These types of articles and the gaming media's response in generalare the very reason terms like SJW and feminist have garnered a negative connotation. This is why trust in mainstream media is at an all-time low in America.
You can't fight fire with fire here. Specifically when that fire is not even controlled, but sprayed about ignorantly, setting the entire village aflame with no regard as to who gets burned.
I'm actually trying to look at it from all sides. And it seems to me that the only person who really got "hurt" from all this may have been Peter Fries.
I am just replying to this one because I've been in this situation before.
How it works at some bigger companies, is fire all involved. It gets rid of the problem in every possible way, and makes it so there isn't any possibility of issues arising again. We had a situation at my last job, where someone went to HR regarding something and 5 people got fired, only 2 of which were actually guilty of anything, the other 3 just had an opinion they were voicing. I mean you can always go back and fight it legally, but who knows how that will turn out.
We don't know how the internal workings of ANet are, we don't know how either of these employees acted internally, maybe Peter was saying some things that scared them, and they wanted to eliminate the problem. Knee jerk reactions are super common in all industries.
Price listed her current employer on a personal social media account and attacked a well-respected member and A-Net partner of the community. She also inappropriately used sexism as an excuse for her offensive comments. When you are in a creative field and detail your thought process on the Internet for all to see, of course you are going to get feedback for all to see.
If she would have taken the high road and directed the community member to the proper channels to offer feedback, this whole predicament could have been avoided. She tarnished ArenaNet’s brand and most employers consider that enough of a serious offense to warrant termination.
The moral of the story is do not mix your personal social media activity with your professional one. I’m not celebrating her being fired but the fallout of keeping Price around would create more problems than letting her go.
I agree. But I'm thinking this was a last straw thing, not the only thing that caused a firing. As some have said, she really should have either a.) responded better or b.) not at all. Even so, I'm still not sure I would have fired her. Firing her has only served to bring out a lot of heat on both sides of an argument that really should have ended with "I'm sorry you disagree with my professional opinion on this game I work on, but you're entitled to do so."
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
This shouldn't even be controversial. The fastest way to get fired at any company is to disrespect customers. That is what JP did. That is why she was fired. End of story.
I don't think it's that simple in this case. And then why was Fries fired? He was, for all I can surmise, loved by both fans and AN employees. Just to CYA and not get a law-suit for discrimination perhaps? The whole thing stinks, and has potential implications for devs at all companies moving forward.
Bullshit Bill. The only thing that stinks is the gaming media's inability to take what these people did at face value, due to the main perpetrator in question being a woman. "Oh well maybe she had some ulterior motive for being an asshole..." Yeah you know I'm sure every asshole in the world believes that about themselves. That in no way changes the fact its wrong, and that there are serious consequences about publicly behaving like, and I can't use this term enough here, an ASSHOLE.
Why was Fries fired? He jumped in and not only supported JP's off base and totally nasty behavior, he also reinforced JP's opinion that fans are contemptibly beneath being worthy to give feedback to the company. Do you seriously not understand what a dick move that was?
I can't argue with this, either.
However, if I were in that position, depending upon the specific content of Fries' comments, I would have considered a lesser reprimand. Specifically (and I know, hindsight is 20/20) considering MO is getting grilled as allowing gender roles to color his decision anyways. If Fries wasn't confrontational with customers as Price was (though I get the feeling he may have been from those who say they saw his comments), and he didn't have an internal record of corrective action being needed, I think a lesser punishment would've been more appropriate.
But again, I didn't get to read the tweets that have, apparently, now been deleted. Their content would dictate a lot in how the company should (and seemingly did) react.
Any argument that "Oh, I completely mishandled myself here but I've been abused in the past!" are unfortunately irrelevant. It doesn't give you a free pass, and as much as it may sting, you are held to a higher standard then the fans you interact with on social media. It may be lopsided, it may seem unfair in the heat of the moment but that's part of representing a company.
Gaming developers are unfortunately the target of VAST amounts of unwarranted flame & toxicity, but the blame falls squarely on her shoulders in this instance, and the following actions were entirely justified.
These distinct fact remains:
1) She took polite, well thought out feedback from a discussion she initiated and not only responded in an unnecessarily confrontational but toxic way.
2) She unjustly attempted to besmirch a valued member and partner of the community under the guise of sexual bias. As someone who considers myself a feminist, and have actively seen my mother and two sisters struggle with this, there is NOTHING more detrimental to that cause then the way she handled herself. It IS NOT a tool to be used whenever someone disagrees with you, and it IS NOT a tool to be used to attempt to shame someone unjustly. It's a disservice to an extremely legitimate & growing cause.
Never mind the fact that this is extremely disgusting when you think of repercussions that could have fallen on Delroir due her carelessly throwing out accusations regarding him.
3) SHE attempted to invoke and manipulate Mob Mentality, as much as the writer's bias in recent articles regarding this incident may want to make it seem the other way around. SHE was the one who created a PUBLIC post on a MASSIVE PUBLIC SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLET in an attempt to publicly garner attention and shame towards Derior. Her and her alone DESIRED to take advantage of mob mentality. We cannot scream victim when something she attempted before anyone doesn't work in her favor.
4) The actions taken were entirely justified in her instance. We can throw whatever strawman arguments we want out where "Well well if someone else in Arenanet did bad stuff would they get fired?". The fact of the matter is they didn't do bad stuff so speculation of how a nonexistent event is unnecessary. (UNLESS I am unaware of another event which I'm currently ignorant too, which by all means call me out on that.)
I do agree with alot of your statements however.
You are correct at least in my opinion that she has largely been the target of unfair, biased criticism and harassment against her, but a "Do nothing" approach when employees act out isn't the correct course of action.
I would however like to see AN implement something akin to a "Therapy/Training" hybrid sort of program, to help identify and help employees deal with these sort of things. It's a nasty truth but these sort of things will likely ALWAYS occur. If they can better equip and help them navigate it (Despite it NOT being a factor in this specific instance), it's the best thing they can do to stand by their employees.
I also agree Peter should not have been fired in this instance as well.
I just want to take a moment to say: I love that this discussion is actually going well, with reasonable thought out responses and stances. And I won't be glad any of you die when you die, nor will I tweet about it.
and 5 others.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
I just want to take a moment to say: I love that this discussion is actually going well, with reasonable thought out responses and stances. And I won't be glad any of you die when you die, nor will I tweet about it.
I just want to take a moment to say: I love that this discussion is actually going well, with reasonable thought out responses and stances. And I won't be glad any of you die when you die, nor will I tweet about it.
Considering this has literally been a story about one of the most hot-button issues in society, it's absolutely flabbergasting it hasn't immediately resulted in an atomic explosion of moderation-worthy mudslinging. It's flabbergasting in the best way possible.
umm..there seems to be a lot of "reasons" why letting her go was unfair, somewhat implies...he isn't the type of person you can trust to do so for good reasons due to his..character?.
I'm going to assuming you can't go into details, but then why write an article about it doing the same thing...you get what i mean. Its kinda hypercritical, maybe .. casually rude?.
I dont see the point in this, the tweets and how she conducts herself speaks for itself, but i will say its good for views though.
if you want to bury it then stop talking about it....take care.
The Guild Wars community are glad that Mike O'brien took the stance he did and took the side of the customers over his own staff when it mattered. She unarguably acted unprofessionally and hugely inappropriately. You can log in and talk to people in-game within guild wars 1 or 2-- or be observant of the community on the official Reddit about their stance in the matter. Jessica Price deserved every punishment she suffered from her vicious outburst against an innocent fan of the franchise. Yet, admittedly, the same can not be said about Peter Fries' firing, who has spoken about this fiasco and explained he has no qualms with the community that set this in motion. That should say A LOT!
However, Mike O'brien likely had to fire him for his involvement to avoid a gender discrimination law suit from Jessica should he had remained with the company while she didn't. It was a difficult decision to make and of that I am sure. Mike O Brien is definitely held still in utmost high regard with the guild wars fanbase and I advise the article writer to read the other side of this story instead of following Polygon solely and that of Jessica Price who has shown immense flaw in decision making and has still not admitted any mistake or guilt in this.
Another thing to note Bill Murphy is I remember a article here celebrating what TotalBiscuit did for the gaming community and yet you are here writing an article of a person that was GLAD to hear of his passing when he unfortunately lost his battle with cancer. Christ sake. Think on what kind of person does that and whether you are able to take all accountability in what she says seriously.
Remember also that an innocent question was made that in no way represented any ignorance or questions of her ability but a question a individual fan decided to share with her on a matter he obviously cared about since he's playing the game she worked on. Yet she responded with hate, insult and instantly blocked him to dare enter a conversation about what she said. Really, Bille?
@BillMurphy Take a look at this. And please go on the Reddit and listen to what people have to say and not the words of Jessica Price who has yet to give any names of former ArenaNet employees that supposedly agree with her.
umm..there seems to be a lot of "reasons" why letting her go was unfair, somewhat implies...he isn't the type of person you can trust to do so for good reasons due to his..character?.
I'm going to assuming you can't go into details, but then why write an article about it doing the same thing...you get what i mean. Its kinda hypercritical, maybe .. casually rude?.
I dont see the point in this, the tweets and how she conducts herself speaks for itself, but i will say its good for views though.
if you want to bury it then stop talking about it....take care.
My point is that people are villain-izing Price while extolling the virtues of MO, when it's quite possible they both suck and we don't know much more than we're presented on Reddit and Twitter.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
I just want to take a moment to say: I love that this discussion is actually going well, with reasonable thought out responses and stances. And I won't be glad any of you die when you die, nor will I tweet about it.
Hah you too Bill!
Discussion are healthy, and you guys have largely created environments conducive towards being informed & discussing a wide variety of topics within the realm of the games we love.
Thank you guys for all you do, and I sympathize with the unwarranted hate and flame you gus get on the daily!
I just want to take a moment to say: I love that this discussion is actually going well, with reasonable thought out responses and stances. And I won't be glad any of you die when you die, nor will I tweet about it.
Considering this has literally been a story about one of the most hot-button issues in society, it's absolutely flabbergasting it hasn't immediately resulted in an atomic explosion of moderation-worthy mudslinging. It's flabbergasting in the best way possible.
It's extremely strange that it hasn't turned bad. Most people seem to go back and forth normally in the two threads about this so far. There have been maybe a couple of comments that would fall into moderation-worthy mudslinging, but even then it's a tiny amount compared to how it would normally turn.
Price listed her current employer on a personal social media account and attacked a well-respected member and A-Net partner of the community. She also inappropriately used sexism as an excuse for her offensive comments. When you are in a creative field and detail your thought process on the Internet for all to see, of course you are going to get feedback for all to see.
If she would have taken the high road and directed the community member to the proper channels to offer feedback, this whole predicament could have been avoided. She tarnished ArenaNet’s brand and most employers consider that enough of a serious offense to warrant termination.
The moral of the story is do not mix your personal social media activity with your professional one. I’m not celebrating her being fired but the fallout of keeping Price around would create more problems than letting her go.
I agree. But I'm thinking this was a last straw thing, not the only thing that caused a firing. As some have said, she really should have either a.) responded better or b.) not at all. Even so, I'm still not sure I would have fired her. Firing her has only served to bring out a lot of heat on both sides of an argument that really should have ended with "I'm sorry you disagree with my professional opinion on this game I work on, but you're entitled to do so."
Price listed her current employer on a personal social media account and attacked a well-respected member and A-Net partner of the community. She also inappropriately used sexism as an excuse for her offensive comments. When you are in a creative field and detail your thought process on the Internet for all to see, of course you are going to get feedback for all to see.
If she would have taken the high road and directed the community member to the proper channels to offer feedback, this whole predicament could have been avoided. She tarnished ArenaNet’s brand and most employers consider that enough of a serious offense to warrant termination.
The moral of the story is do not mix your personal social media activity with your professional one. I’m not celebrating her being fired but the fallout of keeping Price around would create more problems than letting her go.
I agree. But I'm thinking this was a last straw thing, not the only thing that caused a firing. As some have said, she really should have either a.) responded better or b.) not at all. Even so, I'm still not sure I would have fired her. Firing her has only served to bring out a lot of heat on both sides of an argument that really should have ended with "I'm sorry you disagree with my professional opinion on this game I work on, but you're entitled to do so."
Your article was very well written and offered valid points that made me think so thank you for the fresh perspective! I completely agree this situation has blown up into a bigger discussion then it needed to be. I’ve been following the official thread on the GW2 forums and you really can see the worst kind of people stepping out of the shadows. If we can encourage people to have a respectful and focused dialogue (like the one on this comments section so far) instead of personal attacks, change can actually happen.
This is why I'm VERY VERY controlled about what I say publicly about anything. This is like those kids who interview for jobs and are surprised they don't get the job because the interviewer looks at their YOLO drinking binge the night before.
I think in this case, it would have been prudent to walk away and not reply. Move on to another question.
OR
She could have created the dialog in a manner that you accept the disagreement. Two people don't have to walk away out of a discussion with the same opinion. It's ok to walk away disagreeing but it allows both sides to try to see the perspective of the other side.
That being said, while not being intimately familiar the different articles I've read implies a chip on her shoulder to begin with. And then, a community that's fairly... toxic, poking that wound.
And now, they think they have power to fire anyone at the company which is a problem. Especially given they are the vocal minority.
The other guy getting fired should have just privately agreed and moved on.
"But there’s nothing about Jessica Price’s tweets or replies that look damaging to ArenaNet as a company. She’s not spouting Nazi Rhetoric, or spewing racists memes. She’s fervently disagreeing with people on her job and capabilities. She’s defending her work, just not in the best or most customer-facing way."
I find it funny that the person who wrote this ised extreme examples of tweets that would damage a company. Lol spouting nazi rhetoric or spewing racist memes certsinly are damaging if representing a company. But theres a billion other offenses via social media that could damage a company like what we are seeing with jessica price. This article seems like the write is captializing on the drama and didnt full research the issue at hand. Context adds alot like her TB tweet. Btw this could have all been solved if jessica took the righr actions and privatized her account and/or took off arena net from his twitter profile.
Last time when Suzie posted I did not take a stance, but that thread showed the tweets Ms Price used, it was the first time I had seen them, she had to go. Her language and reaction where simply not appropriate.
If anyone thinks that she could do that and stay, think about your own colleges in all the places you have been over the years, would anyone have been able to do that and not get the sack? Bear in mind as well you would have heard that she has a history of such behaviour.
Peter Fries seems less at fault because we have seen less, I except it is the companies remit to fire him without us knowing all the details. We have no "right to know".
They did not need to tweet to do their jobs, they could have kept that off Twitter. Twitter is a mob waiting to throw stones at the next victim. There are people who post as part of their jobs, what about people like the staff on MMORPG, they say things on posts...with the way social media can pick that sort of thing up, glad I have never had a job like that!
I think professionals need to realise that Twitter is for drama, emotional rants and outbusts. Leave your work at the office.
umm..there seems to be a lot of "reasons" why letting her go was unfair, somewhat implies...he isn't the type of person you can trust to do so for good reasons due to his..character?.
I'm going to assuming you can't go into details, but then why write an article about it doing the same thing...you get what i mean. Its kinda hypercritical, maybe .. casually rude?.
I dont see the point in this, the tweets and how she conducts herself speaks for itself, but i will say its good for views though.
if you want to bury it then stop talking about it....take care.
My point is that people are villain-izing Price while extolling the virtues of MO, when it's quite possible they both suck and we don't know much more than we're presented on Reddit and Twitter.
but.... we have solid evidence that Price "sucks" and apart from some hearsay from other ex-employees, MO seems to be a solid player. When he starts openly abusing his customers and community on twitter then we can talk "equivalence".
The two articles your team have written on this topic have been really disappointing, for some reason trying to sugar coat despicable behaviour and presenting a very skewed version of events. Very dishonest. Reminds me of the Charlottesville "bad people on both sides" type of deflection from reality.
What she said was crass, from a PR standpoint. If she was "speaking for the company" - I don't know, the line gets a bit blurred there. I thought she was on her personal twitter handle, not an official ANet handle - which should count for something. Losing their jobs may be a bit much, but I can also understand where ANet didn't want to alienate a playerbase over the personal comments of a developer.
On the other hand - I don't understand why she felt the need to bring up that she was a woman? She does have her name in the news a bit, she's not a complete unknown in certain circles so it wouldn't be hard to find out... But... but the conversation that I saw didn't have anything to do with sexism or race or sexuality or anything else, it was just about writing games. It was, from what I can see, Jessica that deliberately and definitely took it to that place. And that was the line that got crossed, in my mind.
She may get frustrated, it's easy to armchair quarterback or backseat drive or whatever you want to call it, when you aren't the one in the hotseat. But Jessica took that slight in the wrong direction. She may not have deserved to get fired over it, but something had to be done by ANet, I don't think doing nothing was the right answer. I could see a few weeks leave (maybe paid but that part kept out of the release) and privately offer therapy/counseling if they wanted to keep her around. But I can also just see getting rid of her as being the easy option, and I don't necessarily fault ANet for going that way.
The other guy.. yeah. That was just housekeeping on ANets part there. I agree with that one even less, but again, I don't think ANet could just sit back and do nothing, or just leave Jessica out to dry by herself.
It's not good PR for ANet any which way you look at it. Jessica screwed up, I don't think there's any doubt about that. The other guy amplified it, which certainly didn't help. It probably would have been a minor wrinkle and maybe warrant a post over here from the Anti-GW2 "OMG IT ISN"T GW1 part duex" crowd, but that's just speculation and it's hard to say which way it could go -- all it takes is the right person picking it up on the right media and *poof* it's viral with severe ramifications. With the firing it becomes an editorial on the front page, hits out on Kotaku, and gets a lot more public, but at least ANet is more in control of the narrative there. I don't think there was any way to keep this completely silent... maybe cutting out the cancer is the fastest way to recovery, but it sure seems like a bitter pill to have to swallow.
Bottom line - I'm still playing GW2. I may even go out and buy some Gems tonight to support them. Jessica was a talented developer, but she has a chip on her shoulder (probably rightly so, I won't deny that much) and she just reacted very inappropriately to something that I didn't see in that discussion. ANet has a pile of crap to deal with, because of her direct action, and they are trying their best to shovel that out and clean up the mess.
This shouldn't even be controversial. The fastest way to get fired at any company is to disrespect customers. That is what JP did. That is why she was fired. End of story.
I don't think it's that simple in this case. And then why was Fries fired? He was, for all I can surmise, loved by both fans and AN employees. Just to CYA and not get a law-suit for discrimination perhaps? The whole thing stinks, and has potential implications for devs at all companies moving forward.
In Fries' case, and only Fries' case, there is room for a gray area. He was not openly and directly disrespectful to customers. However, his firing was not without grounds. He did defend and support the actions of someone who was disrespectful to customers. He did openly imply that a community lore expert - someone with more knowledge of the universe's story workings than Price, by the way - was a layman. He did contradict Anet's community feedback policy and imply that customer feedback was not asked for. That last point alone is sufficient grounds for firing.
However, it isn't Fries that you, or any other media outlet, are rallying around. Fries isn't getting extensive articles to defend himself. No, it is Price, the one who completely and undeniably earned her firing, who has been made into a martyr.
The only thing that would have made this a PR blunder is if they hadn't got fired. Appropriate action was taken...which means no blunder. I work for the government and even less would have got me fired.
I just have no sympathy for people like her. With as much of this stuff that goes on with social media these days..surely she was smart enough to know better...or maybe not.
I think the only ones believing an internet mob can get someone fired aren't really paying attention to anything but this particular instance to build that narrative, and ignoring or downplaying the facts of Price's behavior to do so.
Before giving her the victim card the following should have been posted as well:
1) The original tweets, (I read them all) and it would show the opposite of why the games media is giving her the victim card and they are archived so if you do some digging you would find them.
2) She has a prior history of posting nasty, hate filled comments before (e.g. Total Biscuits passing from terminal cancer) and a slew of others.
3) The person involved was a sponsored streamer of Arenanet. who just wanted a civil and respectful conversation and had a different point of view that might have brought up something the could be beneficial to improve the game or at least the industry if she gave him the time of day and listened. at no point he was being aggressive towards her, or "Mansplaining" anything.
4) the nitwit (Yes, i am calling him that for actions taken) should have kept his mouth shut and she dug her own grave and then she dragged him into it. I can understand backing up people, but when people are wrong they should stand on their own and deal with it themselves.
All in all the games media gave her a free victim card for her wrongdoing, and everyone else is suppose to accept it? well I am not accepting it and neither should anyone else as it was wrong to reward her for actions she took.
The narrative on Kotaku on the issue was completely bias against Anet. It was a one-sided bashing of the company in favor of Price so they had no control of the narrative.
Oh I agree with that one - won't say it's perfect, and there is no completely controlling the situation.
Then again, Kotaku would take that stance: they do continue to employ one of the key players (Nathan Grayson). And he happened to be the one to write the article covering ANet and Jessica...
In business the is rule that customers is always right. When said employee insult their customers base said employee should be terminate with out question. in this case the employer did right move, by keep said employee you distance your customer base and make them want to leave this could lose large source of money a game is about make money. JP act quite stuck up because she use her position to build her political view.
Comments
How it works at some bigger companies, is fire all involved. It gets rid of the problem in every possible way, and makes it so there isn't any possibility of issues arising again. We had a situation at my last job, where someone went to HR regarding something and 5 people got fired, only 2 of which were actually guilty of anything, the other 3 just had an opinion they were voicing. I mean you can always go back and fight it legally, but who knows how that will turn out.
We don't know how the internal workings of ANet are, we don't know how either of these employees acted internally, maybe Peter was saying some things that scared them, and they wanted to eliminate the problem. Knee jerk reactions are super common in all industries.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
However, if I were in that position, depending upon the specific content of Fries' comments, I would have considered a lesser reprimand. Specifically (and I know, hindsight is 20/20) considering MO is getting grilled as allowing gender roles to color his decision anyways. If Fries wasn't confrontational with customers as Price was (though I get the feeling he may have been from those who say they saw his comments), and he didn't have an internal record of corrective action being needed, I think a lesser punishment would've been more appropriate.
But again, I didn't get to read the tweets that have, apparently, now been deleted. Their content would dictate a lot in how the company should (and seemingly did) react.
Gaming developers are unfortunately the target of VAST amounts of unwarranted flame & toxicity, but the blame falls squarely on her shoulders in this instance, and the following actions were entirely justified.
These distinct fact remains:
1) She took polite, well thought out feedback from a discussion she initiated and not only responded in an unnecessarily confrontational but toxic way.
2) She unjustly attempted to besmirch a valued member and partner of the community under the guise of sexual bias. As someone who considers myself a feminist, and have actively seen my mother and two sisters struggle with this, there is NOTHING more detrimental to that cause then the way she handled herself. It IS NOT a tool to be used whenever someone disagrees with you, and it IS NOT a tool to be used to attempt to shame someone unjustly. It's a disservice to an extremely legitimate & growing cause. Never mind the fact that this is extremely disgusting when you think of repercussions that could have fallen on Delroir due her carelessly throwing out accusations regarding him.
3) SHE attempted to invoke and manipulate Mob Mentality, as much as the writer's bias in recent articles regarding this incident may want to make it seem the other way around. SHE was the one who created a PUBLIC post on a MASSIVE PUBLIC SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLET in an attempt to publicly garner attention and shame towards Derior. Her and her alone DESIRED to take advantage of mob mentality. We cannot scream victim when something she attempted before anyone doesn't work in her favor.
4) The actions taken were entirely justified in her instance. We can throw whatever strawman arguments we want out where "Well well if someone else in Arenanet did bad stuff would they get fired?". The fact of the matter is they didn't do bad stuff so speculation of how a nonexistent event is unnecessary. (UNLESS I am unaware of another event which I'm currently ignorant too, which by all means call me out on that.)
I do agree with alot of your statements however.
You are correct at least in my opinion that she has largely been the target of unfair, biased criticism and harassment against her, but a "Do nothing" approach when employees act out isn't the correct course of action.
I would however like to see AN implement something akin to a "Therapy/Training" hybrid sort of program, to help identify and help employees deal with these sort of things. It's a nasty truth but these sort of things will likely ALWAYS occur. If they can better equip and help them navigate it (Despite it NOT being a factor in this specific instance), it's the best thing they can do to stand by their employees.
I also agree Peter should not have been fired in this instance as well.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
I'm going to assuming you can't go into details, but then why write an article about it doing the same thing...you get what i mean. Its kinda hypercritical, maybe .. casually rude?.
I dont see the point in this, the tweets and how she conducts herself speaks for itself, but i will say its good for views though.
if you want to bury it then stop talking about it....take care.
However, Mike O'brien likely had to fire him for his involvement to avoid a gender discrimination law suit from Jessica should he had remained with the company while she didn't. It was a difficult decision to make and of that I am sure. Mike O Brien is definitely held still in utmost high regard with the guild wars fanbase and I advise the article writer to read the other side of this story instead of following Polygon solely and that of Jessica Price who has shown immense flaw in decision making and has still not admitted any mistake or guilt in this.
Another thing to note Bill Murphy is I remember a article here celebrating what TotalBiscuit did for the gaming community and yet you are here writing an article of a person that was GLAD to hear of his passing when he unfortunately lost his battle with cancer. Christ sake. Think on what kind of person does that and whether you are able to take all accountability in what she says seriously.
Remember also that an innocent question was made that in no way represented any ignorance or questions of her ability but a question a individual fan decided to share with her on a matter he obviously cared about since he's playing the game she worked on. Yet she responded with hate, insult and instantly blocked him to dare enter a conversation about what she said. Really, Bille?
@BillMurphy Take a look at this. And please go on the Reddit and listen to what people have to say and not the words of Jessica Price who has yet to give any names of former ArenaNet employees that supposedly agree with her.
https://imgur.com/a/4Bkja8E @BillMurphy @SBFord
My point is that people are villain-izing Price while extolling the virtues of MO, when it's quite possible they both suck and we don't know much more than we're presented on Reddit and Twitter.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Hah you too Bill!
Discussion are healthy, and you guys have largely created environments conducive towards being informed & discussing a wide variety of topics within the realm of the games we love.
Thank you guys for all you do, and I sympathize with the unwarranted hate and flame you gus get on the daily!
I'm okay with this.
Your article was very well written and offered valid points that made me think so thank you for the fresh perspective! I completely agree this situation has blown up into a bigger discussion then it needed to be. I’ve been following the official thread on the GW2 forums and you really can see the worst kind of people stepping out of the shadows. If we can encourage people to have a respectful and focused dialogue (like the one on this comments section so far) instead of personal attacks, change can actually happen.
I think in this case, it would have been prudent to walk away and not reply. Move on to another question.
OR
She could have created the dialog in a manner that you accept the disagreement. Two people don't have to walk away out of a discussion with the same opinion. It's ok to walk away disagreeing but it allows both sides to try to see the perspective of the other side.
That being said, while not being intimately familiar the different articles I've read implies a chip on her shoulder to begin with. And then, a community that's fairly... toxic, poking that wound.
And now, they think they have power to fire anyone at the company which is a problem. Especially given they are the vocal minority.
The other guy getting fired should have just privately agreed and moved on.
I find it funny that the person who wrote this ised extreme examples of tweets that would damage a company. Lol spouting nazi rhetoric or spewing racist memes certsinly are damaging if representing a company. But theres a billion other offenses via social media that could damage a company like what we are seeing with jessica price. This article seems like the write is captializing on the drama and didnt full research the issue at hand. Context adds alot like her TB tweet. Btw this could have all been solved if jessica took the righr actions and privatized her account and/or took off arena net from his twitter profile.
If anyone thinks that she could do that and stay, think about your own colleges in all the places you have been over the years, would anyone have been able to do that and not get the sack? Bear in mind as well you would have heard that she has a history of such behaviour.
Peter Fries seems less at fault because we have seen less, I except it is the companies remit to fire him without us knowing all the details. We have no "right to know".
They did not need to tweet to do their jobs, they could have kept that off Twitter. Twitter is a mob waiting to throw stones at the next victim. There are people who post as part of their jobs, what about people like the staff on MMORPG, they say things on posts...with the way social media can pick that sort of thing up, glad I have never had a job like that!
I think professionals need to realise that Twitter is for drama, emotional rants and outbusts. Leave your work at the office.
but.... we have solid evidence that Price "sucks" and apart from some hearsay from other ex-employees, MO seems to be a solid player. When he starts openly abusing his customers and community on twitter then we can talk "equivalence".
The two articles your team have written on this topic have been really disappointing, for some reason trying to sugar coat despicable behaviour and presenting a very skewed version of events. Very dishonest. Reminds me of the Charlottesville "bad people on both sides" type of deflection from reality.
On the other hand - I don't understand why she felt the need to bring up that she was a woman? She does have her name in the news a bit, she's not a complete unknown in certain circles so it wouldn't be hard to find out... But... but the conversation that I saw didn't have anything to do with sexism or race or sexuality or anything else, it was just about writing games. It was, from what I can see, Jessica that deliberately and definitely took it to that place. And that was the line that got crossed, in my mind.
She may get frustrated, it's easy to armchair quarterback or backseat drive or whatever you want to call it, when you aren't the one in the hotseat. But Jessica took that slight in the wrong direction. She may not have deserved to get fired over it, but something had to be done by ANet, I don't think doing nothing was the right answer. I could see a few weeks leave (maybe paid but that part kept out of the release) and privately offer therapy/counseling if they wanted to keep her around. But I can also just see getting rid of her as being the easy option, and I don't necessarily fault ANet for going that way.
The other guy.. yeah. That was just housekeeping on ANets part there. I agree with that one even less, but again, I don't think ANet could just sit back and do nothing, or just leave Jessica out to dry by herself.
It's not good PR for ANet any which way you look at it. Jessica screwed up, I don't think there's any doubt about that. The other guy amplified it, which certainly didn't help. It probably would have been a minor wrinkle and maybe warrant a post over here from the Anti-GW2 "OMG IT ISN"T GW1 part duex" crowd, but that's just speculation and it's hard to say which way it could go -- all it takes is the right person picking it up on the right media and *poof* it's viral with severe ramifications. With the firing it becomes an editorial on the front page, hits out on Kotaku, and gets a lot more public, but at least ANet is more in control of the narrative there. I don't think there was any way to keep this completely silent... maybe cutting out the cancer is the fastest way to recovery, but it sure seems like a bitter pill to have to swallow.
Bottom line - I'm still playing GW2. I may even go out and buy some Gems tonight to support them. Jessica was a talented developer, but she has a chip on her shoulder (probably rightly so, I won't deny that much) and she just reacted very inappropriately to something that I didn't see in that discussion. ANet has a pile of crap to deal with, because of her direct action, and they are trying their best to shovel that out and clean up the mess.
However, it isn't Fries that you, or any other media outlet, are rallying around. Fries isn't getting extensive articles to defend himself. No, it is Price, the one who completely and undeniably earned her firing, who has been made into a martyr.
1) The original tweets, (I read them all) and it would show the opposite of why the games media is giving her the victim card and they are archived so if you do some digging you would find them.
2) She has a prior history of posting nasty, hate filled comments before (e.g. Total Biscuits passing from terminal cancer) and a slew of others.
3) The person involved was a sponsored streamer of Arenanet. who just wanted a civil and respectful conversation and had a different point of view that might have brought up something the could be beneficial to improve the game or at least the industry if she gave him the time of day and listened. at no point he was being aggressive towards her, or "Mansplaining" anything.
4) the nitwit (Yes, i am calling him that for actions taken) should have kept his mouth shut and she dug her own grave and then she dragged him into it. I can understand backing up people, but when people are wrong they should stand on their own and deal with it themselves.
All in all the games media gave her a free victim card for her wrongdoing, and everyone else is suppose to accept it? well I am not accepting it and neither should anyone else as it was wrong to reward her for actions she took.
Then again, Kotaku would take that stance: they do continue to employ one of the key players (Nathan Grayson). And he happened to be the one to write the article covering ANet and Jessica...