ArenaNet Fires Guild Wars 2 Writers

A pair of Guild Wars 2 narrative designers have been fired by ArenaNet after a vitriolic blowup on Twitter.

The writers in question, Jessica Price and Peter Fries, recently engaged fans in debate after a fan responded to Price’s Twitter thread about the challenges of writing for a player character in an MMO.

The fan, a GW2 fan and YouTuber by the name of Deroir, replied to the thread, expressing slight disagreement and then proceeded to give his own opinion on the topic.

Really interesting thread to read! 👌
However, allow me to disagree *slightly*. I dont believe the issue lies in the MMORPG genre itself (as your wording seemingly suggest). I believe the issue lies in the contraints of the Living Story's narrative design; (1 of 3)

— Deroir (@DeroirGaming) July 3, 2018

The next day, Price quoted the tweet, criticising the fan of mansplaining,  implying it was just another day in the life of being a female game developer,

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 received both praise and criticism for her response to Deroir. One side of the argument felt that she was simply highlighting and combating the sexism prominent in the gaming industry, whereas the other side felt that she was being rude and disrespectful to a fan who was politely taking the opportunity to interact with an industry professional and sharing his own thoughts on the topic.

Peter Fries, fellow GW2 writer, chimed in on the criticism in a series of now-deleted tweets, stating that Price “never asked for his feedback” and that she was tweeting from her private Twitter account. He compared the exchange to a layman explaining observation techniques to an astronomer.

The exchange prompted Guild Wars 2 fans to create a Reddit thread sarcastically titled “Must be a thrill to work with this Dev.” Particular criticism was leveled at Price calling Deroir a “rando asshat” in another tweet that followed the initial encounter:

like, the next rando asshat who attempts to explain the concept of branching dialogue to me–as if, you know, having worked in game narrative for a fucking DECADE, I have never heard of it–is getting instablocked. PSA.

— Jessica Price (@Delafina777) July 4, 2018

This led to many fans on Reddit, Twitter, and the ArenaNet forums demanding that she get fired for her tweets.

The situation later prompted Mike O’Brien, President and co-founder of ArenaNet, to write a post on the ArenaNet Forums, announcing Price and Fries’ firing.

He wrote:

The firing caused a mixture of reactions in the Twittersphere. Some condemned ArenaNet for their decision, like candidate for US House of Representatives Brianna Wu:

Comments like this are why game companies need to HAVE THEIR EMPLOYEES BACKS. Because this is a toxic field that is only getting more toxic.

The outcome of firing Jessica Price is every woman developer will have to stay silent when receiving sexist abuse. https://t.co/k9ByCQeDL3

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) July 6, 2018

And Tomb Raider reboot writer, Rhianna Pratchett:

A massive over reaction and setting a dangerous precedent.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) July 6, 2018

Others saw it as hypocrisy and a bad move:

So apparently a Guild Wars 2 producer was glad that TotalBiscuit died, and people were talking with her nicely about it being rude, and she decided to be rude back.

After she got fired, places like PC Gamer perpetuated it as a "harassment against women" thing.

— 𝕭𝖊𝖘𝖚𝕭𝖆𝖗𝖚@Wish I had Conventions Where I am (@BesuBaru) July 6, 2018

So a writer on Guild Wars 2 was fired because when she complained about writing for MMOs and someone offered what they thought might solve the problem, she decided this person was only talking down to her about her job because he was a man and she was a women.

— Future Fossil (@Thought_Fiction) July 6, 2018

In a statement to Kotaku, Price said that “[t]he message is very clear, especially to women at the company: If Reddit wants you fired, we’ll fire you….Get out there and make sure the players have a good time. And make sure you smile while they hit you.”

What are your thoughts on the debacle? Do you think ArenaNet were right to fire Price and Fries? Or was the firing an overreaction? An unfair move? Let us know in the comments below!

Nathan Franklin

A writer who loves any medium that can take him away from the real world. He loves gaming, science fiction, philosophical novels and even the odd guilty-pleasure trash TV Drama.