Culture Guild Wars 2 writers fired following heated Twitter exchange with streamer - Gamergate, the gift that keeps on giving.

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.

On Tuesday, July 3, Price wrote a lengthy Twitter thread about writing for MMOs, particularly Guild Wars 2, and why player characters are uniquely difficult to write compared to protagonists in singleplayer games. To put it simply, she discussed how to give characters personality in a way that also leaves room for players to create their own character. In a reply to Price's thread, Deroir argued that branching dialogue options could give players more ways to define their character's personality, overcome the MMO-specific constraints Price discussed, and improve the roleplaying potential of Guild Wars 2.

Yesterday Price highlighted Deroir's reply in a series of tweets suggesting he was uninformed and that his reply was condescending.

Among those tweets, the one that's drawn the most ire, particularly on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit, is Price's remark about "rando asshats" talking down to experienced writers and developers.

Responding to the mounting criticism of these tweets, Peter Fries defended Price's position in a now-deleted tweet which is archived here, saying "she never asked for [Deroir's] feedback".

For his part, Deroir said that he "meant no disrespect" and simply wanted to create "dialogue and discussion" with Price. He also apologized for any offense his argument may have caused.

In a post to the Guild Wars 2 forums, in a thread explicitly about Price and Fries' tweets, ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien characterized the statements as "attacks on the community," saying "two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communicating with players" and that those employees are "no longer with the company." O'Brien also said "the statements they made do not reflect the views of ArenaNet at all."

It's no grand secret that game developers, especially women, are regularly targeted by fans who want to lash out, condescend or place blame, to say nothing of the insults, threats and other toxicity routinely hurled their way. That being said, this incident was not on the level of the harassment maelstroms we've seen in the past. A developer explained their writing philosophy, a partnered content creator offered feedback, and that developer responded somewhat rudely. Ordinarily that would be the end of it, perhaps followed by a round of apologies or someone stepping away from their role temporarily, but in this case ArenaNet felt the need to immediately fire the employees involved.

And the usual assclowns are out in full force:

https://www.pcgamer.com/amp/guild-w...lowing-heated-twitter-exchange-with-streamer/

 

[JE 765]

Tbh i don’t have a problem with game devs who were born with a vagina but i guess thats just me

Neither do I, but when said female dev acts out like that for no reason, she can't use her gender as a shield.

Glad she got canned.

 

[Fag Albert]

Probably for the best that she got the boot. That Deroir guy presented his side pretty sanely and even apologized for *Gasp* trying to calmly debate!
I ask this with all sincerity, though: Is there still a playerbase to this game outside of some diaper-crinkling furfags?

 

[Martys_not_smarty]

Tbh i don’t have a problem with game devs who were born with a vagina but i guess thats just me

Well there's the rub this person clearly wasn't a developer with a vagina she was a game developing vagina it's all that's little turnabout.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I love Katherine Cross sniveling about 'fired to appease a braying mob'.

Katherine, you literal whorebag, do you have fetal alcohol syndrome, or did you forget about what happened to Brandon Eich?

 

[Commander Keen]

"today in being a female game dev"

Ugh. Fuck you, "female game dev" has nothing to do with it. MMO players are fucking animals and they don't care who or what you are. They spend 8 hours a day, 7 days a week on a single game for 5 years; they want the game to be exactly the way they want it to be, and as the dev they think it's your job to cater to that. I'm glad she got fired just because she's somehow blind to the fact that MMO players have been harassing devs since long before the first ~female game dev~ was even hired.

Female game developers used to be awesome. I forgot the name of the game devs who posed all scantily clad and nude in a hot tub to promote the game they made, so I googled "female game developer posing in hot tub".

I got Brianna Wu and various ogres in my image results.

Yeah, google doesn't have a narrative they're enforcing. Nope.

 

[RG 448]

Neither do I, but when said female dev acts out like that for no reason, she can't use her gender as a shield.

Glad she got canned.

Agreed, she should just take the abuse like male developers are forced to do.

 

[ForgottenAcct]

Good. She got canned for acting like a cunt, not having one.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

The closest thing to relevancy Guild Wars 2 has had in years is digging up a four year old corpse.

 

[robobobo]

Female game developers used to be awesome. I forgot the name of the game devs who posed all scantily clad and nude in a hot tub to promote the game they made, so I googled "female game developer posing in hot tub".

I got Brianna Wu and various ogres in my image results.

Yeah, google doesn't have a narrative they're enforcing. Nope.

That's the women who worked at Sierra On-Line back in the day, I remember the picture you're talking about. Pretty sure they did that as a promo for Leisure Suit Larry.

 

[Martys_not_smarty]

Was about to say this is the most attention Guild Wars 2 has gotten since it was in beta and touted, like so many other mmo's of the time as the "WoW killer" nah WoW at this point is a corpse with a bunch of tubes sending electrical impulses through it, been dead for years.

 

[Derp Potato]

That's the women who worked at Sierra On-Line back in the day, I remember the picture you're talking about. Pretty sure they did that as a promo for Leisure Suit Larry.

Spoiler: NSFW?

 

[FierceBrosnan]

On Tuesday, July 3, Price wrote a lengthy Twitter thread about writing for MMOs, particularly Guild Wars 2, and why player characters are uniquely difficult to write compared to protagonists in singleplayer games. To put it simply, she discussed how to give characters personality in a way that also leaves room for players to create their own character. In a reply to Price's thread, Deroir argued that branching dialogue options could give players more ways to define their character's personality, overcome the MMO-specific constraints Price discussed, and improve the roleplaying potential of Guild Wars 2.

Shit that is really good writing advice coming from the guy who isn't just a player but an advertiser. She wasn't wrong about it being very difficult writing a player character into an MMO story and branching dialog does give the individual player a a deeper sense of immersion instead of just being a vehicle for plot A to plot B. This would have been a solid opportunity to really branch out with the community.

And if you don't want feedback then don't post shit on Twitter and then get pissy about it.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

Agreed, she should just take the abuse like male developers are forced to do.

Have you read the actual story, sir, or are you just here to push an agenda? There wasn't abuse. Read the tweets in question.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Good on Arenanet for booting a SJW that was acting like a jackass on their dime.

 

[FierceBrosnan]

Have you read the actual story, sir, or are you just here to push an agenda? There wasn't abuse. Read the tweets in question.

I think it's mostly directed at all the hypocritical literally who blue checks that are REEEEing abuse allegations while they themselves are all guilty of screeching anyone that thinks different from them into a corner. She threw up a wall of text about how hard the writing was, got some decent feedback, and then got snotty as fuck. If anything Jessica was the one being abusive.

 

[BuckBumble]

To add a bit of info, she says she's freaking out over some "rando asshole". It isn't. The dude's a partnered streamer with GW2. He has an in-game NPC named after him even.
So it wasn't just that she had a complete public meltdown for everyone to see, no, she went the extra mile and was actually cannibalizing part of their own marketing branch in the process. Combined with her history of being a psychotic bitch (most recently being a part of the TB death celebration for example), and you can bet she was already on thin ice.

Good on Arenanet for booting a SJW that was acting like a jackass on their dime.

Not just, her but also the chucklefuck who immediately jumped to her defense and started saying everyone else was wrong. Dude just had to go full white knight.

 

[RisingPhoenix]

That wasn't for Leisure Suit Larry, that was one of Sierra On-Line's early titles. "Softporn Adventure" - a guy designed it - but the husband and wife team of Ken and Roberta Williams decided they were willing to give it a chance.

As for who's actually in that picture - this is from wikipedia so pinch of salt but;

The game's box cover and advertisement features three nude women and a male waiter in a hot tub, shot at Ken and Roberta Williams's home. From left to right in the hot tub are Diane Siegel, On-Line's production manager; Susan Davis, On-Line's bookkeeper and the wife of Bob Davis, the creator of Ulysses and the Golden Fleece; Rick Chipman, an actual waiter from a local restaurant, The Broken Bit; and Roberta Williams.

For what it's worth, if you work with customers in any job sector and interact with them, and then turn around and *intentionally* verbally pop off at them, most companies will at the very least put you on report. They'll do worse if they think you've caused proper harm to their rep.

In any case the guy that originally tweeted at her didn't even say anything rude, just accidentally took her monologue as a discussion (why use Twitter as it was intended when you can just lecture people?) and then she cried sexism in an obvious battle cry so people would come tell him off. Guy backed off asap and other people accidentally walked into the shooting range not realising there was no room for civil discussion there.

Nobody was being rude to her at that point, naturally there might be less tolerant people who might be a bit rude after. Which is pointless really, she's already out on her butt and there's no need to give the lady reasons to go "waa but look all those people were really mean to me afterwards!" (that said smart future employers will ask why she didn't have foresight to put her twitter on private after, assuming she hasn't done that yet)

 

[RG 448]

Have you read the actual story, sir, or are you just here to push an agenda? There wasn't abuse. Read the tweets in question.

I’m just here to push an agenda. I did read the story though, just for the fun of it.

 

[Commander Keen]

I think it's mostly directed at all the hypocritical literally who blue checks that are REEEEing abuse allegations while they themselves are all guilty of screeching anyone that thinks different from them into a corner. She threw up a wall of text about how hard the writing was, got some decent feedback, and then got snotty as fuck. If anything Jessica was the one being abusive.

I dunno. I think these writers have been told all their life that they are so talented and so witty and so smart and have such a way with words that when someone comes along and says "I don't think your writing is that great" it isn't just commentary on their skill. It's an intense personal attack that lays siege to their very identity.

Happened to me in grad school. I was told I was a "good writer" and most of my professors agreed. One professor, however, hated the way I wrote and made sure I knew it. It really pissed me off because that was the only B I got in grad school. But I also learned how to write to appease him and that's why I got a B instead of a C.

People get really funny about people commenting on what they write and how they write it. For those of us in the business world, we are judged pretty harshly by the way we write and tend to try to present ourselves in a positive manner. For the creative writing types, it's different. I can't really put my finger on how their brain operates.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I’m just here to push an agenda. I did read the story though, just for the fun of it.

Well ok, I guess if you're gonna be honest about it that's fair. But isn't it disappointing that the story doesn't match the agenda?