What do you think was unprofessional about how ArenaNet handled this? Before the major sites started running with this, it was being handled relatively quietly. There were threads on the GW forums about what Price did. It was Price’s actions that got her fired, so this response (from ANet’s O’Brien, the manager referenced in the Polygon piece) in one of those threads about her actions seems reasonable, professional, and relevant:
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.
Mo
It’s not like it was a secret who they were talking about, but they don’t even call her out by name. She was fired for the way she represented the company, it was fitting for the company to make a statement on that.
You think that Mike O’Brien going onto a gaming website, not just their website, but dropping that post in the middle of a forum discussion, to discuss the firing of two employees and stating they failed to uphold their standards in communicating with players and calling it an attack on the community is a professional way to handle letting an employee go?
If you believe that the firing was unjustified then you must also believe that a developer telling a customer “you are a racist bigot” when it is clearly untrue must also not warrant termination or perhaps even disciplinary action. That is not the way the real world works. If I accused a client of being a bigot with no proof then there is little doubt I would be considered for termination. If I doubled down on that bigoted claim then not only would I be terminated I may also be sued for defamation.
The only way to make this about gender rights is to believe that unjustly accusing someone of being a bigot is not actionable because a certain gender must be protected above the rights of a company to protect their image and their customers.
They were fired because of the way they interacted with the community. Firing them was how ArenaNet dealt with the employees, addressing the community is how they attempt to correct the damage done there. It’s right there in the response, he wants to be clear with the community that the way they behaved should not represent ArenaNet.
He’s saying it on the official Guild Wars forums in one of the relevant discussions. I’m not sure what you mean that he’s “going onto a gaming website, not just their website”.
There are exactly two other statements for ArenaNet I’ve seen, one in response to Eurogamer’s story, one in response to Polygon’s interview. They didn’t go to the media to announce the firings, they elaborated to the media when the firings turned into a hot story.
So you do. You think having this guy drop this announcement in the middle of one of their community forums is a professional way to handle and communicate an HR decision, and you see nothing wrong with this approach or the what he specifically wrote. That’s interesting. I think it’s a symptom of why gaming has so many… issues in their industry, and I don’t know how anyone can complain about abuse and toxicity from fans when they display that kind of lack of restraint and indifference to professionalism.
I also entirely reject the argument that these actions should be excused because that is "the way she feels". What a crock of shit.
I may feel that my Indian counterparts should be coolies who should be picking my tea instead of working in my office but that does not give me the right to say so. Vice versa, I also have no right to call my English counterparts Boga Bongal or Gora and react badly to their comments just because I imagine they are thinking that I should be picking their tea.
This was not only an HR decision. They didn’t jump into the community to announce that a coder was being fired for fraud after charging personal lunches to a company account. It wasn’t an artist who violated an attendance policy.
It would be ridiculous if they just dropped into the community to let them know what HR was up to all the time.
But someone who was engaging with the community did damage in that relationship ANet felt sufficient to warrant their termination. If they thought it was that serious, it would be crazy NOT to respond to the community.
So yes, I believe the communication of their actions was appropriate and professional. I do not see any problem with how that was handled.
It’s a good think you are not speaking for me because I do not agree silence would’ve work either. Mr. O’Brien could easily make an announcement not buried in one of their forums and not used a way to continue the discussion for days maybe even weeks because he dropped it int he middle of an active discussion.
He could have made an announcement focusing mostly on his second paragraph, and handled the rest quietly.
But hey, I am sure this was the perfect outcome they wanted… they just released something right? And we’re all talking about that new content instead and not seeing the great debate and new guidelines for employees in gaming because this was all handle so well.
@Nesrie, I apologize for jumping in with another response and just kind of saying the same thing again while you’re in the middle of responding, but I thought of another way to explain where we might be seeing this differently.
I see ANet’s response to the community as a direct response to Price’s behavior. ANet’s firing of Price was also a response to her behavior. These are two related, sort of “parallel” events, but they’re both responses to Price’s actions.
I think you’re presenting this differently, that ANet’s response to the community was a direct response to their decision to fire Price, which was a direct response to Price’s behavior.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that might be a point where we’re disagreeing.
Professional firing is simple. You let people know you’ve let some one go, and you wish them luck on their future endeavors. Maybe make some vague statement about the reason and not draw attention to it.
Then move on.
Also, was the guy fired or not? We keep saying them for some reason.
Uhh this is not a complaint about this discussion. this is pointing out they just released content and by and large, the discussion, in gaming in general, is not about Guild Wars 2 the game but how the company fired two employees and debating what was right or wrong about that. My guess is that is not something they actually wanted to happen whilst the other was planned.
This is how most industries handle it, as long as they didn’t step into some white supremacy mess. If they did, they usually do the not our views things but not trying to win fan points while they do it.
Okay, I understand what you’re saying, but we still end up back at a disagreement about whether this was handled professionally, so this is just going to hinge on that.
I think the firing was communicated professionally. If that’s the case, the timing and the potential for this to dominate the discussion in the wider media are obviously not what they wanted, but that’s not their fault.
If you think the firing was unprofessional, it’s logical we wouldn’t agree on who’s fault the media response is either.
To be clear, I don’t think anyone handled this properly, not Price, not ArenaNet, or I guess just Mr. O’Brien, not the gaming press, the gamers and certainly not the GW2 fandom, and not one of them, including Price, seems to be open to hear how this could have been handled better. Everyone has drawn their lines and they’re not crossing over them.
As far as Price is concerned, I would have afforded her the mistake, like not try to time warp and tell her to be cool all the time and never lose her cool, but she should have apologized to Drerior<sp?>. Maybe he would have listened. And that guy seems to have vanished which really sucks too. He might be laying low and being wise… but he shouldn’t have to.
They literally fired her 12 hours after they became aware of the situation - and they became aware of the situation on July 4th when the studio was closed. They then fired her first thing in the morning on July 5th, before giving her any chance to explain herself.
The studio decided immediately that firing her - and the person who defended her - in under a day, because they were reacting to a mob mentality and satiating and justifying that mob.
There are a thousand better ways that they could have handled this which all could include acknowleding that she shouldn’t have acted the way she did on Twitter.
The one specific way that ArenaNet chose to handle this is by far the worst. It’s the worst way to tell remaining employees that they’re safe. It’s the worst way to appeal to the ugliest side of the gaming. And now that terrible decision is resulting in other women at other studios being explicitly targeted by that mob in the exact same way.
That’s not what she said, she said she “was given no opportunity to argue [her] case”. Maybe she meant that to mean the same thing, maybe not, but since we don’t know, saying she had no opportunity to explain herself is speculative and conveys a different tone.
