I gotta be honest, what he says isn't that out there, especially when you read the whole thing and not just the excerpts that have been floating around. Also, this isn't news, it's been out there since 2010, some people have only stumbled upon it now.Hellstorm Archon wrote: Just found some not-so-good-news:
It turns out that Carmack is an Ayn Randriod Libertarian, which may had something to do with him leaving (or ZeniMax owning id in the first place).
And yes, it was too soon that I said he was one of the few gaming geniuses with an untarnished record.
Let's see how the rest of the Doom community (and gaming industry) will take it.
I already suspected that he leaned this way, it fits his temperment and lifestyle well (semi-autist millionaire engineer). I agree with him that the federal government wastes far too many resources, but the solution is to ask for better value for lower price, not just give up.
Simple fact is, he's in a profession in which he works primarily with machines and rarely deals with people (almost is a machine himself), makes lots of money, and doesn't like when inconveniences get in the way of that (patents, for one). Given what we know about Carmack and his personality, this should come as a surprise to no one.
I fail to see how this is a "black mark" on him, so he's libertarian, so what? How does this affect us in any way?
Aside from the whole politics thing, it's a good thing Carmack moved over to Oculus, I'm sure he'll advance the field in many ways now that he's focused on that. Again, I saw this coming from a mile away. It's been extremely obvious over the past few years that id Software does not have their shit together. Poor management, drawn-out development, production reboots, etc. All John was doing was doling out the next engine after another, getting less and less ROI with each step taken, with increasingly id-exclusive features the rest of the industry ignores, and less licensing.
It's clear that along with the mess that is id's culture, he also wasn't being challenged enough, and saw his work only being used internally for mediocre and poor-selling titles. He's clearly a very self driven person, and sees VR as somewhere that he can make a difference and apply his skills.
