mad about sexualization"

Yet they bury this fucking story in under 24 hours and lock the thread because

This thread is off to a bad start and the matter, for better or worse, already seems to be resolved. It doesn't appear that much constructive discussion will come of this.

Pathetic hive of SJWs. Off to a bad start? Because it wasn't kneeling at the altar of progressivism enough for you? Off to a bad start in this case meaning someone who agrees with them politically was getting rightfully hammered for acting out of line. Can't have anyone know about this! STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS!

Already been resolved? So many topics there have been "resolved" and yet warrant a deeper discussion. It's a discussion forum for fucks sake. I never understood, on any forum, why things get locked, or people are hassled for bumping really old shit. It's the internet, let everything remain open and if someone in interested enough to talk about it, they will. If people want to respond, they will. I do not understand thread locking in any instance. Their mods are absolutely shameless.

And who the fuck is this mod to say no constructive discussion will come of this? "Constructive discussion" here means a discussion that favours progressivism. Anything else is bigotry and not only not constructive but actively harmful! I saw 3 pages of people discussing this before the lock, but fuck it, lock it up, it's nowhere near as constructive as the "List X" threads where people aren't even talking, just racing to the last page to post their list of X, their favourite X, or a shit post/meme.

One story out of thousands where the SJWs overstep their bounds a bit, and they have to hide it lest any members stop drinking their kool-aid for a second. Eat a fucking dick era mods.

 

[Ogbert]

Pathetic hive of SJWs

I was banned after two days.

Absolute lunatics.

 

[Helios]

I went without a job for 4 months back in 2002, was homeless for about a month, and didn't eat for a week straight. She'll live unless she's a total dipshit.

Maybe this incident will give her some much needed reflection on her extremely warped views on fellow humans and how to interact with them better in the future.

I doubt she will especially when you have people like these defending her and spinning it as if there's a nazi agenda at work.

 

[Nymphae]

I was banned after two days.

Absolute lunatics.

Yeah I have to hold my tongue there a lot. I just don't share my opinion half the time, but I like seeing how these people think. And occasionally there is some worthwhile stuff posted.

 

[plushyp]

Losing jobs over certain tweets is nothing new. I'm sure many must remember Adam Orth.

 

[Basoes]

I doubt she will especially when you have people like these defending her and spinning it as if there's a nazi agenda at work.

people like these? that person who was accused of rape by 5 different people, known to dox and threaten others? That's something no one would want defending them

 

[Scopa]

I doubt she will especially when you have people like these defending her and spinning it as if there's a nazi agenda at work.

Jesus. That’s entering crazed stalker territory. How someone like that can think they are behaving normally is astounding.