Bioware faces fierce backlash after a developer (now fired) mocks TotalBiscuit's death

[Alchemi]

Free speech is great and all guys, but the people saying he shouldn't have been fired for what he said, your wrong. Here's a nice fact about free speech, it comes at a cost. Yes you have the right to speak your mind and say whatever you want, and are completely protected from the government in doing so. However, that freedom comes with consequences, and it's entirely on you to deal with the consequences of your actions. If you are a known employee of a company, then you are automatically a representative of that company. Everything you say represents that company, and thus if you say something horrible or dumb that the company is not ok with well... You have Freedom of Speech, thus you have the freedom to deal with the consequences of your speech. Getting fired is one of those consequences, having someone hate you is another one of those consequences. 

 

However, waiting til someone dies to say this is just cowardly, and defending such a person is just as bad. That is my opinion.

 

I hope for the best for TB's family. 

 

Edit: Realized, I should make this clear. I am a whole hearten defender of Freedom of Speech, and Open Information. Just felt it should be made clear, I am not saying it's a bad thing, it's really not. Just that, people need to start understanding exactly what they're getting into.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Alchemi

[Humbug]

49 minutes ago, Alchemi said:

Free speech is great and all guys, but the people saying he shouldn't have been fired for what he said, your wrong. Here's a nice fact about free speech, it comes at a cost. Yes you have the right to speak your mind and say whatever you want, and are completely protected from the government in doing so. However, that freedom comes with consequences, and it's entirely on you to deal with the consequences of your actions. If you are a known employee of a company, then you are automatically a representative of that company. Everything you say represents that company, and thus if you say something horrible or dumb that the company is not ok with well... You have Freedom of Speech, thus you have the freedom to deal with the consequences of your speech. Getting fired is one of those consequences, having someone hate you is another one of those consequences. 

 

However, waiting til someone dies to say this is just cowardly, and defending such a person is just as bad. That is my opinion.

 

I hope for the best for TB's family. 

 

Edit: Realized, I should make this clear. I am a whole hearten defender of Freedom of Speech, and Open Information. Just felt it should be made clear, I am not saying it's a bad thing, it's really not. Just that, people need to start understanding exactly what they're getting into.

Yep.

Rights always come with responsibilities.

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Thing is that whenever an employee publicly states that they're working for a company, whatever that employee says may be reflected onto the company by some unless it is stated "Whatever I post is strictly my opinion and does not reflect the views of the company I work at".

 

Had it been mentioned, he probably would've kept his job. I'm all for free-speech, but there will always be a line drawn

Indeed - which is exactly why he was fired.

 

The guy made a fool of himself, and Bioware. And they reacted in the correct manner.

 

With that in mind, Bioware should not be held accountable for his actions, since they took their own actions mitigate the situation (him getting fired).

 

And no, I don't think there's really any situation in which he would have kept his job, in regards to contract wording, etc. They rightfully so dismissed him, in my opinion.

 

Free Speech doesn't protect you from getting fired. It protects you from the Government doing something like muzzling you, or arresting you. He was, is, and will be allowed to say whatever he wants. But that doesn't mean Bioware has to keep employing him, since that's not part of Free Speech.

 

As mentioned by @Alchemi and @Humbug, Free Speech does not mean "consequence free". If you are an asshole, I support your right to be a douche bag. But I also support your employers right to fire you for being a douche bag.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 5/27/2018 at 10:35 AM, ravenshrike said:

Well no, mocking a murderer immediately after their death is perfectly acceptable. So Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Ted Kennedy were all viable candidates at the moment of their demise.

20 hours ago, GilmourD said:

I could see celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden or Hitler, but a YouTuber that didn't hurt anybody with anything but words? 

If that's the case, then your issue is not about mocking the dead: It's just about who you like and who you don't.

 

 

21 hours ago, alphaproject said:

 

Way too PC now a days.  If someone wants to rag on me when I'm dead, go right ahead.

The thing is, what you care or don't care about doesn't matter, since you'd be dead. The concern is over those who survive you, and you have no saying in what they care about and what can hurt them.

 

21 hours ago, alphaproject said:

 

One guy's opinion should not get him fired.

I don't know. I could see having the opinion that the CEO of the company should be spanked in the town's main square for being an asshole could be conducive to getting fire, especially (but not only) if expressed publicly.

 

21 hours ago, alphaproject said:

good lord and man should not lose his job over a youtuber....

And he didn't In fact, I don't think you can "lose your job over a youtuber". Most likely, if anything, he lost his job over making public statements that were damaging to the company he works for while also publicly displaying his affiliation to said company.

 

21 hours ago, alphaproject said:

The guy sat in his home making videos. He didn't saved people from burning buildings.

... and we're back to the first part of the post: then it's not about what he did or didn't do, it's about how much you like the subject referenced in his posts...

 

[Matsozetex]

To be honest, after the Anti-white developer and ME:A, bioware has lost my respect entirely. The only EA dev team that holds a shrivel of my respect is DICE. 

[asus killer]

one good rule is: you can think stupid, but you shouldn't speak stupid. You can, but you shouldn't. If you do, there's consequences 

[marldorthegreat]

31 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

He has the right for Congress to not punish him for it, that's it.

Yeah, he got fired which is fine. Twitter could ban him, but He can say whatever he wants. (Without inciting violence)

[Eaglerino]

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Here's my take:

 

Bioware didn't make those comments. Bioware shouldn't be punished for a douche bag dev who wants to disrespected a person who died of cancer. Had they defended his actions, or had they kept him employed, then you can blame Bioware - but they didn't.

 

Some users here might not like the "left" leaning political and moral values of Bioware or most of it's employees, but that shouldn't give you an excuse to shit on them when they did nothing wrong.

I don't think anyone is blaming Bioware. If anything, this guy definitely isn't the only like-minded person Bioware has hired, and if he and other like-minded developers are working there it would explain the sudden Ghost Busters direction of their games. Terrifies me for what Anthem will be like, and if that fails EA has hinted that's it for Bioware

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Eaglerino said:

I don't think anyone is blaming Bioware. If anything, this guy definitely isn't the only like-minded person Bioware has hired, and if he and other like-minded developers are working there it would explain the sudden Ghost Busters direction of their games. Terrifies me for what Anthem will be like, and if that fails EA has hinted that's it for Bioware

There are definitely a few posts in this thread that go out of their way to shit on Bioware for unrelated reasons. Furthermore, the title of the thread (and article) is "Bioware faces fierce backlash..."

 

So, there are definitely some people "blaming" Bioware. As I said, I think Bioware did the right thing, and there really wasn't anything else they could do better about it.

 

Sure, there could be other "like minded" people at Bioware, but if they keep those opinions to themselves, then it's their own business (and Bioware would have no way of knowing anyway).

[ItsMitch]

15 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

There are definitely a few posts in this thread that go out of their way to shit on Bioware for unrelated reasons. Furthermore, the title of the thread (and article) is "Bioware faces fierce backlash..."

 

Hey man, if you're going to throw shade at me for Bioware receiving a shit load of hate on Twitter then feel free to tag me, if not, don't bother. 

[dalekphalm]

10 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

Hey man, if you're going to throw shade at me for Bioware receiving a shit load of hate on Twitter then feel free to tag me, if not, don't bother. 

I wasn't specifically referring to you. You reported the news, you didn't "create" it. I cannot, and will never, fault someone for posting a news topic.

 

In fact, you kept the News Post quite objective, in my opinion.
 

So I'm not really sure why you think I threw shade at you?

 

I have no problem with your thread title, but @Eaglerino claimed that no one was hating on Bioware, despite, as you say, them receiving a lot of hate on Twitter.

[RasmusDC]

No doubt that this was a stupid tweet, and way to early after the death of TB. 

 

But there are some things in this discussion about TB that i feel is fair enough, we often put people on a pedestal when death occurs, but that also neglects people that this person actually hurt. 

 

TB is a controversial figure, and i felt personally that he overstepped at points, just to be controversial, i personally unsubbed a couple of years back, he really did seek out fights, so he could create content on it. a bit like Jim Sterling.

 

and that does create victims, sometimes faily other times not so... and when victims that feel really hurt by that guy, hears the praise, and all the good stories, they get hurt, and rightly so, so they react like this,

 

I agree this were over the top, but i still do feel that some kind of middle ground should be all right. not a total censorship of the guy. his legacy is build on both positive, and negative stories.

 

There were a LOT of "iffy" elements also on TB, we will never know what was right, but if the kitchen smells, there might be some garbage somewhere.. and it is still okay to dig. Like so many others, he wallowed in taking down people, but reacted poorly to actually being criticized himself, i really do think that if you want to be a critic, you have to accept that people also look at you as a person

 

I feel for his friends and his family and i do believe at current time, if people has nothing good to say on a PUBLIC TB twitter, then keep it to yourself. 

[Trixanity]

5 hours ago, RasmusDC said:

snip

Simple: criticize before his death instead of waiting for the obituary to lodge a complaint. It's embarrassing to say "gotcha" after the man passed away. Or wait a few months to give your thoughts on the person.

 

With that being said: I don't think there is any excuse for celebrating the death of a man. Criticize later down the line? Sure. But this is not okay. This is a spineless and gleeful attempt at tarnishing a man who cannot respond. Even if this tweet was sent out in 6 months time it would still have been a stupid tweet. He just wanted the attention while the news was fresh. It backfired wonderfully though.

[Cole5]

I didnt much like TB, Respected sure, But ya just dont do that

[D13H4RD]

7 hours ago, RasmusDC said:

~snip~

In essence, if you don't have something good to say, then don't say anything.

 

And if you wanna criticize or mock, do it when the guy is still alive and can counter. Not when he/she only just died...

[mynameisjuan]

On 5/26/2018 at 6:59 PM, Master Disaster said:

How is this anything to do with Bioware at all? He's a ex employee, doesn't work for them.

People are idiots. I mean thats pretty much it. 

 

Why do you think Ads get yanked from certain videos? Because people are dumb and associate one thing with another even though they have nothing to do with each other. 

 

 He was fired for his actions. Clearly its not biowares view.

[RasmusDC]

4 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

In essence, if you don't have something good to say, then don't say anything.

 

And if you wanna criticize or mock, do it when the guy is still alive and can counter. Not when he/she only just died...

I agree that his tweet is not okay..

 

Just stating that critique of material from dead persons are okay... personal attacks are not.