Jessica Price was working for ArenaNet, a videogame company that produces Guild Wars. Like other videogame companies, ArenaNet has partnerships with some players who help promote their products online. One of ArenaNet’s partners is a Danish player who goes by the handle “Deroir,” who has a YouTube channel. So, Price posted a thread on Twitter about character development in role-playing games, to which Deroir responded with his own thoughts, and Price totally lost it.

She seemed to have the seized on the idea that Deroir was engaged in some kind of sexist behavior, and that she was a victim of mansplaining, and insulted Deroir as a “rando asshat,” complaining that she was being treated like an “emotional courtesan.” This was not cool, considering that Deroir is in a partnership with Price’s employer. The situation escalated. One of Deroir’s defenders accused Price of playing the “gender card,” and one of her ArenaNet co-workers, Peter Fries, responded by saying Deroir’s comments were unsolicited feedback from an ignorant “layman” that showed a lack of “respect” for Price’s work.

Apparently, neither Price nor Fries realized that Deroir wasn’t just a “rando asshat,” but someone valued as a partner by ArenaNet. The result was unemployment for both Price and Fries:

ArenaNet has fired two writers ostensibly for their reactions to Twitter comments from a partnered Guild Wars 2 YouTuber.

“Recently two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communicating with players,” announced ArenaNet co-founder and president Mike O’Brien in the Guild Wars 2 forum. “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.”

ArenaNet elaborated in a later official statement:

“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.”

In other words, the company that makes the games considers itself part of a community with the people who play the games. Employees of the company cannot go around insulting their customers. This is a basic business concept — Customer Relations 101 stuff — which ought not require explanation, but the feminist “social justice warrior” (SJW) mentality has never really been compatible with capitalism. Third Wave feminism originated in academia, and flourishes on university campuses under the protection of “diversity” policies that have the effect of silencing any criticism or opposition to feminist ideology.

Good luck trying to make that attitude work in the real world, where customers are routinely rude to employees who must endure such behavior and keep smiling because the customer is always right.

Predictably, the SJWs are still ranting on Twitter about how wrong it was for Price and Fries to get fired over this incident, but I doubt this was the first problem they’ve caused for the company. People don’t just one day suddenly start ranting on the Internet, insulting customers and spewing social-justice rhetoric. The bad employee causes problems more or less routinely, and by the time they get fired they’ve usually burnt enough bridges behind them that nobody is sad to see them go.







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