My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal • Hacker News Board

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#71

Post by musha68k » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

agentwiggles wrote: post #4

This is really disappointing to read. Mick's soundtrack was a huge part of making DOOM 2016 and Eternal such great experiences. His talk at GDC where he goes into some of the process of creating the soundtrack is fantastic, so much fun to see the creativity he brought to the game's music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FNBMZsqrY The next DOOM will be a little less DOOMy without him.

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.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#72

Post by skrebbel » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

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-

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#73

Post by kar1181 » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:20 PM UTC

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.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#74

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:25 PM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #57

I would expect this story from a struggling indie game dev startup but ID Games, Zenimax, Mick Gordon and Stratton are all huge players in the game dev industry -- thus this looks bad for the industry as a whole. I was always curious about why the Doom Eternal OST never really showed up on Spotify. This story explains that.

[deleted]

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#75

Post by brightball » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

The most shocking thing about this situation to me is that he didn't get an attorney involved after 2 months without pay. 2 months is generous.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#76

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

I stand with Mick for speaking out. Fuck you, pay me. Looking forward to more from him in the future.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#77

Post by FeistySkink » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:27 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #50

nimbius wrote: post #38

"Afterwards, he offered me a six-figure settlement to never speak about it." Mick, thats not a settlement, thats a payoff for taking a hit so the boss doesnt take the fall. Marty wanted this to go away so he could continue ladder-climbing the tech industry. that he even attempted to do this strongly suggests hes probably paid these things out before.

Tangent, but I always wonder how these kind of payments are paid for. Would it be out of pocket money for Marty, or would he let Mick bill some phantom hours and have the company pay for it?

It's a simple contract with all conditions spelled out. The company pays.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#78

Post by ramesh31 » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #28

causality0 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember when they decided they owned the word "scroll" and started suing anyone else who used it?

And Prey.

And what they did to Carmack

And the Oculus lawsuit

And… so on.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#79

Post by JohnBooty » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:29 PM UTC

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #2

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…

    why I try to issue invoices frequently.

Agree 100%.

Although I've found that for this to be effective, you also need to be able to cease work which means you need a sufficiently large financial cushion.

A long time ago, when I contracted, I was essentially living month to month. I invoiced frequently but clients would often pay up in a painfully slow manner. But I had no real leverage because I was unable to cease work.

Kudos to contractors who achieve what I wasn't quite able to.

Re: My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal

#80

Post by JohnBooty » Wed, Nov 09, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

brightball wrote: post #75

The most shocking thing about this situation to me is that he didn't get an attorney involved after 2 months without pay. 2 months is generous.

It's easy to say, and important to do, but also hard to do.

These relationships always have a hugely asymmetrical power balance. As a contractor your reputation is so critical and the games industry is a small place. And there are far more artists than jobs.