Criticism is forming against the head and founder Mike O’Brien in Guild Wars 2. Former employees of Guild Wars 2 express criticism regarding his role in the firing of developer Jessica Price. US gaming sites describe it as a “PR disaster.”
This is what happened
Developer insults streamer: We reported that Guild Wars 2 author Jessica Price was fired by ArenaNet after she got into a dispute on her own Twitter account. A streamer respectfully criticized her. However, the developer saw this as an attempt by a man and amateur to educate her as a professional and woman. She brusquely dismissed the comments and referred to “asswipes” trying to explain how to do her job, which she has been doing for ten years.
She considered the streamer’s remarks on her story-telling in MMORPGs to be sexist. Price felt underestimated and overlooked as a woman and developer by a man.
Developer is fired: Following this, the tweets sparked a large discussion on Reddit and in the Guild Wars 2 forum. The developer was let go by ArenaNet a day after the incident.
Developer was with ArenaNet for 13 years, also gets fired: Alongside Jessica Price, Peter Fries was also let go. He had been with ArenaNet since 2005 and worked on the first Guild Wars 1. Fries was fired for protecting developer Price in tweets, stating, for example, that she hadn’t asked for feedback.
This is what she says
This is how the firing went down: In an interview with US site Polygon, Price described the circumstances of her dismissal. She was called into a meeting with ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien. She was not given the opportunity to explain her position.
O’Brien insisted that developers must be the friends of the company’s customers. Even outside of their working hours, Price’s behavior was deemed unacceptable.
The background for this: Price had tweeted: It was her private Twitter account. She was outside of her working hours. No one should expect her to pretend to like him here.
That was it: O’Brien then left the meeting, and a manager gave Price the contents of her desk. After that, her keycard was confiscated.
ArenaNet collapsed like a cheap folding table
ArenaNet knew what they were getting into: According to Price, ArenaNet knew she was “passionately active on social media” and that had always been okay. She had never received a warning for her behavior on social media. Everything she said on Twitter aligned with what she had been saying there for years. The style had been the same as well.
Army of bots: O’Brien collapsed before a handful of people and an army of bots and fake accounts. The exact wording to Polygon was: the company collapsed like a cheap folding table.
It’s about gender: Price explains her intense reaction by saying the streamer’s tweet was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Men constantly appeared on Twitter, explaining to her how her job worked. They also showed up to explain jokes to female colleagues.
Men have the problem too, but not as intensely: Gamers do not believe anyone knows what they’re talking about. But for men, there isn’t such an ongoing flood of comments as there is for women. Fries also confirmed this. He tweeted: “Hey, I talk about the same things she does, but this doesn’t happen to me.” That was one of the tweets for which Fries was fired.
This is what the boss says
“She attacked” Mike O’Brien, the head of Guild Wars 2, says in a statement to Polygon that employee Jessica Price clearly represented the company on Twitter. A streamer approached her respectfully and professionally and made a suggestion for the game. Any response from the company must also be professional and respectful. A perceived insult does not justify an attack. It is unacceptable that an attempt to contact the company is met with such overt hostility.
No response to escalating community: Price tweeted on July 4th, O’Brien continues. The studio was closed for Independence Day. They were aware of the tweets at that time and decided to take action. The fact that the community’s outrage escalated on July 5th might give the impression that ArenaNet’s actions were a reaction to the community. But that was not the case. They acted as soon as they could.
This is what the press says: “PR disaster” and dangerous message
Firing is a big topic: The firing of Jessica Price has occupied the gaming press in the USA in recent days. The general tone here is that Guild Wars 2 made a “PR blunder.”
- The US site Polygon believes that the firing of Jessica Price sends the message to Reddit that “you can fire anyone there if you just create enough stress.”
- The US site Kotaku gives Jessica Price ample opportunity to speak. Price describes the clash with the streamer roughly as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
- The MassivelyOP site has now published seven articles on the topic. In one, they refer to the incident as “Pricegate” and quote the group “Game Workers United,” which may form a union of developers. They state that the “unethical firings at ArenaNet” have increased their membership numbers.
There’s a reason he’s the only founder still at ArenaNet
GW2 boss in the crosshairs: Special criticism is directed at ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien.
The editor-in-chief of mmorpg.com writes that he spoke with former Guild Wars 2 employees and Mike O’Brien is not the hero of ArenaNet that fans see him as. On the contrary: While he is the founder and president of the company, there’s a reason he is the only remaining founder at ArenaNet. MMORPG.com seems to blame O’Brien for the departure of the other founders at the company.
In any case, they believe the incident has cost Guild Wars 2 the favorable momentum following the good expansion Path of Fire. They think the decision has made ArenaNet less attractive as an employer.
This is what former employees of Guild Wars 2 say
“Thrown to the wolves” Former employees of Guild Wars 2 are also speaking out. Developer Kate Welch was with ArenaNet until 2014 and was, among other things, the “face” of the stream show “Point of Interest.”
Welch says she was at ArenaNet for four years and really enjoyed her time there. But even back then, the management was very poor in handling the relationship between developers and fans. It was almost as if there was someone who would enjoy throwing people to the wolves to gain a little fucking attention from Reddit. And he does this with alarming regularity.
it’s ALMOST like there’s someone there who loves throwing people under the bus to get some fucking Reddit attention, and who has done it with alarming regularity
— spoilers swag (@katewelchhhh) July 6, 2018
High costs: Another former Guild Wars 2 developer, Angel McCoy, considers the firings to be a hasty and unfortunate overreaction to quell player dissatisfaction. Especially the firing of Peter Fries is seen as a loss for the company. He had given more than twelve years of blood, sweat, and soul to the company and was a great presence on social media. When Fries left, a lot of knowledge left the game that would be missing later.
This is what an association of developers says
Unions and associations demand rules: The “International Game Developers Association” (via Gamasutra) is calling on gaming companies to establish clear guidelines on how developers should behave on social media in light of the incident.
We have addressed the role that Reddit and Guild Wars 2 play in this incident in an opinion article on Mein MMO:
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