Orth: Twitter Debacle “Turned Out To Be The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me"

GR: Remember Adam Orth? You know, the former Microsoft employee who caused quite a stir on Twitter with his comments regarding Xbox One's alleged DRM? Remember #DealWithIt? Yeah, he's that guy.

During a talk at GDC Next, Orth spoke about the entire debacle, saying that the experience was particularly difficult, as "reliving it again wasn't something I wanted to put myself through." Despite this, he decided to address the situation at this event. "My colleagues, friends and family urged me to do it, though, hoping that I could find closure and maybe I could get even a single person to see what someone endures when they becomes the target of internet hate... and that person may choose empathy over negativity next time."

[pwnsause_returns]

i guess he #Dealtwithit .

[solidjun5]

haha. I see what you did there. XD

[slimeybrainboy]

It doesnt take Albert Newton with a telescope to figure out what he did.

Nice avatar, where'd you get it bigman.

[solidjun5]

"It doesnt take Albert Newton with a telescope to figure out what he did. "

I'm well aware of that. I was being facetious. It's my mistake. It's hard sometimes to convey that in a comment section. I guess that's why I got all those disagrees. I figure people would pick up on the "XD" part. Oh well. My bad.

"Nice avatar, where'd you get it bigman."
Interweb Krane. :)

[MasterCornholio]

Lol

At first I didn't believe him but when Done Mattrick broke the news about their DRM policies I felt bad for the poor guy.

Nexus 7 2013

[pompombrum]

#dealtwithit indeed!

His initial views show just how disturbingly out of touch with the world he actually was, his "#dealwithit" just made it much much worse. When you're a senior figure in a company as large as Microsoft's, openly combining ignorance and arrogance is about as stupid as you can get.

[badz149]

I bet it is! how many people here can claim they have their own meme? I can think of only Jackie Chan, Nicholas Cage, Yao Ming and Neil Patrick Harris and I doubt these guys are here!

totally worth it!

[majiebeast]

New job in South California he says. Hmmm i wonder...

Orth: Mission succesful coming home.
Yosp: Job well done there is a position waiting for you in Santa Monica.
Orth: Thank you.
Yosp: My master plan is coming together perfectly muhahaha

[ravinash]

Darth Sidious voice - Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.

[MightyNoX]

Attaboy Orthy. Make lemonade.

[moparful99]

I'm glad he was able to man up and admit his mistakes but then I read this line.

"There were times when I wanted to strike out at these animals and humiliate them, hurt them back twice as hard"

That pretty much sums up why he was even in the position to begin with.. He's a spiteful human being with no regards for anyone elses opinion but demands people respect his opinions.

I don't feel sorry for someone that maintains attitudes like this and it's a common occurrence amongst Microsoft mouthpieces..

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

Is being sarcastic a crime?

[NoLongerHereCBA]

+ "especially when [harassment] was directed at my child. But I resisted."

Don't leave out an important part. It is quite logical that someone would have such an opinion.

People furthermore take everything that is being said way to literally lately regarding the gaming industry which is why big things happen over tiny bits of information, that actually shouldn't be such a big deal.

I am happy for this guy, that it eventually worked out for him and changed him for the better.

[moparful99]

@vaizard and septic I read that part and didn't included it because I was highlighting his behavior.. We don't know the nature of the remarks towards his kids or even if there were any so I wont comment on them. All I do know is that his comments and remarks belied a bitter human being and the fact that he was able to move on and make positive life changes is the key. But when you are in the public space you just don't behave the way he had, a behavior that is common amongst Microsoft execs..

[Gazondaily]

Yeah you left out the important bit. Why is that?

[LordMaim]

Or it is indicative of the level of discourse on the internet that he felt the need to sink to their level.

"He's a spiteful human being with no regards for anyone elses opinion but demands people respect his opinions."

You've just described the bulk of internet commentators.

[patsrule316]

I can guarantee you that he was getting anonymous cowards on the internet telling him he should die, he should be raped, his child should die, his child should be raped, etc. I am not saying everybody who wrote to him did that, but some did, and those people should be referred to as animals. There are people on the internet who really lose control and spew the most incomprehensible, vitriolic venom. You don't have to like or agree with what he said, but he didn't deserve the worst of what he got.

[NoLongerHereCBA]

Couldn't agree more. Some people are really pathetic. Games are supposed to give people joy and entertainment, not this shit.

Can't wait till both consoles have been released and we can just talk about games/gameplay again.

[DestinyHeroDoomlord]

Good for him

[TheOneWhoIsTornApart]

Im sorry but I can't respect a guy who forced his employees to address him as "Sweet Billy". What a douche.

[InTheLab]

When you think about it, this man saved the XB1. Imagine if MS walked into the DRM thing blindly believing they were industry leaders. What if what Major Nelson said was true and there was absolutely no way to flip a switch and turn off the bulls*** without completely scrapping the console and having to start over?

MS owes this guy.

[TruthInsider]

How surprising he was an MS employee!

Do MS scour the world for the most unhuman, inhuman, arrogant, cold, heartless, nasty peices of work and offer them jobs?

[yellowgerbil]

I'd say no. But they did hire an ex Sony exec who was part of the issue with 2006 era sony, so that implies they seek out that type of asshole

[pompombrum]

"unhuman, inhuman, arrogant, cold, heartless, nasty "

Wasn't Microsoft built and nurtured around those adjectives? I'd say it's only natural they'd want their employees to fit in.

[yellowgerbil]

I have far less pity than I had for this guy 5 minutes ago.
I believed he was be scapegoated and martyred by MS. That he was just defending the higher ups, but seeing as he actually thinks he was in the right in his original opinion and not just PRing poorly like every other MS guy, I see this guy was part of the problem and glad he's gone.

[MadMen]

Moron got smoked, put a fork in it orth.

[christocolus]

adam orth..casualty of war, the poor dude got caught up in the cross fire...glad to see him doing ok.

[pompombrum]

No, the guy willingly ran in front of the crossfire, without any sort of protection and pranced around in the middle like an overconfident little child.

[christocolus]

lmao.....

[rainslacker]

This is the guy who almost single-handedly started the fire. Getting caught up in it was his own fault.

This wasn't even his first foray into making stupid statements about volatile topics in a public forum. He should have known better. The fact he was talking about this because Sony was getting some hate over the rumor at the time and inklings were being said about MS doing the same should have been a clear warning sign to stay away from this topic on a public forum...particularly since it actually was in MS plans to begin with. Someone with his standing within MS surely would have been privy to that information, so he brought it all upon himself.

I don't agree that internet goers should have lashed out at him and made threats to him or his family, but all the rest was his own doing.

[christocolus]

i agree with you..he should have been more careful but he is human , we make mistakes .he just allowed his emotions get the best of him and he threw a fit....the death threats wernt necessary though.

[SpiralTear]

While it's great that he's doing okay and early in the interview he owns up to his actions, he still makes it appear like he's a victim, like people are hating on him for no reason.

He's not free from responsibility for the PR measures he took, and at points in the interview, it really sounds like he thinks he is.

[rainslacker]

We should actually thank him. You know how many people said MS wouldn't do such a thing. That doing so would be the death of the Xbox brand. Hell even I said MS wouldn't be so stupid, and I'm sure a lot of people here would call me a Sony fan boy.

It prepared all of us for what MS was bringing, and everyone and their brother was against it before even the reveal. If anything, it made it easy to find the hypocrites that suddenly were OK with it because MS was doing it....which thankfully wasn't a whole lot.

If this weren't even a whisper ahead of time, there would be even more people defending it as a good thing, because MS may have had time to prepare to tell us why it was a good thing. More people would have been willing to wait for an explanation instead of insta-hating the idea. As it happened though, everyone came to a conclusion on what they thought of the idea before it was even confirmed.

[dbjj12088]

Someone's depressed!

[XboxFun]

Very hilarious how something as stupid as twitter or facebook can kill someone's entire career.

This is the problem with instant messaging and posting thoughts in an instant. No time to think about what you are going to say or think about if it's right for everyone to read. To much emotion gets involved and you write it down as soon as it pops in your head. Only later do you realize that what you said was a mistake.

We see it all the time, in sports, entertainment and sometimes even politics.

A lot of these people need to just shut twitter down.

[medziarz]

So basically - stop working for Evilsoft and you will become a better man.