Writers Jessica Price and Peter Fries were let go by developer ArenaNet after a contentious Twitter exchange with a partnered YouTuber Thursday.

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It began Tuesday when Price tweeted out a thread that expanded on a recent Reddit AMA regarding how to develop personable characters in an MMO. She outlined the difficulty in crafting a unique character, which is also supposed to act as a cypher for a multitude of diverse players."The dirty secret is I'm not sure if it's possible to make an MMORPG (or CRPG) character compelling, because people have different expectations about what that character will be, as opposed to a pre-designed character in a single-player game," she tweeted.The thread caught the eye of Guild Wars 2 YouTuber Deroir, a streamer involved in content creation with ArenaNet under the developer's partnership program "But, if instead players were given the option to meaningfully express *their* character through branching dialogue options (which also aren't just on the checklist for an achievement that forces you through all dialogue options)," Deroir responded to Price, "then perhaps players would be more invested in the roleplaying aspect of that particular MMORPG."Price responded on Wednesday saying, "Thanks for trying to tell me what we do internally, my dude 9_9... [L]ike, 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."She then retweeted Deroir's initial response with the comment, "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.'"From there, Guild Wars 2 community members and others on Twitter launched barbs in both directions: some against Deroir for seemingly mansplaining to Price, and some against Price for not engaging in communication with Deroir's comment. Terms like "SJW" and "gender politics" were used as the heated conversation spilled over to Reddit where multiple threads were begun on Guild Wars 2's subreddit In the midst of the Twitter salvo, Fries commented in defense of Price."Here’s a bit of insight that I legitimately hope he reflects on: she never asked for his feedback," he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. "These are our *private* social media accounts - imagine you're an astronomer and you start sharing some things you've learned in the last few months since you began a research project observing Saturn, only to have observation techniques explained to you by a layman."Deroir responded saying he was "disappointed" that he could not facilitate a conversation."In a world where discussions should be encouraged, and not belittled, yet the opposite becomes reality, I've apparently found myself in the midst of a war I never intended to partake in," Deroir tweeted. "Disappointed. That's all. #IAmAFeminist ArenaNet addressed the firing on the on the Guild Wars 2 forum Thursday."Recently two of our employees failed to uphold our standards of communicating with players. Their attacks on the community were unacceptable," ArenaNet Co-founder and President Mike O'Brien said . "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."Fries had worked with ArenaNet for 13 years, Price had been with the Guild Wars 2 narrative team for just under a year.

Peter Allen Clark is a freelance writer. Follow him on Twitter if you want to complete the whole set.