To Bungie’s Narrative Team: You Are Not Alone
Warning! This article contains sensitive content and may cause emotional triggers where relevant
“The darkness found us and that was the end of everything. But it was also the beginning”
This December Rebekah Valentine wrote an excellent article called “The Battle for Bungie’s Soul: Inside the Studio’s Struggle for a Better Work Culture” for IGN looking into the working environment at Bungie Inc.
It would be a lie if I said the fire I had for Bungie as a studio wasn’t in danger of being snuffed out. Whether this was the wind of change or just shock is another question entirely. It did however force me to look deep within myself and examine not just the gaming industry as a whole but to look at myself and how I treat those around me.
The article went on to highlight the problem of working within a toxic studio culture and why this is bad for the well-being of employees. Many sources said, and I quote:
“Writers wouldn’t learn about changes to their work until after voice lines had already been recorded. When people objected, he told them they needed thicker skins.”
Other soundbites included mention of unreasonable working times:
“The narrative team worked 60, 70, 80, even 100 hour weeks during some expansions, frequently with no breaks in between crunch periods.”
and this as well:
“he also regularly made racist remarks, including a lunch where one source recalled him making a number of inappropriate quips about Latin American gangs.”
While these are just some of the challenges facing one section of the entire development team. You can imagine my shock reading on to find quite a lot of struggles that many others had been through. I wrestled, grappled, even prayed after reading, and came face to face with the boldness and courage of these 26 individual people to share what they went through.
After some time I knew it was important to support, encourage and amplify in a way I hoped would be meaningful not just to the Bungie team but also to the angels who came across this article.
Reforging The Light
Earlier this year the CEO of Bungie Pete Parsons issued a statement sharing the studio's desire to root out and overcome toxic work culture. There was also a plethora of new internal studio initiatives created in an effort to offer support and also show recognition of the shortfall.
On December 10th CEO Pete Parsons also issued an apology saying:
First, I want to apologize to anyone who has ever experienced anything less than a safe, fair, and professional working environment at Bungie. I am not here to refute or to challenge the experiences we’re seeing shared today by people who have graced our studio with their time and talent. Our actions or, in some cases, inactions, caused these people pain. I apologize personally and on behalf of everyone at Bungie who I know feels a deep sense of empathy and sadness reading through these accounts. — Pete Parsons
The importance of acknowledging change is foundational not because of company projections or quotas but because you truly care. While this is no easy task for Bungie to embark upon we can certainly hope that more and more changes will come and improve over time.
Personal Note on Racial Abuse or Abusive Language
Bastions of Hope — Narrative Team
If you haven’t had the pleasure of interacting with the kind folks on the Destiny narrative team you are missing out! I have had the opportunity to talk to a few members of the team when citing lore or giving credit where credit is due.
I would like to say thank you to those both gone and new! Destiny stories have helped me personally through the darkest of times when the Light of the Traveler helped to illuminate or aid in warding away the shadow. Your time and efforts don’t go unnoticed and I for one appreciate every tiny minute detail you put into each story you stell.
Without you, it would have been impossible for me to rediscover my passion for storytelling and make the career change into gaming I needed to bring peace and realize my potential. It goes without saying, there would have been no Destiny 2, no writing articles, or publishing lore videos.
We notice when you take your own stories and knit them into the tapestry of the wider Destiny universe and it matters a great deal.
So, thank you!
Moving Forward
Nuanced topics such as studio work schedule and employee behaviour can often be simple or difficult depending on the scale of the workforce and depending on how the higher-ups wish to tackle issues.
Thankfully CEO Pete Parsons has gone into a lot of detail on the progress being made since many of these serious concerns have been raised. My hope is that the reality will be faced and that all those current and ex-employees will receive some kind of “real” show of care and apology for the harm done and support not given. Honouring people is important; there is a Bible quote that says:
“For the Laborer is worthy of hire” — Luke10v7
When an employee or contractor does hard work they should be rewarded and paid well for it and also treated with the same level of respect and honour as they would expect to be treated.
Life can be so difficult and it can often become so easy to end up on the wrong side of things or facing off against others due to negative behaviour or thinking.
But the next time you have a chance to work with or talk to someone, no matter how difficult they are (within reason of course) demonstrate love, hold them accountable and keep moving forward.
To those out there healing from deep wounds…we see you, we hear you and support you when others don’t. You are not forgotten and always loved.
Stay safe and Godspeed!
