Former Microsoft employee Adam Orth, who made headlines earlier this year over a series of controversial tweets regarding always-online consoles, has discussed 'deal with it' and the fallout from his comments during a GDC Next talk attended by Polygon.
During his keynote Orth titled 'Mob Rules: The Destructive Power of Opinion and Online Community' he said that he has worked hard to put the incident behind him:
"Despite having had every opportunity imaginable, I've never spoken publicly about what happened."
"Reliving it again wasn't something I wanted to put myself through," he said. "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."
Orth provoked a storm of criticism with the following statements on his Twitter account:
"Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an 'always on' console".
"Every device now is 'always on.' That's the world we live in. #dealwithit. Sorry for expressing my personal opinion about what I want from the electronic devices that I pay for on Twitter. Jesus."
Within a week of his comments Orth had left Microsoft and the company apologised for his statements.
While he admitted that expressing his views in the way he did was a mistake he defended his right to do so.
"I exercised incredibly poor judgment expressing my personal opinion in a public forum about a volatile and divisive topic in the gaming community. I made it even worse by continuing that conversation sarcastically with a close friend.
"While the tone was natural and normal for us, the rest of the world heard and read something very different. It's easy now for me to see the anger, outrage and how controversial it was based on my professional position and the tone in which I delivered my opinion.
"While I stand behind that opinion as well as the right to have and express it, how I said it and how I conducted myself was wrong. This was a conversation I should have had with my colleagues over a beer rather than on Twitter. I absolutely deserved any and all rational criticism and discussion based on my opinion. Unfortunately, that's not what happened."
He also went on to discuss how the incident affected his life stating:
"Were any of these threats credible? Unlikely, but I wasn't going to put myself and my family at risk. Ultimately we had to leave town to feel safe. We had to completely rebuild our life and fortify our digital life as well as all of our financial accounts in order to protect ourselves and our assets."
Orth has since moved to Santa Monica and founded a game development studio which is working on its first title. While he says the incident changed him "forever" it has made him "stronger".
