Neglected Flaws of Gaming Legacy

DOOM Eternal - Soundtrack Behind the Scenes Thumbnail. Taken from YouTube.

While I'm determined to stay away from negative subjects, my continuous self-reflections from the last few months slowly led me towards more conclusions. It's no secret that nowadays a lot of people on Internet are bitter. No matter what kind of community you're looking to, chances are you'll stumble upon exceeding amount of various negative emotions. However, players aren't the only group who is susceptible to such condition. Gaming industry saw many examples of creators and leaders doing some pretty terrible things. Some of these situations remained secret for a substantial amount of time and/or were ultimately "forgiven" (i.e. forgotten) due to legacy of specific person and/or a group.

I think this post might end up getting all over the place and I apologize in advance for that. As I was thinking more certain scandals involving some well-known people & companies (both recent and earlier), I kept coming back to harmful nature of legacy within gaming industry. It's not as much about games and franchises, as it's about people, companies and brands. From preservation of video game history to treatment of young talent starting their career in this sphere. I guess you can consider this an impromptu follow-up to "Two Older Kinds of Gaming Brands", considering some themes of this post and how messy it likely ends up being. I just need to get all of this out of my system for my own good.

Weaponized Authority.

Even though I would prefer to not talk about Blizzard Entertainment in the near future, their example is just perfect and easy start to kick off this train of thoughts. This Polygon's article from 2021 perfectly showcases that. People dream to join this gaming company because it's responsible for the games they love so much. After all, everyone wants to have a job they're passionate about. For it to be enjoyable and always exciting. A wonderful dream that can be turned into nightmare. While one of now former employee of Blizzard argues that company used this passion to get away with underpaying this stuff, this scenario can play out differently. Not in this case, I'm just making some logical conclusion.

I'm sure that there has to be an actual story, but I can't recall it. So I'm just going to talk about it from my own perspective as if I were a game developer. Publishing & development companies surely can (and many likely do) utilize the fact that some of their new members are folks who consider themselves to be their fan. There's also a matter of group solidarity. Perhaps specific company or a group aren't as problematic as many major companies, but aforementioned problems can materilaze without people realizing it. Some people just don't wanna let others down, be it their coworkers and/or customers. If I were in situation like this, I probably would've been part of the party that overworks voluntarily with no additional payment on sight. You know, because this just seems like "a right thing to do".

One type of news that inspired me to go on with this rant are some developers not getting a proper mention in credits of a game they've worked on. This problem is both massive and somewhat unknown because the truth is that players don't usually care about the items: it's just something you outright skip or keep rolling for the music while out at your window or something along those lines. But it actually matters to developers themselves and their future in this industry as a name in credits of specific game shows that they indeed worked on it. Most recent articles on Game Developer about IGDA Special Interest Group speaking up about improving crediting process and there were recent-ish stories about Metroid Dread & The Callisto Protocol's credits were missing or miscrediting some people there. And that's just me scratching the surface in this deep and long-standing issue that comes from negligence and/or malice, which in the end hurt video game preservation efforts. 

Intoxicating Elitism.

But those are just examples of "bad companies treating their workers terribly" and that's not how it always goes. It's too easy to just claim the entire group as "bad" instead of those who actually worthy of such label. Sometimes it's about specific individuals within said companies that get their moment to "shine". Infamous examples would include Bobby Kotick and Randy Pitchford, but there's more of course. I would like to talk about the recent story between Mick Gordon, id Software & Bethesda Softworks. While both company entities have significant presence in his full statement on Medium, one name that comes up there again and again is id's Studio Director Marty Stratton. And, since Bethesda clearly thrown that Twitter statement to make things go quiet, there's no way for nobody like me to give them the benefit of the doubt. You may also wonder what Xbox thinks of this whole situation, but I'll note that it's easy to see that both them and Bethesda might take Marty's side regardless of the truth due to his position and time within id Software.

That story still involves a few companies, but, again, some people can be pretty nasty of their own. A case in point: Gianni Matragrano's experience with John St. John centered around the character of Duke Nukem. That was pretty baffling and frustrating as I enjoyed how peaceful this retro & indie corner of gaming industry was (or, at least, that's my illusion of it). Jon's initial response was tone deaf, to say the least. This story has a happy ending as Gianni later stated that they "buried the hatchet" and some people might consider me bringing this story up now an impolite decision. Which is understandable to a certain degree, but that's just close and recent example of how one prominent figure within this industry can treat another. In fact, it's also worth bringing up that things can end up in more positive direction at the end and be reminded that sometimes there's some good out there.

Conclusion.

So, what exactly am I trying to say with all of this? Video games history is important. Developers should get proper payment, credit and praise for the work they've done with specific project. Players should be treated with respect and not as a walking wallet who would give any amount of money you want. However, you shouldn't treat companies and probably even specific individuals as this sentient symbol. "Never meet your heroes", I know how original that sounds and yet a lot of people seem to forget that.

Gaming companies are not your friend or second/third family even if you spend a large chunk of your childhood and life with games they developed and/or published. Try your best to not idolize people working as a developer, artist, voice actor, etc. Don't dismiss their good work with one project, but be more open-minded when it comes to their next endeavor and actions outside of it. Their public persona is not a 100% representation of themselves. Don't be a fanboy, that's not worth and can backfire as your trust and loyalty gets suddenly broken by those who you worshipped.

I'm really not a fan of all this nonsense. Back in a day, there were just young me and video games. No drama and serious issues within this sphere with a crowd of bitter people and blind followers. It was great at the time to have the likes to Blizzard Entertainment and Nintendo as these golden pillars of gaming you can always relay on, but now it's apparent how unhealthy and limiting such mindset can be. This is a trap you can easily fall into after getting your first revelation and I don't think I'm totally save from it. Because, again, part of me desires the return of simpler times when things were brighter and easygoing.