2 - 2Shares
Earlier this month, Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet fired two employees after a back and forth confrontation that occurred between them and a Twitch streamer. One of those employees, Jessica Price, has been considerably outspoken regarding the decision, even going as far as to change her Twitter bio to reference the situation.
“Game producer, writer, editor, howling maenad. Fired from ArenaNet & Paizo for refusal to act like I’m men’s property. I won’t play demure for you. Block often.”
The firing has stirred up quite the commotion on both sides of the games journalism spectrum. Many have stated that Price’s firing was warranted, as it represented the company negatively. Others believe that the situation was a gross overreaction to comments that occurred outside of the workplace on the employee’s personal twitter account. There are also many of those caught in the middle, who believe that the conversation could have been handled better on both ends, by both Price and streamer Deroir.
Before joining the Guild Wars 2 narrative team last year, Price worked on Pathfinder (Project Manager), Kinectimals, and even wrote a sourcebook on Qadira.
Even before she was fired, Jessica Price had been very outspoken regarding her support and mindset regarding Feminism. That in and of itself was enough fuel for those that hate her or those that side with her to fan the flames of the recent firing.
For more information, be sure to check back to the site for updates, as well as all of your other nerdy news and needs!
Andrew has been in love with video game ever since his brother was forced by their parents to let him watch him and his friends play games like Goldeneye and Super Mario 64.
2 - 2Shares
One Comment
Ben Russell-Gough
Ms Price is, of course, making the fundamental mistake of believing this is about her being a woman. It isn’t; it’s about her choosing confrontation with an important individual in the company’s customer base rather than simply walking away or some other peaceful outcome. She then consistently doubled down, insisting that she was being ‘attacked’ and that responding in kind was her right, even though she was the first one to use aggressive tactics.
Sadly, she has likely destroyed a promising career through a moment’s peevishness followed by an inability to adult and say: “Look dude, it was a bad day and I lost it. Sorry about that. Anyway, I really don’t want to talk about your game design theories here, ‘kay?”