GW 2 Devs/Playerbase Twitter Discussion

[Batelle.1680]

> @"Menoitios.8375" said:

 

> 3. He did not "mainsplain", it's called constructive criticism. If you cannot accept constructive criticism as a professional then you are done growing as a professional.

 

It wasn't constructive criticism, it was "hey, here's a possible solution [suggests thing that is extremely common and anyone who has any experience in game development would be aware of]!"

[Menoitios.8375]

> @"Batelle.1680" said:

> > @"Menoitios.8375" said:

>

> > 3. He did not "mainsplain", it's called constructive criticism. If you cannot accept constructive criticism as a professional then you are done growing as a professional.

>

> It wasn't constructive criticism, it was "hey, here's a possible solution [suggests thing that is extremely common and anyone who has any experience in game development would be aware of]!"

 

First of all, common sense is not so common. What you might consider extremely common may be very uncommon to someone else. That is nothing but confirmation bias and opinion.

 

Secondly, he pointed out something that he as a consumer thought would make the story more engaging after she basically said it's impossible to do. That IS constructive criticism. If you cannot accept constructive criticism are you really a professional? I say this last bit because no professional retorts to constructive criticism in the manner that she did, she had several options at her disposal and chose the objectively worst one to take. Instead of reacting the way she did (and this has been stated several times everywhere talking about this) she could have not responded at all, ignored him, blocked him, closed Twitter and enjoyed her holiday, said why it wasn't possible, or even said that she will bring it up with her superiors negating all responsibility to answer him.

[Walhalla.5473]

> @"Zabi Zabi.3561" said:

> > @"IndigoSundown.5419" said:

> > There's only one winner in this situation:

> >

> > + Not Ms. Price: She lost her job, which might have added to her stress.

> > + Not Mr. Fries: He lost his job which he seems to have valued.

> > + Not ANet management: at best they've acted in the way that was less of a loss, but no matter what they did, some group was going to be unhappy with them.

> > + Not ANet staff: this kind of situation is going to have repercussions and effect staff's sense of camaraderie.

> > + Not Deroir: though by comparison, his loss is almost not worth mentioning, this situation has got to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

> > + Not the GW2 community: some are satisfied with ANet's reaction, some are not, but the affair has highlighted the divides between us more than any other interaction I've followed.

> >

> > The winner? The winner is people who like watching things burn.

> >

> > That means we all lost.

>

> Price would have been hazardous to the company if she was kept around and kept insulting the PLAYER BASE OF THE GAME AND COMPANY SHE WORKED FOR!

>

> Anet did the right thing by putting the COMMUNITY OF THE GAME FIRST before TOXIC EMPLOYEES!

>

> So the true winners are Anet, and the Community.

>

> Some will have disagreeing opinions and will probably leave the game HOWEVER! I have noticed more new players coming in and that's a good thing!

 

I disagree. There are no true winners here. I am glad that Anet reacted so quickly to make sure that this PR debacle doesn't get out of hand. But seeing people getting fired is not something I will celebrate. I can see why this had to happen and I can see the logic behind it from a business standpoint ( and we should all try to see it from that ), but I was really surprised by how it was handled even though what JP did can be a valid reason for instant termination ( And I would say quite a few companies see it that way ).

 

Anet was thrown into a bad situation at a very bad time when the staff was celebrating the 4th of july. There was no way for anet to turn that thing down now after it that the desaster was brewing for a day, without some dire consequences. Their reputation will be damaged no matter what they would do. The only thing that Anet could do was to minimize that damage. There was no real good solution there, especially now with someone who was working a very long time for the company and being loved by devs and players alike getting canned. I guess the work moral right now is completely destroyed and it will take some time to recover from that.

 

Again, there is no win here. Everyone just lost.

[Mil.3562]

Looking at this whole faisco, regardless of what is right and what is wrong, I couldn't help but feeling sad when people lost their jobs because of their comments in a social media platform ;_;

 

A little off topic here. I read a lot of the word 'sexism' being mentioned. Despite my using the same female names on all my 5 characters, I am still being called dude and bro. I lost count of the number of times i have to tell my guildlies or players in the community that I am a girl IRL and always getting the same ' yah sure ' sarcastic replies. Nowadays I stop correcting them.

 

Why just because many guys play female toons in mmo, there are no real female players? Is this considered sexism too?

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Batelle.1680" said:

> > @"Menoitios.8375" said:

>

> > 3. He did not "mainsplain", it's called constructive criticism. If you cannot accept constructive criticism as a professional then you are done growing as a professional.

>

> It wasn't constructive criticism, it was "hey, here's a possible solution [suggests thing that is extremely common and anyone who has any experience in game development would be aware of]!"

 

Someone has done some googling and found a certain journo's supposed "this must be right" explanation of the whole sorry affair... nice one.

 

I respectfully disagree, as an "amateur" as JP liked to point out, deroir, like me or most likely anyone not from the same line of work as JP offered his own insight, opinions, views/challenges whatever you want to decide to call it at a level his own thought process was able to offer .. basic maybe for JP and other devs in the know, but that's to be expected when placing yourself into a public domain where not everyone has that "pro" experience of this field.

To therefore react the way she did showed a serious lack of respect for the community but also the company she chose to represent when deciding to place said pro tip SA onto the internet for our consumption and critique.

Shifting blame wont wash here and ANET seemingly felt the same way.

[Melody.7493]

> @"Menoitios.8375" said:

> > @"Melody.7493" said:

> > Yes she maybe misinterpreted a comment and overreacted. But that's why she's employed as a creative and not public relations. Ultimately 1) it was her personal twitter account, 2) she didn't harm anyone & 3) the exchange did not escalate.

> > A slap on the wrist and warning would have been appropriate. Firing 2 employees?

> > Internet people are always out for blood; they're anonymous and disconnected from consequences. Legitimising this sort of mentality is divisive and dangerous.

> >

>

> 1. It stopped being her personal twitter account after she labeled herself in the bio as a Narrative Writer at ArenaNet AND posted a topic about her work on a public forum as an employee of ArenaNet.

> 2. Didn't harm anyone? She publicly put him on blast as sexist when he was being very polite, that's like yelling racist at someone for no reason, it's just unacceptable.

>

> ArenaNet did not legitimize any sort of mentality, they held two adults responsible for their actions. Nothing more, nothing less, we can only assume what went on behind closed doors and we do not need those details. If you didn't want them held accountable for their actions they are the ones who would truly be "disconnected from consequences".

 

The point I was trying to get at was that ultimately punishment should be proportionate to the offence. In this case I hadn't heard about the offence, yet the punishment made my news feed. What the staff in question did was rude for sure, not to mention that bringing gender issues up so easily is unhelpful to the feminist cause. But humans are not perfect machines, we fuck up and offend people. When this happens it should all the more reason to open dialogue and find ways to reconcile. When we cut a person off and reject not just their views but the person themselves, we are essentially diving the world into people we agree with, and people we don't, instead of finding common ground. And this applies to ALL sides of politics.

[Menoitios.8375]

> @"Mil.3562" said:

> Looking at this whole faisco, regardless of what is right and what is wrong, I couldn't help but feeling sad when people lost their jobs because of their comments in a social media platform ;_;

>

> A little off topic here. I read a lot of the word 'sexism' being mentioned here. Despite my using the same female names on all my 5 characters, I am still being called dude and bro. I lost count of the number of times i have to tell my guildlies or players in the community that I am a girl IRL and always getting the same ' yah sure ' sarcasm ' replies. Nowadays I stop correcting them.

>

> Why just because many guys play female toons in mmo, there are no real female players? Is this considered sexism too?

 

Honestly, a lot of people likely use bro as an endearing term for friends. Not as a "you are a man" term.

 

As for dude, that has been gender neutral since the '90s. I will point you to look up 'We're All Dudes' performed by Less Than Jake featuring Kel Mitchell from the Good Burger soundtrack.

 

To quote the aforementioned song:

"I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, we're all dudes, hey!"

 

Edit: To add to the "bro" part at the beginning of this post: I have several female friends that play video games and they use "bro" a lot more than my male friends, this is just anecdotal so take it with a pinch of salt but this terminology is widely used online.

[Zabi Zabi.3561]

You know its a big deal when SidAlpha has to join in on the discussion... so... let us hear what he has to say about the whole thing

 

PS: he also provides sources in his video

 

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=mJkJYEnD5eI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJkJYEnD5eI "https://youtube.com/watch?v=mJkJYEnD5eI")

[Faux Play.6104]

Ironically Lord Helseth was the most popular streamer for GW2. He consistently trashed followers, the community, and people that criticized him. I guess game developers are easier to replace than top players. That's the difference between peasants and kings.

[Menoitios.8375]

> @"Melody.7493" said:

> > @"Menoitios.8375" said:

> > > @"Melody.7493" said:

> > > Yes she maybe misinterpreted a comment and overreacted. But that's why she's employed as a creative and not public relations. Ultimately 1) it was her personal twitter account, 2) she didn't harm anyone & 3) the exchange did not escalate.

> > > A slap on the wrist and warning would have been appropriate. Firing 2 employees?

> > > Internet people are always out for blood; they're anonymous and disconnected from consequences. Legitimising this sort of mentality is divisive and dangerous.

> > >

> >

> > 1. It stopped being her personal twitter account after she labeled herself in the bio as a Narrative Writer at ArenaNet AND posted a topic about her work on a public forum as an employee of ArenaNet.

> > 2. Didn't harm anyone? She publicly put him on blast as sexist when he was being very polite, that's like yelling racist at someone for no reason, it's just unacceptable.

> >

> > ArenaNet did not legitimize any sort of mentality, they held two adults responsible for their actions. Nothing more, nothing less, we can only assume what went on behind closed doors and we do not need those details. If you didn't want them held accountable for their actions they are the ones who would truly be "disconnected from consequences".

>

> The point I was trying to get at was that ultimately punishment should be proportionate to the offence. In this case I hadn't heard about the offence, yet the punishment made my news feed. What the staff in question did was rude for sure, not to mention that bringing gender issues up so easily is unhelpful to the feminist cause. But humans are not perfect machines, we kitten up and offend people. When this happens it should all the more reason to open dialogue and find ways to reconcile. When we cut a person off and reject not just their views but the person themselves, we are essentially diving the world into people we agree with, and people we don't, instead of finding common ground. And this applies to ALL sides of politics.

 

Now, I am not disagreeing with you on this, was just trying to shed some light on it. Also, we need to try and consider any X factors we as a community are not aware of (ie. how things were behind closed doors, what was said to her via management, etc), we frankly don't have the whole picture and likely never will. That being said, regardless of her views, that is not how you treat another person trying to offer constructive criticism and civil discourse (or at all for that matter).

[RoseofGilead.8907]

> @"Menoitios.8375" said:

> As for dude, that has been gender neutral since the '90s. I will point you to look up 'We're All Dudes' performed by Less Than Jake featuring Kel Mitchell from the Good Burger soundtrack.

>

> To quote the aforementioned song:

> "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, we're all dudes, hey!"

 

This earworm is really the only thing about this thread that I love. Thank you for that. <3

[Menoitios.8375]

> @"RoseofGilead.8907" said:

> > @"Menoitios.8375" said:

> > As for dude, that has been gender neutral since the '90s. I will point you to look up 'We're All Dudes' performed by Less Than Jake featuring Kel Mitchell from the Good Burger soundtrack.

> >

> > To quote the aforementioned song:

> > "I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, we're all dudes, hey!"

>

> This earworm is really the only thing about this thread that I love. Thank you for that. <3

 

You're welcome!

[Ephemiel.5694]

So many white knights now that don't know how businesses work that say that Anet did wrong in firing her, hilarious really.

[Melody.7493]

 

> A little off topic here. I read a lot of the word 'sexism' being mentioned. Despite my using the same female names on all my 5 characters, I am still being called dude and bro. I lost count of the number of times i have to tell my guildlies or players in the community that I am a girl IRL and always getting the same ' yah sure ' sarcastic replies. Nowadays I stop correcting them.

>

> Why just because many guys play female toons in mmo, there are no real female players? Is this considered sexism too?

I think it's partly because female players are less likely to speak up about being female, which gives the impression that there aren't as many as there are. It almost feels like if you say "I'm a girl" or correct people when they gender you wrong, you're trying to be a special snowflake or something. Also it feels hard trying to bring even the smallest amount of feminism into mapchat because of all the trolls. It's easier to just keep your gender to yourself, which probably contributes to the problem of women not having much of a presence in mmos.

 

[BobTheJanitor.4936]

What an awful decision. Never spending another dime on your products.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Walhalla.5473" said:

> > @"Zabi Zabi.3561" said:

> > > @"IndigoSundown.5419" said:

> > > There's only one winner in this situation:

> > >

> > > + Not Ms. Price: She lost her job, which might have added to her stress.

> > > + Not Mr. Fries: He lost his job which he seems to have valued.

> > > + Not ANet management: at best they've acted in the way that was less of a loss, but no matter what they did, some group was going to be unhappy with them.

> > > + Not ANet staff: this kind of situation is going to have repercussions and effect staff's sense of camaraderie.

> > > + Not Deroir: though by comparison, his loss is almost not worth mentioning, this situation has got to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

> > > + Not the GW2 community: some are satisfied with ANet's reaction, some are not, but the affair has highlighted the divides between us more than any other interaction I've followed.

> > >

> > > The winner? The winner is people who like watching things burn.

> > >

> > > That means we all lost.

> >

> > Price would have been hazardous to the company if she was kept around and kept insulting the PLAYER BASE OF THE GAME AND COMPANY SHE WORKED FOR!

> >

> > Anet did the right thing by putting the COMMUNITY OF THE GAME FIRST before TOXIC EMPLOYEES!

> >

> > So the true winners are Anet, and the Community.

> >

> > Some will have disagreeing opinions and will probably leave the game HOWEVER! I have noticed more new players coming in and that's a good thing!

>

> I disagree. There are no true winners here. I am glad that Anet reacted so quickly to make sure that this PR debacle doesn't get out of hand. But seeing people getting fired is not something I will celebrate. I can see why this had to happen and I can see the logic behind it from a business standpoint ( and we should all try to see it from that ), but I was really surprised by how it was handled even though what JP did can be a valid reason for instant termination ( And I would say quite a few companies see it that way ).

>

> Anet was thrown into a bad situation at a very bad time when the staff was celebrating the 4th of july. There was no way for anet to turn that thing down now after it that the desaster was brewing for a day, without some dire consequences. Their reputation will be damaged no matter what they would do. The only thing that Anet could do was to minimize that damage. There was no real good solution there, especially now with someone who was working a very long time for the company and being loved by devs and players alike getting canned. I guess the work moral right now is completely destroyed and it will take some time to recover from that.

>

> Again, there is no win here. Everyone just lost.

 

I don't think its a case of celebrating but more about acknowledging the fact that actions have consequences and ANET acted on it accordingly.. we do not know the full extent of what went on internally but actions were taken based on specific company criteria, not some half baked " your fired reality game show situation.

Those that do choose to go out and throw a celebration on this are just trolls.. many of the posts I have read and similarly posted myself are not for celebratory purpose but to voice opinion and either support of or disdain of the actions and reactions of JP, the community and ANET.

 

Your right though, its not nice to see people fired, I have never liked doing it and thankfully I have only had to do it once in my own company, but I am sure ANET had pretty clear guidelines of communication and JP failed to act appropriately.

 

It is also true in that no one has won anything here.. the community made a clear statement that the kind of aggressive unwarranted behaviour was poor form, ANET have made a clear statement on the matter, something they didn't have to do, but at the same time ANET has lost 2 experienced employees which will undoubtedly set them and the game back and put a little more squeeze on the teams to fill the voids at least in the short term. Lastly not one employee met with consequence to JP's actions but 2 did and that for me is the part I feel would warrant revisiting, if both ANET and PF were open to it... then again as I have said, we just don't know the internals of it all.

[Khalaq.4072]

Once upon a time, people were held accountable for their actions and words. Their behavior was molded and guided by their parents and families, and a person's honor and standing within society was largely influenced by how he or she treated others. Success was something for which to strive, and any hurdles one might face in the process of living were to be overcome and chalked up to experience. It was understood that "nobody owes you anything," so people worked hard to get what they wanted. They generally acknowledged that, while Life itself was not "fair," human beings could endeavor to be fair in their dealings with others. Ultimately, each person was responsible for him or herself, and therefore held accountable for his or her own behavior. If a person wanted to "relax and misbehave," they did it in private because they knew they would get called on it were they to behave so in public.

 

Unfortunately, not all of us learned these things growing up.

 

In the current social climate which predominates in Western cultures, some believe they are entitled to certain things, even going so far as to assume that having them is a "right." They make their own judgements about what is "fair" or not, and they demand everyone else accept their view of things or face their wrath. Quite often, you will see these people refuse to take personal responsibility for what they say and do, and they are shocked and surprised when faced with repercussions. In short, too many people behave like small children. While children are driven by their wants and desires, adults are driven by personal responsibility. Adults exercise self-control and restraint, doing what they need to do without regard as to how they feel about it.

 

What happened was a very public matter, not a private one. Some may say that "it was only a mistake," but people are and should be held accountable for their mistakes. That is the only way we learn that there are limits to our behavior and lines that should not be crossed. Who is to blame? The parents who failed to teach acceptable behavior to their children and allowed them to go through life without demanding they "grow up." By doing so, they have done their children a great disservice.

 

Everyone is free to do or say dumb things, but no one should expect such behavior to be free of consequence.

[DeceiverX.8361]

> @"Melody.7493" said:

>

> > A little off topic here. I read a lot of the word 'sexism' being mentioned. Despite my using the same female names on all my 5 characters, I am still being called dude and bro. I lost count of the number of times i have to tell my guildlies or players in the community that I am a girl IRL and always getting the same ' yah sure ' sarcastic replies. Nowadays I stop correcting them.

> >

> > Why just because many guys play female toons in mmo, there are no real female players? Is this considered sexism too?

> I think it's partly because female players are less likely to speak up about being female, which gives the impression that there aren't as many as there are. It almost feels like if you say "I'm a girl" or correct people when they gender you wrong, you're trying to be a special snowflake or something. Also it feels hard trying to bring even the smallest amount of feminism into mapchat because of all the trolls. It's easier to just keep your gender to yourself, which probably contributes to the problem of women not having much of a presence in mmos.

>

 

I recall a few years ago the company who made Runescape doing an internal study which pointed to like a 60/40 male/female avatar split (and that was with a game with very low-polygon female avatars and modest armor) with survey-takers having like a 90/10 male/female split in reality. There's a long history in MMO's of dudes pretending to be women for free favors, items, status, etc. It's unfortunately a pretty vicious cycle as it deters a lot of women from playing or getting involved "seriously" in the community, which further deters more women from doing so.

 

The number of female players has probably increased in proportion over the years, but it's definitely male-dominated, and there are a lot of men who play female characters. I have several because GW2 has great character customization and I could thus port my D&D characters to 3D quite well, but never claim to be a girl behind the keyboard.

 

There is a sexism problem in gaming. Really. It's subtle more than anything, but it does exist, and it's more or less exclusive to competitive/PvP with games becoming less "hardcore." Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to really make it any better except to allow for women who are at the top of the boards to get the respect they deserve. My PvP guild's leader is a woman (married to the other co-leader and I sit third in command) who is absolutely bloodthirsty on the battlefield, but we play in a very walled-off method because we're so tightly-knit. Thing is, you can't fix this problem by trying to force it to get better. If you look at a lot of the women's-only esports teams, they all suck. Not because they're women. It's just that the rest of the pro organizations are taking the top players indiscriminately, and because the number of men in competitive play as a whole vastly outnumber the women, the culture for men to "get good" is much more enforced than for women; the top players are statistically likely to be male and culturally shaped to be as good at the game as possible versus just celebrating being happy there are women around. Instances of trying to force women into the pro scene are always met with frustrations, because people near the top but not quite there get jealous and pissed off about preferential biases. This then reinforces negative stigmas, especially when they proceed to get obliterated by the teams that are just simply better players.

 

And it all funnels back into a feedback loop such that women feel intimidated of trying to compete.

 

There are strides being made, which is good, as I believe one of the OWL players is a girl. We need to encourage women to play games and foster the desire to play competitively as men are shaped to do (and earn their places in the top spots) to break the sexism by proving the naysayers wrong, rather than trying to force the issue. Unlike conventional sports where biology plays a huge factor in things, there's no biological reason for women not to be able to compete with guys in the digitl landscape, which is big to potentially breaking down a lot of this problem.

 

 

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Sanity Obscure.6054" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > I DO NOT CARE what someone does on their own time, nor should anyone else but that person, even the employer should not care what that person does on their own PERSONAL time, but we as a society have forgotten how to separate work from personal time...that is what work hours are for, so those people unable to tell the difference can.

>

> Free speech and having your own time to express yourself are absolutely a necessity of life, but most jobs have clear guidelines about what you can post on social media, and for good reason. If you are the type to deride your customers, speak badly about your employers, or end up in the news for ill reasons, they will think twice before hiring you.

>

> This is why just about any job that isn't minimum wage will background check or even have a private investigator research you (at least here in the states.) Again they will want to ensure that you are have integrity and are not quick to anger, because you can damage their brand/message/cause and drive off customers and clients.

 

I live in the States too, California to be exact, but I never signed a contract at my job, I'm not a contract employee...I'm an hourly employee...and I've passed a DoD(Department of Defense) background check, they're not as hard to pass as people think they are. Speaking on a public forum about customers and your employer is not going to get you on the news...so that's a moot point, the only way to get on the news is doing something against the law or extremely outside the norms that would warrant it being newsworthy. Posting something on your personal public social media platform against a customer or your employer is not going to get the average Joe on the news.

[CETheLucid.3964]

> @"Khalaq.4072" said:

> Everyone is free to do or say dumb things, but no one should expect such behavior to be free of consequence.

/thread

Well said.

[hopper.6830]

> @"Orcagami.5901" said:

> Just want to add to the voices saying that this decision was hastily and poorly executed. The comments were rude to be sure but for the community and the company to escalate it to a fireable offense is disappointing. I had a lot of trust in Anet prior but this rash decision has shattered any confidence in the company. Regardless of your feelings towards JP, this only paints a picture of GW2 to outsiders as intolerant of female devs and those that would stand up for them. All those months of community outreach and this is what GW2 is going to be known for. I can no longer recommend this game in good faith to others if this gets brushed under the rug.

 

I agree -- MO's kneejerk response is hugely disproportionate and clearly an emotionally charged reaction motivated by insecurity in GW2's image. If the devs' behavior was unprofessional, then MO deciding to go straight for the nuclear option is unprofessional to the nth degree. Possibly MO found the way that the devs engaged with the partner streamer was embarrassing to GW2's image, but the shortsightedness in how this was handled has turned into a way bigger embarrassment for the community. This flare up is all non-players or on-the-fence GW2 players are going to remember about the game for a long while. I sink hours into GW2 every day but now the simple act of logging in makes me feel queasy. There are no winners here.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

> @"Faux Play.6104" said:

> Ironically Lord Helseth was the most popular streamer for GW2. He consistently trashed followers, the community, and people that criticized him. I guess game developers are easier to replace than top players. That's the difference between peasants and kings.

 

and for some unknown reasons, many people choose to ignore Helseth and everything he says. Hmmm....

 

he is also a private person. He is not employeed by anet.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

> @"Melody.7493" said:

> Yes she maybe misinterpreted a comment and overreacted. But that's why she's employed as a creative and not public relations. Ultimately 1) it was her personal twitter account, 2) she didn't harm anyone & 3) the exchange did not escalate.

> A slap on the wrist and warning would have been appropriate. Firing 2 employees?

> Internet people are always out for blood; they're anonymous and disconnected from consequences. Legitimising this sort of mentality is divisive and dangerous.

>

 

you should look up some of her earlier twitter posts. The stuff where she is glad somebody died. The stuff where she posts xenophobic crap. It might give you some insight why this instance might have been a moment usually described using words like 'straw', 'breaking' and 'camel's back'.

[twobears.5713]

> @"DeceiverX.8361" said:

 

> There are strides being made, which is good, as I believe one of the OWL players is a girl. We need to encourage women to play games and foster the desire to play competitively as men are shaped to do (and earn their places in the top spots) to break the sexism by proving the naysayers wrong, rather than trying to force the issue. Unlike conventional sports where biology plays a huge factor in things, there's no biological reason for women not to be able to compete with guys in the digitl landscape, which is big to potentially breaking down a lot of this problem.

>

>

 

The reason that you see a higher number of women playing Overwatch, which translates into the rarity of someone like Geguri being found at the highest levels of play, is due to the fact that Blizzard is better at fostering a supportive environment for women and minorities than ANet. I didn't really feel that way until yesterday, where I came back to do some inventory shuffling in DR to find map chat reading like a Breitbart comment section. Blizzard, while hosting its fair share of controversies, seems better at keeping the far right elements that pepper gaming spaces in check. This stands in stark contrast to the situation we see here, where those elements essentially run the show.

[Ephemiel.5694]

> @"hopper.6830" said:

> > @"Orcagami.5901" said:

> > Just want to add to the voices saying that this decision was hastily and poorly executed. The comments were rude to be sure but for the community and the company to escalate it to a fireable offense is disappointing. I had a lot of trust in Anet prior but this rash decision has shattered any confidence in the company. Regardless of your feelings towards JP, this only paints a picture of GW2 to outsiders as intolerant of female devs and those that would stand up for them. All those months of community outreach and this is what GW2 is going to be known for. I can no longer recommend this game in good faith to others if this gets brushed under the rug.

>

> I agree -- MO's kneejerk response is hugely disproportionate and clearly an emotionally charged reaction motivated by insecurity in GW2's image. If the devs' behavior was unprofessional, then MO deciding to go straight for the nuclear option is unprofessional to the nth degree. Possibly MO found the way that the devs engaged with the partner streamer was embarrassing to GW2's image, but the shortsightedness in how this was handled has turned into a way bigger embarrassment for the community. This flare up is all non-players or on-the-fence GW2 players are going to remember about the game for a long while. I sink hours into GW2 every day but now the simple act of logging in makes me feel queasy. There are no winners here.

 

You guys really do not understand how a company works nor how they have to enforce their rules.