I want to start off by saying that absolutely none of this should have happened. I mean, obviously.
I’m not going to break the entire article down but please be sure to read here:
https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-doom-eternal-5f98266b27ce
1. much of the first couple of sections just highlights the issues the AAA part of the gaming industry has as a whole, therefore unionization is important.
2. know consumer protection laws, whether you’re a subcontractor or not- or seek legal counsel if you are able. this is not to blame Mick for this piece, this was still Marty’s responsibility to communicate those deadlines clearly, but when working in AAA the game is different.
3. volunteering a contractor before a contract is written is absolutely ghoulish behavior on id’s part.
4. a few people will likely ask “why didn’t Mick complain about not getting paid sooner” and as an accountant, I can tell you that if you’re trying to get work out the door on insane deadlines, you’re going to either forget to invoice things or if on contract, you shouldn’t have to fucking worry about that? contracts are there for a reason and id knew the agreement, it should not be an employee or subcontractor’s job to remind their employer to pay them. dunno how accounting works in the AAA industry but it would never fly where I work.
5. Marty posting his statement on REDDIT as the original source is awful behavior and completely unprofessional. Not even on a company-run Reddit, but a Reddit run and moderated by volunteers (r/Doom) whom ultimately should have never been dragged into this issue. Since Mick’s statement, mods have been harassed and have quit moderating. I know some of the mods and they absolutely do not deserve this treatment. I imagine being told by the executive producer of the game you love that if you take his post down you’ll likely be threatened with legal action would not be a great situation to be in.
6. The lawyers at Zenimax sound like they’d have been great on Theranos’s team (hint, not a good thing).
some other thoughts:
- from how it sounds, id needs to be clearly communicating to Bethesda/Zenimax its legal needs because it cannot handle them on its own.
- Marty should never produce a game again. or if he does, he needs to be kept a mile away from press because he cannot be trusted to handle it safely.
- I hope Mick finally gets the compensation he deserves. Musicians are just as much contractors as they are creators, especially in circumstances where they are being told they need to create music for levels that haven’t even been conceptualized yet. Musicians should be paid for the hours they spend formulating as well as the songs they ultimately produce.
- the harassment of the creator of an OST is absolutely disgusting and gamer entitlement needs to be addressed. fuck anyone who engaged in the behavior described.
- Review bombing on Steam will not fix this issue. harassment of anyone involved will not fix this issue. frank discussions about how creators of all kinds in the industry will.
Bethesda officially responded to Mick Gordon's blog post with the allegation that he's caused personal threats to be sent to Marty Stratton and the team at ID...
...funny they fail to acknowledge that Stratton's initial reddit statement produced the same results in an unprofessional and unsupported attack in the first place.
Today's song is Semi Sacred Geometry by Matt Piersall with vocals by Raphaël Colantonio!
There's another version of this with lyrics by Mae Whitman which isn't on spotify, because the game will adjust a bunch of aspects of the characters depending on whether you pick a male or female protagonist. Also some people on the internet credit the writing on this to Mick Gordon as a guest track, and while I couldn't find any reliable sources about that, it's absolutely his style. Whoever sings/wrote this song, it's an incredible piece of music. The lyrics don't make sense on purpose (they were dreamed up by an alien parasite or something), but they sound cool as FUCK.