The Hard Way: A Lesson for Hepler
by Elizabeth DeLoria
The internet can be a scary place. Jennifer Hepler, a senior writer on some of BioWare’s biggest games, including the Dragon Age series and Star Wars: The Old Republic, learned that on Sunday when some internet users discovered her more controversial opinions.
“If you're a woman, especially a mother, with dinner to prepare, kids' homework to help with, and a lot of other demands on your time, you don't need a game to be 100 hours long to hold your interest — especially if those 100 hours are primarily doing things you don't enjoy,” Hepler wrote on BioWare’s official forums. “A fast forward button would give [busy] players the same options that we have with books or DVDs — to skim past the parts we don't like and savor the ones we do.”
It’s for views like these that Hepler was subjected to hundreds of nasty comments filled with name-calling and personal insults.
“You gotta give her some credit, though. She's sucked a lot of dick to get where she is,” read one post by reddit user skysignor.
“It's a known fact women cannot write and use their gender as an excuse,” wrote Twitter user @MikeRotch11.
On the more sympathetic areas of the internet, Hepler was perceived as the victim of a world where having a different opinion is basis for vilification.
Until she lashed out, that is.
