Support NeoGAF

[LowEndTorque]

This thread is exploding again with the news of Orth's possible termination.

I'll be the first to admit he pinched a nerve with me but not sure if his arrogance should get him canned.

His impulsive behaviour just caused a gargantuan PR disaster and serious corporate embarrassment related to a MAJOR unannounced consumer product with billions of dollars invested into it. If I were his employer it would take me about 0.2 nanoseconds to make the decision let him go.

 

[BadAss2961]

but did MS fired him just because of his attitude on twitter or because by doing that he basically confirmed that Xbox 720 is always online to the public and MS were upset about it?

Probably that more than anything.

 

[Speevy]

We have struck a blow to arrogant corporate mouthpieces everywhere.

No longer will you marginalize your most loyal customers in a way that we were expecting. You'll have to come up with some other way to screw us!

 

[jay]

Whatsapp can have multiple contacts in a thread, but otherwise I guess a massive private Facebook group discussion of some kind. But now that you mention it, I wonder why there isn't a Twitter private version lol (unless there is). Businesses etc could use it.

sms? facebook chat? google chat? iMessage? etc.

Google Plus. Nobody uses it lol.

I've got this concept for web communication that's actually very similar to how things used to be when we sent stuff back and forth on paper but if I say any more you will all try to copy it.

 

[Devolution]

I know, never meant any intense harm, just wanted to bring to light this ridiculous always-on bullshit.

Honestly? You highlighted someone who really shouldn't be making decisions for his customers. He's the one with the lack of empathy made clear by his tweets.

 

[JDSN]

We have struck a blow to arrogant corporate mouthpieces everywhere.

No longer will you marginalize your most loyal customers in a way that we were expecting. You'll have to come up with some other way to screw us!

They can always work for Polygon.

 

[JCreasy]

"Update: 1:40pm

Sources are telling 4Player that Adam Orth is no longer working for Microsoft. Currently tracking this down further...

...we've confirmed this with one reliable source but not two, and Orth's linkedin has currently shown no movement. We're considering this a high possibility but it currently lacks enough verification for us to confirm at this time."


Holy Hell

Jeff Belled

 

[shinobi602]

I was being sarcastic, you are a horrid piece of shit and you should feel bad.

You are a heartless bastard.

 

[Mashing]

If Microsoft doesn't want to backlash, then they'll have to backpeddle on their plan to make it always online. They really have no one else to blame if they get roasted over the coals if they go ahead and announce it and it does in fact require internet connection. Even if this didn't happen there was still going to be massive negative PR.

 

[ascii42]

but did MS fired him just because of his attitude on twitter or because by doing that he basically confirmed that Xbox 720 is always online to the public and MS were upset about it?

Or it could be completely false, and MS is just upset at receiving furor and bad press for no reason.

Interesting either way.

 

[everyday math]

Damn Gaf you scary!

 

[watership]

I'm sorry, but this guy deserves no sympathy. The internet is an ink, and whatever you say will be seen and judged, even if it is in jest. He represents a huge organization that doesn't exactly get a lot of good PR to begin with, so he simply should have known better.

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

 

[C4Lukins]

:O

If he got fired, it's for prematurely "leaking" shitty features before they can be properly spun by PR. No way someone that high up is going to be fired for joking with his friend on Twitter.

Despite his title which sounds quite lofty, I doubt he was or is all that high up on the food chain at MS. And for simply saying the things he has said, I doubt he would be fired under normal circumstances. But because it started such a shitstorm, really only a few people at MS would be completely immune to so much backlash. And even those super high up people have to answer to stockholders.

He did not leak anything, nor even confirm always online. He posted on Twitter, which is not a private email service, and he represented MS in a negative light with some of his comments whether he was joking or not. Plus it has come to everyones attention that he has also bashed Halo and Forza in the past while working for a different company.

I feel bad for the guy, but what he did was stupid and is not the sort of thing you can get away with while working at such a large company. A small indie developer can get down in the gutter and do this sort of thing.

 

[Have a Nice Day]

Holy shit.

 

[blackflag]

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

Your opinions don't matter to Microsoft.

 

[nib95]

Or it could be completely false, and MS is just upset at receiving furor and bad press for no reason.

Interesting either way.

If it was completely false I'd think they'd have just come out and said as much by now. No point letting the beast continue to run amok. Usually with these sorts of things when they neither confirm nor deny....

 

[uncledonnie]

There's no way this guy wasn't going to get fired whether always online is true or not.

 

[subversus]

some people say that the guy didn't deserve it but he's an adult responsible for his actions and for words he's saying in public.

 

[Cidd]

So, who's career will GAF ruin next?

 

[Sera O]

That's assuming they can.

I was just thinking about this hypothetically: What if Microsoft is designing the new XBox Live with all these "always on" networked boxes as central to the strategy? Well, those "always on" boxes all become "assets" that Microsoft can leverage to take far more networking tasks off of their servers and on to this new peer-to-peer network.

Just something to think about...

Agreed - changing course at this point would probably be incredibly difficult. It's hard to tell how deep the complacency runs right now, or what bombs they are planning to drop to distract from this mess when they are able to make their announcement.

As you say there may be technological reasons it might not be feasible. Also, they must have made arrangements with other companies that are counting on always-online, or made some deals where that was a factor.

Internet rage tends to blow over really quickly. They may be counting on that.

As for the firing, it sucks but it's pretty understandable. He really made Microsoft look bad whether he understood that or not, and his general obliviousness to time place and occasion is just what.

It's actually worse if it was completely unintentional or untrue - who wouldn't look at what happened here and conclude that this employee is a huge liability? Just think of the man-hours that will go into mitigating this.

 

[Bronetta]

I hope this keeps going for a long time, what am I gonna do with my life if this thread slows down?

 

[Easy_D]

I've got this concept for web communication that's actually very similar to how things used to be when we sent stuff back and forth on paper but if I say any more you will all try to copy it.

E-mail? The Simpson's did it.

 

[Truespeed]

 

[Pristine_Condition]

I hope they can, but it might make sense that this late in the game it could be difficult to switch things up. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Yeah. When I was trying to piece the real answers to this "why in the hell would Microsoft actually want to do this?" question, really only three answers kept popping up:

1) Online DRM

2) To use customer's boxes/Internet connections in a peer-to-peer network in a much greater way, taking the load (and expense) of ever more online content off of their data centers.

3) Ever deeper data collection for advertising.​

#2 would obviously be the hardest thing for Microsoft to walk away from, if the system has been built around it so far, and if it is as close to implementation as we'd imagine for a product that would like to hit the Christmas season buying window.

 

[Replicant]

but did MS fired him just because of his attitude on twitter or because by doing that he basically confirmed that Xbox 720 is always online to the public and MS were upset about it?

Likely the latter.

And shinobi602, don't you dare apologizing. This is not a situation you should be apologizing for. MS needs to be held accountable if this is true and firing the guy just adds fuel to the fire. The guy himself wasn't exactly a nice guy.

So, who's career will GAF ruin next?

Any company who thinks that customers should be always online to play a game that they've purchased legally.

 

[uncledonnie]

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

My company's policy is pretty clear that using a personal account doesn't mean jack. I doubt Microsoft is any less strict.

 

[SkoomaSuckinSwit]

Man, after repeatedly looking at that man's comments, I think he may have been joking.
I mean, those analogies make no sense, as if here were doing that to be funny in a stupid way.
Clearly he can't be that thick in real life.
It does seem to be a back and forth between two colleagues/friends.

Another thing, I can't imagine how MS could hire this guy for their games division, after he said "F-Halo" and the other disparaging comments about the game. I mean, Halo = Xbox basically.

 

[jett]

Fired huh? I want to feel sorry for the guy, but frankly I can't feel sorry for someone that lose their job because of sheer stupidity.

 

[ironcreed]

So, who's career will GAF ruin next?

He ruined his own. Shinobi just threw a spotlight on it and people reacted accordingly.

 

[0xCA2]

So this thread is going in the GAF archive?

 

[Moxx19]

And to think this all could have been avoided if he used Twitter PM. I feel no sympathy for such stupidity. In my previous workplace (and I imagine many others) if you mutter one thing to another team member that you aren't supposed to regarding any sort of business (let alone social network interactions in a public forum ) you run a very real risk of being canned on the spot. I was a trainee at the time and I knew better than this guy.

I do hope for his and his family's sake that he finds his feet quickly.

 

[BolognaSoup]

Can you even imagine the poor girl in HR recruiting at his future job searches? "Hmm, resume says Creative Director at MS. Sounds good! Let's do a quick little Google here for Mr. Or - HOLY SHIT!!!!"

 

[Twilight Gap]

I can't even express in words or gif how bad I laughed.

 

[artist]

Whatsapp can have multiple contacts in a thread, but otherwise I guess a massive private Facebook group discussion of some kind. But now that you mention it, I wonder why there isn't a Twitter private version lol (unless there is). Businesses etc could use it.

YAMMER

 

[TheSeks]

Or maybe he got fired for making his employer look bad by implying something that wasn't true?

Naw, can't be that...

>>Sein Wars<<

OMG :lol This thread gives and gives.

Nothing Stops This Train, indeed.

 

[C4Lukins]

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

Look at the title of this thread. Look at the numerous posts in this very thread that are not even talking about things like always online, but are referring to the arrogance of MS as if this guy is a spokesman for them. Fair or not, to a lot of people this guy is representing the entire company. Of course a lot of people just hate MS and are using this guys comments to shit on the them, but even then once it starts to gain traction it becomes a problem for the MS.

 

[JCreasy]

Damn Gaf you scary!

Jeff Bell found this out the hard way too . . .

 

[blackflag]

My company's policy is pretty clear that using a personal account doesn't mean jack. I doubt Microsoft is any less strict.

Yep that's typically the way it works.

 

[Petrae]

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

You're in the minority. Once you mention who your employer is on your profile, claims of "my opinions don't represent my employer" are worthless attempts at deflection.

Orth was linked to MS, press linked his opinion to being a Microsoft position, and his tweets generated dozens of news stories and thousands of Internet comments-- mostly negative-- towards him and his employer.

It's unfortunate, but we see this time and time again. People lose their jobs due to irresponsible posting more and more, and until we learn the power that social media has... more will sadly meet similar fates.

 

[Devolution]

Not on twitter he doesn't. I don't take anything someone says on twitter as speaking for the company. Unless it's a PR account.

The ideology or crass stuff someone throws around in regards to the product they help develop or sell can backfire on the company. Case in point.

 

[Soriku]

lolz

 

[subversus]

Fired huh? I want to feel sorry for the guy, but frankly I can't feel sorry for someone that lose their job because of sheer stupidity.

Was he really fired? Or is it just an assumption?

 

[RustyNails]

There's no fucking way MS is gonna proceed with online-only crap after this debacle.

And that would mean...another delay for nextbox event.

 

[BolognaSoup]

Man, after repeatedly looking at that man's comments, I think he may have been joking.
I mean, those analogies make no sense, as if here were doing that to be funny in a stupid way.
Clearly he can't be that thick in real life.
It does seem to be a back and forth between two colleagues/friends.

So, publicly hurling sarcastic insults at the rumored plans of his employer basically. Sounds fire-able to me.

 

[TheSeks]

Whatsapp can have multiple contacts in a thread, but otherwise I guess a massive private Facebook group discussion of some kind. But now that you mention it, I wonder why there isn't a Twitter private version lol (unless there is). Businesses etc could use it.

It's called setting your Twitter to private. Why people STILL don't do that first thing they create a Twitter account for... I'll never know.

All these Twitter drama and firings would be avoided if people did that like Facebook privacy. Too bad for them, they don't do this to where I get free entertainment and corporate firings out of it weekly.

Spoiler

And for the record: My twitter is private, on the converse I can't talk to celebs and people but on the other hand anything I say is only for the people I trust to see it.

 

[everyday math]

Jeff Bell found this out the hard way too . . .

I'm not sure how to feel in this situation. Yeah it sucks losing your job. And I feel for him in that regard.
But man did he bring it down on himself. People, jobs, and social media just don't mix well.

 

[dLMN8R]

You're in the minority. Once you mention who your employer is on your profile, claims of "my opinions don't represent my employer" are worthless attempts at deflection.

Orth was linked to MS, press linked his opinion to being a Microsoft position, and his tweets generated dozens of news stories and thousands of Internet comments-- mostly negative-- towards him and his employer.

It's unfortunate, but we see this time and time again. People lose their jobs due to irresponsible posting more and more, and until we learn the power that social media has... more will sadly meet similar fates.

The most damning part for him was that his title is "Creative Director", even though he's actually so low in the hierarchy that he probably has absolutely no sway or influence whatsoever. But that title sounds important, which is probably the main reason why the story spread so fast and everywhere.

 

[bunbun777]

This thread is going places. I can almost taste the trepidation.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Is this "he got fired" story just based on that one--pretty shaky--report, or has this been confirmed?

 

[Truespeed]

Was he really fired? Or is it just an assumption?

No one knows for sure. All we know is that TeamFired is ahead of TeamPromotion.