Well, Microsoft pulled back their crazy whiteboard idea of limiting XBox1 game resales, sharing games, and even the always-on Internet connectivity thing. Expect the Kinect 2.0 requirement to fall soon as the retreat continues. Once a company starts pulling back, it usually pulls back a great deal. You know I couldn't stay quiet about this, since it plays into my theory of 'stupid whiteboard decisions' that should not have escaped into the wild. It happens to every company, including some I am familiar with.
Did I say familiar with? Oh yes, I have been here too. After the pullback, when everyone is picking up the pieces from a disastrous series of decisions, and everyone is trying to make things right again. Trust me, there are a lot of people in Microsoft right now wondering what the hell just happened, worried about the future, and looking to make things right. We have to let those forces win, the gamers, QA people, engineers, and others who probably wanted no part of those crazy decisions, who are still excited about the XBox1, and want to make things good again. Am I actually pulling for them? Is this a ray of hope?
Not totally. The decision getting out of the building is troubling, and it does signal troubled waters in the whole effort. This was a bad decision, and yes, this is why people get thrown under the bus. Rightfully so too, because the public needs to be told 'things are under control' and 'this is where things went wrong.' Oh yes, we need more here, a public admission of why this happened, and why it will not happen again. Bad things happen to good companies all the time, but the great ones are transparent, and let their customers know 'we screwed up' and how they are going to put in a permanent fix for it.
I am looking for this shoe to drop from Microsoft, this will signal a change, and frankly I have been waiting for it to drop with some pen-and-paper companies. D&D Next's transparency and playtesting is a good thing, although it is going to take a while for me to put my trust in the D&D brand after the mess that was made of 4th Edition. Too many books, too much reliance on D&DI, a mess made with the errata, revising powers to the point where they broke character builds, and a lot more. I'd like to see some 'what we did wrong' articles from Wizards, I would find them fascinating; and also that goes towards the whole transparency thing that I love about great companies. It's also how I work, and who I like to work for.
The XBox1 could be an awesome system, and consumers are very forgiving - but, and this is a big BUT, Microsoft needs to be honest with us. Lay out why they made those decisions, why they thought they were cool, what they would have done for us - and then admit they were wrong, things weren't focus grouped, and opinions were ignored. We need to hear it all. This begins the healing process, and helps us forgive. BUT, and yeah, that was a big but, we need that admission and that openness for us NOW to be able to put our trust in them again. Lay it out, do it now, don't hide things, and let's get this behind us. The longer it goes on, the more people will think this is just another half-step to make things right.
Fixing a problem and not admitting you were wrong never truly fixes things.
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