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Microsoft Studios' creative director has some choice words about always-online

Chris_IWS

Member
So gamers are genuinely concerned about this direction. Many here in the thread who have absolutely loved their 360 are saying they'll reluctantly turn their back on MS next gen. But in Giespeak it's a "group of people" wanting to "push a narrative." Polygon, if you don't want your site generally considered a joke or to regain at least a shred of credibility, you can begin by taking Twitter away from this guy.

I don't think he's talking about GAF's and consumers' distrust of always online, more Orth and other MS reps trying to push always online as actually viable.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
YES, that's the one. Jeff Bell sending a pm to ... A Master Ninja? Fucking hilarious moment.
What is the story there? I was actually just thinking about A Master Ninja last night while reading this thread; saw a post from a member with an Itagaki avatar and thought 'I haven't seen any AMN posts in a while.'

EDIT: NVM, beaten with a link.
 
Manveer is a game designer at Bioware.

jbmJQEeF9tOY7R.png

I felt fsorry for this guy for some time but i guesss not anymore ;)
 

orioto

Good Art™
It's like Microsoft want to fail...
Or the ultimate truth is that they really want to drop the gaming audience and target mainstreams...
 

Pangur

Neo Member
This guy is too stupid, unless this is Microsoft testing the waters to see how well always online will be received (which i doubt), he will probably lose his job.
 

Yagharek

Member
What is the story there? I was actually just thinking about A Master Ninja last night while reading this thread; saw a post from a member with an Itagaki avatar and thought 'I haven't seen any AMN posts in a while.'

I honestly cannot remember. All I know is something AMN posted triggered a bout of rage in Jeff Bell and hilarity ensued.
 
So, if I got problem with internet (for example wires was stolen or broken) , I can't play in single player games. Good move. M$, good move.

I had no idea game pirating was so big that it'd reach this point. I wonder when Blu-Ray's and DVD's will require internet and DRM's to play discs.

Always online, paying to play our purchases online, and anti-used...all of this will be forgiven and forgotten once we see the first trailer of Master Chief running around hitting switches in the former sci-fi series Halo for Durango.

They'll have to put in a lap dance from Cortana to get me to buy Durango just for Halo.
 

Toki767

Member
It's like Microsoft want to fail...
Or the ultimate truth is that they really want to drop the gaming audience and target mainstreams...

You'd think the latter, but I feel like gamers would be more likely to put up with "Always On" than casual consumers.
 
Hooooly shit. 4000 posts?! What's going on in this thread? Is there a recap?

I'm not sure where that poster who does thread recaps is -- but I'll try my best..

  • NeoGAF user Shinobi screen caps the tweets of Adam Orth, Creative Director at MSFT Studios.
  • These tweets contain the fallacious analogies you see in the OP -- in defense of an always-online console box.
  • In conjunction with the Kotaku thread about the always-online rumors, this thread blows up.
  • The story is picked up by popular gaming sites including CVG, Verge, Kotaku, and others.
  • David Jaffe attempts to defend the character of Adam (they were former coworkers) -- but particularly his comments regarding rural towns in the US and their online infrastructure.
  • Adam attempts to excuse the tweets as jokes and locks his twitter account.
  • Detective-GAF then finds an alleged dev on a separate forum claiming one should keep up with their ISP bills (implying some truth to the rumor).
  • Detective-GAF then confirms that alleged dev to be an actual developer working on next-gen games.
  • The story continues to blow up on reddit, reaching the front page with thousands of comments.
  • A user in the reddit thread claims Adam is an ass in person and he insists on being called 'sweet billy.'
  • Detective-GAF then confirms Adam is in fact, sweet billy, here on GAF. And his tweets confirm he is, in fact, an ass.
  • Aaron Greenberg claims to be unaware of the existence of Adam Orth. [Insert Sweet Billy joke]

Here you are

*BEATEN BY SPAM FILTER
 

Toadofsky

Banned
I don't know if anyone has pointed it out yet, but this news shouldn't have become too terribly surprising, given Microsoft's strategy in the PC Market. The new edition of Microsoft Office REQUIRES an always on connection, Age of Empires II HD has NO LAN. This is not just one area of the company trying this, it's a company wide initiative.
 

softie

Member
Yeah, but it's not just having an internet connection - it's about having an internet connection to Microsoft's servers.

The national grid doesn't tend to brownout whenever someone launches a high profile new model of fridge, and ultimately if they screw up for more than a few days they're obliged to fix it by law.
Yep, this is a major issue in this whole "always online" discussion. It's not a requirement to be online, it's a requirement to be connected to very specific servers. if those servers have issues, it doesn't matter if you are online or not, you simply can't fulfill the requirement and are pretty much fucked. your ISP has accidentally blocked a range of IPs and those specific servers are part of them? Yeah, you're online, but still fucked. Any issues involving the connection with those servers, regardless of issues in your side, their side or in between, will get you fucked.
 
I dunno if this's been posted yet since I just started reading this thread but his twitter is on lock-down atm:

Tweets
@adam_orth's tweets are protected.
Only confirmed followers have access to @adam_orth's Tweets and complete profile. Click the "Follow" button to send a follow request.

:p
 

AngryMoth

Member
Those analogies in the op are so cringeworthy. I just don't understand why they would force you to be connected to play single player games. It can't be drm, that would just be a pr disaster and they can't be that stupid (seriously they can't).

It must be tied into some of the system's new features. Online and social integration for every game isn't enough to require you to be connected 100% of the time for sp games. The only thing I can think of is that they are using cloud computing for things like voice recognition and they don't want devs worrying about not every user being able to use this feature like what happened to them this gen with hard drives.
 

lantus

Member
I guess I can count myself lucky that I jumped from the Microsoft bandwagon a while ago. This is certainly a very interesting and hilarious topic though lol.
 
I just don't understand why they would force you to be connected to play single player games. It can't be drm, that would just be a pr disaster and they can't be that stupid (seriously they can't).

The serious answer is so you are much more likely to buy DLC/microtransactions if you are already online and your account is set up.

The more cynical answer is that this will not be a problem for single player games...because there wont be any.
 

Hydrargyrus

Member
Well, this is why I love GAF.

I left the thread in page 21 and when I return, in page 40 I found all that detectiveGAF stuff.



Sweeeeeeeeeeet Billy!


PS: Legendary thread. Glad to be here
 

Ikael

Member
You'd think the latter, but I feel like gamers would be more likely to put up with "Always On" than casual consumers.

I have no qualms about, say, paying a subscription for a game that do requires to be always online like a MMORPG. But what we have here is an entirely different beast.

This shit is analogous to BMW selling a new car by "OMG ONLY 6000 USD" and then putting in small print that this is just a rental cost and that they reserve the right to retrieve "their" car whenever they feel like. I wonder how the hell can anyone defend such a vomotive business practice, much less a "gaming journalist".

I do think that there are solid legal grounds for suing EA and similar companies for at least fake advertising, for they are selling a subscritpion-based service as an actual product (Sim City), and making the consumer pay for its total cost beforehand regardless of said service being actually provided.
 
Or summed up... Microsoft employee posts too much on twitter and greatly fuels the rumours of always-online Xbox.

You forgot the part where a ridiculous amount of people and the media are taking it as a 100% conformation and various people are either leaping to the defence of Microsoft or jumping down their throat.

On the basis of a twitter rant.

b3xKD2I.gif
 
Agree, all this story is funny to read but it's just now, people should stop dooming MS next console before launch.

I doubt the next xbox is doomed. I won't be getting one if the always online requirement is true but i'm under no illusion that i represent the masses who just want FIFA or Halo.
 

G_Berry

Banned
Fuuuck this thread is HUUUUUUUUGE!

it didn't even exist when I was on just earlier today and now look at the size of it!!

Fuck this guy by the way. Try living in Australia where half the Internet infrastructure is so outdated your lucky to get dial up speeds off your "adsl2+" connection and there's nothing you can do about it!

Cant wait until this launches if true to witness the massive fallout that ensues after every one logging in kills xbl and they can't play games on their shiney new console.

Dat returns policy.
Dem ps4 sales.

Ill be sitting this one out for sure, got way too burnt this gen.
 

ramparter

Banned
I don't know if anyone has pointed it out yet, but this news shouldn't have become too terribly surprising, given Microsoft's strategy in the PC Market. The new edition of Microsoft Office REQUIRES an always on connection, Age of Empires II HD has NO LAN. This is not just one area of the company trying this, it's a company wide initiative.

Sure but what about the classic, put my disk in my console and play wherever I am. I mean even my 360 is currently not connected to the internet. I can see many things going online only but a console that requires me to be connected to play my games? No.
 
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