BioWare Supports Beleaguered Writer

[Helmholtz Watson]

snip

Well Mr. Chalk....

Spoiler: I think it would do you good to take a look at this post

From a number of posts that Ive read in this thread there seems to be a recurring (and very erroneous) belief that acting professionally means not acting at all. This is absolutely not the case. There are a million ways that Hepler and Flynn could have addressed this awful situation that would have fallen within the bounds of professional and tasteful, and thus would not have included insults and judgments of worth and character (judgments fueled by knee-jerk anger and not fact). Had they chosen this method of response, fueled by logical argument and presented in a very business-like manner it would have sent a much louder, much more powerful message and would have truly put the initial offenders in their place, even though the offenders probably would not have realized it.

And while Im under no illusion that those initial offenders would have suddenly seen the light and changed their ways ? maybe someone would have. Maybe some, or even just one, of those very hardcore BioWare supporters would have thought to himself or herself that the professional response was really cool and subsequently tried to emulate it at some point in the future. Choosing to answer insult with insult only went to further validate the overarching attitude that permeates the internet ? that every insult should be answered with like insult, or even escalated. This is absolutely the wrong attitude to take.

Hepler and Flynn had a golden opportunity to set the right example to which others should aspire. They chose not to take it and instead freely opted to swim in the same cesspool with those who insulted Hepler. By choosing this path they didnt accomplish anything positive. They didnt put these people in their place. They didnt set these people on the path of right and instill a sense of justice. They didnt defuse the situation. The only things that they really accomplished were to (again) escalate the situation and send a clear message that they are just as willing to get into the mud as those people that insulted Jennifer.

In this situation nobody was a winner and nobody should be commended for their actions.

If anything, the actions that Ms Hepler has taken, remind me of another person's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111038-Duke-Nukem-Forever-PR-Agency-Threatens-Sites-Over-Bad-Reviews-UPDATED] twitter comments.

 

[UnderGlass]

snip

The initial issue with her was that she knows nothing about gaming and yet is writing stories for games correct? The insults about her appearance accompanied that. Meanwhile models with absolutely no clue about games are reviewing games and interviewing Todd Howard and people are absolutely okay with that.

Do you see how that is a ridiculous double standard?

Again you seem to think someone who is verbally attacked has no right to say anything back which is kind of unfair and unrealistic.

Either Volf is being intentionally obtuse or you really are just functioning on 2 different wavelengths. Unless this argument is really stimulating you I'd bail out now.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

snip

The initial issue with her was that she knows nothing about gaming and yet is writing stories for games correct? The insults about her appearance accompanied that. Meanwhile models with absolutely no clue about games are reviewing games and interviewing Todd Howard and people are absolutely okay with that.

Do you see how that is a ridiculous double standard?

Again you seem to think someone who is verbally attacked has no right to say anything back which is kind of unfair and unrealistic.

Either Volf is being intentionally obtuse or you really are just functioning on 2 different wavelengths. Unless this argument is really stimulating you I'd bail out now.

Yeah I was getting the impression that it's going nowhere everything I say he seems to twist it. Not sure if it's deliberate or not...

snip

Well Mr. Chalk....

Spoiler: I think it would do you good to take a look at this post

From a number of posts that Ive read in this thread there seems to be a recurring (and very erroneous) belief that acting professionally means not acting at all. This is absolutely not the case. There are a million ways that Hepler and Flynn could have addressed this awful situation that would have fallen within the bounds of professional and tasteful, and thus would not have included insults and judgments of worth and character (judgments fueled by knee-jerk anger and not fact). Had they chosen this method of response, fueled by logical argument and presented in a very business-like manner it would have sent a much louder, much more powerful message and would have truly put the initial offenders in their place, even though the offenders probably would not have realized it.

And while Im under no illusion that those initial offenders would have suddenly seen the light and changed their ways ? maybe someone would have. Maybe some, or even just one, of those very hardcore BioWare supporters would have thought to himself or herself that the professional response was really cool and subsequently tried to emulate it at some point in the future. Choosing to answer insult with insult only went to further validate the overarching attitude that permeates the internet ? that every insult should be answered with like insult, or even escalated. This is absolutely the wrong attitude to take.

Hepler and Flynn had a golden opportunity to set the right example to which others should aspire. They chose not to take it and instead freely opted to swim in the same cesspool with those who insulted Hepler. By choosing this path they didnt accomplish anything positive. They didnt put these people in their place. They didnt set these people on the path of right and instill a sense of justice. They didnt defuse the situation. The only things that they really accomplished were to (again) escalate the situation and send a clear message that they are just as willing to get into the mud as those people that insulted Jennifer.

In this situation nobody was a winner and nobody should be commended for their actions.

If anything, the actions that Ms Hepler has taken, remind me of another person's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111038-Duke-Nukem-Forever-PR-Agency-Threatens-Sites-Over-Bad-Reviews-UPDATED] twitter comments.

But you disagree with that quote and think they should have said nothing at all, also defending herself from disgusting and inappropriate comments isn't the same thing as threatening sites over bad reviews...

 

[CopperBoom]

You seem to have missed the part where she fanned the flames by retorting to her detractors. Honestly, this is a situation where I just hate everyone involved. Responding to torrents of bile with the phrase "I just figure they're jealous that I get to have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can't get either." is just asking for trouble.

Asking for trouble?
Er...
http://youtu.be/zhkYi-KD20E

 

[Podunk]

This is fucking ridiculous. The woman is a writer. She was hired to write for games. Arguably, I expect most people would agree that BioWare has been known for a higher standard of writing than most game companies, implying that she writes well.

But she doesn't like playing video games? Who fucking cares!? She's a writer. A writer. She is not responsible for any gameplay or development decisions. As long as she does her job and does it well people have no right to *****, regardless of what her hobbies do or do not include. If anyone seriously has a problem with this, they need to get the hell over themselves and STFU.

 

[LostintheWick]

I've met alot of folks who don't like playing games once they get involved in the industry. It's what happens when the veil is lifted. Plus the over exposure to all the copy pasted crap (which seems to be 90% of ALL games).

 

[chiefohara]

Having read the entire thread up to this point, i've come to one conclusion.

Im going to buy one of Hepler's books, i don't care whether its good or not, buying her book is the biggest FU i can give to all the mindless little scumbags who felt they had the right to harass her because they didn't like a fucking computer game.

Anyone else who is disgusted by this mindless drivel that people are spewing at her. Feel free to do the same thing.

Do you mindlessly buy products with Bobby Koticks seal on them as well? Or do you think he is nothing but 'mindless drivel'?

1) Bobby kotick is connected to this how? He is with activison, this thread is predominantly about EA and Bioware.

2) the only person getting a cut of the profits from her book is hepler and her publisher, bioware and EA have nothing to do with it.

3) thank you for posting, you have set yourself up as a particularly stupid example of the type of mindless drivel i am rebelling against.

4) The fact that you are petty enough to be annoyed with my purchase has only made me all the more pleased with it ;-)

Well, that was pleasant now, wasn't it?

Calm down, I'm just wondering if you buy products from a guy who is also equally hated for saying things that cause the internet to say the exact same type of things about him personally. I wasn't implying that you are mindless, but I can see how it came off that way, sorry. Nothing personal. I'm not annoyed, nor do I have any horrible things to say about Hepler, just horrible at using words sometimes.

EDIT: Reads post below....

Brilliant.

Fair enough, i took you up wrong, and for that i apologise.

In aswering your question. I actually stopped buying Activision products when they fired the Infinity wards team leaders. I followed those developers since they made the original medal of honor allied assault games for PC several years ago. The way Kotick treated them and gave their bonuses away disgusted me and i haven't bought a medal of honour/Call of Duty game since modern warfare 2. Its a genre i love, but i won't facilitate bastards.

How this differs from the current thread topic... well, my blood was up because Jennife Hepler wasn't getting constructive criticism as some people are maintaining, she was being harassed in a very personal and derogatory way because people were butt hurt over DA:2 and they vented on her. When people rightfully told them that they were fucking moron's they got butt-hurt because they were 'customers' and said they shouldn't be spoken to in that sense (ugly pathetic trolling, and they used an innocent person as a scapegoat)

Bobby Kotick is a CEO of a major Video game developer, his bullshit interviews have an actual impact on what way the industry is going. Jenifer Hepler is a writer, and a writer who has helped cement Bioware as an RPG developer of note. Her opinion of games and how they operate/play out is her opinion so you can agree/disagree with her on it whatever way you like. IT DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO CRUCIFY HER FOR IT. Bioware is successful because it took talent from outside the industry. If we want computer games to develope and be respected as a valid artistic medium, then sources from outside the industry need to be consulted with, and losing the collective internet rag everytime someone from outside the industry disagree's with you is just going to shoot everyone in the foot.

 

[ATRAYA]

Good on ya, BioWare! I'm sure there are plenty of people in the gaming industry that don't enjoy games - a job is job, people. Besides, everyone knows that E.A. is the one killing BioWare.

 

[CleverCover]

I just adore how the internet/gamers like to rise up against bullies, calling them all sorts of names and phrases, calling for a beat down of any kind....and then go do this. Stay classy guys.

 

[CarlMin]

This Internet scandal is just absolutely disgusting if you ask me. Good for Bioware that they stand behind their workers.

 

[Frankster]

I just adore how the internet/gamers like to rise up against bullies, calling them all sorts of names and phrases, calling for a beat down of any kind....and then go do this. Stay classy guys.

Here's to the day we stop thinking of gamers as this gelatinous mass with a single will and hive mind but rather more as a fuckton of individuals who vary vastly but who happen to have 1 hobby in common and even then they will viciously argue and bully each other over different tastes in that same hobby.

 

[Spitfire]

I'm not sure I understand the whole outrage here.

Videogame writer says she doesn't like videogames. So what? She's a writer, not a game designer. She has to be able to write in the context of a videogame, she doesn't necessarily have to be a fan of them in order to do her job.

The internet seems to be blowing this way out of proportions.

 

[Shjade]

You seem to have missed the part where she fanned the flames by retorting to her detractors. Honestly, this is a situation where I just hate everyone involved. Responding to torrents of bile with the phrase "I just figure they're jealous that I get to have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can't get either." is just asking for trouble.

Asking for trouble?
Er...
http://youtu.be/zhkYi-KD20E

I don't know why the whole rape allegory thing is always the go-to for these comparisons. They're not comparable at all.

Rather, this is much more akin to how a bar fight starts. You've got some people watching football, okay? Guy A is obviously drunk, more than a little obnoxious, and he supports team A in as vocal a manner as possible.

Guy B doesn't really care about sports, but he notices team A fuck something up and comments on it - not insulting or anything, just critical of the play.

Guy A, being drunk and a dick, takes this personally. He shoves Guy B, obviously spoiling for a fight.

Now at this point, Guy B can try one of two things: he can attempt to defuse the situation (maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, no way of knowing until you try); or he can shove back, guaranteeing a bigger and more destructive fight will follow.

Hepler (Guy B in this situation) didn't just shove back. She punched Guy A in the face. She wasn't "asking for trouble" the way people say "she was begging for it" about some rape victims; she flat-out caused trouble by exacerbating the situation. There is no way you can make a sincere claim that her inflammatory response to the flak she was getting had any hope (or, indeed, intent) of improving the situation. The only thing it could do is make it worse, and I have to believe Hepler is intelligent enough to recognize that, therefore making her actions deliberate and their consequences her fault.

Do I think Hepler deserves the shitstorm she received? No. Not in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, this is shitty all around. I don't have any opinion on her as a writer or a person; I have no involvement in any of this petty crap.

However, when I see people simultaneously saying, "This bullying behavior is unacceptable," and, "This was an EPIC zing," I feel a compulsion to point out the hypocrisy. Both parties acted inappropriately from this point forward. Was Hepler provoked? Hell yes...but she still took that swing and had to know what would follow.

tl;dr - I don't see how anyone can justify portraying Hepler as a victim and encouraging her insulting reply at the same time and expect to be taken seriously.

 

[Shjade]

Here's my blanket response to everyone who says that Hepler brought this on herself, at least in part, because she dared to respond to her attackers:

"I get to have both a vagina AND a games industry job, and they can't get either" is a fucking EPIC zing, and I suspect that many of you are angry that she was able to lay it down so easily and effectively with a single line of text.

I'd meant to add this into my previous post, given it's the main example toward which I direct my argument, and then forgot to go back for the quote while writing it. Derp.

Additional note, in case it wasn't clear in the above: bringing something on yourself is not necessarily the same as saying it's deserved in the sense of, "Yes, this is the correct thing to have happened to you because you did X first." It is entirely possible to bring something on yourself that is, itself, unjustified or wrong; just because you incited a riot doesn't mean a riot should have happened or that the destruction that follows should all be blamed on you. It just means you were the trigger. It happens. Sometimes it's not even a conscious thing; maybe you just said the wrong thing about leather shoes, not knowing you were surrounded by anti-leather zealots at the time.

In Hepler's case, I find it hard to believe she expected nothing to come of what she "figured" about her haters. That doesn't justify the increased backlash that followed; it still caused it, "at least in part."

 

[Therumancer]

Well to be fair, Bioware kind of brought this on themselves. They pretty much stabbed their RPG fanbase in the back by turning everything into a pseudo-action game, rather than the kinds of games that got them a fan base to begin with. There was also the entire "Hawke Fiasco" where they asked for community input on reducing the character generation options, got a negative response, and then tried to say the community approved. This is to say nothing of the metacritic scandal.

With Bioware becoming increasingly casual, and producing simplistic action games with attached cinematics, it's not surprising angry members of the original (sizable) fan base are going back through the material Bioware has released, finding things like this, and viewing it as part of the problem.

The problem with Jen I think is that while she said that years ago, it pretty much represents the direction Bioware took. Her being in a position in power within the company is thus being viewed as one of the things guiding an undesired direction. Statements like she made are fine on their own, if a bit wonky, but when they become reality and slot people off years later... well yeah, this is what happens. Also I think people want to prove that this has been brewing for a while, Bioware didn't just make a few bad mistakes.

To be honest with Bioware largely ignoring it's fan base and even griping at people for being too negative if I remember, the proper channels of communication are failing. It's not surprising stunts like this are happening to get attention. To be honest with customers going to this length, I think Bioware should fire Jen and consider it a lesson learned. Right now that would be a better PR move for them than defending her. A game developer who dislikes playing video games is a bit of a joke, and guaranteed as long as she's there this is going to be used as a criticism of them. I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised (having missed those comments originally I believe) that she wrote that and still has a job. I think that by her own words, she is inherantly unqualified for the position she holds... she belongs writing animated movies, not video games. That's just me though.

 

[Shjade]

A game developer who dislikes playing video games is a bit of a joke

Writer != Developer

I could write a game script. Writing is what I do. I couldn't develop a game for shit; code is an alien language to me.

 

[Meshakhad_v1legacy]

To all idiots bashing Hepler:

I hope the Reapers jam a Dragon's Tooth up your fat asses.

 

[Doug]

As much as those people are fucking morons, he shouldn't have come out and said it. But yeah, it is cute that we want our community to be taken seriously when stuff like this is still happening.

Yes, 'he' (cough-she) shouldn't have said she doesn't like games. But... why? I mean, she's fine writing for them, and its hardly as if the other departments are going to let her transform the games into all text, no gameplay/options/etc.

Regardless, the response to her comments have been disgusting, and I can't help but feel that there could be an element of sexism going on her - whilst any writer for video games would have gotten some stick for these comments, the levels of vileness over a several years old comment is beyond insane and I doubt a bloke would have gotten as much abuse.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

As much as those people are fucking morons, he shouldn't have come out and said it. But yeah, it is cute that we want our community to be taken seriously when stuff like this is still happening.

Yes, 'he' (cough-she) shouldn't have said she doesn't like games. But... why? I mean, she's fine writing for them, and its hardly as if the other departments are going to let her transform the games into all text, no gameplay/options/etc.

Regardless, the response to her comments have been disgusting, and I can't help but feel that there could be an element of sexism going on her - whilst any writer for video games would have gotten some stick for these comments, the levels of vileness over a several years old comment is beyond insane and I doubt a bloke would have gotten as much abuse.

I wasn't talking about her comments. I was referring to Aaryn Flynn.

As much as those people are fucking morons, he shouldn't have come out and said it. But yeah, it is cute that we want our community to be taken seriously when stuff like this is still happening.

Huh? Of course he should have. They're a bunch of cunts. It should be highlighted, and as many people as possible should condemn them for it.

I know they are, but he needs to show professionalism.

I fail to see how backing your own member of staff, who has been subjected to an inordinate amount of online abuse, is unprofessional.

That is practically the definition of professional.

This is like working in customer support. It doesn't matter if a customer is yelling at you and being as obnoxious as possible, you never stoop down to their level. He could have defended her without calling someone a fucking moron.

He could've, sure. That's different to should. If someone is a fucking moron, I'd say it's the duty of people to let it be known. What's intrinsically wrong with calling someone a fucking moron if it's the truth?

His position. You don't lose your cool like that. Leave the mud slinging to the morons. There is a reason that most talking by higher ups is done in generic PR statements.