GW 2 Devs/Playerbase Twitter Discussion

[Lincolnbeard.1735]

People still bashing the dev for having her own opinions on matters, even if wrong. lul

 

Kind of surprised NA allows to fire someone based on this, well not really, NA is a meme. B)

[Cromag.7195]

The right decision and probably the one viable decision.

 

Twitter is a social media platform. If you in your personal accounts description note that you are a Guild Wars 2 narrative designer, post on your personal account Guild Wars 2 job related content and engage in Guild Wars 2 and job related discussions then you are representing the company in part on your personal account.

 

If you are posting thoughts and essays related to the context of Guild Wars 2 and do not expect or want any form of response, social media might not be the place to do that.

 

If you insult a GW2 Youtube content creator for politely critizing mentioned thoughts or essay it is one thing on social media(one could say a bad day/bad mood moment) and can already damage a company.

 

It is another thing to make it political and start to insult a whole gender of customers with a broad brush and ideological loaded terms. At this point you did make it political and did pull Guild Wars 2 to the fronlline of an ongoing culture war. You start to plant a seed that has the potential shatter/divide a customer base and do considerable damage the company .

 

 

[Komodo.7058]

> @"alaskasnowgirl.6047" said:

> I am also a woman. I have been playing the game for about 4 years now, and several thousand hours playing. I've raided, done more fractals than I can count, and lots more! I've often been the only woman in my groups, not because of some sort of exclusion, but because I don't know a lot of other women as into hard-core raiding and willing to devote 5-6 hours a week at least to clearing content.

> I have never, ever, in my experience of guild wars 2 or any other game been the victim of any sexism whatsoever. I feel like a lot of people are looking for things to INTERPRET as sexism, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. If someone thinks my dps isn't great, they are probably looking at the numbers on their dps reader. If someone is searching for things to possibly interpret as "sexist" then I'm sure they will find them. But the reality is, I, and countless other women who play this amazing game, do not feel victimized at all by any of this. In fact, I was one of the prominent female voices asking for JP to be held accountable.

 

To clear up a misunderstanding, I'm not suggesting I had problems in the GW2 community. I gave my experience with other games for context with games as a whole, to show why GW2 was special to me. Overall, It really is as positive as you're saying, infinitely better than the various VOIP FPS I would play as a teen, which is why it's important to me when other games haven't been. And I actually do appreciate this input, because y'know, there is a lot to appreciate here even with what's been going on and the way I feel about it. That was missing form my post and you were right to point it out.

 

But my experiences with games as a whole have been affected by those worst experiences and those bad actors out there, and it feels really discouraging, because when I try to explain things that have happened just to say "hey, this is out there, maybe we can do something about it" folks are very resistant to that message, or imply I'm lying when I have no reason to. And the forums, map chats & etc have been full of discourse that does bum me out.

 

> As far as the "these devs do not speak for us all" thing that seemed to upset you, that was not about being a woman in gaming at all! That was saying that ANET appreciates customer feedback. The context of that was very clearly that the people who were rude to customers and said they didn't care or like customers or weren't interested in their feedback didn't represent the company.

> I hope that helps explain it. No need to be upset.

 

I respect that's how you feel, but I just disagree. I do think he acted with a blind spot to what factors were at play here, and it's regrettable because it escalated a pre-existing tension that's remained in the industry/consumer base since GG.

 

> @"Loli Ruri.8307" said:

> What do you think would be the solution? I personally think there isn't really enough of the right kind of education for people to be introduced to online spaces, or even how to deal with real life spaces. Bullying has been a part of humanity since humans. I still remember growing up. But the thing is, I never once thought it was because of my gender. In fact, I saw dudes getting crap as well. And what do you know, online spaces isn't far from it. The thing is, there are actual stats out there that show that men tend to bully other men, women tend to bully other women, and occasionally each other. Humans are the problem, and the problem can be resolved with the right information on how to not only handle, but be prepared for such nonsense. Because an illogical attack on you to trigger a response isn't really logical or rational either. It's more an emotional thing. But if somebody is using logic and reason to point out something on an intellectual level, it's not really the same. The response of mansplaining, when the reality is, if it was 2 women involved, suddenly it won't be sexist? is just a plain and simple way to understand that, the use of the word mansplaining to shame men into silence, is a form of sexism against men. Because we are all a part of the same community, playing the same game. Developer or not, shaming language to counter intellect, is shameful in of itself.

 

These are good questions. To risk going off topic, my general defense of taking a feminist perspective is that ongoing interrogation of what gender is, how it's assigned and enforced, what roles it expects from people, and how it impacts their lives is important to know whether it's helping or hurting us. But that won't solve all problems of human conflict nor is it supposed to, since it simply does not have the tools. "it's not mansplaining when there's no men, then it's just an argument" is like... well, yeah. The assumption is that men and women are influenced and effected by their genders, sometimes negatively. But the solutions I'm suggesting aren't to this problem.

 

To bring it back in.... Derior had no malice and I really have nothing to say to fault him. And I guess ultimately that's what it comes down to; it sucks, but we share the playing field with some really bad juju, and his tweets fit into a larger pattern that wasn't helped by what they were-- no shade to him, but they were inexperienced and not helpful suggestions, framed like a correction. Hell no he didn't deserve personal condemnation, but the larger trends are totally something we need to worry about, because audiences are getting more divided from the developers that make their games, and more entitled. This is the problem I worry about. Derior was doing his best to be polite, but he was still incorrect, and JP was a total jerk, but she was still.... kinda right. There's trouble brewing.

 

We talk a lot about how games journalism "died," but the perceived problem is that it was never reflecting consumer interests to start with. But that's hard to, when consumer interests can so often be abusive and call for the most extreme measures possible. Now that twitch and youtube are here, game coverage is by consumers, for entertainment purposes only-- and relatively uninformed perspectives on a game's development is fine, and even necessary. But as the dialogue is becoming more consumerist, it loses something, and it characterizes these products and these events as things that should only ever gratify us and our perspectives. And if you've ever been a target of that base's demands, you'll know why it's not exactly a good thing.

 

So, my whole point is the problem kinda isn't about Derior, or the mistakes JP made that had fair consequences. My point is O'Brien made it worse by not considering the context of the industry and what precedent he's setting for his company. And once again... if you think it's not that deep, I respect you. Just had to come and say something, because I really do care about this game more than other games.

[Nemmar.8491]

> @"Feothyr.6072" said:

> > @"Felipe.1807" said:

> > Yes Mike, come on, the game devs should be disrespectful to their customers as much as they want, and shouldnt had to face any consequenseces for their actions....sometimes I wonder how old some people here are, if they actually ever had a job or know how the world works...

>

> What people do in their free time is none of your or my business.

>

> All I'm saying is: could we all just please stop and take a breather!? Somebody was mean on the internet. Oh no!

>

 

I'm sure you understand it wasn't just that.

 

She was a developer extending the conversation of the AMA earlier and explaining mmo story design philosophy. Who do you gather she was talking to? She wasn't talking just for herself. She was representing and talking about the product and company she works for.

She can't be toxic, bring out misogynistic reasons that don't exist in the exchange and say that she pretends to like the customers, even if true. It reflects badly on the company. It costs customers, it costs money.

 

All that Mike did was protect Arena net and it's investments, and it was 100% the correct decision to make.

[DiabolicalHamSandwich.8756]

> @"Aoi Ikazuchi.8420" said:

> @"DiabolicalHamSandwich.8756": This is totally off-topic, but I just nearly spat up my drink all over my monitor laughing when I saw your display name. Thank you for the injection of humor, even if only because I have a strange sense of humor.

 

Tis the reason I made it :>

[Shizlam.4310]

> @"Dami.5046" said:

> I'm going to leave this here

>

> https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/6/17541318/guild-wars-arenanet-jessica-price-peter-fries-fired-reddit

>

> Make your own judgement.

>

>

>

 

Want somea actually news and how it went down?

 

 

Here you can actually see the unfiltered issue without having SJW filter all over it.

[Linnea.5146]

ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

 

Firing her was excessive and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. 12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

 

Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

> @"Linnea.5146" said:

> ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

>

> **Firing her was excessive** and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. **12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet**. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

>

> Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

 

1) She had been working for ANet for about a year. (July 2017 — July 2018)

2) it wasn’t a single tweet. It was a series of tweets over several hours in which she cursed a customer, accused him of sexism, cussed out another customer and made fun of men having emotions (manfeels as she called it).

[Tolmos.8395]

I feel like this is a pretty important piece of information, and the reason I was an advocate of Arenanet itself apologizing for the fiasco and merely mentoring/training the individuals involved.

 

_"Price says that prior to being fired, the company had never discussed her social media presence with her or issued a warning for anything she had posted. “If it was covered in orientation, I wouldn’t know. I got pulled out of orientation to jump into rebreaking the story arc for this season of Living World.”"_

 

In my personal opinion, there is an onus on the corporate entity itself to do things like set Social Media Policies. These sort of policies are key to the infrastructure of any major forward facing entity, and something that all of us in the corporate world should expect to deal with on a daily basis.

 

It would be one thing if they fired her for actively breaking the Social Media Policy, but if there is not one OR she was not well educated on it/expected to sign it upon being employed, I honestly hold that against Arenanet itself.

 

My personal opinion is that Anet should have taken the heat from this, patched up the policy they had (or made a new one if one didn't exist) and trained their employees following that policy. Also, maybe some tolerance seminars for her or something, because damn she's got some trashy stuff on her twitter. But beyond that, some sort of apology / gifts to the streamers involved and then move on. Firing someone for a policy that doesn't exist or they weren't trained on is a bit of a corporate faux paux.

[Loukious.7346]

> @"Linnea.5146" said:

> ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

>

> Firing her was excessive and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. 12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

>

> Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

 

She was only there for a YEAR, bit less. You're thinking of Peter Fields. JP's constant comments and putting a black eye on ANet is what got her fired. You ASSUMED that they fed into the trolls. Instead she verbally berated not only a customer, BUT a Content Creator that gave her a constructive criticism. Instead of working with the community she bad mouthed it. My guess is you came here from some web site that only gave her side. I suggest you go read the ENTIRE twitter conversation she played out that lead to her own downfall.

[Felipe.1807]

> @"Linnea.5146" said:

> ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

>

> Firing her was excessive and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. 12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

>

> Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

 

We dont know what happend behind the scenes, we cant say if MO didnt gave both devs a chance to redeem thenselfs to the community. Peter work with Anet for like a decade right? He wouldnt be fired by just a few tweets, even more when he wasnt nowhere as offencive as her.

[Harper.4173]

I salute Anet for their swift and proper resolution of this situation. Honestly as far as I am concerned they 100% did the right thing and they did it fast.

 

The issue is this:

If you dislike the community and dislike your ideas being commented on publicly by just about anyone (regardless of their capacity, understanding or education on the matter) then **do not post your ideas in a public space**.

What you post on the internet is only as private as far as the limits placed on who can see it. This is what the other developer didn't understand.

If an astronomer (to go to his example) posts his results on a public platform - he can expect all sorts of replies from all sorts of people - including exasperating ones. If he wants to have a meaningful way of sharing or discussing his findings away from the "plebs" then he should do so in a private community of similarly minded, similarly trained and educated individuals.

 

TL:DL - you want to post your ideas publicly - expect people to comment and express their ideas about them regardless of whether or not you believe they deserve to or not. Complaining about it is no use - it was your fault to begin with. You want to discuss with "educated" individuals from your field? Do it in your own private little community.

Oh - and trying to make this about sexism was just a joke.

 

Once again Anet - good job. I had for a long time lost a lot of faith in your company. A good amount of it has been restored.

[Harper.4173]

> @"Linnea.5146" said:

> ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

>

> Firing her was excessive and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. 12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

>

> Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

 

You know how they say? Play stupid games - win stupid prizes? (this is not an insult - but illustrates the idea I'm about to express quite well)

There was a time when developers weren't even known let alone interacting with their communities. As company models have shifted so devs are more outspoken and placed in the public eye in order to gather support/hype/interest for the game so too have the risks of doing this increased. If one of the devs angers the community the risks that poses for your publicity and overall image isn't worth keeping them on board I guess.

For everything you gain you lose something. More exposure - means more vulnerability to public outcry. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[Harper.4173]

> @"Komodo.7058" said:

"hey, this is out there, maybe we can do something about it" folks are very resistant to that message, or imply I'm lying when I have no reason to.

 

This might be a different mindset than what you're used to but not everyone is interested in fighting battles with or for you. Some people have their own issues and are managing them as best they can without trying to start their own crusade every moment something happens.

 

"Bullying has been a part of humanity since humans" - Loli Ruri is correct - it has a lot to do with setting up hierarchies and people will bully for whatever reason. You can't just expect this behavior to end. It's ingrained in us and serves good purpose. As far as I see it it's a way for a group to "normalize" individuals.

 

"no shade to him, but they were inexperienced and not helpful suggestions, framed like a correction. " - you post your ideas for all to see on a platform where anyone can comment then complain when people comment about it? That seems counter intuitive.

 

"JP was a total jerk, but she was still.... kinda right." - how exactly was she "kinda right?"

 

"My point is O'Brien made it worse by not considering the context of the industry and what precedent he's setting for his company." - Mike took the best decision in the given situation. Long past are the days of "anonymous" devs - developers now - whether they like it or not have to understand that in the age of social media - when everything is so interconnected and the online hype machine feeds from itself back into itself - you don't have the kind of "privacy" and "Space" to post opinions like you did before. If you do it'll reflect poorly on your company and you'll be let go.

It's a sad world we live in - but it's the one we made for ourselves.

[Julischka Bean.7491]

Hello all. I have been busy playing and have not read Reddit, or Guildwars2 forums, so I missed out on this whole thing. To me, Jessica's firing was a good call. She was awful. I applaud that decision. But...to me, Peter Fries did not deserve being fired. He deserved to be read the riot act, and publicly apologize, but not fired. Peter Fries firing is what makes me uneasy about the future. As Linnea has said, the Trolls have now been gifted with immense power over the DEVs. If it was just Jessica who was fired, it would not have been so scary. But they fired Peter Fries!!!! He was the one with the company for over a decade!!! With a firing of that magnitude under their belts, , the Trolls are going to be out in force, poking all the buttons they can find.

 

Sigh. I guess we are no longer going to have Dev interaction..except for Barefeet Matthew who appears like he can handle all the gunk the trolls sling at him.

 

But, thank you Devs for ejecting Jessica. I am a woman, and I am thanking the Devs :)

 

Lisa.

[Tolmos.8395]

Here's a really interesting piece of backstory someone posted to reddit that I didn't know.

 

_"So, this was the last piece of the puzzle I needed to see to understand the whole thing from start to finish (at least from Deroir's point of view)._

 

_For those who can't view this clip - Deroir absolute loves Jessica Price. That is not an overstatement. He said that he loves her responses and that "she's the God of fucking AMAs" and that "she gives great answers all the way through and that it's absolutely amazing to read through." This clip was taken before the incident on twitter occurred._

 

_So when JP posted her essay on twitter - on a subject that Deroir was interested in (narrative development) and by someone he looked up to and admired because of her thorough, well-crafted and intricate responses in the AMA previously - he saw the chance to engage with her in civil discourse and took it._

 

_I sincerely hope that JP does see this clip. She needs to understand that not every fan/gamer/man out there is out specifically to get her or to "mansplain" to her. In fact, she went off on a person who greatly admired her work and her intelligence and just wanted to take the chance to speak with her more about her work in narrative development only to be shut down in a very cruel and unwarranted fashion."_

 

 

His response to the situation: https://old.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8wnkw8/deroirs_response_to_the_incident/

[Cyrin.1035]

> @"Linnea.5146" said:

> ArenaNet, Mr. O'Brien

>

> Firing her was excessive and has only fed the toxicity that is part of the gaming community. You have now signalled that if an employee voices an unpopular opinion on social media they will be fired if the trolls cry loudly enough. 12 years of work at your company should not be outweighed by a single tweet. What she wrote was not nice, but also not unforgivable. A public apology would have been enough.

>

> Congratulations on giving the trolls the ultimate treat.

 

False information, a lack of information, emotional bias, limited capacity, and quite a few other obvious factors are what feed toxicity.

 

You are well aware of and choose to ignore that JP’s responses were far more than an “unpopular opinion”. You, JP, and PF also know what those types of responses mean for everyone they effect.

 

The playerbase, responded the way they did because it was a problem and Mo responded in the way that was necessary. The playerbase should react that way when it’s necessary to do so, otherwise we send the message that it’s okay for rogue employees to insult and disrespect the entire fan base and company.

 

12 years at a company should have prevented these responses and defending of such responses, but PF and JP still made their decisions.

 

It was not a “single tweet”. It was a series of uncaring and damaging responses. As well as a lack of care and regret afterward.

 

There are far too many ramifications and effects that will remain after keeping employees that have done this. Unfortunately, regardless of their apologies.

 

It would certainly be more problematic and worrisome than the handful of avatar-less, sock accounts that popped up solely to defend two rightfully sacked, disgraced, ex-employees.

[Dengar.1785]

Are people still going around saying Anet "capitulated"? They're big boys, they don't capitulate to randos on Reddit. They simply remove PR disasters from their ranks.

[Felipe.1807]

> @"Julischka Bean.7491" said:

> Hello all. I have been busy playing and have not read Reddit, or Guildwars2 forums, so I missed out on this whole thing. To me, Jessica's firing was a good call. She was awful. I applaud that decision. But...to me, Peter Fries did not deserve being fired. He deserved to be read the riot act, and publicly apologize, but not fired. Peter Fries firing is what makes me uneasy about the future. As Linnea has said, the Trolls have now been gifted with immense power over the DEVs. If it was just Jessica who was fired, it would not have been so scary. But they fired Peter Fries!!!! He was the one with the company for over a decade!!! With a firing of that magnitude under their belts, , the Trolls are going to be out in force, poking all the buttons they can find.

>

> Sigh. I guess we are no longer going to have Dev interaction..except for Barefeet Matthew who appears like he can handle all the gunk the trolls sling at him.

>

> But, thank you Devs for ejecting Jessica. I am a woman, and I am thanking the Devs :)

>

> Lisa.

 

Dont think the trolls have any power to get devs fired...lets say if they want someone like Gayle fired, you really believe that the community wont stand at her side? Devs dont need to pretend to love us or anything, but being extremelly rude for no reason is not a good thing.

[Cyrin.1035]

> @"Loukious.7346" said:

 

>

> She was only there for a YEAR, bit less. You're thinking of Peter Fields.

 

Peter Fries. Just to clarify for others. I’m guessing that was an autocorrect XD.

 

 

[Tolmos.8395]

> @"Felipe.1807" said:

> > @"Julischka Bean.7491" said:

> > Hello all. I have been busy playing and have not read Reddit, or Guildwars2 forums, so I missed out on this whole thing. To me, Jessica's firing was a good call. She was awful. I applaud that decision. But...to me, Peter Fries did not deserve being fired. He deserved to be read the riot act, and publicly apologize, but not fired. Peter Fries firing is what makes me uneasy about the future. As Linnea has said, the Trolls have now been gifted with immense power over the DEVs. If it was just Jessica who was fired, it would not have been so scary. But they fired Peter Fries!!!! He was the one with the company for over a decade!!! With a firing of that magnitude under their belts, , the Trolls are going to be out in force, poking all the buttons they can find.

> >

> > Sigh. I guess we are no longer going to have Dev interaction..except for Barefeet Matthew who appears like he can handle all the gunk the trolls sling at him.

> >

> > But, thank you Devs for ejecting Jessica. I am a woman, and I am thanking the Devs :)

> >

> > Lisa.

>

> Dont think the trolls have any power to get devs fired...lets say if they want someone like Gayle fired, you really believe that the community wont stand at her side? Devs dont need to pretend to love us or anything, but being extremelly rude for no reason is not a good thing.

 

Gayle would also have to do something wrong. That's the missing link there. The community can want anyone they desire fired, but if that person never does anything actionable then no firing will occur.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

> @"Felipe.1807" said:

> > @"CursedShaitan.9720" said:

> > > @"Loli Ruri.8307" said:

> > > > @"CursedShaitan.9720" said:

> > > > > @"Loli Ruri.8307" said:

> > > > > > @"CursedShaitan.9720" said:

> > > > > > I distinctly remember being told yesterday I would never be able to find work because of my people skills. Remarkably funny since that individual has since demonstrated their own unemployment and lack of people skills by responding to literally every criticism in this thread. I don't need to mention them by name because they won't be able to resist responding with some condescending remark tinged with hints of nauseating alt-right ideology.

> > > > > Now I know why. LOL

> > > >

> > > > You literally didn't catch on that I was talking about you........wow.

> > > That's because you are not talking about me. You're being delusional.

> >

> > I literally set that up just for you and you walked right into like a rake in a looney toons skit.

> >

> > Here you are calling me unemployable for my people skills.

> >

> > > @"Loli Ruri.8307" said:

> > > What I am seeing here is, if you don't work well on your people skills, you won't be working.

> >

> >

> > Here you are admitting your own obsessive defense of Anet.

> >

> > > @"Loli Ruri.8307" said:

> > > > @"Felipe.1807" said:

> > > > > @"Asudementio.8526" said:

> > > >

> > > > > Regardless, dark days ahead for the GW2 community as map chats begin to show increased vocalization of right-wing trolls. If MO actually cares about the community like he says then i hope swift action will be taken against them.

> > > >

> > > > Nonsense, most of people in game dont know or care about this situation at all, what we have here is just really vocal minority of both sides talking kitten cause they have nothing better to do...Anet made right decision by firing her, if you dont agree, just move on, either ignore this or quit the game...this have nothing to do with right/left wing politcs kitten, keep this crap out of the game.

> > > You are absolutely correct. I mean, it's 2:58 AM in the morning. What am I really doing now?

> >

> > For some reason I am the delusional one?? You are embarrassed as hell because you literally proved my point by responding instantly to my nameless call-out. Also at this point, with you, I am trolling. How am I supposed to engage you seriously. Like everyone who's position is indefensible you've narrowed the focus of the debate on the minutiae you can defend. Proclaiming after having done so. "I have Won". Yes, in the context of traditional work place conduct you have several points. In an age where our employment often REQUIRES one to co-mingle work and personal identities It is no longer an acceptable blanket response to people demonstrating emotional outbursts in response abnormal amounts of criticism, often when it was not welcome or requested. Just because everyone else is letting the stress ruin their families, friendships and love lives instead of their work place demeanor doesn't suddenly make it an acceptable expectation to place on employees.

> >

> > Don't bother to respond. I will have deleted my account before you do.

>

> You gonna delet your account? Can I have your stuff?

 

Look at the join date, the account has nothing but a level 2 and starter gear if even that. Heck I would be surprised they even installed the game. Sorry not ingame to friendlist and check ap.

[CJH.2879]

> @"Mike O Brien.4613" said:

> 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.

>

> Mo

 

Hi Mike, I'm a writer myself (no relation to anet of course other then being a fellow player) & I'm very proud of your swift actions. I've always believed everyone should be treated fairly & equally regardless of whom they are or where they come from in this world. I just wanted to say a big thank you to you personally & to anet for your tireless efforts, blessings on you all from the pale tree!

[Julischka Bean.7491]

I have a question. I just read the Verge article and something Peter Fries tweeted is troubling me.

 

“These are our private social media accounts "

 

Could someone define this use of Private? If their accounts were private, shouldn't they be under a different name than their work name? If everyone knows who they are, it can't be too private.

 

Just a bit confused.

 

Lisa.

[Ace Kenshader.1253]

> @"CETheLucid.3964" said:

> > @"Ace Kenshader.1253" said:

> > > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> > > Personally I'm still in disbelief that this has happened. Mostly because I've seen the opposite happen about a dozen times. Normally, when confronted about this behavior, they double down and the company they're a part of backs them fully. It is what happened with the comic book industry. It is what happened with journalism. It is what happened with most independent forums that I used to visit. It is what happened to most television shows I used to watch. It is what happened to Magic: The Gathering. It is what happened to countless videogame studios. It is what happened to social sciences. It is what happened to Canada. What do you mean "Canada isn't an industry"? Maple Syrup is a thing!

> > >

> > > Anyway, the point being that way too many businesses put complete faith into far-left extremism, and it goes horribly. The businesses assume that all of these people preaching about microaggressions and the patriarchy know what they're talking about, and that everyone disagreeing with the message is proof of the message. GW2 appeared to be right on that track, with Arenanet being "An ideals driven company" and all that. I expected GW2 to give in and Get Woke, Go Broke eventually. When I said that the next LWS4 update would have Tiami go into a diatribe about mansplaining, I was serious. But when Mike dropped the hammer on JP hard, it restored my faith in the company.

> > >

> > > The sad part is, I don't think JP is going to learn from this. "kitten always double down" is a phrase for a reason. She'll get snatched up by another game developer that values her stances, and she'll continue man-hating and mass blocking for eternity. Because the moral of this story can't possibly be "treat customers well," "not all adversity is sexism," "branching dialogue is a good thing," or "misandry is bad, too." The moral is "There's a massive conspiracy of alt-right extremist men secretly in control of the gaming industry, and we need to prune our customer base and refuse to serve them." How could it be anything else? But hey, I've been wrong before.

> >

> > So when companies put complete faith into far-right extremism, it's alright, but when it's far-left it's a no-no. Thanks for being transparent showing us why the gaming industry is forever effed.

>

> In what timeline can you reasonably connect Anet to far right extremism? Don't you think you're being just a _tad_ disingenuous with this narrative?

 

Funny. I never said Anet in connection to far-right extremism. I said companies in general. But the fact that people are more worried about far-left extremism in general then, well, extremism period, really shows how screwed the gaming industry is.