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[DrROBschiz]

GG didn't like her feminism so they dug up anything they could find and they found the college thesis.

But Nintendo doesnt even need to see any of that to have grounds to fire her

Based on her responses and actions alone is enough

I get that GG is awful and deserving of our hate but her termination at Nintendo seems like a far simpler line of logic

 

[Apathy]

Nobody is lying, moonlighting is fine if the second job does not go against Nintendo's corporate culture/policy. Which it obviously did, or else as you say it would be grounds for wrongful termination.


Exactly. People don't seem to aware of the simple realities of what working for a big company is like. Expecting Nintendo to keep constant check of all employees social media, read their thesis they wrote years before being employed, constantly try to monitor if any employees are ANONYMOUSLY working second jobs that are not in line with company values. That's not how it works. You can get away with a lot until someone catches wind of it. GG obviously are scum, but Alison would likely still have her job if she wasn't moonlighting doing something she knew Nintendo wasn't fine with. In this whole mess, Nintendo is the only party that doesn't look bad imo. But of course people still want to make them look like the bad guy because they didn't make a huge public defense of an employee who was harassed on social media. I know 100% that the president of my company wouldn't issue public statements if I was receiving harassment on social media. But apparently Nintendo needs to take care of issues that are for the police to deal with?

Then isn't that case enough for the firing to be justified? Like OK you can moonlight as long as the second job does not conflict with Nintendo policy. If that policy was broken then OK the moonlighting job is ground for proper termination.

 

[Alpha_eX]

Not necessarily another company. We don't know where she was moonlighting, but she was operating under a pseudonym. Nintendo's policy is seemingly to allow moonlighting, but it's fully possible whatever her second job was went against their corporate policy.

This is where I get confused, if Nintendo were cool with moonlighting, what was she doing that she had to hide it and operate under a pseudonym. That's shifty when the company has a policy to allow such things.

I feel bad for the girl but I'm not going to boycott Nintendo, just hate more on the scum that do all this GG type harassment.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Yep, and they banned Dan Adelman from Social Media after he expressed sympathy towards people wanting the removal of region locking. Basically, if you work for Nintendo and have controversial opinions, probably best to lock your twitter account.

This can't be stated enough but it's not just Nintendo as you see public figures constantly getting reprimanded for tweets.

You have to use better judgment if you want to stay with an intolerant large organization.

Look at good ol Corey from the Treehouse, he made light of the NX controller thread here and his tweet was soon removed.

I have no proof that Nintendo made him do that but it's very possible and it just shows you that if you are a Nintendo employee, you have to watch what you post on public media sources.

It's not rocket science but they still fall into the trap.

 

[Kimawolf]

Everyone is buying into the GG tactic. It's the same bullshit strategy they did with Quinn, with Sarkeesian, with Wu, and now Rapp. They dirt a person to the extent that the conversation focuses on her rather than the company not standing up to the harassment.

"The whole purpose of these campaigns is to paint a target as deserving of abuse & life ruination. stop. buying. it."

Also, jonno394, you're cold-hearted person if you think Nintendo hasn't done anything wrong in this bullshit. Like sflufan posted on the other page:

so when should someone be held accountable for breaching contracts? does it not matter because she was harassed? should a company over look information, true information by her own account, given to them because it came from an unsavory source?

if i was moonlighting as something my job would not be cool with, and you in hating me sent my job a link to said behavior and I was,fired, sure you are a shitty person... but i still did something i knew they may not like. hell she herself said lets not blame Nintendo for this and yet post after post people seem to over look what really happened.

bottom line she had a job which would not have been cool with them obviously, someone ratted her to Nintendo. and if it violated some clause in her contract once they found out what should they have done? just ignored it?

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

the disconnect in this thread is absolutely amazing to me. blaming nintendo instead of the fuckheads who canceled out her anonymity with whatever her second job was? great stuff

what is nintendo supposed to do when they find out she's moonlighting under a fake name doing something that is against their brand image? do they ignore what they find out and shoot the messenger, aka random users on the internet? or do they behave as a corporation does in the real world and terminate her employment since, as a pr person, she is literally one of the faces of the company?

is this bizarro-gaf again? did i stay on the bus too long?

Most people are blaming both Nintendo and the "messengers" (because they had no reason to inform Nintendo or even know about any of this, other than an irrational dislike of her for things she had nothing to do with) and organized harassers are a little bit more than "random users on the internet".

Nintendo shares the blame for actually committing the firing and thus being indirectly/unintentionally complicit with the attackers.

 

[Special C]

I have ever no qualms about a company terminating an employee for image reasons. Whether it's piercings, tatoos, second jobs, or Twitter postings it's perfectly fine by me and it's how the real world works.

The gamer gate stuff is sickening and unfortunate though, and I'm sure that played into it. What drives Internet masses to attempt to tarnish and ruin people's lives?

 

[dreamcastmaster]

Since she did this second job "under a fake name, and with no real identifiers", she must've known Nintendo would disapprove, then she got found out, and Nintendo did disapprove. Fair enough.

But this second job was effectively a non-issue until gross fuckheads started a harassment campaign against her because they wanted someone to blame for "censorship". And despite her having nothing to do with localization, and basically agreeing with them that Japanese culture should remain Japanese culture, she was still the most prominent woman around, and a feminist, and thus had to be punished.
ff

I think the nature of that second job if disclosed would make some people change thier position.

 

[KingBroly]

I honestly think it's a horrible article and I'm prone to like Jim.

Pranger's termination is a completely different situation than Rapp's termination. Pranger's is more like Adam Orth's than this one.

Pranger kinda did mouth off about his boss; Sakurai was put in a pretty bad light, and he did kinda give away some kind of operational things that they did/do. His firing was completely justifiable, but people went off the handle saying how wrong Nintendo was to do it before they either eventually forgave them for it because it was the right thing to do or never really followed up on it.

This one is different and there's a lot of cloudy info right now that I don't think we'll ever get, nor should we.

 

[Bots are better than you]

You can't be serious? Harassment is not limited to one platform.

Yes, it is not limited, you are right, and i didn't really say anything else. But Lime doesn't even think that the GG fuckers are responsible, but Nintendo is. Or rather, that "Nintendo is the problem". And that, for me, is console warrior bullshit.

Look, disregarding the given reason of her being fired, i'm fully agreeing that this whole harassment should be in no way a reason that she could have lost her job, as it's the morally right thing.

I just think that Nintendo, or any company, should not defend an employee on social media channels on a personal level. This might sound harsh, but anything else would open up just another of pandora's box.
Maybe an official statement against harassment in general would have been a good thing, but that wouldn't have changed anything about the fucked up attacks against her.

 

[Future]

Maybe cuz I'm old, but when a lot of your life is out there on social media, it stands to reason that some companies may have a problem with some of it. Especially if you are pr for the company. You may not agree with the company, but you are kinda giving them the fuel to hurt your career

I remember when Gary whitta (screen writer) used to post on gaf with his real name proudly joking that eventually you would know him because he would be famous.

Well he did get kind of famous, got a job penning a Star Wars film, and then had to go back through gaf and delete tons of posts he made dissing Star Wars among other things. GAF of course caught on and there were big threads about it. Thankfully it didn't seem to hurt his career, but obviously he doesn't post here anymore at least under that name

Social media is set in stone. Don't expect companies to "do the right thing" regarding what you do online

 

[DrROBschiz]

Then isn't that case enough for the firing to be justified? Like OK you can moonlight as long as the second job does not conflict with Nintendo policy. If that policy was broken then OK the moonlighting job is ground for proper termination.

I suppose in a court of law the targeted methods GG used would be thrown out of court as inadmissable evidence

Stay with me here

So defenders are saying Nintendo should have recognized the smear campaign and stood behind their employee on principal

That doesnt reconscile her own personal actions in that interim

 

[Sylas]

so wjen should someone be held accountable for breaching contracts? does it not matter because she was harassed? should a company over look information, true information by her own account, given to them because it came from an unsavory source?

if i was moonlighting as something my job would not be cool with, and you in hating me sent my job a link to said behavior and I was,fired, sure you are a shitty person... but i still did something i knew they may not like. hell she herself said lets not blame Nintendo for this and yet post after post people seem to over look what really happened.

bottom line she had a job which would not have been cool with them obviously, someone ratted her to Nintendo. ans if it violated some clause in her contract once they found out what should they have done? just ignored it?

No, but I think they could have issued a statement that spoke out against targeted harassment campaigns. They have a right to defend their interests, and it's inevitably going to be in their interests to issue a statement decrying the way industry workers are treated. It isn't yet, and that's a shame. It's gonna bite them hard.

You can still let someone go, but maybe work on the timing. Maybe say something about harassment beforehand.

 

[Maebe]

Very disappointed nintendo ignored the root cause. She will probably be harassed and stalked more now. I can see this leading to GG attacking employees with opinions they disagree with or have personal vendettas against more since they see nintendo is so quick to throw people under the bus. Nasty situation all around.

 

[jonno394]

Is this not part of the problem? A Twitter problem, not a Nintendo problem

For the second bit. Imagine if you were the target of an organized harassment campaign. If your workplace did nothing about it, how would you feel? Now how would you feel if they came out and publicly took a stance saying, "This is not acceptable." Which would make you feel more comfortable in the place you earn your livelihood every day? Which plays a more active role in creating an acceptable guideline for the industry?

Also for one thing, the attacks Alison Rapp was receiving were for things that her position in NOA meant she had no involvement in.

If I was getting attacked like this, my workplace would be the place I feel safe, it would be my personal social media presence where I'd feel vulnerable. However, I wouldn't expect my current employer to come out and say stuff in my defence.

The best thing they could have feasibly done to support her from the initial accusations was come out and straight up say that Allison had nothing to do with the localization crap that made her into a target.

But after a while it's clear it became a more innate hatred because GG are scumbags and I'm not sure what the possible recourse would have been for that.

End of the day, even if Nintendo came out and made it clear what her role was and the extent of what she did, GG people will likely have just turned the attack on to another aspect of her life. scum.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

Finding and ousting people from the gaming community that would entertain gamer gates style of ideals should never stop. Every last person who would think that way absolutely deserves to be rooted out and thrown out and ostricized from the gaming community. We owe it to the women who have been abused for decades to not allow their filth to feel comfortable playing games.

Though I appreciate the sentiment, let's not turn them into martyrs please. GG is already ostracized, and if any closet gators are ashamed of their own views: good. Let them. The point of the post they're complaining about wasn't to expose anyone (I was actually referring to lurkers tracking this post, not people on GAF. And they are tracking this post, that's not in dispute), it was just to point out the simple fact that gamergators are cowards.

And have accomplished nothing to combat "censorship."

 

[jholmes]

Is this not part of the problem?

I agree and I do find it odd how people can get so angry at Nintendo, which at the very least everyone can see was put in a difficult situation, and yet excuse Twitter for allowing and, at the end of the day, facilitating harassment.

Maybe people have just become numb to the depths of what gets said on Twitter. Maybe the fact known terrorists can and do have Twitter accounts makes harassment seem like a smaller issue. I do feel like Twitter gets an unearned free pass on this, though.

 

[ShaggsMagoo]

You can take a general stand against an internet "lynch mob mentality" without explicitly backing someone and state that you are conducting your own rigorous internal investigation consistent with the firm's internal ethics.

But that statement would accomplish nothing beneficial.

If you say you have started an investigation you will then be obliged to provide an update when it is finished which does nothing but continually bring up the issue and have more stories written about it. If you are Nintendo you want as few news stories written that have the possibility of having Nintendo and child pornography in them this as possible.

Every release or statement you put out is going to prompt a new cycle of reports which has a chance of busting out and going viral and getting more attention. If you remain quite and your investigation turns up nothing, you don't say a word about it and everyone continues on as was before. If the investigation does turn up something as it apparently has, you act as Nintendo did here and take the necessary steps required.

 

[Ripenen]

What could Nintendo have done about the harassment? Isn't that the responsibility of the social media outlet or law enforcement?

Also as this situation has potential for legal action, so Nintendo likely can't say much. You never see a corporation talk about firing an employee.

 

[ColtraineGF]

Chris Pranger wasn't fired just for speaking about his own life. It was clear at the time it was because of his remarks, and how they were taken by the media here and in Japan (ex: "Sakurai was a control freak"), along with revealing various bits of private info that made it hard to overlook. He even admitted out of the gate that he was at fault (along with his troubles):

Chris Pranger, Out-Spoken Nintendo Treehouse Localizer, was Fired

Article: Chris Pranger, Nintendo Both Did What (They Thought) They Had To

Why he was fired, and why A was fired, are two different circumstances. You can argue that his dismissal was inappropriate, but not that they stem from the same source IMO.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

If I was getting attacked like this, my workplace would be the place I feel safe, it would be my personal social media presence where I'd feel vulnerable. However, I wouldn't expect my current employer to come out and say stuff in my defence.



End of the day, even if Nintendo came out and made it clear what her role was and the extent of what she did, GG people will likely have just turned the attack on to another aspect of her life. scum.

You'd feel safe in your workplace even if harassers were digging up information about your past and sending it to your bosses to discredit you?

And the "twitter problem, not nintendo problem" is shifting the blame. The point is that this industry has continuously allowed victims to be punished while harassers get off scot-free. Nintendo is a big enough company that they should have enough sway to at least influence SOMETHING with twitter, and an employee of theirs being targeted is absolutely their problem. The apathy you mention is exactly what has led to this situation.

I agree and I do find it odd how people can get so angry at Nintendo, which at the very least everyone can see was put in a difficult situation, and yet excuse Twitter for allowing and, at the end of the day, facilitating harassment.

Maybe people have just become numb to the depths of what gets said on Twitter. Maybe the fact known terrorists can and do have Twitter accounts makes harassment seem like a smaller issue. I do feel like Twitter gets an unearned free pass on this, though.

I have to agree that Twitter's ineptitude in dealing with this is not a large enough part of the conversation, absolutely.

 

[Lime]

the disconnect in this thread is absolutely amazing to me. blaming nintendo instead of the fuckheads who canceled out her anonymity with whatever her second job was? great stuff

what is nintendo supposed to do when they find out she's moonlighting under a fake name doing something that is against their brand image? do they ignore what they find out and shoot the messenger, aka random users on the internet? or do they behave as a corporation does in the real world and terminate her employment since, as a pr person, she is literally one of the faces of the company?

is this bizarro-gaf again? did i stay on the bus too long?

so when should someone be held accountable for breaching contracts? does it not matter because she was harassed? should a company over look information, true information by her own account, given to them because it came from an unsavory source?

if i was moonlighting as something my job would not be cool with, and you in hating me sent my job a link to said behavior and I was,fired, sure you are a shitty person... but i still did something i knew they may not like. hell she herself said lets not blame Nintendo for this and yet post after post people seem to over look what really happened.

bottom line she had a job which would not have been cool with them obviously, someone ratted her to Nintendo. and if it violated some clause in her contract once they found out what should they have done? just ignored it?

bottom line:

1. Nintendo remained silent while she faced harassment
2. Moved her onto a different position because of the harassment
3. Fired her for non-related reason during this harassment.

They are in the wrong here and could have acted differently in order to minimize the damage. They didn't and instead they produce a chilling effect across the games industry and legitimize a literal hate movement with neo-nazis and White supremacists.

 

[akidnamededdy]

Yes, because they are at fault legitimizing gamergate. Now Nintendo has given them ok to attack more women in this industry with no consequences to follow.

It's not Nintendo's job to go toe to toe with online thugs. I understand that it gives everyone here the warm fuzzies to imagine a corporation that will speak out against harassment like this and take a bold public stance in the face of the stupid GG hoodlums, but that corporation doesn't exist anywhere.

Seriously. GG (via shady means and lies) got the head of an anti sex trafficking organization to publicly call for Rapp's termination on the (false) grounds that she was a pedophile sympathizer. Anyone who has even the faintest knowledge of how the corporate machine works is probably surprised she wasn't fired sooner than this. Janitors get fired for less, nevermind PR reps.

Honestly, the fact that they even addressed the harassment in their statement about her termination should be commended and is more than I expected them to do, at least.

Get mad at the GG fuckwads for targeting Rapp, or get mad at the anti sex trafficking person for not doing their due diligence before publicly calling for Rapp's head on a platter. Boycotting Nintendo is going to accomplish about as much as any other videogame industry boycott has done.

 

[cr0w]

I just think that Nintendo, or any company, should not defend an employee on social media channels on a personal level. This might sound harsh, but anything else would open up just another of pandora's box.
Maybe an official statement against harassment in general would have been a good thing, but that wouldn't have changed anything about the fucked up attacks against her.

It's not the company's responsibility, at all, to protect someone's personal social media. It's the responsibility of the person to choose what they do and don't want to share with the world, and there are possible consequences every time you click the "Tweet!" button.

Should Nintendo take a stand against bullying? 100% yes. Is it their responsibility to protect their employees from issues that can arise from personal decisions? Absolutely not.

 

[Alo0oy]

Yes, it is not limited, you are right, and i didn't really say anything else. But Lime doesn't even think that the GG fuckers are responsible, but Nintendo is. Or rather, that "Nintendo is the problem". And that, for me, is console warrior bullshit.

Look, disregarding the given reason of her being fired, i'm fully agreeing that this whole harassment should be in no way a reason that she could have lost her job, as it's the morally right thing.

I just think that Nintendo, or any company, should not defend an employee on social media channels on a personal level. This might sound harsh, but anything else would open up just another of pandora's box.
Maybe an official statement against harassment in general would have been a good thing, but that wouldn't have changed anything about the fucked up attacks against her.

Lime's argument is that Nintendo legitimized GG, GGers see that one of the three biggest video game companies in the world is responding to their harassment by rewarding them, they'll feel empowered to do the same to other women.

 

[jonno394]

You'd feel safe in your workplace even if harassers were digging up information about your past and sending it to your bosses to discredit you?

And the "twitter problem, not nintendo problem" is shifting the blame. The point is that this industry has continuously allowed victims to be punished while harassers get off scot-free. Nintendo is a big enough company that they should have enough sway to at least influence SOMETHING with twitter, and an employee of theirs being targeted is absolutely their problem. The apathy you mention is exactly what has led to this situation.



I have to agree that Twitter's ineptitude in dealing with this is not a large enough part of the conversation, absolutely.

Was her social media presence via a Nintendo Twitter account or a personal twitter account? I guess it's because I just don't have much of a social media presence, and that aspect of online culture is something I'm not part of, that I just think "if you hate being targeted so much, why not just log off/disconnect". I know that isn't the answer, but if it were like that for me, I'd have no problem just deactivating accounts, at least for a while.

 

[DrROBschiz]

bottom line:

1. Nintendo remained silent while she faced harassment
2. Moved her onto a different position because of the harassment
3. Fired her for non-related reason during this harassment.

They are in the wrong here and could have acted differently in order to minimize the damage. They didn't and instead they produce a chilling effect across the games industry and legitimize a literal hate movement with neo-nazis and White supremacists.

Its fucked up and we do need some way to protect people from harassment

GG crossed lines

Im also not surprised that Nintendo wont go on the frontlines to protect employees

 

[potatohead]

Great article by Jim.

Very nice quotes.

 

[KingSnake]

If you think that Jim says that Alie and Chris cases are similar you either didn't read properly or you didn't understand the article.

 

[NinjaCoachZ]

Was her social media presence via a Nintendo Twitter account or a personal twitter account?

What are you getting at here?

It's not the company's responsibility, at all, to protect someone's personal social media. It's the responsibility of the person to choose what they do and don't want to share with the world, and there are possible consequences every time you click the "Tweet!" button.

Should Nintendo take a stand against bullying? 100% yes. Is it their responsibility to protect their employees from issues that can arise from personal decisions? Absolutely not.

Being the target of a harassment campaign was not Alison Rapp's choice. The only reason they have a vendetta against her was because she expressed feminist opinions. If that is a "decision that has consequences" then this is a scary world to live in.

 

[RichiRamjag]

This is where I get confused, if Nintendo were cool with moonlighting, what was she doing that she had to hide it and operate under a pseudonym. That's shifty when the company has a policy to allow such things.

I feel bad for the girl but I'm not going to boycott Nintendo, just hate more on the scum that do all this GG type harassment.

I honestly doubt most people are going to boycott Nintendo. A lot of people keep saying it's ruined their public image and such, but most everyday people have no idea what gamergate even is. I honestly had no idea until I started spending more time on gaf.

Companies do horrible shit (not justifying this situation) each and every day and very rarely does anyone actually follow-up on their threats of boycotting and such. They usually get away with it, folks will post some shit on Facebook or Twitter for a month or so, but I'd like to know how long most people stick with it. I wish more people did actually stay true to these threats.

Exactly.

Anybody defending this from a corporate / PR perspective, suggesting Nintendo had to do this to protect their image: By firing Rapp Nintendo have massively harmed their image in the eyes of many, and to a far worse degree than whatever Rapp may or may not have done.

Kowtowing to the GG scum, and like it or not that is the reality of Nintendo's actions, and justifying GG's harassment of a former employee as "criticism" is utterly reprehensible.

No it hasn't. You guys are seriously kidding yourselves on this one. I'm all for it being made public so as many people as possible see it, but I honestly doubt it's massively ruined their image to a large majority.

 

[Par Score]

In this context, Nintendo's actions (and inactions) through this situation have negatively affected Nintendo's public image, far beyond whatever the worst case scenario otherwise could've been. How sensible was Nintendo's handling of this really? Because it seems to me that Nintendo done fucked up. From a business perspective, and from a human one.

Exactly.

Anybody defending this from a corporate / PR perspective, suggesting Nintendo had to do this to protect their image: By firing Rapp Nintendo have massively harmed their image in the eyes of many, and to a far worse degree than whatever Rapp may or may not have done.

Kowtowing to the GG scum, and like it or not that is the reality of Nintendo's actions, and justifying GG's harassment of a former employee as "criticism" is utterly reprehensible.

 

[Alo0oy]

Its fucked up and we do need some way to protect people from harassment

GG crossed lines

Im also not surprised that Nintendo wont go on the frontlines to protect employees

That's why I hope she gets hired by one of the big 3, it will be a literal fuck you to GG, then they'll have a melt down and promise to boycott said company (which they won't).

 

[sflufan]

But that statement would accomplish nothing beneficial.

If you say you have started an investigation you will then be obliged to provide an update when it is finished which does nothing but continually bring up the issue and have more stories written about it. If you are Nintendo you want as few news stories written that have the possibility of having Nintendo and child pornography in them this as possible.

Every release or statement you put out is going to prompt a new cycle of reports which has a chance of busting out and going viral and getting more attention. If you remain quite and your investigation turns up nothing, you don't say a word about it and everyone continues on as was before. If the investigation does turn up something as it apparently has, you act as Nintendo did here and take the necessary steps required.

While I do see your point, I'm afraid that I must respectfully disagree.

During one of my corporate communications courses, there was quite a bit of discussion as to when to remain silent or when to "get out in front" of the narrative to attempt to control the message as best you can. This is always a balancing act and I don't envy anyone who has to perform it.

I really do believe that this is one of those instances where an attempt to get out ahead of the narrative with a relatively banal, non-committal message is simply better than saying nothing at all, especially when the timing of the termination really does make it appear that the firm "surrendered" to a howling internet mob.

Again, I'm certainly not arguing against the firing. I'm stating that their failure to even attempt to shape the narrative in some way represents a failure of executive leadership.

 

[marrec]

As a huge fan of Nintendo and their products, I'm going to have a hard time buying anything from them in the future if they don't make a further statement about the continued harassment of their now ex-employee and the complicit role NoA played in allowing her to be targeted and bullied.

I'm less concerned that they felt they had to fire her for whatever reason than with the fact that by doing so in this way they are capitulating to a group of hateful misogynists who will be emboldened by this victory and soon target another woman who has crossed their ideology.

It's Nintendo participating in the GamerGate message to young women in Video Games that reads:

"You will do as we say, you will not speak out, you will not criticize, or we will ruin your life."

Nintendo had the power to stop that narrative, but instead they chose to remain silent.

Fuck.

 

[Mr. X]

What could Nintendo have done about the harassment? Isn't that the responsibility of the social media outlet or law enforcement?

Also as this situation has potential for legal action, so Nintendo likely can't say much. You never see a corporation talk about firing an employee.

Legal advice/aid would've been smart once they notice a hate mob about 1 person.

 

[jonno394]

What are you getting at here?

the fact that I'd find it hard to excuse if it were a Nintendo twitter account she were running that was being targeted, and they chose to ignore it, but if it were her PERSONAL account, then I can understand why, as my workplace don't monitor or care about my personal online presence.

 

[DrROBschiz]

I honestly doubt most people are going to boycott Nintendo. A lot of people keep saying it's ruined their public image and such, but most everyday people have no idea what gamergate even is. I honestly had no idea until I started spending more time on gaf.

Companies do horrible shit (not justifying this situation) each and every day and very rarely does anyone actually follow-up on their threats of boycotting and such. I wish more people did actually stay true to these threats.

Well while it would be nice for companies to take brave hardline stances against complex social issues its ultimately up to the people/public and laws to protect us from this level of invasion and harrassment right?

I wouldnt mind if companies offered special training and outreach to those affected by these tactics

That said... had she chosen to express her views on twitter outside of this level of pressure the would have been fired regardless

 

[SturokBGD]

I've spent the night mulling over this and at the end of the day I think the firing and the reasons for it are irrelevant either way.

The cold hard truth is that an internet hate mob relentlessly attacked a Nintendo employee over a company decision that wasn't even made by that employee and they did nothing. The industry is doing nothing. The silence is deafening.

The whole damn system is rotten. From us right here on NeoGAF all the way to the bigwigs at the top. It's horrible and it breaks my heart. We need change across the board, and I don't mean censoring butts and cleavage. That's not even close to being the problem.

 

[Orniletter]

Most people are blaming both Nintendo and the "messengers" (because they had no reason to inform Nintendo or even know about any of this, other than an irrational dislike of her for things she had nothing to do with) and organized harassers are a little bit more than "random users on the internet".

Nintendo shares the blame for actually committing the firing and thus being indirectly/unintentionally complicit with the attackers.

What should Nintendo have done instead ?

"Well, you tried to hide your second job from us, which shows that you knew we wouldn't be cool with it in the first place, but because you were harassed on Twitter, we'll just ignore it !"

Yeah. That doesn't sound reasonable, does it ?

 

[Neff]

And this absolutely sets a precedent too. I feel like many women will be terrified of working for them now.

I feel like women and men alike will be more aware of the dangers of discussing sensitive issues via social media when representing a huge, influential, image-conscious company.

And they should be, because it seems not enough are aware of the fact that YOU DON'T DO IT, EVER, judging by the outrage over this.

Was Nintendo 'morally' wrong to do this? Probably. Should Rapp have know to keep her mouth shut, stayed away from asserting/addressing sensitive opinions, and been a good, silent little corporate robot? If she wanted to keep her job, absolutely.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

If you think that Jim says that Alie and Chris cases are similar you either didn't read properly or you didn't understand the article.

Still a poorly thought-out and emotionally charged article.

You're a representative of a company that has an image and ideals they stand for.

An employee says and does controversial shit on a medium everyone has access to.

This reflects onto your company in your eyes and not in a favorable way.

I don't know why this is about Nintendo, this is pretty much all across the board of corporations.

 

[Lime]

Lime's argument is that Nintendo legitimized GG, GGers see that one of the three biggest video game companies in the world is responding to their harassment by rewarding them, they'll feel empowered to do the same to other women.

Not only GG, but it also tells other employees at Nintendo that the company won't ensure their well-being over the harassment from a misogynist consumer base. This can also extend beyond Nintendo as a company to other parts of the games industry: that women are repeatedly thrown under the bus due to toxic misogynist elements in gaming consumership.

This is a clear message that has been sent out for many years to women in the major games industry.

 

[Welfare]

bottom line:

1. Nintendo remained silent while she faced harassment
2. Moved her onto a different position because of the harassment
3. Fired her for non-related reason during this harassment.

They are in the wrong here and could have acted differently in order to minimize the damage. They didn't and instead they produce a chilling effect across the games industry and legitimize a literal hate movement with neo-nazis and White supremacists.

So they should've fired her for having a second job when? She's now immune to being fired for having a second job that conflicts with Nintendo's interests because a hate group is harassing her on the internet?

It is shitty that they did not try and help Alison with the harassment, but a company has to protect its image.

 

[KingSnake]

I've spent the night mulling over this and at the end of the day I think the firing and the reasons for it are irrelevant either way.

The cold hard truth is that an internet hate mob relentlessly attacked a Nintendo employee over a company decision that wasn't even made by that employee and they did nothing. The industry is doing nothing. The silence is deafening.

The whole damn system is rotten. From us right here on NeoGAF all the way to the bigwigs at the top. It's horrible and it breaks my heart. We need change across the board, and I don't mean censoring butts and cleavage. That's not even close to being the problem.

Exactly.

 

[marrec]

I've spent the night mulling over this and at the end of the day I think the firing and the reasons for it are irrelevant either way.

The cold hard truth is that an internet hate mob relentlessly attacked a Nintendo employee over a company decision that wasn't even made by that employee and they did nothing. The industry is doing nothing. The silence is deafening.

The whole damn system is rotten. From us right here on NeoGAF all the way to the bigwigs at the top. It's horrible and it breaks my heart. We need change across the board, and I don't mean censoring butts and cleavage. That's not even close to being the problem.

This is the same thing I took away from it.

Nintendo, and much of the Video Games industry, doesn't give a fuck about women or the harassment they receive inside the culture.

 

[Scientist Supreme!]

It's not Nintendo's job to go toe to toe with online thugs. I understand that it gives everyone here the warm fuzzies to imagine a corporation that will speak out against harassment like this and take a bold public stance in the face of the stupid GG hoodlums, but that corporation doesn't exist anywhere.

Seriously. GG (via shady means and lies) got the head of an anti sex trafficking organization to publicly call for Rapp's termination on the (false) grounds that she was a pedophile sympathizer. Anyone who has even the faintest knowledge of how the corporate machine works is probably surprised she wasn't fired sooner than this. Janitors get fired for less, nevermind PR reps.

Honestly, the fact that they even addressed the harassment in their statement about her termination should be commended and is more than I expected them to do, at least.

Get mad at the GG fuckwads for targeting Rapp, or get mad at the anti sex trafficking person for not doing their due diligence before publicly calling for Rapp's head on a platter. Boycotting Nintendo is going to accomplish about as much as any other videogame industry boycott has done.

Why do people act like I don't get why they fired her. I understand their reasons but it's still shitty that they did it. That they nothing why she was harassed and now by firing her has legitimized a hate group. My anger is very well placed due to their actions. Actions that will allow more women in this Industry to be targeted by gamergate.

 

[Kamina777]

She had to use a pseudonym to hide her second job from Nintendo, this should set off all kinds of alarm bells.

It's unfortunate that Nintendo or pretty much every publisher ignored GG harassing innocent people, or that GG is even a thing. It really is.

But there is obviously more to this story than "evil Nintendo firing good woman".

Not where "gamergate" is concerned.

 

[BrokenBox]

the fact that I'd find it hard to excuse if it were a Nintendo twitter account she were running that was being targeted, and they chose to ignore it, but if it were her PERSONAL account, then I can understand why, as my workplace don't monitor or care about my personal online presence.

So if you're getting harassed on your professional account, that's a no-no. Harassment on a personal account, though? That's okay! It's still harassment.

She was targeted because she is a woman and she worked for a game company. I have no clue what Twitter account she was using, but either way the harassment involved her job.

 

[RichiRamjag]

Well while it would be nice for companies to take brave hardline stances against complex social issues its ultimately up to the people/public and laws to protect us from this level of invasion and harrassment right?

I wouldnt mind if companies offered special training and outreach to those affected by these tactics

That said... had she chosen to express her views on twitter outside of this level of pressure the would have been fired regardless

To a degree, yes. I'd like to think that we live in Neverland and everything would just be perfect on the corporate level, but it's not. Companies are certainly affected by public sentiment. If people could stick to one main issue for more than a week, maybe we'd see some actual change. Maybe not.

Twitter harassment in general is definitely a problem, but until it affects Twitter in a way that hurts them as a company, it's going to continue.