D&D 5E Mearls' "Firing" tweet

hawkeyefan · Jan 25, 2018

epithet said:
I think you and I are in general agreement in this thread, but I can see how someone could (with some effort) come to the conclusion that Mike's tweet was casting aspersions on women's facility with complex rules and dense lore.

If you accept that "rules complexity and lore density" are being used to "gatekeep" women away from the tabletop RPGs, it can be taken to imply that those are some sort of girl kryptonite. Spread some rules complexity and some rules density around the tree, and it will keep the girls out of the clubhouse. Yes, it is ridiculous. Completely. I can, however, see how the argument was put together, and the parts that were used.

Okay, I can follow that. I feel like that’s a gross mischaracterization of the tweet, but I can see the train of thought as you’ve laid it out.

And yes, I think we’re on the same page about Mearls’s tweet and what he meant.

Hussar · Jan 25, 2018

Here's a little context.

Chris Cocks comes into WotC as president of the company in 2016 from Microsoft. He's not a gamer, with virtually no RPG experience at all. And, his hire causes... nothing. Virtually no ripples. No explosion on Twitter or Reddit or anything. Pretty much nothing.

Fast forward a year or two and a female game designer is hired for WotC. She has direct gaming experience, and direct design experience. Reddit explodes in a sharp shower of poop as people constantly question her gaming credentials.

Hrm, is it really that hard to draw some conclusions here? When so called critics are badgering the new hire with all sorts of esoteric gaming lore questions while previous hires passed without comment?

Look, Mearls' twitter post is pretty clear. There is a subset of gamers who are using their knowledge of the game to try to gatekeeper the game and prevent some people from entering. That's the MEANING of gatekeeper - not that you block everyone, that you only block those you deem undesirable.

And, well, the undesirable trait here, quite clearly is a wrong pair of chromosomes.

So, yeah, if you're insulted by this tweet, if you think Mearls (dammit autocorrect, it's a NAME!) is talking about you, then you really, really need to do some self reflection.

Richard Smith · Jan 25, 2018

Hussar said:
Here's a little context.

Chris Cocks comes into WotC as president of the company in 2016 from Microsoft. He's not a gamer, with virtually no RPG experience at all. And, his hire causes... nothing. Virtually no ripples. No explosion on Twitter or Reddit or anything. Pretty much nothing.

Fast forward a year or two and a female game designer is hired for WotC. She has direct gaming experience, and direct design experience. Reddit explodes in a sharp shower of poop as people constantly question her gaming credentials.
...

Here's an honest question: Does Chris have a role in product design, or is he just there to coordinate departments and handle budgets and meetings and stuff? I mean, if his role is to handle the boring executive stuff so that the artists can do art, then I can kind of understand why no one paid much attention to his hiring.

JacktheRabbit · Jan 25, 2018

billd91 · Jan 25, 2018

DocMoriartty said:
Of course it is a load of crap, I said it intentionally to point out that Mearls with his tweet did what others in this topic have done. He threw a slur out to try and beat down a group of people who disagreed with him.

A group of people did not like this woman being hired because her style of play did not match theirs and for whatever reason they felt that could mean a change in direction for DnD. It is not a completely unknown fear, take a look at 4E and see how radical a change WOTC is will to make in their attempts to "improve" the game. So a person sufficiently reactionary could think this is the start of something like that. Mearls irritated by defending the hire lashed out via a tweet and threw out a slur calling anyone that questioned the new hire a sexist and accused them of using gatekeeping not to keep her specifically out of gaming but all women out of gaming. By saying this without thinking he was implying that such a tactic could work, which is a stupid and sexist comment to make.

I am sure it was not intentional but Mearls threw out and slur against people disagreeing with him (a rather cheap shot in itself) and by the very way he did it he himself made a sexist comment about female gamers.

Twitter should be avoided when angry.

That is the biggest load of BS I've seen on this board in a while. The mental gyrations necessary to believe that's a significant aspect of what's going on utterly beggar the imagination.

Maxperson · Jan 25, 2018

Sacrosanct said:
Free speech doesn't apply on a privately owned message board, and even in public, doesn't mean freedom from consequence. So let's add ignorance of the 1st amendment to your list of other things you're ignorant on, like how AA works.

No. I have the right to say what I want in private as well. I just have more consequences that can come my way if I say something in a private setting. For example, I have the right to make a post that breaks every rule on this forum. I will probably be banned for it, but I have the right to do it. Nobody has the right to remove my ability to say what I like, so long as it doesn't endanger people.

billd91 · Jan 25, 2018

Maxperson said:
No. I have the right to say what I want in private as well. I just have more consequences that can come my way if I say something in a private setting. For example, I have the right to make a post that breaks every rule on this forum. I will probably be banned for it, but I have the right to do it. Nobody has the right to remove my ability to say what I like, so long as it doesn't endanger people.

No, that is utterly not the case. The fact that you can actually be banned for it means that you do not have the right. The very fact that you can be rightly punished for violating the rules of the board prove that's the case. If you had the right, Morrus couldn't ban you. It would be up to the rest of us to social ostracize you or call you out for your dickish statements.
But he can set the rules on content because it's his board.

hawkeyefan · Jan 25, 2018

DocMoriartty said:
Of course it is a load of crap, I said it intentionally to point out that Mearls with his tweet did what others in this topic have done. He threw a slur out to try and beat down a group of people who disagreed with him.

A group of people did not like this woman being hired because her style of play did not match theirs and for whatever reason they felt that could mean a change in direction for DnD. It is not a completely unknown fear, take a look at 4E and see how radical a change WOTC is will to make in their attempts to "improve" the game. So a person sufficiently reactionary could think this is the start of something like that. Mearls irritated by defending the hire lashed out via a tweet and threw out a slur calling anyone that questioned the new hire a sexist and accused them of using gatekeeping not to keep her specifically out of gaming but all women out of gaming. By saying this without thinking he was implying that such a tactic could work, which is a stupid and sexist comment to make.

I am sure it was not intentional but Mearls threw out and slur against people disagreeing with him (a rather cheap shot in itself) and by the very way he did it he himself made a sexist comment about female gamers.

Twitter should be avoided when angry.

I agree with your last statement. I’d even go one further and remove the angry requirement. Twitter is the worst.

The rest of your post....not so much.

Doc_Klueless · Jan 25, 2018

Never mind. Not worth it.

Jester David · Jan 25, 2018

Makes sense to me.

I do believe gaming is for everyone. And everyone should be welcome... but... I do known if I were running a business, I wouldn't want certain groups as patrons. White supremacists for example. We don't need them in a community.
And misogynists are another.

So while everyone should be welcome in gaming, anyone who isn't willing to welcome people of all ethnicities, genders, or creeds into the hobby simply isn't making the hobby a better place.
Which is kinda ironic. Maybe even hypocritical. But I can life with that, because **** Nazis and sexist jerks.

D&D 5E Mearls' "Firing" tweet

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