Please don't pretend either that GAF didn't get this man fired either. You absolutely did.
GAF just pointed it out because we love gaming and everyone's twitter account or Facebook account or every single video or interview is a piece of news for us. We will create threads about them and to be quite honest we have done equal amounts of good and bad to whatever information there is. We will make a big freaking deal out of it because we are passionate. When developers, publishers, analysts or journalists/bloggers say anything positive, we will stand by it. When they say anything negative, we will point out the absurdity and laugh at it. What happened to him later was his doing.
Adam screwed Adam. In the position that he was in, he should've kept his 'personal opinions' aside, especially when talking about something that doesn't exist. You can throw jabs at the competition but you cannot throw jabs at the consumer.
We've reign shit terror on Michael Pacther's forecasts, analysis and predictions; on journalists working for companies and writing reviews for them; on those that pass off anything negative that can affect the game industry as a norm; on shitty DRM practices; on publisher's constant closures of great companies and cancellations of prospective games; on people exploiting services like Kickstarter.
While we do all this, we also praise practices such as DRM-free games; such as companies helping indie developers; such as developers and publishers being open and honest in twitter or blogs or GAF explaining what their opinion is without bashing the consumer for being senile; such as publishers and developers with great track record and constant deliverance of promises, and if they do end up releasing a shit game we will understand; such as helping promote games that require promoting because they are worth it and they have not seen any media coverage lately; such as giving away games, beta keys, and goodies for free; such as being selfless and spotlighting any deals, contests or giveaways.
It's called "Gaming Discussion" for a reason. We discuss the good and the bad of the industry.
As stated before: Adam screwed Adam. We have had dozens and dozens of incidents in every industry and medium about how twitter and facebook posts cost you your job because you were to naive to think that no one is paying attention. Go to a bar and chitchat if you like. Go chitchat within the office space. You don't see me spewing about my industry (aerospace) openly even though I know all the goods and the bads of it. I have friends all over the aerospace industry working for different major (MAJOR) companies and we all respect the fact that whatever discussion happens over a beer stays within that ficinity. Trade secrets and upcoming products are gossiped about. We laugh and make fun of some shitty moves, and get excited about the good moves. The only difference between us and what Adam did is you don't spill the beans on something that is not publicly known, and you don't provide your personal opinion without any kind of disclaimer (Only if you think your opinion is very positive for the company or industry you work in, but it may result in one or two pissed off people which is reasonable), ESPECIALLY over Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or more.
You are in the spotlight. Your virtual self represents you. People get fired over it any day. Stay anonymous if you have any dicksause bloodspilling thing to say and you personally believe you are correct. One thing is for sure: we got Microsoft's attention and every gaming media's attention over this issue. Everyone is starving to hear things about the successor to Xbox 360 and these bits and pieces is not helping Microsoft at all.