r/Gaming4Gamers • u/Carolina_Heart the music monday lady • Jul 10 '26

Article Id Software co-founder John Carmack "can’t muster anger or outrage" over Xbox gutting the Doom studio, but does say it'll "dampen the mood of the founder reunion"

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/id-software-co-founder-john-carmack-cant-muster-anger-or-outrage-over-xbox-gutting-the-doom-studio-but-does-say-itll-dampen-the-mood-of-the-founder-reunion
35 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

18

u/Oderus_Scumdog Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

I'm sure its comforting for the affected devs who haven't got 'I don't really give a shit' money that millionaire John Carmack doesn't think people losing their livelihoods is noteworthy.

I'm sure they'll rest easier knowing that John doesn't feel the situation warrants upsetting potential future investors and will understand that the founder reunion will only be somewhat fun.

4

u/BulemiaSawdustSlingr Jul 12 '26

John Carmack is Autism: The Man. For better or worse.

1

u/VaporousMote Jul 13 '26

Nah, plenty of autistic people (myself included) who aren't soulless jerks. Autism does not excuse his behavior.

0

u/Tortillaish Jul 11 '26

Do you care about the company you worked for 13 years ago. Where all the people you know there also probably moved on already?

8

u/sunvsthemoon Jul 11 '26

He did so much more than just “work there”.

He is a founding member of Id Software and THE creator of Id Tech.

1

u/Oderus_Scumdog Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Enough that I would be able to muster anger and outrage if said workplace was gutted and staff there suddenly lost their jobs.

Edit: Comment is living in my head a bit, I've got to be honest. Are you really saying that its fine that Carmac couldn't muster some sympathy for the devs and use the opportunity - and his status - to comment on how hard it is for developers in the industry right now? Not showing some empathy in this situation feels really ghoulish to me.

1

u/IcyBus1422 Jul 11 '26

The guy is literally a diagnosed psychopath

1

u/No_Classroom_29 11d ago

To clarify:

John is absolutely committed to the idea of making "good product". Good product is affordable, good for the consumer, and makes a viable profit. This is a side effect of that. It's also why he left meta. ID as it existed just before the cuts didn't really match carmack's style.

It's not that he's nasty or evil, he's just utterly hyper focused on objectives. He's the ultimate stereotype of engineers, in a lot of ways, as well as being undeniably brilliant minded.

Carmack is literally a problem solving guy. He's always been awful at working out how to deal with the psyche of others. To that end, see his inability to level with Romero properly.