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My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

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Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#91

Horror stories like this are the main reason I only ever bill by the hour and invoice biweekly. Like, sure, I'll change things to meet requirements but I'm not going to work for free or go without pay for months. It's also much easier to fire bad clients or to stop working when an invoice goes unpaid for too long. The only downside to this approach is when salaried subordinates don't understand this dynamic and rack…

> Horror stories like this are the main reason I only ever bill by the hour and invoice biweekly. This sort of thing is why I've always kept a salaried position. I could make more, perhaps have more varied & interesting work, and maybe gain other flexibility, if I switched to contracting, but few people extolling these benefits to me ever mention the flip side when things aren't perfect – I'm more than happy to make…

> This probably marks me as someone unsuited for contract work, or too difficult to work with as a contractor, ete, and that is fine by me!

This actually makes you an ideal contractor, you just have to know how to do this tactfully.

The real issue with this situation is working as a contractor on a single project. At the point you're working for one client, full time, as a contractor...you're an employee.

If you've got no other clients, you have no ability to negotiate with the simple statement, "I have other clients I have to tend to and can't dedicate time to this work until the contract is addressed. Let me know when you're ready to resume."

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#92
Not surprising behavior from id software. If you've ever read the book "Masters of Doom" (great book, btw) you can see that id software from the very beginning is really only known for making cutting edge games and that they've always had problems with bad management and abusing employees.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#93

That open letter from Marty always felt fishy to me, because everything I ever saw about Mick made him feel like someone who is simply enthusiastic about music and all the stuff he claimed smelled wrong. I ended up writing it off as "Maybe he's just better at a public persona than I figured," and was sad but moved on. But now? Oof I wonder what Bethesda/Zenimax/MS does about this, because the look is NOT good for Mar…

Conjecture: Marty will sue him for defamation and lose when discovery proves that substantially every allegation Mick made was true.

This was Mick's entire life for two years, but was just another contractor Marty was (badly) juggling. One of them will have a far clearer memory of what's going on.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The soundtrack for Eternal was the only thing that felt special about this sequel IMO. Doom 2016 was and is amazing though, instant classic including the congenial soundtrack. I’m even less excited about any further sequel now. Too bad John Carmack didn’t want to put up more with the business side of things. Zenimax are slowly becoming the worst of all the gravedigger big gaming companies.

Zenimax became a part of Microsoft soon after Doom Eternal. Don't know if the management changes after that help or not.

Wow, we do live in a strange reality at this point. Masters of Doom clearly a distant past.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#95

This Marty person seems like a full on psychopath. I always wonder with stories like these how the lawyers feel after a day’s work. Like, “hi daddy, how was work?” - “oh it was fantastic, we strong armed an independent musician into getting screwed over by our client, an ambitious psychopath!” -hugs-

Parent comment might seem flip, but it’s actually a real and important point. There are quite a number of people with anti social personality disorder within corporate management structures. Marty has all of the hallmark signs. I think the real sad part is that Mick wasn’t able to identify Marty’s personality type at the outset, and seemed to keep falling for his lies, gaslighting, and manipulation, and under estimat…

    I think the real sad part is that Mick wasn’t able 
    to identify Marty’s personality type at the outset
The sociopathic and sociopathy-adjacent people who rise to these positions of power are very good at cloaking behaviors.

They're not obviously creepy jerks hiding in the bushes near a playground wearing filthy clothing, leering at the children and planning an abduction. Nobody wants to work with people like that and they almost never become successful.

The ones who do climb the ranks generally have a lot of positive traits. That's what makes them so dangerous. One minute they're doing something legitimately good. The next minute they're pulling sociopathic moves.

Somebody like Jeffrey Epstein is a great example. Accomplished socialite, donated to great causes and institutions, personable, even had a close female friend so he couldn't be an abuser, right? Except he was, obviously. The lesson for me was not that people were gullible, it was that some of these predators are simply that good at cloaking themselves.

(To be crystal clear, I'm not saying Marty is as bad as Epstein, or directly comparing them in any way whatsoever. I'm just saying: successful jerks are usually a complex mix of good and bad traits. In Marty's defense he's in a high pressure role with a lot of money on the line and lots of crap to navigate and perhaps is trying his best but has come up short. I don't know.)

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#97
post #31
post #18

Already deleted from the r/doom front page despite hundreds of upvotes. Example: https://old.reddit.com/r/Doom/comments/yqjvzu/mick_gordon_po...

It isn't, it's on the top of the page, heavily upvoted and awarded. It seems one of the mods deleted their account though after admitting they have friends at Bethesda. https://i.imgur.com/8E7bOoQ.jpeg https://old.reddit.com/user/Mr-R00T

Almost all the biggest subs, or popular subs tied to a commercial product, have shitty moderators. They're either modding dozens of subs or have conflicts of interest with said products.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#98
post #73

If you read up on Tim Willits' time at id it seems like a proper protege took his reigns. In my early career I lamented not going into games development but goodness what a bullet dodged.

Well, there are some good places to work. I've heard Hello Games (makers of No Man's Sky) are pretty alright, notwithstanding the kerfuffle with their initial release of NMS. I've had some acquaintances working in various Ubisoft locations say it's not bad.

Though even if it is a well-managed studio, you'll still have to deal with occasional crunch to meet holiday deadlines and such, plus the pay is often lower than similar positions in other sectors.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#100

That open letter from Marty always felt fishy to me, because everything I ever saw about Mick made him feel like someone who is simply enthusiastic about music and all the stuff he claimed smelled wrong. I ended up writing it off as "Maybe he's just better at a public persona than I figured," and was sad but moved on. But now? Oof I wonder what Bethesda/Zenimax/MS does about this, because the look is NOT good for Mar…

Conjecture: Marty will sue him for defamation and lose when discovery proves that substantially every allegation Mick made was true. This was Mick's entire life for two years, but was just another contractor Marty was (badly) juggling. One of them will have a far clearer memory of what's going on.

I would agree with that. I said the look wasn't good because I can't know everything but Mick seems to have enough receipts finding a detail that makes Marty look less bad will be challenging at best.

My guess would be Marty made promises to upper management and things fell apart due to mismanagement. If this was JUST Mick and Marty interacting without some level of outside force I doubt Marty would act this stupidly.

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