Jennifer Hepler leaves Bioware due to threats by fans

[marcooos]

Death threats are fucking stupid no one should be made to fear for their or their children's lives.
BUT.... I'm not going to pretend to be upset that Hepler has left Bioware, in fact as far as I'm concerned thats only a good thing

 

[Carpenter]

This is BANG OUT OF ORDER!

Yes I got jolly cross with BioWare over the ME3 ending thing but to threaten to kill someone's children is WAYYYYYYYYY over the line! People who do that shit need to be castrated (preferably with a rusty butter knife) so they cannot pollute the gene pool with their own special brand of stupid.

Mind you...I'm guessing the type of turd who does such a thing couldn't get close enough to wave, let alone pro-create!

See what I mean?

Like clock work. You say it's wrong to make a threat before making an even more vicious threat.

The internet is like a breeding ground for emotional and mental instability.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Bad Metro! Bad, bad Metro! You should know better then to misrepresent your source for hits!

If you actually read <a href=http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plague-of-game-dev-harassment-erodes-industry-spurs-support-groups>the source article you will find this quote:

When asked if the harassment led to her depature, Hepler told Polygon "No, leaving Bioware was for family reasons. I am going to be working on a text book on narrative design among other game-related freelance projects."

I mean, I don't support mass death threats, but come on we can denounce them without resorting to "Fox News" sensationalism.

 

[verdant monkai]

Isn't DA3's story finished already? what good would killing her do if her works in the final copy anyway?

Although unpleasant and disturbing these threats will be completely empty, no one has been murdered because their video game story was bad. I would wish her well... but she did sort of give up because of what a bunch of nerds said indirectly to her online, and Dragon Age 2's story was kind of shit so its probably best she leaves.

 

[Juventus]

not sure why people think this is a gaming community problem

you will find that celebrities, businesses, athletes, politicians, governments get death threats on a regular basis. pretty much anyone in a position to do something that others follow or care about gets these threats.

these threats have been happening since humans could communicate with each other. internet has just made it easier. psychos will always be psychos.

next time you want to say something as silly as "I am sick of the gaming community" use your brain and realize the world doesn't revolve around games or its community

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I was just trying to explain to you why some (well, actually many) found her comments to be so controversial. Personally though, I'm of the belief that if your heart isn't in your work, then your work won't be of the highest standards. Indeed, there are plenty of people who do a good job at jobs they're really not interested in. But the people that do the best job in their respective fields are the ones that really want to be doing what they're doing.

Fair enough, I just don't expect everyone working in the industry to be gifted auteurs living their heart's desire. There's room for meat and potatoes people who just want to put in their 8-10 hours and get a paycheck. As long as the result is a functional product that I enjoy, they've fulfilled any obligation they might have to me as a consumer.

I read Hepler's comments as a critique on the currently accepted definition of "game play". The "game play" in Mass Effect, for instance, is shooting aliens. The conversation trees are considered by some to be bookends for the meat of the experience, which is the shootin'. My understanding of Hepler's preference is for gamers to have the ability to prioritize the "fluff" over the "meat". I didn't read it as "Argh, I hate this stupid fucking industry". However, I grew up with the likes of Garriott and Molyneux, so I'm used to developers saying pants-on-head insane things when a microphone is pointed at them. Few of these people are gifted at public relations. Probably why they went into game design.

And I know it's controversial, but DA2's patchwork story ran circles around DA:O's hackneyed one.

 

[StriderShinryu]

But "I settled for this job" is how I took the interview as well. She's a writer, but wants people to "fast-forward" through her writing? Didn't sound like she took a whole lot of pride or interest in her work.

Except she said she wanted to skip through the combat to focus more heavily on the writing and dialogue.

I was going to post pretty much the same thing as this.

I don't claim to have any intimate knowledge of Hepler's perspective beyond what she herself has said publically, but I think it's very possible that she simply had a wider view of what games could/should be. Or, even if she particularly didn't, I still see value in that perspective. Some people love the idea of an interactive experience that focuses on story and character, exploration and immersion in a world not quite your own. Not everyone needs or wants their videogames to be wrapped up in combat or challenges of manual dexterity, and that's something that will push the entire medium forward.

 

[LetalisK]

Also, the guy comes across as a pretentious douchebag, one of those insufferable "wake up, sheeple" types.

It's because he is a pretentious douchebag. He doesn't say anything different from the ones that just scream and pout as they claim their navel gazing to be proof, but he does it in a calmer tone and that somehow makes him a more legitimate source.

While I do not advocate death threats as an appropriate form of expression it seems they didn't have much if anything to do with her departure. Nontroversy.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Hepler is a shitty writer whose continued presence at BioWare has been to their detriment as a game company, but that is not excuse for her harassment in any way, up to and including this. If fans wanted her gone, they should have appealed directly to the company and/or simply, civilly, boycotted those products in which her hand played a role.

Then again, these are BioWare fans, and some of those people are completely guano. It's hardly surprising this happened, but on the other hand it was -- and has been for some time -- completely over the line. Here's hoping these fools get investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of whatever laws and jurisdictions under which they fall.

 

[Dragonbums]

All the woman suggested- YEARS AGO I might add, was that the same way you can skip unnecessary cutscenes in games, the same way you should also be able to skip battles that are only there for the sake of wasting time.
That's all she fucking said.
Then a bunch of assholes come out of nowhere hype up her long old words on 4chan after DA2 failed to live up to writing expectations, and made a good chunk of the gaming community decide it was a good idea to flood the woman's Twitter account with insults and death threats. The problem only escalated when she directly insulted the assailant responsible, and he- not being able to take an ounce of his own heat- cried like a fucking child.

I cannot believe even to this day people are still acting like trash towards her.
Then again, it seems after ME3, a lot of staff over at Bioware are starting to break down. Especially when the last article I read about them was from a writer who can't bear to browse the BSN forums due to how toxic it is.
The guy wasn't even getting personal threats and he was on the verge of quitting. I can't imagine what she was facing on a daily basis.

I will admit, I am, and still are, sorely disappointed in the way they handled all of ME3. Ending included.
However I'm not jaded enough to believe it's all the writers fault; yet alone, a single person. I blame it on EA and their bullshit time constraints and suits who wanted a quick buck.
That being said, I would NEVER send death threats to them for that.

 

[cerebus23]

Please direct all threats and lawsuits at EA not the people the make the games.

I like da2 not as much as dao, but the thing i liked about it was it was not the same bioware story they have rehashed over and over it dared to be more personal, i would give the woman props for that.

 

[William Ossiss]

Interesting video on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0QLz0CqtMVc

Oh so SHE was behind Marril from DA2... Didn't like that character. I always left her behind.
Some of the comments she made makes me glad she is gone from Bioware. Like the video said; her comments show what is wrong with the company.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

...you should also be able to skip battles that are only there for the sake of wasting time...

The true gorram irony in that is, if you look at one of the biggest criticisms of triple-A action titles -- repetitive, uninspired, copy-paste action/combat scenes that add nothing substantive to their respective games -- all she was doing was mirroring community sentiment. Look at Gears of War and Halo: had there been an option to skip that actual sort of filler content, practically the entire gaming community would have shot their collective load in praise.

 

[alphamalet]

Well it has come out that she didn't leave because of death threats, so we can leave that sensationalist headline behind.

With that being said, I will hardly miss the woman responsible for the writing behind one of the most botched sequels in recent memory, and a person who has contempt for the very concept of a video game. Good riddance is what I say.

 

[Carpenter]

not sure why people think this is a gaming community problem

you will find that celebrities, businesses, athletes, politicians, governments get death threats on a regular basis. pretty much anyone in a position to do something that others follow or care about gets these threats.

these threats have been happening since humans could communicate with each other. internet has just made it easier. psychos will always be psychos.

next time you want to say something as silly as "I am sick of the gaming community" use your brain and realize the world doesn't revolve around games or its community

Thank you.

Like I said earlier, there have been a lot of people that start stalking people they see on tv because they are convinced they talk directly to them from the tv.

This is just light compared to the kind of harassment some public figures have went through in the past. It's not a gaming community problem it's a societal problem.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Well it has come out that she didn't leave because of death threats, so we can leave that sensationalist headline behind.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1khc6e/bioware_writer_jennifer_hepler_quits_after_death/cbp0ybl

More information there.

 

[Jazoni89]

I do know that people used to comment on her weight, and calling her Hamburger Helpler, which I admit i thought was kinda funny in a strange way, but personal death threats is just one step too frikken far.

This is just scummy, and downright low, and you don't even see Sonic fans giving death threats out to Sonic Team for bad games, and they are considered a bunch of whacked out 20-something autistic nutjobs by most people.

Cograts Bioware fans, you are now officially the worst gaming fanbase on the net.

 

[Dragonbums]

...you should also be able to skip battles that are only there for the sake of wasting time...

The true gorram irony in that is, if you look at one of the biggest criticisms of triple-A action titles -- repetitive, uninspired, copy-paste action/combat scenes that add nothing substantive to their respective games -- all she was doing was mirroring community sentiment. Look at Gears of War and Halo: had there been an option to skip that actual sort of filler content, practically the entire gaming community would have shot their collective load in praise.

Which makes me believe that she was only targeted because of DA2, and they used that interview as an excuse to attack her.

I mean, okay I get it, DA2 shouldn't of deducted points because the player refused to do a gay romance with one of the characters (from someone who was upset about that from DA2, I don't know if that is true.) However how is that even remotely her fault? Yet alone her choice?
Would that anger not be more appropriately directed at the coder?
And from what I have heard, writers in videogames are often the last people to know about anything revolving around the game. Often times they are brought in to write a story, when everything is already in place. They just have to make it not shit.

People didn't want to take the time to actually read her interview and understand where she is coming from.
You don't HAVE to enjoy playing games to write for games. If you are hiring writers, chances are, you are hiring them for their story telling skills. Not for their love of gaming.
That's like getting pissed off because you find out the writers for a specific movie has no love or interest in cinematic effects, acting, or filmography. Who fucking cares? You hired them to make a good story. Being a master at filming isn't a part of their resume.