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Apex Legends Community Finds Comments Posted by Lead Balance Designer in 2007, Goes After Him, Wife Miscarriages, Gets Fired

Helghan

Member
As an Apex Legends player the firing isn't a bad thing. He was shit at his job. The reason for which he was fired isn't correct though.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
This isn't about forgiveness and punishment either. This is about providing a safe and inclusive working environment for your workers.
It’s called work, not kindergarten or psychotherapy class. He said stupid shit 14 years ago, if he behaved appropriately at his current job what is the issue?
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
I'm not suprised that neogaf has completely decided with someone who (used) to be racist and sexist without question.

I get that everything is not as black and white and I wouldn't call him a bad person. He seems genuialy regretful. But straight away users here have defended racist actions unequivocally and threw terms around like "woke".
I don't think anyone has "sided" with the person for what they said though. People are rightly pointing out how stupid it is that someone got fired from their current job for something they tweeted 14 years ago. Imagine being pulled in to your bosses office and fired because on MySpace in the year 1999 you didn't have your new boss in your top 8 friends lol.

Trolling through people past tweets/posts/whatever to try and find reasons to "cancel" someone is what people are against, because it's bullshit.

This isn't about forgiveness and punishment either. This is about providing a safe and inclusive working environment for your workers. And if someone on your team has openly spoken about wild sexist and racist shit, then obviously you need to do what you need to in order to make everyone else feel comfortable.
14. Years. Ago. I can guarantee you that there was not a single person at this "safe and inclusive working environment" was aware of what he said, or had any reason to not feel "safe and inclusive" because of it.

People throwing out the "he was a grown man, he should have known better" thing are being stupid. What you mean to say is:

"he was a grown man, he should have known better than to say something that people might find offensive in 14 years time" .

Times change. What is and isn't acceptable changes. Owning slaves used to be fine and dandy. Raping and murdering used to be just fine. Genocide used to be just fine. Hell, even like 5 years ago it was fine to not let gay people get married. What is "offensive" now isn't necessarily what was offensive or even wrong 1/2/5/10/20 years ago. The Cancel Culture crowd need to understand this, and the rest of the world needs to stop pandering to them.

I mean FFS retroactively censoring movies and shows and flat out removing them from distribution because they are *now* offensive to some people is pathetic. Doing it to fellow people is even worse. Don't judge someone in the past on todays standards.

It's also incredibly ironic that these woke people constantly shout "be better" or "do better", yet believe no one can ever change and must forever be vilified for something they previously did.
 
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Boss Mog

Member
People can insist they've changed as much as they want. It doesn't mean it's true.
What's funny is that many woke people will say that about somebody that merely said something unpalatable 15 years ago, but when it comes to POC murderers, rapists, etc... they believe they should be freed and given a second chance (third chance, fourth chance, etc...).
 

Same ol G

Member
Funny that people are defending this.
Sad for him but he made those stupid comments.
I knew 20 years ago not to make stupid posts online, everything you put online stays there for everyone to see.
Twelve years ago i got a position in a company, the first thing they asked me was to close my facebook account for other employees, precisely to prevent stuff like this.
The company i work at nowadays doesn't ask that but you know how many customers i talked with that actually searched me up online to see who i actually was.
If i was writing crap online i don't think i would still have this job.
 
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Concern

Member
I'm not suprised that neogaf has completely decided with someone who (used) to be racist and sexist without question.

I get that everything is not as black and white and I wouldn't call him a bad person. He seems genuialy regretful. But straight away users here have defended racist actions unequivocally and threw terms around like "woke".


share discover GIF


Im not surprised another "woke" soldier is in here generalizing the whole forum. Even if they did. Don't like it? There's a perfect echochamber forum for you..... well im sure you're most likely apart of already.
 

Dogwater

Banned
I love it when people who have a demonstrable animus towards about fifteen different groups are the ones dictating what's offensive and punishable, etc. Woke crusaders are genuine scum.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Because 1 person is bad at balancing the game? I can also voice my displeasure in the community which Respawn is a part of, to make them aware.
1 person does not make all the decisions in a company. So if you have someone to blame you should blame the whole balance team, not only 1 person. Plus, you don’t have access to all the game data they have - just because you got sniped and cry ‘omg, snipers op, nerf’ doesn’t make it so. Unless you have experience in this you cannot possibly see all the implications linked to balance.
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
Was he a bad dude? No, while he was an overly progressive shill who was open about being in an open relationship (Keep it to yourself homie) he never once deserved to be dragged or fired.

Was he shit at his job and needed to be reeled in? Yes, he made some BAAAAAD decisions on Apex regarding balance but he designed Kairi Umehara and she's like an A Tier Legend so he has that in his legacy at least.
 

FrozenFlame

Member
It can be forgiven because people change. I have seen it before my very eyes. To suggest that we hold people accountable forever for the things they did in the past without the capacity of forgiveness, would mean we abandon our humanity. That's toxic, and when the day comes your skeletons bear witness to the public you will cry for forgiveness. Do you really want to live in a world where we abandon our humanity in favor of witch hunts?

I'm not saying racist and sexist people are good, I'm saying if they changed their ways and treated others for the better in the future they deserve forgiveness and a second chance.



Thank you for the video. It's always interesting to see how things like this happen (in a way, cults), especially from the perspective of someone that was part of it.
 

Kerotan

Member
People and companies need to stop supporting these Twitter crusades, only things said within the last two years should be looked into by companies, anything older than that should be ignored, not because the person couldn't still be a PoS, but because so many people deserve the chance to change and not be held liable for hateful things they said in the past.

2007 is so long ago, the PS3 was turning 1.

Fuck twitter crusades.
Neither myself or any of my gaming buddies I talk to about gaming news ever heard about this. Many of them still play apex. I believe if they didn't fire him nothing bad would have happened to the popularity of the game. Why are companies so afraid?
 

JoeBudden

Member
It’s called work, not kindergarten or psychotherapy class. He said stupid shit 14 years ago, if he behaved appropriately at his current job what is the issue?

What's the issue? The fact that no one from his coworkers will want to work from him.
 

Saaleh

Banned
People can insist they've changed as much as they want. It doesn't mean it's true.

Im not Christian, but look at it this way, replace the women in this story with the man:

" Jesus thought for a moment and then replied, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” The people crowded around him were so touched by their own consciences that they departed. "

The crowd Instead of moving away, they cast the stones on this man and his family.

Now, imagine if this was a religion in this day and age. Imagine if this was the norm. It would be depressing to find a job because we all do stupid mistakes as adults. He regretted it and improved himself over the years, he didn't harm anyone in his workplace throughout these years, it doesn't warrant the harm his family is suffering. If he harmed his co workers than we all agree. But this is clearly the cancel culture working their butts to destroy anything they don't like.
 
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JoeBudden

Member
Really. You work at Respawn and know the guy and his co-workers? Massive assumption there to justify killing his baby.

You can't prove the miscarriage was caused from all this. It's sad, but Respawn can't be liable for that. *Kanye shrug*
 

ManaByte

Member
You can't prove the miscarriage was caused from all this. It's sad, but Respawn can't be liable for that. *Kanye shrug*
We can't? His wife who had the miscarriage said it was a direct result of all this. Fuck off with that bullshit deflecting.
 

JoeBudden

Member
The irony is that some day you'll might have your spiritual awakening but according to your own rules you're barred from becoming a better human being. You should read Carl Jung (not a dig).

I won't. I'm not talking about killing women or wildly racist shit at 30yo like he was.

Yall should read into what he said and how old he was when he said it. You'll understand why it's reasonable to assume his coworkers may feel uncomfortable around him to the point it will hurt productivity at work.
 

JoeBudden

Member
We can't? His wife who had the miscarriage said it was a direct result of all this. Fuck off with that bullshit deflecting.

It doesn't matter who said it. How the hell do you prove it was a direct result of Respawn firing him and this whole matter?
 

JoeBudden

Member
14. Years. Ago. I can guarantee you that there was not a single person at this "safe and inclusive working environment" was aware of what he said, or had any reason to not feel "safe and inclusive" because of it.

People throwing out the "he was a grown man, he should have known better" thing are being stupid. What you mean to say is:

"he was a grown man, he should have known better than to say something that people might find offensive in 14 years time" .

Times change. What is and isn't acceptable changes. Owning slaves used to be fine and dandy. Raping and murdering used to be just fine. Genocide used to be just fine. Hell, even like 5 years ago it was fine to not let gay people get married. What is "offensive" now isn't necessarily what was offensive or even wrong 1/2/5/10/20 years ago. The Cancel Culture crowd need to understand this, and the rest of the world needs to stop pandering to them.

I mean FFS retroactively censoring movies and shows and flat out removing them from distribution because they are *now* offensive to some people is pathetic. Doing it to fellow people is even worse. Don't judge someone in the past on todays standards.

It's also incredibly ironic that these woke people constantly shout "be better" or "do better", yet believe no one can ever change and must forever be vilified for something they previously did.

Bro I'm sorry but you clearly have no idea about the shit he was saying.
 
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Saaleh

Banned
I wish we had this power on governments and politicians when they do mistakes. Instead, we get a miscarriage and a family suffering because of a comment from 14 years ago.
 
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Lmao you're either very young or haven't matured very much

All of us should cringe at the shit we said as teenagers
Neither.
And yes i stand for all the cringe stuff I said or will say in the future no matter what.

Your word have no meaning and no weight if you retrospectively can decide if it counts or not.

As I said people are weak today. Weak and inconsistent and nothing matters anymore.

In said a lot of stuff that's, wrong, horrible and cringe. And I'll say stuff that is wrong, horrible and cringe in the future.

I sand for all of them. Just like my right, nice and funny stuff.


You can't just say "my bad stuff doesn't count, but take the good serious"
 
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JoeBudden

Member
As an Apex Legends player the firing isn't a bad thing. He was shit at his job.

Facts.

And dude was a smug asshole about his role too whenever players pressed him about his stupid balancing decisions.

Hopefully now Respawn will hire someone that is more focused on making the less picked legends more viable and more fun to play, than ruin the top picked legends. In other words, push the bottom legends up, instead of push the top legends down in all of their metrics.
 
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ManaByte

Member
Facts.

And dude was a smug asshole about his role too whenever players pressed him about his stupid balancing decisions.

Hopefully now Respawn will hire someone that is more focused on making the less picked legends more viable and more fun to play, than ruin the top picked legends.

So obviously his baby had to die. /s
 

Hari Seldon

Member
Funny that people are defending this.
Sad for him but he made those stupid comments.
I knew 20 years ago not to make stupid posts online, everything you put online stays there for everyone to see.
Twelve years ago i got a position in a company, the first thing they asked me was to close my facebook account for other employees, precisely to prevent stuff like this.
The company i work at nowadays doesn't ask that but you know how many customers i talked with that actually searched me up online to see who i actually was.
If i was writing crap online i don't think i would still have this job.

Rule #1 of the Internet in the 90s was to never use your real name. Then big tech came along and tricked everyone into doing it lmfao.
 

Razvedka

Banned
I think publicly traded companies vulnerable to 'twitter crusades' because it might damage shareholder value. Completely private companies have more footing to go 'lol no, screw off' and ignore the drama.

So my theory is, so long as the company is public then these sorts of stunts will hold weight until collectively the private sector realizes that negotiating with terrorists is, actually, harming their bottom line more. E.g. they cannot source good talent due to poor morale, people (the average joe) are buying their product less, etc.
 

Braag

Member
It's nice that he went on to explain himself and apologize, but the internet hate mob doesn't care if a person has changed or improved for the better. They just want that person to suffer as much as possible.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I won't. I'm not talking about killing women or wildly racist shit at 30yo like he was.

Yall should read into what he said and how old he was when he said it. You'll understand why it's reasonable to assume his coworkers may feel uncomfortable around him to the point it will hurt productivity at work.

I feel kinda sad because I realize you just have no consciousness of what my point is, and I guess it makes perfect sense that you don't considering I actually referred to a mandate given by a series of experiences/events to be able to - Or psilocybin.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
In other words, push the bottom legends up, instead of push the top legends down in all of their metrics.
This seems to be how respawn works unfortunately, they did the same with Titanfall 2. Nerf after nerf after nerf of whatever was used the most, until everything was equally crap. I see nothing has changed.

It’s in the link in the OP.
Oh I only saw the twitter thread. Thanks, will read.
 
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Helghan

Member
1 person does not make all the decisions in a company. So if you have someone to blame you should blame the whole balance team, not only 1 person. Plus, you don’t have access to all the game data they have - just because you got sniped and cry ‘omg, snipers op, nerf’ doesn’t make it so. Unless you have experience in this you cannot possibly see all the implications linked to balance.
He was the lead, so he takes the responsibility. Have you played Apex? Are you part of the community? Have you seen all the discussions the past few years on balancing? Because I have, I've got around 700 hours into the game, and actively partake in the community. Besides the fact that he did a shit job, he was also super smug and condescending. There was a good reason why the LoL community was happy he "left" Riot.
 

ManaByte

Member
He was the lead, so he takes the responsibility. Have you played Apex? Are you part of the community? Have you seen all the discussions the past few years on balancing? Because I have, I've got around 700 hours into the game, and actively partake in the community. Besides the fact that he did a shit job, he was also super smug and condescending. There was a good reason why the LoL community was happy he "left" Riot.
Making bad choices in your shoot bang game in no way justifies an angry mob causing his wife to miscarriage.
 
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