Bad Day LA
HC.Gamer - Bad Day L.A. interjú
Ever read an “interjú” before? Well, this is your big chance. The guys over at HC Gamer, a gaming site from the country of .hu, have posted one…
HC.Gamer: You started your career as a level designer at id Software. How did the decision come to leave them and found your own company, to make your own games?
American Mcgee: I did not leave id, I was fired.
Yeah, I just go straight for the jugular there. It always strikes me as odd how people dance around the subject of my “departure” from id. You would think by now that everyone out there who has followed any of the goings-on at id would realize that very few people have ever left that company voluntarily. I’m not embarassed of the fact that I was fired. Hell, when it happened, after an initial period of reasonable shock, I was quite *happy*.
I recently read an article which made mention of the “retirement” of Adrian Carmack from id. To be honest, I had no idea that he’d left in the first place. The article stated that the public version was that he’d taken a voluntary retirement. Makes sense. I mean, how many demon skulls can a guy draw? As it turns out the truth behind his exit was a lot messier. Seems that the vicious internal politics at id finally caught up with him and the other owners “squeezed him out.” Part of their effort to remove him apparently included tracking the hours he worked and eliminating profit dividends (quarterly employee bonuses based on internal review).
Sounds familiar. Same thing happened to Romero. Same thing happened to just about everyone who was let go from id. I wonder if any of the remaining owners see a pattern emerging. I wonder if they care.
The truth is that every firing has had some merit. Everyone that was let go was suffering some form of burnout. I imagine Adrian’s case is no different (although I could be wrong). My problem was that, even though I knew I was burned out, I couldn’t fathom the idea of walking away from such a secure position. So I stayed on, limping along, suffering various abuses, until the owners mercifully ended it.
Funny thing about all this… Adrian *really* hated me. The entire time I worked at id he projected this grudge towards me that to this day is still a mystery. When I was fired I waited until after receiving my final check to ask him, “What did you have against me?” He responded that there wasn’t enough time in the world to explain it. Oh well.
Hey Adrian, the good news is that there is life after id. You might have to learn how to draw something other than demon skulls though.
Read the full Bad Day LA interview here.
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i was fired on my first job. i cried in front of the manager. lol. im not over it yet and it was almost 8 mos ago. time to read the book .. (tolle).lol.
What can one say, I guess; people like dancing. Although, to be perfectly fair, drawing those demon skulls sure are tricky- especially that little crack by the occipital lobe.
Truly, if there isn’t enough time in the world to explain it, it must be an epic story to say the least. At least you didn’t sweat it.
“…“What did you have against me?” He responded that there wasn’t enough time in the world to explain it. Oh well….”
That is pretty funny. Maybe he just couldn’t manage to put his feelings into words it takes courage to do it. He was just weak.
Still would have been interesting to know… *ponder
Poor Adrian, something tells me he won’t have as loyal of a fanbase that follows him post-Id like some people i can think of….
bwah ha ha ha
Hmm… You silly American. =)
Got fired a couple of months ago. Got a much more interesting, better paid job two weeks afterwards. These things are often a blessing in disguise.
There is always a time for people to move away from a job, for the sake of personal growth. In your case, it was a very good thing(from my point of view).
Lets face it, the industry is stagnating, and it has been for a long time. It started out as 20 minutes of mindless reactonary tapping, it changed a little, and sunk back. Mcgee, you’re the thinker’s designer, and I’m grateful you were fired.
HC.Gamer is a hungarian site.
I was a little shocked when I red “interjú” in the topic 
I read so many interjú-s becouse im hungarian
Hungarians are famous for their ability to never spell right and always be regocnised by their grammer.
They have this annoying habbit of saying English words in hungarian sentences, wich is exspecially annoying when they pronounce it in hungarian.
I know, I am hungarian (or “Magyar” as we call ourselves invidually).
The people that tend to do this are people that had about 4 proper Englsih classes, got their Englsih papers for somethnig that is not related learning english. In other words, people who don’t speak englsih but think they are cool by making other people think they do.
The article is barely readable in hungarian unless you know most of those english words. Which you have to FIGURE OUT that they are meant as english words, becuse they transfer it to hungarian pronouncaion-based spelling (K instead of a C). When alot of these words have an hungarian equilent.
Did I mention that the translation is inaccurate?