.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp)
Bungie contractor revealed how the studio downgraded his destiny credit and then “shadow ban” his future work
IGN publishes in-depth investigation Entered Bungie’s so-called workplace harassment culture on December 10. A particular focus of the report is the working conditions of the narrative team, including the “boy club culture” and the ongoing austerity period: now, a popular Destiny content creator has also served as a Bungie contractor, adding his story to the pile .
Myelin Games is considered the authority of the legend of destiny, so much so that when Bungie decided to make some books based on the game’s magic book cards, it let him do most of the work.
Bungie initially signed a contract with Myelin to make a magic book. These cards tell the legend of fate in a piecemeal manner, and his job is to organize and organize existing materials in a meaningful way for the reader. In the video below, he recounted his experience working with Bungie on this project, saying that the IGN article made him realize that his experience as a contractor is not unique.
Before telling his story, Myelin quoted some of the propositions of this article: the writer was rewritten at the last minute, sometimes just when the line was about to be recorded, and was told to thicken it; and “some of Bungie’s old Guards are particularly precious” about this legend.
After several months of building the book and final proofreading—the final stage before the publication entered the printing press—Myelin received an email a week before the book went to press. It told him that another person would be added to the project, and eventually passed the book and made suggestions. This person is a member of the so-called “Old Guard” who sent the following email to Myelin at the time.
“In this final pass, my goal was just to make [the book] the best. Considering the insight and understanding I have gained in cultivating ideas and caring for the soil that nurtures these stories, if you wish, I may provide some challenges/changes at the last minute to ensure it achieves that goal. “
Let’s stop and admire the route of “caring for the soil”. Well, of course the author of this email continues to take care of Myelin’s soil. “[It was] The old guards made it clear that they have more knowledge and experience of fate,” Myelin said.
The email sender continued to question Myelin’s work fundamentally: why he chose this particular structure, why the chapters are arranged in this way, etc. Myelin went on to illustrate how he responded, and at this point, it seemed just annoying rather than scary.
“Although it was frustrating to question all the work I did the week before the deadline, I was angry, but I understand,” Myelin said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there: the book is finished, finished, and sent to everyone as a PDF, saying’it’s ready for printing’. I checked and noticed my title at the end of the credits. Has changed.
“No one told me about this. No one told me it would change. [My credit] In the beginning it was a lore curator, because that was what I did; I planned this legend. To make matters worse, the person who joined the team, the “old guard”, was given this title, and I was given a different title, Lore Consulting. I think this does not reflect my role. “
Myelin wrote the following emails to senior leaders related to this book:
“Hello everyone. I’m not sure how to ask this question, I know it is a sensitive topic, but I want to talk about how I got praise in the book […]. I think “Lore Consultation” implies that I didn’t do much work for the volume […]I think I am more active in this project and have been involved since it was first proposed as an idea. I worked very hard to organize, plan and decide which magic book cards should be included, and what will give knowledge nerds and non-knowledge nerds the best experience.
“I hope this doesn’t sound silly. I know I am a newbie to Bungie. I am just signing a contract. However, I still feel that’consulting’ does not accurately represent the work I have done for the project. I am not sure of the best title. What is it, but I want to hear your thoughts.”
After receiving the email, Myelin organized a conference call with the project leader, and he began to explain his position and how much he did on the book.
“When I described my role and my concerns, in the middle of the sentence, the protagonist interrupted me. In the middle sentence, I had to explain because it was a phone call and not an email, but when they interrupted me in the middle -Sentence, when I said my feelings, they said something like:’I want to stop you. We won’t say “I”. This is a team project.
“Obviously I was talking about what I did, I was saying’I’ […] Then they continued to rant, saying that it was not about the individual, but about the team. I think I don’t know anything about the game industry, I don’t know, but I also feel very selfish because I brought up this conversation, because I brought up this conversation about how I was honored in the book, for example, I made a big mistake. The wrong thing. I am really angry.I clearly remember where I was when I received this call […] When this person interrupted me and gave me this kind of nonsense, GM, company, “there is no “I” in the team, I feel like I’m going to fucking throw my phone across the road. That’s—imagine you can The most cookie-cutter team talk you can imagine, and then imagine what the fuck has done to a person for months, they have been working on a project for months, and they are just talking about their feelings.”
With your credit downgraded on a project that you spent months on, getting the exact “team talk” can seem quite annoying. As Myelin pointed out: “If you don’t use the word’I’, I really don’t know how you talk about issues like book credits.”
Myelin said he was so angry that he stopped talking. When Bungie’s leaders realized that they might have gone too far, the phone got better. They tried to go back, and in the end, they and Myelin reached an agreement on the new title of the book’s credit.
“I have a very small understanding of how this person usually works,” Myelin said. “I have a strong desire for control, which makes me feel like an idiot-I think this is their nature, as they can easily fall into that reaction naturally, as if they have rehearsed many times before. The result may be this. “
The Grimoire project went from a book idea to three volumes, and as these things went on, it was very successful enough to make Bungie decide to make the fourth book (Myelin originally drafted a six-book series plan). But Bungie decided that myelin would not be involved this time-he only knew about it when the studio announced other books.
“The first thing I thought about was that I was kicked out of the team because I was not a team player,” Myelin said. “I was kicked out of the team for complaining. I should shut up, maybe I will have the opportunity to do more work. I think I ruined my relationship with Bungie, then I angered the leadership team or this person, I will in the future Was forbidden to work with them.”
Some people might see things like this and say something fussy about book credits or misjudged calls, but the broader context is that contractors are punished and then frozen when they stand up for themselves. The difference between being considered a legendary curator or legendary consultant may seem small, but if you spend months curating knowledge, it won’t be. And everyone should stick to the principle of where credit should go.
“It makes me very sad, really angry,” Myelin said. “Because I know I only get a small part of the content that the narrative team must endure. I’m not sure where to start. I hope to provide this information to Bungie. I hope they will take it seriously. I hope they will take action to ensure that it does not Happen again.”
The allegations about Bungie’s workplace culture do come with warnings: many Original IGN report I also have fond memories of the studio, the CEO has Acknowledge the problem, Apologized, explained what they were doing, and promised to take more action. From the outside, Bungie does not sound like an incurable place: it has historical problems and domineering “old guards” that need to be alert to how they treat others.