Jennifer Hepler leaves Bioware due to threats by fans

[Tsun Tzu]

Frankly, I'd just love to be working in game writing. I'll take all the trolls, whiny kids, "death threats," and more that the web can throw at me. Just give me a job at Bioware.

They can grate on you over time.

Almost 15 years and I'm really not deterred.

It's just a sea of comments. Some good, most bad. You learn to accept it when you recognize that the internet is a medium of expression...and some of us are frustrated with our lot in life and choose to express that frustration through trolling or volatility towards the nameless, or named, blobs of pixels on our screens.

Let me put it this way. I'm greatly more in favor of people being dicks on the internet than I am in an increased level of violence due to people not being able to vent properly. Red herring, to be sure, but it certainly isn't without some basis in fact. Crime rates have been falling dramatically ever since the advent of gaming/the internet/other easy access forms of self expression/socialization. Again, I'm not condoning anything. I'm simply stating observations.

With that said, sign me up for a writer position, Bioware. I solemnly swear that absolutely none of my work will be "starchild" levels of catastrophic.

 

[thebakedpotato]

Frankly, I'd just love to be working in game writing. I'll take all the trolls, whiny kids, "death threats," and more that the web can throw at me. Just give me a job at Bioware.

They can grate on you over time.

Almost 15 years and I'm really not deterred.

15 years of writing? Oh I bet. That's fucking cherry.
Trade ya for my year and a half as a support rep. Those threats ain't as fun when you're the one deciding if ya need to call the police on behalf of the company.

 

[Madman123456]

Hum, this is still going.

Had a bit of time going through the story so far.
Basically, if you had a criticism for her that may have been as constructive as you can make it then you where a sexist who is "jealous of her vagina and her job in the industry, both of which where things that you aren't ever going to get.".
No matter what critique you had, you where lumped in with those who would write any of the disagreeable things.
So in order to get anything through to her, one would have to get progressively more vitriol on the page.

I'm not condoning that, i'm trying to recreate the thought process.

What i would condone is total silence from the customer.
If you'd have to make death threats to get through to anyone, no videogame is worth it. Worst case is that her writing eventually is all over every future bioware game which then turn out to have mediocre videogame parts (Bioware isn't exactly well known for making good gameplay) and then story cutscene things with odd characters. Someone said her writing is that of a fangirl; make of that what you will.
In any case, she certainly wont be discovering new ways to implement narrative in games since she doesn't care for games.

Still, not worth making death threats.

Even if i thought that she would be the downfall of bioware (which she wouldn't be, some people of the videogame company hired this writer who doesn't like videogames...) i'd rather let bioware go down the drain.

 

[oreso]

Ok, so apparently she quit because of other things, but something kind of makes me uncomfortable. People flat out stating that the death threats weren't a big deal and that people just need to grow a thicker skin. Here's the thing though. Some people can't grow a thicker skin. Harassment is a very serious issue in the world and it really messes some people up. You can't tell every person who's been traumatized by harassment, who ever committed suicide because of it to grow a thicker skin. Just because you can handle it doesn't mean that everyone else can. And it may seem silly but harassment on the internet is a very real, very serious problem. Cyber-bullying is a thing. What's the solution to the problem? I have no idea. But what I do know is that it isn't something that we should just shrug off.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7831-Go-Fish

This lack of empathy is uncomfortable.

Well, we can all agree it's kinda messed up, but expressing our empathy isn't going to help her (I doubt she's reading the thread). Saying 'no' and saying nothing are equally useless, we're just raging into the uncaring 'net the same way that the trolls are (albeit in a nicer way, hopefully). To some folks, being practical is the best way we can show our empathy, and here all we can really do is try and think of some solutions and change behaviour when and where we see it.

There are many jobs which require a thick skin (my wife worked in customer support over the phone for an electricity company, and it was pretty hellish. Staff bursting into tears wasn't even rare) but I believe we already have all the laws we need here (at least in the UK; we have the malicious communications act).

Unlike rapists (who mostly don't care because they are sociopathic) an anti-bullying campaign which targeted bullies along with victims might be effective though. Encouraging folk to see people online as actual people ("If you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it at all"), along with some advice for victims to protect their own anonymity (no physical addresses online, etc) and advice on how to not let troll ragings get to you and what to do if they turn really personal ("Trolls want you to get angry, so don't feed them your attention! And report any serious or repeated harassment to the police!") would be grand.

Cheers!

 

[Tsun Tzu]

15 years of writing? Oh I bet. That's fucking cherry.
Trade ya for my year and a half as a support rep. Those threats ain't as fun when you're the one deciding if ya need to call the police on behalf of the company.

Well, yes, 15 years of writing, but I meant 15 years of dealing with the internet mob directly. And yes, I'd imagine that wouldn't be pleasant.

My condolences.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

What the flippity fuck is wrong with some people? Is there any information on WHY they were sending death-threats, or is this just a case of crazy people being crazy?

I haven't found anything anywhere, but from what i gathered it was most likely (take that with a grain of salt though, as I said nothing official anywhere as far as I can tell) because people blamed mostly her for DA2 being shitty. Also this Interview has not gone over well:

Q: What is your least favorite thing about working in the industry?

A: Playing the games. This is probably a terrible thing to admit, but it has definitely been the single most difficult thing for me. I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games... I'm really terrible at so many things which most games use incessantly -- I have awful hand-eye coordination, I don't like tactics, I don't like fighting, I don't like keeping track of inventory, and I can't read a game map to save my life.

Q: If you could tell developers of games to make sure to put one thing in games to appeal to a broader audience which includes women, what would that one thing be?

A: A fast-forward button. Games almost always include a way to "button through" dialogue without paying attention, because they understand that some players don't enjoy listening to dialogue and they don't want to stop their fun. Yet they persist in practically coming into your living room and forcing you to play through the combats even if you're a player who only enjoys the dialogue.

So all in all it seems like it's just people being crazy.

oh yeah I remember this little flap, it can come off a little insulting since the "interactive" parts of the game are what makes it a game not a book. but with bioware games the dialogue and writing is usually almost as if not more interactive than the combat portions. and I've thrown a game into way easy setting before just to experience the story without having to deal with the combat as much.

usually i'm inclined to blame a lot of this kind of thing on "internetz lols" but this is just way too out there. it's oddly specific and pretty horrible. not to mention totally uncalled for. I mean usually you can scroll the comments on almost any news story on the internet and find someone saying something racist or hoping someone dies in a car fire. but when you get specific and bring the kid into it. it's not funny it's not clever it's not even a little bit lols it's just cruel and there is no excuse for it.

 

[thebakedpotato]

15 years of writing? Oh I bet. That's fucking cherry.
Trade ya for my year and a half as a support rep. Those threats ain't as fun when you're the one deciding if ya need to call the police on behalf of the company.

Well, yes, 15 years of writing, but I meant 15 years of dealing with the internet mob directly. And yes, I'd imagine that wouldn't be pleasant.

My condolences.

Eh... It is the routine more than anything else.

 

[sumanoskae]

"I was disappointed by the quality of Dragon Age II, so I think the most constructive thing to do is violently insult the writing staff, surly demoralizing the team during the creative process will improve the franchise"

Watch them turn around and complain about Inquisition the same way when it suffers from losing it's head writer half way to release.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

To a degree I am comforted to think that people have always been this fucking nuts, it's just that the internet and modern communications give them unprecedented scope to voice their craziness. Still, when it claims a person who is obviously passionate about storytelling via the video game medium it's upsetting. I am surprised the developer did not support her more strongly, and pursue those kinds of people with legal action via the sites they broadcast their opinions on, or am I missing something?

 

[Dragonbums]

Good lord, are there still people quoting me in their blind, furious rage at me daring to question the methods of a former Bioware employee?

I'm sorry, but who exactly is "blind and furious" here? The people who replied to you gave you a well mannered and valid response of how you view Hepler.
You are the one it seems, to be pissed off at her.

The Bioware fanboys need to calm down. I didn't say a damn thing about her talents.

You show a lot of ignorance on the issue with this one statement. The main people who are upset at Jennifer Hepler to the point of sending her death threats are indeed Bioware fans. To say that it is Bioware fans that are defending her in this thread is silly.

Nor did I even once imply that it was "okay" to threaten her with death. I did not and would not.

Nor did anyone dispute that with you.

What I said was that if she doesn't like any of the interactive elements of video games, and wants them to be skip-able so that she can ONLY listen to the dialogue, then perhaps she should consider writing in a medium that doesn't include those elements, such as movies or books. Because a video game's uniqueness comes from the interactivity it provides, and it's simply stupid to try and strip that element out of video games.

And people countered that statement by saying that she had no desire to strip out all gaming elements in a game. All she said was that the player should have the ability to skip through battle sequences and levels that serve no purpose in forwarding the game what so ever.

So, she may be a brilliant writer, but she's got the wrong attitude for a video game developer.

She is not a video game developer. She is a writer. Nothing more nothing less, and it certainly doesn't require her to play videogames to get the job done.

If you disagree, fine, I don't really care. But I prefer my video games to be made by people with some sort of personal investment in video games, rather than a person who does it to make money.

Now you are making an even bigger baseless judgement. How, exactly, do you know, if she was simply in it for the money? Especially when she was responsible for making some of the most memorable characters in Dragon Age? Someone who is only "in it for the money" wouldn't bother putting in the time or worth to flesh out characters the way she did.

 

[Dragonbums]

"I was disappointed by the quality of Dragon Age II, so I think the most constructive thing to do is violently insult the writing staff, surly demoralizing the team during the creative process will improve the franchise"

Watch them turn around and complain about Inquisition the same way when it suffers from losing it's head writer half way to release.

I don't think she bailed before the job is done.
I'm fairly certain that she finished up all of her current tasks and assignments and once everything is in order, she turned in her resignation papers and left.
Everything else after that is entirely up to the other writers and the would be replacement head writer for Hepler.

 

[rbstewart7263]

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/16/bioware-writer-quits-after-death-threats-to-family-3925970/

The senior writer on Dragon Age II has decided to leave developer BioWare after ?graphic threats? were made to kill her children.

Jennifer Hepler was working on sequel Dragon Age: Inquisition but is quitting BioWare this week to go freelance, in large part thanks to threats she and others of the team received in the wake of Dragon Age II?s release.

"I was shown a sample of the forum posts by EA security", says Hepler "And it included graphic threats to kill my children on their way out of school to show them that they should have been aborted at birth rather than have to have me as a mother."

Edit: Ahhh sorry, they got her Name wrong and I just copied it. It should of course be Jennifer Hepler.

I....oh my god that is damned terrible. Im sorry mods I have nothing good to add but I also have need to say...Gods Im sorry. I feel so bad for her she deserves better.

 

[ThriKreen]

Everything else after that is entirely up to the other writers and the would be replacement head writer for Hepler.

Remember: she is a senior writer, not head. A lot are making this mistake and attributing her as a cause to areas she most likely has little influence in.

That is essentially removing the "game" from "video game".

These are all games where the talking is the main reason most people play, and they are not parts where you just sit back and watch. They have game play.

^ What he said. Bioware games are both action/RTS style mixed with Japanese style visual novels. Her preference is for more of, and skippable, to the visual novel portion where one focuses more on the character to character interaction and dialogue options. I know a lot of friends who are like that - one has tendonitis and thus can't play through a lot of action games, but loves the dialogue portions in Bioware games.

It's just a valid game portion as the action parts. Her opposing preference is as valid a view as yours, you're just on opposite sides of the same coin.

While I haven't played Heavy Rain, I did play LA Noire and I have to admit, the non-dialogue parts of it were annoying - there was like next to no reason to bother with the open world parts, and I mostly ended up getting the partner to drive directly to the next scene. Essentially echoing Hepler's preference for that game to skip to the dialogue parts.

 

[GloatingSwine]

She is not a video game developer. She is a writer. Nothing more nothing less, and it certainly doesn't require her to play videogames to get the job done.

Protip: Someone who literally wishes that 95% of the product that they are working on would go away so that people can get to more of their bit is not someone who should be working on any product.

Videogame writers should be looking for ways to integrate narrative and gameplay, not segregate it and make one bit go away.

 

[Reeve]

The article in the OP has this update

Update:

Jennifer Helper has contacted us to make it clear that she did not leave BioWare as a direct result of the harassment she received at the hands of gamers.

?BioWare was tremendously supportive of me during that time, and I have experienced nothing like it since, due to the excellent policing of the BioWare Forums and new policies on the BioWare Social Network,? she told us in an email.

?I am moving on from BioWare now to pursue other opportunities that let me return to be closer to family in the United States after a wonderful eight years in Canada. I have no intentions to leave the game industry...

Move along, nothing to see here people...

 

[Dragonbums]

She is not a video game developer. She is a writer. Nothing more nothing less, and it certainly doesn't require her to play videogames to get the job done.

Protip: Someone who literally wishes that 95% of the product that they are working on would go away so that people can get to more of their bit is not someone who should be working on any product.

Videogame writers should be looking for ways to integrate narrative and gameplay, not segregate it and make one bit go away.

That is not what she said.
She talked about how she wishes the player has the ability to skip through what are essentially grind levels to get to the good parts.
Have you played a Bioware game before?
Do you know how many people couldn't give two shits about shooting thugs and geth and would rather just skip on to the next part of the game? Quite a few people.
What she said was far from unreasonable. Yet alone blasphemy in the gaming world.
The next time you, or someone else complains about grinding holding down the game, then perhaps think back to what she said in that interview.
Writers are often the last people to get notified of what's happening in the game. More times than not the game is already essentially made, and they are brought in to give it a story and context.

 

[nasteypenguin]

She doesn't want to avoid it, she wants an alternative to shooting...

*snip*

I completely agree sweeping new ideas is precisely what the industry needs to find more interesting and enjoyable games, but that is most certainly NOT what Jennifer Hepler was suggesting...

She suggests that maybe having an option to skip past a tedious action segment to get back to the narrative that had you slogging your way through it. Would it be better not have tedious action segments? Sure... but try and make that universal. Try to imagine making a combat sequence that is both engaging and stimulating to both the "Lore Whores" and The "True" gamers. Where absolutely no one feels any form of tedium, but also no one feels unchallenged...

It's been diluted through multiple posts and the fact that I'm crap at communication for the most part, but my issue is not with the idea itself it's with the reason she came up with the idea, and what it means for her part in the medium. A fast forward button may very well be a valid option for some games at this time, but it's an extremely short term concept which promotes the stagnation of gameplay being an entirely separate feature than storytelling. We should be focusing on making gameplay far more interesting and relative to the narrative as opposed to wanting to leave it as it is and just skip over it.

In the future when we have exhausted many more ideas of making gameplay more endearing this may even become a norm, but right now it is a far more harmful concept to the mediums evolution than it is helpful to players. My stance on sluggish grindy gameplay is that we should seek to change it into more endearing gameplay far more relative to the story, and not accept that the grind is an inherent part of the game and seek to avoid it.

Nevertheless, had someone with a background of enjoying games come up with the idea I would have given it more merit, however it came from someone whom has openly admitted to not liking games and is just further proof to me that said person does not have any interest in the evolution of gaming. The real problem is that her idea is indeed getting a lot of publicity, and it should not be, not because of it's benefits or flaws but because the source of the idea does not have any real investment in the medium itself.

She does not deserve a fraction of the vitriol anyone gives her, let alone any that I myself might be throwing out - I assure you it's as unintentional as I can make it - but I am sure there are plenty of people who would be better suited to being in her position, and many more ideas that would be more beneficial to the evolution of gaming than this.

Well,... Not entirely. She wanted a fast forward button for combat, not the death of all CoD clones. She cares about the plot, not challenges or combat. She cares about the adventure, not the puzzles.

She wants a world to explore, a story to unfold, and a world of people to get to know. Something more open than a movie, but not filled with fustrating puzzles and combat. An immersive world to get lost in for hours. This is something a lot of games have, and it is one of the main reasons I enjoy playing games.

Sometimes I want a game like she seems to want. Full of story and wonder, but no crisis to solve, no puzzles to hinder exploration, and no combat to frustrate/challenge. Just a world to go on an expedition in, and characters to share it with. An RPG without combat, and maybe some multiplayer (I don't like MMOs).

While that is a wonderful sentiment and absolutely the kind of idea everyone in the gaming industry should have, I think it is quite naive to think this is what Jennifer Hepler was thinking when she introduced this idea. She does not like to play games, indeed she probably doesn't have much experience playing games, I do not think the concept of exploration and gaming immersion was going through her mind when she said this, I think she viewed gameplay as an added "fun" bonus to an otherwise differently told story which oftentimes spoiled the enjoyment of said story.

As I see it, her talent as a writer is not at fault but she did not want to write for games, she just wanted to write. Again, this is only what I think but she has showed no indications to the opposite and leaving Bioware* supports my thinking that she did not value the position she was in as much as she should have.



*Granted the threats played a part in this decision, I doubt anyone with real conviction to their job would allow internet bullying to force them out of it, take that as you will.

 

[GloatingSwine]

That is not what she said.
She talked about how she wishes the player has the ability to skip through what are essentially grind levels to get to the good parts.

How about you go and read what she actually did say (the interview is quoted in this thread. She said that she wanted a fast forward button so that people could skip through the combats and get to the dialogue. She did not make any reference to the quality of the combat, as far as she is concerned it's all an obstacle in the way of dialogue.

Not just "skip through gridning", but "skip through all combat to get at dialogue".

That's 100% the wrong way to approach writing for an interactive medium. Hepler is better out of videogames if she wants people not to play them, she can go and write TV or books or something where all that inconvenient gameplay isn't getting in the way for her.

 

[Candidus]

Well, I don't approve of the threats, but I'm glad she's out one way or another. Her work was atrocious. I don't expect things to get any better with her gone, but one fewer awful Bioware writer is always better than one more.

Will they hire some real talent, or draft one of their many trashy fan-fiction tier scrawlers into the vacant position? I wonder.

 

[KB13]

This is sad, I thought that Dragon Age 2 was a nice little game. Of course I also like Angel of Darkness and Bayonetta but hey. The police need to track this person down and arrest him or her, threats like this shouldn't be taken lightly, it is a prelude to bigger problems later. Jen keep your family close and hope this idiot makes a mistake.