In a sign of good gesture to it’s employees, BioWare Co-founder Ray Muzyka released an official statement on the recent attacks on Jennifer Hepler. Chris Priestly, BioWare’s community coordinator posted the statement on the DAII News & Announcements forum and this is what Muzyka had to say:
Hi Everyone
Below, please see a message from BioWare co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka in regards to the recent attacks on Jennfer Hepler.
Jennifer is a valued, talented employee who has been with BioWare for many years and we hope will be with us for many more. It is awful that a few people have decided to make her a target for hate and threats, going so far as fabricating forum posts and attributing them to her, and singling her out for projects to which she has not contributed (i.e., Jennifer is not even a part of the Mass Effect writing team). All of us at BioWare support and will continue to support Jennifer fully, and are happy to see so many people out there are also supporting her during this difficult time.
– Dr. Ray Muzyka. Co-Founder of BioWare; General Manager, BioWare Label; Senior Vice President, Electronic Arts
Additionally we will be making a donation of $1000 in Jennifer’s name to Bullying Canada. Please feel free to also donate to this worthy cause in support.
Thank you again to everyone who has supported Jennifer and BioWare in this difficult time.
The succeeding responses on the thread had been mixed (with majority of the earlier posts supporting Hepler) however with the way the discussions are going I must say that those who are vocal about it are starting to miss the point. This is BioWare protecting one of their own because some turds have crossed the line between “criticizing” and being spiteful, mean and vicious.
2 Comments
Hm. The funny thing is her attackers probably couldn’t write for sh*t.
And I think her “crime” was actually quite a good suggestion, if you’re concerned about usability for all possible demographics. What she suggested was an option. It’s not like she really forced anything down anyone’s throats.
And really. The behavior of those gamers. No wonder even Penny Arcade admits that many of us act like pre-schoolers.
In any case, thanks for posting this. I’m glad to see CEOs protect their people against things like this. You don’t see that everyday in the gaming industry. 😀
That’s the problem with people these days. They love to complain but when you put them in your position they don’t know jack of anything. This self-entitlement is really going overboard specially when people started threatening her over the phone.