This absolutely is censorship, it’s just not government censorship and is therefore not a violation of the first amendment of the constitution or any similar defined rights to free speech in other nations.

I’m in the animation industry. We watch adults censor stupid stuff all the time. Spend an entire day adding seatbelts to all the characters because somehow kids might notice that they aren’t wearing the belts. Or the BG had a Canadian flag in it, but we’re trying to push for the american market so we need to replace…

So, splitting hairs here but censorship does not have to be done by a government specifically. So, yes, this is censorship. Censorship isn’t always bad, though, and this is a case of Nintendo just saving their ass from people who might get offended at this over here in the States.

This isn’t capital-C censorship in the government sense, but this is censorship in the way we have been using that word in relation to media for DECADES. Only now that the family-value types aren’t the ones calling for it are people trying to separate the two and claim one isn’t censorship.

When we have two versions of…

There was an easy fix that I think they overlooked:

It is however, self-censorship by the creator of the work.

A lot of people on /r/guildwars2 were upset with the situation, but then it made it to /r/games and /r/all and then I believe non GW2 people, kotakuinaction, gamergate people, got a hold of it and that’s when the it got bad. Before that the GW2 people that I mostly saw talking about it were upset somewhat, but there…

Lmao. I love that the dude compares himself being a game dev to an astronomer getting lectured by a “layman.”

You make fucking video games dude. As cool as they are, don’t compare yourself to a scientist to try and elevate yourself above feedback and advice. 

WRONG.
She clearly spoke about her profession AND used her employer in her bio.

People, you need to learn that if you want the clout that comes with a brand, you need to conduct yourself accordingly.

“ArenaNet’s decision, as you note, set a precedent.
 That precedent now shows that internet trolls can pressure a company…

Price is not speaking in an official capacity for the company while on Twitter.

Thank you.  If ArenaNet didn’t fire her just because of the ridiculous outrage, then they would be just as guilty of letting fans affect their decision making.  Decisions like this need to be made regardless of what the fans think.

Thank you for posting this, gives a lot more context than most of this article. It’s a shame that Gamergate is so sadly loitering about, waiting to try and take credit for this sort of thing but wow, I’ve got to agree with ArenaNet on this one. That sort of childish rant is embarrassing, from both Price and Fries (who…

We’re all on perpetual call while voicing our opinions on twitter. That’s why so many people, game developer or not, get fired for things they say while on twitter. You’re an employee to your company, and what you say on twitter can hurt your company’s image.

If you work for a company, and you talk about your job, you are representing your company. I work in Animation, and when i was in my first year of work, I miss spoke online, and I was warned through HR. Deleted everything. Luckily social media isn’t the way it is now, so I wasn’t fired.

I gotta disagree, Heather. She wrote from a personal account, yeah, but one that she writes about her work as a writer for ArenaNet, and her bio even says, “Game producer, writer, editor, howling maenad. ArenaNet Narrative team ...” so her comments have a very clear connection to — and influence on — her employer. That…

I said if I told a customer to eat shit I’d be fired. She didn’t say that exactly nor did I claim she did, but now I’m curious if you read the rest of her responses after he apologized where she called him a “rando asshat?”

Any time you engage on a social media platform where you directly or indirectly talk about your employer, you are to some extent representing them. There’s no way around that and it’s why most companies make us sign contracts with social media clauses in them.

Where were all the “it’s their private social media”…

Read the original messages and judge for yourself. Were these appropriate responses to customers? Or was she an innocent victim?

This. Fries comment was also idiotic. The moment Price posted ANYTHING to social media she most certainly DID ask for feedback.

Taking the original twitter spat alone, her behavior was ridiculous. She posted a multi-tweet essay, essentially, to a public space. Someone respectfully commented on that essay and she began passively insulting him.