BioWare Writer Quits After Death Threats To Family

BioWare writer Jennifer Hepler has decided to quit after receiving death threats and phone calls threatening herself and her children.  Her views on combat in video games, homosexual characters, and female characters in gaming seem to be the catalyst for these attacks.

In a six year old interview, Helper admitted that she didn't enjoy combat in video games.  Outraged fans of Dragon Age are now coming at her with threats on her life blaming her for the poor changes in Dragon Age II and even describing her as a 'cancer' that was destroying BioWare.

‘I was shown a sample of the forum posts by EA security,’ says Hepler ‘And it included graphic threats to kill my children on their way out of school to show them that they should have been aborted at birth rather than have to have me as a mother.’

As a gamer, I very often get disappointed and sometimes even angry when a favorite franchise of mine starts to decline.  I understand the disappointment as a fan, but I am appalled and embarrassed by these gamers sending death threats.

Helper has received a lot of positive support from her fans but no matter how much positive support you get, it's not going to fix the fact that her family and children are at risk.

‘The outpouring of support I received — large amounts from female and gay fans — was incredibly heartening,’ said Hepler. ‘Without the negativity, I’m not sure that I would ever have heard from all of these people confirming that there is a need for characters that tackle touchy social issues, for characters who are untraditional or even unlikeable.’

While it is nice to see Hepler thanking her fans for the support they have shown, cyberbullying is an issue which will likely see more strict legal sanctions in the future.

A quote from Jim Sterling sums up my feelings on this issue quite well:

This is the kind of behavior that justifies the FOX News stereotype of the basement dwelling, antisocial nerd. This is the kind of behavior that makes the Spike VGAs look like the perfect gamer show — because it’s crass, immature, and it sports the emotional depth of a wet paper towel. That’s how gamers look when something like this happens.