Last year Adam Orth had to leave his job following comments made on Twitter, where the former Microsoft man said that gamers concerned with the then rumoured always-on functionality of the Xbox One should "deal with it".
Since that incident the dust has settled, and after taking stock of the situation that befell him, Orth has offered his thoughts on the reaction his comments generated from social networks, detailing some of the abuse he was subjected to.
In a talk at GDC called Mob Rules: The Destructive Power of Opinion and Online Community (and via GamesIndustry.biz), Orth explained: "I was becoming the next victim of the internet hate phenomenon. It was an absolute feeding frenzy. My public and private life was fair game. People began to distance themselves from me. I was dejected, ashamed and embarrassed. I destroyed my career and feared being blacklisted by the industry. I went from income to no income."
During the talk Orth mentioned the death threats he was subjected to, and how people wished cancer on him and his child: "The reason that internet threats are terrifying is not the possibility of the realization of a violent act; it's that society has regressed to a point that this behavior and discourse is an acceptable and expected response to something someone doesn't like or agree with."
It's a sad indictment of the times we live in when, as Orth explains, "most developers don't even raise an eyebrow at this because this is the new normal." He then continued: "As an industry we've become desensitised to this insane behavior because it's overwhelming, ubiquitous and unstoppable. Somehow we've devolved while moving forward, and there's no going back..."
"Internet toxicity has the power to shit on something beautiful and destroy it," Orth stated. It's hard to argue against his point, especially when developers are dealing with threats and internet bile on a regular basis. A recent example was the reaction of the community to Dong Nguyen's decision to withdrawn Flappy Bird from the App Store and Google Play, and there's numerous examples besides.
It didn't end all that badly for Orth, who managed to find the silver lining from the situation. He's now working on a new game - Adrift - based on his experiences, and claims that it was "the best thing that happened to me".
"When everything burned to the ground, it became a forcing function for radical reset. I saw it as an opportunity of a lifetime. I grew closer to my friends and family, I matured as a person, I became a better parent, got healthy and lost 50 pounds, and I recommitted and rededicated myself to my creative life."