Political stance is one thing, but he then specifically took action to ruin their lives. They're not acting based on against what his stance is, but on the actions he specifically took that personally and demonstrably hurt them.
So many people seem to miss this point! Regular meatspace trespassing already has laws surrounding it. Laws that don't destroy your life. Step back into a store you're banned from in disguise and get caught? You're not faced with losing your ability to vote, no chances to acquire work, hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, decades of jail time, etc. Felony charges ruin lives, and shouldn't be just lightly sprinkled into otherwise mundane cases like these.
I'm actually fairly confused right now... hoping someone here can enlighten me.
"[..] Microsoft has confirmed that it will release no new versions of its XNA game development toolset, which all Xbox Live Indie Games are developed in."
The system is not backwards compatible, because it apparently is a rebuild from the very core. The old code that drove previous games will not run on the new system, and anything being written for it must be written or ported to whatever the new languages and requirements are.
If they don't publish an update to the toolkit that lets indie developers write for the system, doesn't that essentially mean there can't be any indie development for the system? It looks like they're basically saying we'll keep things just as locked down as they used to be, oh and also we won't be providing the necessary tool to even begin working on our system. (Unless they intend to release a new dev-kit and just didn't see any reason to note that?)
"It’s robbing you of the joy of actually experiencing your life. You’ll realize it the first time you step in dog shit or have your girlfriend get mad at you for not listening to her or lose your kid in a store."
Last two things there? Both of them of them? It's you being a terrible person. Stop blaming technology for letting you be awful and blame yourself for being awful.
Actually if I recall, the problem with Tomb Raider was an exceptionally bloated budget and unrealistic expectations. In the first month something like 3.4 million copies sold, but they were expecting closer to 7! A well reviewed game that sells millions of copies was still viewed as a failure because the budget that went into the game was downright crazy and the expectations were simply not in line with reality. If you can sell millions of copies of a title and consider it to be a failure then there are some pretty big problems with your business model.
The worst thing he could really have done at this point was hide all of his tweets, particularly that one. If he kept something up saying it was just friendly banter, of course I don't really believe this, etc, then he could have not only saved him image, but also gotten more people to see him as ON their side vs against them. A huge boon for himself and his company as a whole.
People are people, and I can't expect a person to show absolutely zero character and personality outside of their company branding (And I am blessed to work for a company who thinks likewise). As a person and a figure of the industry, his opinion on things is something to pay attention to. If he could have just kept up that jk/lol tweet, things probably would not have turned out so nasty.
The problem is weather or not this does reflect his actual opinion. Was his response that it was simply a joke? Sarcasm taken wrong? That can happen to plenty of folks, and simply clarifying probably would have helped avoid the shitstorm.
His initial #dealwithit comment reflects a lot of what people are seeing in the industry today, so it's easy to believe he was serious and holds that opinion. Brushing off serious concerns with what was apparently a joke doesn't reflect well, either. No, it's not as though it's some kind of official announcement or leak of information. However it reflects on an attitude the big-league players have had, and an attitude which has been becoming more obvious and harmful to the consumers. Whatever we do, you'll still buy it. We don't actually care about your feedback. We'll do as we want regardless of what effect it has on you, and your only option is to deal with it.
Do you happen to have a link on hand where he says otherwise? If he claimed sarcasm, well, we really DO need to get around to making some kind of symbol or font :)
US here, and my bank does all this too. Though, most of it has only been recent. Picture of a check to deposit, finance works thingies to make pretty graphs and sort my finances, atm refunds, etc. I get a bit excited that these folk have a MUCH more attractive website, but beyond that and maybe a pretty looking card, i just see no need to switch.