John Teasdale

First, context. Jessica Price was on the narrative team at ArenaNet (Guild Wars 2). She tweeted a thread about the complexity of making an MMORPG character narratively.

A content creator ("ArenaNet Partner"), Deroir, took the opportunity to contradict her and say "It's actually not that hard, just do this." Price blew him off and then RT'd it as an example of how it's par for the course when you're a female dev - get told how to suck eggs daily.

She says the next 'rando asshat' to do so will get blocked. Deroir profuses to have only been interested in discourse and that he didn't mean to offend. Reddit gets very upset. Why is Price making this about gender? Why is she being so rude to Deroir?

Reddit gets angrier and angrier about this, and they call for her punishment/removal from the company. In response, ArenaNet fires Price as well as a co-worker who defended her on Twitter, Peter Fries.

I've tried to be impartial so far in setting up the context, but for truly objective context: This is her initial threadhttps://twitter.com/delafina777/status/1014234740772126720?lang=en …

This is Deroir's response, her response to that, and his response to hershttps://twitter.com/DeroirGaming/status/1014280605599748096 …

This is her RT, and below it, his own response to her RTing him in a negative light. If it's not clear, I'm saying click on these to bring up not only the linked tweet but also the immediate responses to it from each party.https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1014554296107483136 …

This is her tweet that seems to have drawn the most hatred - where she calls him and people like him rando asshatshttps://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1014555719352213504 …

And here, she says - this isn't a work account, but her own personal twitter - she isn't on it to play customer service/the customer is always right.https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1014581433937981445 …

And finally, here is Deroir providing his 'final thoughts' on the matter. In a followup tweet, he goes on to thank his community for supporting him during this.https://twitter.com/DeroirGaming/status/1014563099469377546 …

That's a lot of pre-amble before I've even said anything about it myself, huh? That's because I don't want to *just* launch into telling you what I think. I'd like you to take a look at this, understand the context, and think for *yourself*, first. Then we can talk.

For example - those supporting Price's firing believe she overreacted and was rude towards Deroir. They believe he was nothing but polite and entirely constructive, and didn't deserve the reaction she gave him.

They also believe Price played the victim and made the issue about gender when it wasn't. They believe her combination of rudeness and self-victimizing are in stark contrast to Deroir's polite and constructive comments.

Take another look at his comments and, again, think about it for yourself. What do you think of them? You don't have to scroll up. I'll supply them again.

https://twitter.com/DeroirGaming/status/1014280605599748096 …

https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1014554296107483136 …

Remember, click these and bring up the replies. See that full context.https://twitter.com/DeroirGaming/status/1014563099469377546 …

The reason I need to talk about this isn't to tell you about how absurdly bad it is that ArenaNet caved to the mob and fired Price and Fries. That should already be obvious. I want to talk about the mob's reaction in the first place.

Because in checking out the threads discussing the firings, I was surprised, perhaps foolishly so, to find the majority seem to agree with them. The largely agreed upon side is that Price is an angry woman playing the victim and Deroir was a polite fan caught in her path.

They agree with the firings because they believe a toxic, disrespectful dev got what they deserved as the community rallied around an innocent fan with nothing but good intentions. They're proud of themselves.

That's horseshit.

Yes, we've got to the part where I tell you what I think, now.

A frightening amount of people seem to believe if you wrap things up in a polite container anything you say is automatically polite and constructive. That civility and polite mannerisms are the style that overrule any substance. If it's not already obvious, I disagree with that.

The tweets between Price and Deroir are so overtly that of Deroir "well, actually"-ing her thread, Price calling that out fairly tamely, and then Deroir spending the rest of the time passive-aggressively playing the victim.

That the popular narrative became "Price is playing the victim" when she does no such thing and Deroir CLEARLY DOES DO IT is infuriating to me. This isn't cleverly hidden subtext. This is blatant.

"Really interesting thread to read! However" and "Nonetheless, I appreciate the insightful thread!" are a start and end wrapper that say "I'm not saying I'm better at your job than you, but here's an easy way you could fix the thing that you said is very hard".

His initial comments are not, as he later claims, him trying to start a conversation. He is not asking "what do you think of this?" "why doesn't <x> work?" or "could <x> fix the problem?". He is *telling* her, not talking to her. He comes, he explains to her, he wraps up & leaves

Understand - a man who is a popular YouTuber and streamer is *telling* a dev with 10 years of experience how to do her job better. He is not creating a conversation. He is giving her an explanation.

And he caps it off with "Nonetheless, I appreciate the insightful thread!", which in this context means "But hey, thanks for your input!" You may have heard of a term called mansplaining. This is what it looks like.

No manner of polite wrappings change what he's saying here. Most of us understand by now that "I'm not racist, but" does not absolve you of the thing you say next. "Great insights, but" does not change what Deroir is doing, either.