What I read from Deroir's tweets was that he wasn't agreeing that a blank slate was the best/only solution for any MMO/RPGs (which she seemingly said, but again, interpretation), and also that he agreed that it was the way to go with the design of the Living World in GW2 specifically. That's just my interpretation tho! How we perceive stuff is very subjective.
I do not agree with his suggested "solution". Dialogue options is a "solution" that gets thrown around a lot and it simply doesn't work well. I would have ignored him or even blocked him if I felt that he was annoying me. But it's easy to say "I would have" or "she should have" in hindsight.
Price's answers felt out of place. I am a woman and have been in games journalism for about 5 years (2009-2014) before I stopped due to all the hate I got, which was even harder to handle due to me seeing that my colleagues (men) got way less hate.
So I understand her but I still think it was stupid, sorry Price. That shit will get you fired in a lot of places, that's just how it is. It's often in the contract.
Fries came and had some thoughts about it all. While I didn't agree that the comment that started this specific situation was due to her being a woman, he was completely right about the state of the world. Women get more hate. I hadn't seen everything he wrote since he quickly deleted it but I was informed of most of it through
this video (it's an hour long, a WP thing). What was in the later tweets that I had not seen before was... pretty bad. Completely understandable, but bad.
Sorry Fries, I admire you and have done for ages (I have been a fan of GW since GW1's release) but again, what was said will get you fired from way too many companies. That's just how the world is now.
ArenaNet fired them and the message about it was pretty crude. Was there ever a chance for them to be able to just get a warning and publicly apologize? Did they get that ultimatum and didn't take it? What happened behind closed doors? We have gotten one side of it from one person (afaik) and that's not helping.
I would have liked ArenaNet to state it better, if they "had to" fire them due to the company rules or whatever else happened there. Even tho they tried to make it less of a "spectacle" by just answering in a thread and not going out and announcing it separately, it was still like tooting a horn.
And then there are the effing Gators doing everything they can to hate on her for being a woman, being bolstered by the decision to fire them ("the woman and the cuck", he gets lots of hate too) and keeping on with the hate and threats.
And I'm just so upset. I really liked what these writers were doing for the game(s). I love the game(s). I can understand why ArenaNet might have needed to fire them.
But I am super fucking upset. I am upset that what ANet did bolstered and strengthened the hate groups, I am super upset about all the harassment. This is just a mess.
