This is not acceptable (PCgamer Oblivion soundtrack article)

[CnPx]

The allegations towards the soundtrack author were never proven to be real. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? If anyone can just lie about such horrific things, and journalists will just run with it as if they were true. Then no one is gonna believe the real accusations, where people end up taking their own lives due to the nature of these offences.
The hole article paints the picture that it's true, no questions asked. You are wrong if you buy the deluxe edition which includes the soundtrack. What ever happened to journalistic integrity?

This is why games media is loosing engagement as a hole. Is there no one that checks to make sure these articles are good to go, or does everything that has a flashy headline just get approved? Continue making these types of articles, and this company will struggle to make it through the next 5 years, mark my words. This is yet another stain on the games journalist industry.

Remove this article, and if anyone gets accused of these crimes. Actually make sure there is some form of tangible evidence to support the claims, because you mite be dragging innocent people through the mud. Not just someone's word. This is insulting to all the victims who have gone through these cases.
Stop jumping to conclusions, and writing articles like this. Would you care if the guy removed himself, and then later on it came out it wasn't true?

Things like this are actually sickening, and it begs the question who employs these people? This isn't true journalism. They should be fired at once, before they further damage the reputation of this company.

By choosing not to replace Oblivion Remastered's soundtrack, Bethesda made the allegations against composer Jeremy Soule everyone else's problem

Oblivion's soundtrack is a core part of its identity, but it's also tainted by association.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[neogunhero]

First and foremost, let's try to keep this conversation civilized with a bit of discretion. We tend to not talk about political/taboo (for lack of a better word) topics here.

I'll start off by saying, just because I post on the PCG forums, does not mean that I see the journalism team as untouchable or invulnerable from any wrongdoing. I'm not going to defend them just because I read their site in the case that they are wrong. However, my takeaway from that article is that it is entirely an opinion piece, in no way confirming any allegations or making them seem like actual convicted crimes, and is more of a speculation around the "separate the art from the artist" debate.

The author themselves state that they have an issue with the soundtrack being sold even though they are aware they are just allegation. Moreover, they do not allude to the allegations as actual convicted offences, but they do treat the allegations as the final word in the situation. They treat the allegations as real, and therefore they personally have issue with the soundtrack being sold with profits seemingly going to the composer.

They even go on to acknowledge that most people in this world in fact do not separate the art from the artist, listing Harry Potter as a major example.

While some people may have issue when it comes to things like this, the vast majority of people in this world often overlook or simply don't care that the person who made a product they like are terrible in private. The author of the article is trying to state clearly that it is an issue, and that people need to be more aware of things like this. I do find some trouble with no news coming out of the aftermath of these allegations, so without concrete evidence showing that the composer did do those alleged things, it is hard to be completely against the things he has worked on. The viewpoint of the author seems to be, if these allegations were so bad that you had to completely scrub all info about yourself off the internet, then they must have some truth to them. I can agree with that however, because if you have allegations coming against you that you know are clearly untrue, you most likely wouldn't need to disappear like that.

It's a hard topic to talk about without nuance, but generally I think you misread the tone of the article. Again, not defending PCG or the author, I think it is up to the reader to take away what they believe is the most important part of the article, but at the same time it just seems you may have misunderstood what the author was trying to point at. They aren't calling us terrible people for ignoring the allegations, but instead are trying to say "maybe give it a thought before purchasing". It is entirely your opinion if allegations are enough for you to stop supporting someone, and I do believe in innocent until proven guilty as well, but everyone sees that in different ways.

 

[madprofessor92]

This article is hogwash. No evidence but talks as if it's all true. How about having a shred of proof before opening your mouth. It's sick to think that anyone can drag someone else's name through the mud with no evidence of anything. Games media is a joke. No substance. Just lies and and pandering. Black Myth Wukong is a prime example of gaming journalism dropping the ball and hating just to hate.

 

[Zloth]

There's practically no news there, it's just Wes stating his opinion. That's fine, I like a good opinion piece, but it should it really should be marked as such. It's got a blatant "For me, at least," to signal that, but it's half-way down through the article.

First, this isn't a case of "no evidence." There is some. This isn't just one random person making an accusation out of the blue.

That said, I would disagree with Wes as well. Some evidence just isn't enough, at least when it's something like game music. You've got to have pretty strong evidence before you can start taking actions like boycotts. When you start ostracizing people based on weaker evidence, it encourages people to frame others, and you'll find yourself punishing a whole lot of innocent people.

Conversely, we also don't know that the accusations are false, and thus if one of Soule's accusers makes a game soundtrack, I'll consider buying that as well.

Is this a cop out? NO! This is how you must act when you aren't confident of the truth. It sucks compared to having the evidence to be confident, but that's where we are.

Does Soule get royalties from his work on Oblivion, or from sales of Oblivion Remastered?

Assuming he didn't just get a lump sum for it, he had better. If he got convicted of a crime, the rights might transfer elsewhere as part of the punishment, or they could be part of a settlement, but they sure don't vanish just because somebody got accused of something!

 

[Zed Clampet]

There's practically no news there, it's just Wes stating his opinion. That's fine, I like a good opinion piece, but it should it really should be marked as such. It's got a blatant "For me, at least," to signal that, but it's half-way down through the article.

First, this isn't a case of "no evidence." There is some. This isn't just one random person making an accusation out of the blue.

That said, I would disagree with Wes as well. Some evidence just isn't enough, at least when it's something like game music. You've got to have pretty strong evidence before you can start taking actions like boycotts. When you start ostracizing people based on weaker evidence, it encourages people to frame others, and you'll find yourself punishing a whole lot of innocent people.

Conversely, we also don't know that the accusations are false, and thus if one of Soule's accusers makes a game soundtrack, I'll consider buying that as well.

Is this a cop out? NO! This is how you must act when you aren't confident of the truth. It sucks compared to having the evidence to be confident, but that's where we are.


Assuming he didn't just get a lump sum for it, he had better. If he got convicted of a crime, the rights might transfer elsewhere as part of the punishment, or they could be part of a settlement, but they sure don't vanish just because somebody got accused of something!

Be careful. I've already been warned by the bosses (not the mods) on this before. He's guilty because she said he was. End of story.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Even in cases where it is proven its up to each individual to decide whether they want to separate the work from the artist.

Both Fraser Brown who wrote the original article linked in this one and Wes Fenlon have been around the industry a long time, and its possible things are known behind the scenes that they may have to be careful about stating legally, also to protect people who dont want the publicity and hassle. So maybe theres more evidence than has been published. I dont know this, just speculating.

That being said, if thats the case it may be better to just not publish the article. then again it got people reacting to it on both sides, so probably mission accomplished.