Two Guild Wars 2 Writers Fired Following Twitter Outburst

It’s no secret that being a lady in the gaming world is tough, especially when you’re a developer or some kind of authority figure. In those cases, you tend to be a magnet for all kind of hateful, toxic comments from a community that seems out to get you. So it makes sense that some lady developers would get defensive, but sometimes, that can cause backlash in some serious ways.

Take, for example, Guild Wars 2 writer Jessica Price. A proud and outspoken feminist (her Twitter profile even notes her aggression), Jessica posted on Twitter a few days ago talking about how difficult it was to write for MMORPGs, particularly since they want to give player avatars personality but also the chance to develop their own personality. After posting her thoughts, a community streamer and well-known Guild Wars player Deroir commented, suggesting the option for branching dialogue options during cutscenes and the like, which would give players more ways to customize their experience.

Jessica didn’t like that, and re-tweeted his comment with the following:
 

“Today in being a female game dev:

‘Allow me--a person who does not work with you--explain to you how you do your job.’”

For what it’s worth, Deroir apologized (a little bitterly, but he did) for his comment and said he was only trying to enter a dialogue with her. Some of her fans came to her defense, others attacked her. A fellow Guild Wars 2 writer, Peter Fries, defended her response by saying she didn’t ask for feedback.

But anyway both of them are fired now, according to a post on the Guild Wars forum:
 

Recently two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communicating with players. Their attacks on the community were unacceptable. As a result, they’re no longer with the company.

I want to be clear that the statements they made do not reflect the views of ArenaNet at all. As a company we always strive to have a collaborative relationship with the Guild Wars community. We value your input. We make this game for you.

Personally, I get why she lashed out, that’s what the whole introduction bit was about. I also get why people were offended. And while I don’t disagree with ArenaNet’s decision to fire the two, I think it might have been an extreme reaction when an apology would have done well enough.

But I suppose it doesn’t really matter now.