Aah, yes, the old “you’re only hearing one side of the argument” con. Marty Stratton already provided their side in a Reddit post (well, open letter) about Mick on Bethesda’s behalf.<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Doom/comments/gdg25y/doom_eternal_ost_open_letter/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Doom/comments/gdg25y/doom_eternal_o...</a><p>Sadly, I wouldn’t put much money on Mick getting his due, not with Microsoft lawyers (and money to pay those lawyers) as his opponents.
A whole lot of typical corporate waffle. Here is Mick Gordon's post <a href="https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-doom-eternal-5f98266b27ce" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/@mickgordon/my-full-statement-regarding-d...</a> providing clear evidence. What a shame. Mick Gordon's Doom Eternal OST is what I use to get through some tough workouts.
A famously litigation happy company not filing immediate legal action (starting with a cease and desist and then escalating) when accused of wrong doing in a very public and damaging way is all you need to know about who is in the wrong.<p>Im sure eventually someone at Microsoft will tell them enough and cut the man a nice settlement check in a couple of years. Right when discovery is allowed to go forward and all of Martys emails and communications are allowed to become public.
My rule for reading these things is basically, is there anything in there that I couldn't have written for them before the release?<p>The answer in this case is no. I see nothing there that I couldn't have written. (And to be clear, I mean, me personally, from the exact position I am in right now, not a hypothetical me that works for them or has other knowledge.) Of course they're going to accuse him of lying and misrepresentation, they support their team, they have their own side of the story, they love to pieces everyone involved on their side who are the shining paragons of virtue that indeed we should all learn from and pattern our lives around and truly it would be a moral atrocity for the history books to sue or indeed even <i>question</i> them, etc.<p>So the information content of this is precisely zero.<p>From that you can't draw very much. Even if they had an iron-clad defense, they wouldn't necessarily have put it here for legal reasons, so I don't think you can conclude much at all.
It appears that Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax hasn't curbed the bad behavior of Bethesda at all, and in fact may have given them some sort of bravado that wasn't there before.<p>The audacity of responding to the saga of an article that was Mick Gordon's open letter, with a PR statement that is equal parts vague, aggressive, and couched in safetyist language is nearly unbelievable.
I hope Mick takes Bethesda to the cleaners. The audacity to post this after their original Reddit post and not giving a single shit about the abuse cannon they turned towards Mick is disgusting.<p>I normally live by the quote (abridged):<p>> If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg.<p>But in this case (after having read Mick’s account posted a few days ago here) it seems clear the “egg” was not even “wrong”.
If Mick Gordon was wrong, Bethesda wouldn’t just be lying about it on Twitter, they would sue him for defamation.<p>So their failure to sue is ipso facto a confession that Mick Gordon is right.
Maybe that is just corporate language, but the way this is worded („distortion of truth“, „selective presentation“) seems to suggest that the quite detailed post from Gordon is truthful in its key details and Bethesda seems to be claiming that there is additional context that warranted their executive‘s behaviour. Which is … an interesting perspective, to say at least.
This is why, as a freelancer, you _always_ negotiate for a time contract (getting paid for hours - not even for chunks of work) and upfront payment. Expecting to get paid for work that may or may not get approved is almost asking to get in trouble. (Almost - of course, I'm not blaming Mike for signing an unfair contract, I hope he wins this.)<p>A big company already has enormous power over a lone person, no need to give them more. If ID didn't crank their assholeness up to 11 and try to publicly smear Mike, Mike would surely lose this in court.
Here’s the text from the image in their post, as transcribed by my phone anyways:<p>>>><p>The recent post by Mick Gordon both mischaracterized and misrepresented the team at id Software, the development of DOOM Eternal, Marty Stratton, and Chad Mossholder with a one-sided and unjust account of an irreparable professional relationship.<p>We are aware of all the details and history in this matter and unequivocally support Marty, Chad, and the team at id Software. We reject the distortion of the truth and selective presentation of incomplete "facts." We stand ready with full and complete documented evidence to disclose in an appropriate venue as needed.<p>The statements posted online have incited harassment and threats of violence against Marty, Chad, and the id Software team. Any threats or harassment directed towards members of our teams will be met with swift and appropriate action to protect their health and safety.<p>We remain incredibly proud of id's previous collaborations with Mick Gordon and ask that fans refrain from reaching conclusions based on his account and, more importantly, from attacking any of the individuals mentioned on either side, including Marty, Chad, or Mick.
This may be the first time I ever boycott something. No way what Mick wrote was a lie, it would have to be so specially crafted - and for what? There's no money at stake here, he's literally just trying to save his reputation.<p>I think Mick's story resonates with a lot of us who've been used this way. I hope this story gets picked up in the larger media circles because that's the only way Bethesda will step off. I've seen it in the "gamer media" (Kotaku, etc) on Google News but the headlines were not very attention grabbing.
The sad thing is that Mick and most of his supporters have gone out of their way to not attack Chad or to attach blame to him. It’s pretty disappointing that this statement, beyond completely dismissing Mick’s concerns, makes Mick come off as a fraudulent, vexatious accuser who directly harmed Chad.
Well that's disappointing.<p>Surely they're going to show some kind of proof that what he said is false, right? Because Mick did his homework and provided a LOT of dated receipts that disprove what Marty said in his reddit post.
The part of Mick's (exhaustive) post where he notes that he has only seen his awards through glass, at a distance, once, at id's office broke my heart.<p>It reflects poorly on the management--the actual people who are in management, not the vague "corporation"--when they treat their contractors this way. If Mick won the award, Mick gets the award. To do anything else is the behavior of a person of very low character.
If Bethesda had any legs to stand on, they would keep quiet and file a suit against Mick. Bethesda is stating this in the open, showing they don't have an actual counter to Mick's claims except: 'no, you.'
Why even respond publicly if that's what you're going to say? I guess it probably convinced someone. But it's not very convincing and it keeps the story in the news.
Just pay the man and apologize. It's a drop in the bucket in comparison to the rightfully earned bad reputation.<p>I would be looking a lot closer at how Bethesda is operating, this sounds like another Blizzard frat house that uses their positions to abuse people.
As a fan of Doom and several-times attended Quakecon (including the 2018 Doom Eternal walkthrough) it really, really sucks to hear people you thought were really enthusiastic decent people turn out to be shithead executives that are a dime a dozen.<p>I'm sorry for Mick and embarrassed for Doom.
Wikipedia deleted the page for Marty Stratton<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Marty_Stratton" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletio...</a>
Bethesda better have some absolutely <i>damning</i> receipts to go after one dude like this.<p>If it's standard, "we buried a clause in a contract" corporate concerns, Bethesda is going to come out looking like a bully and a villain here.
> selective presentation of incomplete "facts"<p>Is that Bethesda admitting they only sent the contract for the OST a few weeks prior to release?<p>As well as doing pre-orders and attaching his name to the OST way before any mention of said OST to Mitch?
tl;dr: Nuh-uh!<p>Bethesda's statement doesn't provide any new information, address any specific claims made by Mick, or clarify anything really. I don't know why they bothered posting it.