Guild Wars 2 Writers Fired After Confrontation with YouTuber | Gaming

ArenaNet, the studio behind the successful MMORPG Guild Wars 2, has fired two of its writers after a Twitter confrontation between them and an ArenaNet-partnered YouTuber named Deroir. Writers Jessica Price and Peter Fries have been let go as of today, with ArenaNet releasing the following statement:

“We strive to cultivate an atmosphere of transparency around the making of our games and encourage our teams to be involved in open, positive discussion with our community. Earlier this week, two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communication with our players and fans, and they are no longer with the company.”

The controversy began on July 3 when Jessica Price was discussing the unique challenges of writing for MMORPGs. YouTuber Deroir then chimed in with his opinion on the matter, to which Price responded on July 4:

Today in being a female game dev:

“Allow me–a person who does not work with you–explain to you how you do your job.” https://t.co/lmK0yJWqGB

— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) July 4, 2018

Price then sent out another tweet, wherein she insulted Deroir, and then followed it up with another:

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.

— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) July 4, 2018

Price’s tweets proved controversial and garnered attention from many Twitter users. This prompted Price’s fellow Guild Wars 2 writer Peter Fries to jump into the conversation with a series of tweets that have since been deleted. However, cached versions of the tweets have been saved online, and the text can be found right here:

“Here’s a bit of insight that I legitimately hope he reflects on: she never asked for his feedback. These are our *private* social media accounts – imagine you’re an astronomer and you start sharing some things you’ve learned in the last few months since you began a research project observing Saturn, only to have observation techniques explained to you by a layman.”

As some may expect, Fries’s tweets proved similarly controversial, with some pointing out that Twitter is not a private forum. To the contrary, Twitter is a very public social media site, and part of its purpose is for people to post things and then have others respond.

Regardless, some may feel as though ArenaNet overreacted when it chose to fire both Price and Fries. The company hasn’t offered a more detailed explanation beyond its aforementioned statement, but it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time Price has posted something controversial on social media.

After the death of YouTuber TotalBiscuit back in May, Price tweeted the following:

The kindest thing I can say is “I’m glad he’s no longer around to keep doing harm.” https://t.co/W5klAk4avX

— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) May 25, 2018

It’s unclear if Price’s past social media posts contributed to her firing, but according to her, ArenaNet never spoke with her about her social media presence.

In the meantime, Price hasn’t posted on Twitter since July 5. Fries, meanwhile, posted a tweet earlier today that shows the disturbing harassment he has experienced since the controversy began.

Guild Wars 2 is out now for PC.

Source: Eurogamer, The Verge