Or it might be the case where your reporting lines were able to do their job and keep you away from all the upper-level politics? I also used to work on online

Or it might be the case where your reporting lines were able to do their job and keep you away from all the upper-level politics? I also used to work on online game companies and thought that we were given lots of autonomy like you until I found our director and producer fiercely fighting back against all the pressures coming from corporate and sales guys in executive level meetings. Because of this experience, I wouldn't take those autonomy for granted; Mike probably also had done the same thing more than 10 years and given up for some reasons.