TheKasp said:
Isn't it exactly what I wrote? Getting attention has many facettes. If Jim Carrey wanted to entertain people, make them laugh then he went into the spotlight. His success just magnified the result.
Would you say that an amateur comedian at your local comedy club is a public figure?
TheKasp said:
Becoming a musician is also more often than not tied to having an audience. What the media made out of it is not the point I tried to make but that they willingly put themselfs up as potential targets for others.
Having an audience is not the same as being a public figure. If that were the case then members of school orchestras are public figures.
They did not "put themselves up" as public figures, but just did so well at their jobs (which involved audiences) that the media made public figures out of them.
Take Mike Skinner (The Streets) or Vin Diesel as examples, they both have jobs which involve massive audiences, but they also both do their best to avoid any kind of media contact, they stay out of the spotlight and avoid being public (or wholly public) figures.
TheKasp said:
Overall I agree with you. There was a lot that could have been done to prevent or at least limit the reactions. And I don't expect change to come instantly. I would just like to see any signs of change. And no matter how I try, whenever I look into gaming affairs I just don't see it. At all. Everything is the same shit it was years ago. In the end it just makes me sad.
I can certainly empathise. Sometimes it feels like a "one step forward two steps back" kind of deal.
I think the main failing here (aside from the fact that human nature can be really nasty sometimes) is on Bioware's side.
After all, Hepler made her twitter page private and couldn't just prevent publication of the interview. So she did all she could to cut herself off from the public eye, leaving the Bioware forums as the only remaining avenue.
Not only did they not (visibly) provide their employee with the necessary amount of support (if I'm not mistaken only a fraction of the accounts that gave abuse to Ms. Hepler had action taken against them). But they missed a prime opportunity to stand up to this kind of behaviour and make a statement to their legions of fans.
In spite of this Hepler kept calm and carried on, denying the abusers what they wanted. One step forward.
But one persistent abuser's focus on her children has caused her to feel she needs to leave to company (probably for her children's safety), giving the trolls what they were after. Two steps back.