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."
Four days after the big Twitter fiasco, Orth resigned from Microsoft and has since moved to Southern California to pursue work at a different company. He confessed that he made a poor decision to take such a discussion to Twitter and has learned a lot from the experience.
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.
In the end, Orth is able to look back on the whole mess and see some good that has come out of it. In fact, he said it "turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me." He then went on to explain the recovery process in more detail, saying:
I survived. When something this bad happens to you, you have two choices: Curl up in the fetal position and become the victim, or face the truth, learn from your mistakes with humility and move forward.
When everything burned to the ground, it became a forcing function for radical personal reset. I saw this as opportunity. I grew closer to my friends and family. I matured as a person. I became a better parent. I got healthy and lost 50 pounds… I made sweeping positive life changes for my career and my family. It was a serious, painful and challenging test. There were times when I wanted to strike out at these animals and humiliate them, hurt them back twice as hard — especially when [harassment] was directed at my child. But I resisted.
This event changed me positively and profoundly forever. With the help of friends, family and deep personal reflection, I came out the other side stronger.
Well, it's good to see some positive came out of this terrible mess in the end.
[Polygon]
