Jessica Price and Peter Fries, two game developers who work for ArenaNet, have reportedly been fired over an argument with Guild Wars 2 players on Twitter. Price responded to an earlier tweet from a player by writing, “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.'” The conversation quickly grew more heated with other players chiming in and Fries defending Price.
ArenaNet CEO Mike O’Brien then posted to the official Guild Wars 2 forum, “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.”
Some developers find the turn of events troubling. “The message is very clear,” Price said, “Especially to women at the company: If Reddit wants you fired, we’ll fire you.”
