Earlier this week, two of the writing staff for popular MMO Guild Wars 2 were let go by parent company ArenaNet after a confrontation on Twitter turned into a much larger community revolt. The initial problem arose when a community YouTuber responded to a thread by Guild Wars 2 writer Jessica Price on the challenges of creating compelling characters and storylines in the constraints of an MMO. While the reply may have seemed innocuous enough on the surface, Price pointed out the difficulties in dealing with such responses as a female game developer in the industry today.
Today in being a female game dev:
— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) July 4, 2018
"Allow me--a person who does not work with you--explain to you how you do your job." https://t.co/lmK0yJWqGB
The issue was further exacerbated with the follow-up tweets by Price who appeared entirely too fed up with dealing with an increasingly hostile fan base. The response from the Guild Wars 2 community on both Twitter and other sites was extremely polarizing, with some moving to defend her actions while others calling for repercussions for the perceived insults to the community. Fellow writer Peter Fries also weighed into the discussion to defend Price, calling for the community to stand down and respect the personal boundaries of employees who are not technically on the clock when using their personal Twitter accounts.
The following day Mike O’Brian, ArenaNet co-founder, make an announcement on the official Guild Wars 2 forums, stating that “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.”
Responses to the news have been mixed, with some on social media calling this a victory for the players who saw this as an attack, while others decried the decision as “giving into the trolls”. Eurogamer received an update from ArenaNet to their coverage on the story, reading “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."
These statements from ArenaNet seem to point towards a growing trend of companies seeking to avoid any possibility of controversy with regards to their products, regardless of the possible stance they would need to take in doing so. More and more it seems that employees personal social media is not actually being considered personal at all, with the lines that separate fans and developers becoming increasingly blurred. It seems unlikely that this particular instance will die down any time soon, with developers regularly being contacted through personal social media with questions and concerns about the products they are working on.
