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Game Company Fires Two Employees Who Complained About 'Mansplaining' on Twitter (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Verge:
On July 3rd, narrative designer Jessica Price tweeted a 29-tweet thread dissecting the challenges of writing player characters in an MMORPG. A streamer who goes by Deroir responded, "Really interesting thread to read! However, allow me to disagree slightly," and shared a three-tweet explanation of how narrative design influences player expression in the sort of games that Price narratively designs. Price both replied directly to Deroir, tweeting "thanks for trying to tell me what we do internally, my dude," and retweeted his response with the caption "today in being a female game dev: 'Allow me -- a person who does not work with you -- to explain to you how you do your job....'"
Price's suggestion that Deroir was mansplaining game development -- an area where he does not have the same knowledge or experience -- sparked anger among the ArenaNet community. She subsequently responded to those criticizing her on Twitter. [Here's the first lines of that tweet. "Since we've got a lot of hurt manfeels today, lemme make something clear: this is my feed. I'm not on the clock here. I'm not your emotional courtesan just because I'm a dev. Don't expect me to pretend to like you here. The attempts of fans to exert ownership over our personal lives and times are something I am hardcore about stopping."] Price was fired shortly after. Although many fans are comparing this to something like working in a restaurant -- be polite to the customer, or get fired -- Price says it's impossible to talk about this incident without larger context about systematic online harassment, particularly the sometimes abusive relationship between fans and game developers and the failure of game companies to address it. "Game companies are generally unwilling to be honest with themselves about how they're complicit in creating and sustaining that environment," she tells The Verge...
Price adds that she believes her firing was an emotional reaction on the part of ArenaNet co-founder Mike O'Brien. "He fired me personally, and the meeting was mostly him venting his feelings at me," she says. "I understand being afraid when you see the Reddit mob coming for you, but if people with less power can weather it -- and we do, regularly -- so can he...."
"We can probably fire anyone on the GW2 dev team as long we make a big enough stink," wrote one user on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit. "Nobody at Arenanet is safe from the hand of reddit. We're literally running the company now..." UPDATE (7/12/18): That user eventually clarified that their remark was satirical, identifying themself as an angry Reddit user who felt powerless and "surrounded by individuals who are so thoughtless and shitty I was hoping I'd appeal to some sort of sense of decency by writing the most vile shit I could think of... I took it down because I realized that nobody was going to disagree with me."
ArenaNet also fired Peter Fries, a writer who'd worked for them for 12 years, apparently for defending Price in a series of now-deleted tweets. (For example, "Here's a bit of insight that I legitimately hope [Deroir] reflects on: she never asked for his feedback.")
"The message is very clear, especially to women at the company," Jessica Price tells the Verge. "If Reddit wants you fired, we'll fire you. The quality of your work doesn't matter."
Price's suggestion that Deroir was mansplaining game development -- an area where he does not have the same knowledge or experience -- sparked anger among the ArenaNet community. She subsequently responded to those criticizing her on Twitter. [Here's the first lines of that tweet. "Since we've got a lot of hurt manfeels today, lemme make something clear: this is my feed. I'm not on the clock here. I'm not your emotional courtesan just because I'm a dev. Don't expect me to pretend to like you here. The attempts of fans to exert ownership over our personal lives and times are something I am hardcore about stopping."] Price was fired shortly after. Although many fans are comparing this to something like working in a restaurant -- be polite to the customer, or get fired -- Price says it's impossible to talk about this incident without larger context about systematic online harassment, particularly the sometimes abusive relationship between fans and game developers and the failure of game companies to address it. "Game companies are generally unwilling to be honest with themselves about how they're complicit in creating and sustaining that environment," she tells The Verge...
Price adds that she believes her firing was an emotional reaction on the part of ArenaNet co-founder Mike O'Brien. "He fired me personally, and the meeting was mostly him venting his feelings at me," she says. "I understand being afraid when you see the Reddit mob coming for you, but if people with less power can weather it -- and we do, regularly -- so can he...."
"We can probably fire anyone on the GW2 dev team as long we make a big enough stink," wrote one user on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit. "Nobody at Arenanet is safe from the hand of reddit. We're literally running the company now..." UPDATE (7/12/18): That user eventually clarified that their remark was satirical, identifying themself as an angry Reddit user who felt powerless and "surrounded by individuals who are so thoughtless and shitty I was hoping I'd appeal to some sort of sense of decency by writing the most vile shit I could think of... I took it down because I realized that nobody was going to disagree with me."
ArenaNet also fired Peter Fries, a writer who'd worked for them for 12 years, apparently for defending Price in a series of now-deleted tweets. (For example, "Here's a bit of insight that I legitimately hope [Deroir] reflects on: she never asked for his feedback.")
"The message is very clear, especially to women at the company," Jessica Price tells the Verge. "If Reddit wants you fired, we'll fire you. The quality of your work doesn't matter."
This woman is the sort of toxic "feminist" that _MUST_ be the victim. ALL THE TIME. And if you're male? you're both THE PROBLEM and WRONG.
She was a writer at a game developer. She took a nice big crap on the majority of their playerbase. They were right to fire her. And I hope she's made good investments. Because this is the sort of publicity that buries not just a job, but a career.
Iâ(TM)m tired of this PC bullshit but if it gets men fired regularly then also having it get women fired too is long overdue. Gender equality ladies!!!!
You're another useless male incapable of using your brain. There! Said! Now in a sensible country if my employer attempts to fine me for this post they will be in huge legal trouble.
She's a social "justice" idiot. That's how they roll.
Achievement unlocked: Ultimate Irony!
The bigger problem is that she said something relatively mild on her personal Twitter feed and was fired, along with the guy who posted a very calm and sympathetic comment asking people to be nice.
I guess she must be in an "at will" state or something because such a firing would be illegal in places with decent employment laws.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I wouldn't characterise her tweet as "joy", more like relief. I'll advised but nothing like the narrative being put out.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The GamerGate harassment from a few years back.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
...it looks like the whole self-victimisation through gender backfired wonderfully on the perpetrator here.
What self victimization? She wrote some tweets about how challenging her job is (was) and when a guy chose to explain to her how she should do it, she shut him down. That's not victimization.
So when twitter being twitter responded and her boss fired her she commented that companies in game development do this all the time rather than back their employees. Not victimization either.
No she was harassed by misogynists from 4chan because she was a female game dev.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'm saying if you're going to be a Nazi, don't be surprised when people fight you. You want to pretend like GamerGate wasn't about silencing women developers and keeping women out of gaming but whine about how those mean women said mean things about you like it fell out of the sky from nowhere.
So stop being a disingenuous butthurt snowflake.
...let me ask why you assume that my observation is due to how their twitter sounded in my head, based on a few internet sentences?
Because you yourself said you "assume she's an unpleasant person" because of her Twitter, which implies you've never met her. Interpreting sentences is a fill in the blank process rather than hearing what someone is saying in context.
Some people must be truly frightened of the world and the people in it.
Or someone's just got bored of being deluged by asshats. But sure, go convince yourself that you're striking fear into the hearts of people you don't know rather than simply irritating them.
Next you'll be complaining about muh freeze peach over getting blocked.
Wait a mo! Where are all the loud freeze-peach advocates who crap over any Damore related thread. They seem to be awfully quiet here! I guess they're not really inerested in free speech, then, only in propagating right-think.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Maybe. Or maybe the guy might have performed a simple risk/reward analysis.
I was fine acting really crappy, but now it's risky so I'm being more careful.
Something that doesn't make it sonud like a fetish?
This is a fine example of the Mike Tyson defense,
This is a fine example of an incredibly poor analogy. Assuming her acconut is true, then it's a bit muc hpraising them for being a loud, angry person for certain issues on twitter in the interview then fire them for being a loud angry person for said issue on twitter.
And you know, being loud and angry on twitter isn't a crime let alone a violent one, unlike rape which is both.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
My intention is I don't give a flying fuck about your interpretation.
Go be oppressed somewhere else, adults are talking.
Hey Serviscope minor, this is the second thinly veiled accusation you have made that I am harassing women.
Hey Ol Olsoc, you said your assessment of your own behaviour was "risky". That's your assessment, not mine. You're accusing yourself. I'm just turning it from a self-selusion on your part to something more obvious.
SJW n. One who posts facts.