Jessica Rice publicly attacks Tonya Woldridge, an employee of a commercial rival, in profane terms. She later reveals it is because Woldridge blew the whistle on disputed allegations Price made in a private workplace forum. Are Chris Cox, CEO of Wizards of the Coast, and Brian Goldner, Hasbro CEO comfortable with this behaviour? Click for full size. Original tweet (archive)
Paizo is a small company that makes Pathfinder, a niche competitor to Dungeons and Dragons aimed at people who prefer old fashioned, complicated rules to newer more streamlined ones. It is best known for the IP behind the Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, PC games. After the dismissal of the Paizo Customer Service and Community Manager, Sara Marie Teter, an online mob of angry extremists have been demanding change, resignations and and an independent investigation into the supposed, “wrongful termination”, despite the fact that the dismissed staffer does not appear to have alleged wrongful termination. The mob, whose anger has been fuelled by fired, former Paizo staffer Jessica Price, has focused its ire on another female member of staff. Worse, one of her explicitly stated motives was that the victim disclosed content from a “private” workplace forum run by Price. Price is now an author on multiple Wizards of the Coasts (WotC) products. MHN contacted WotC and parent company Hasbro to ask for an explanation.
Jessica Price is a contentious figure in the niche world of science fiction, science fiction and gaming. She is known for regularly criticising former employers including Microsoft (archive), Paizo (archive) and ArenaNet (archive).
Most recently, she has attacked a former Paizo employee, Tonya Woldridge, Paizo’s Director of Community – and it is not okay. The vicious attack is problematic not because of its profane nature, nor because it looks remarkably like cyber-bullying, but because her express motivation (archive) is that Tonya Woldridge made what would, here in the UK, be a legally protected disclosure about potentially illegal and immoral conduct by Price. Similar whistleblowing protections also apply in some states of the United States. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not alleging that Price has violated any US law. I am merely alleging that she is morally guilty of bad behaviour against a former colleague because of that colleague’s behaviour.
Jessica Rice makes clear her motives for her vicious attacks on Tonya Woldridge. It is because Woldridge blew the whistle on disputed allegations Price made in a secret workplace forum. Original tweet (archive).
