For the younger users: O'Donnell used to be the big music guy at Bungie from 1999-2014 (IIRC), most famously composing the soundtrack of the Halo series and Destiny. However, he was suddenly fired 'without cause' in his words a decade ago and Bungie further went out of their way to try to financially screw him over. In hindsight, it's very hard to not assume that he was purged as part of the drive to homogenize politics across gaming studios which was kicking into high gear in the early-to-mid-2010s, as he was (and is) an outspoken conservative.
Well, now he's running for the Republican nomination in NV's 3rd Congressional district. At a glance it seems like a competitive swing district; it was last held by the GOP in 2018, more recently won by non-landslide margins by the Democrat Susie Lee, and presently rated with a Partisan Voting Index of D+1. So probably (hopefully) not insurmountable for O'Donnell if he takes the Republican nomination.
Between this, Sweet Baby Inc. Streisanding itself by trying to suppress that Steam curator, and Maya Kramer re-emerging as a Sweet Baby consultant, it sure feels like I've seen an unusual number of gaming-related blasts from the past in the last few weeks.
Heh, I recently replayed the Halo games and noted just how much O'Donnell's music helped bring the original trilogy and ODST to life. O'Donnell really showed out with the ODST and Halo 3 soundtracks -- those are absolutely epic-tier musical scores. Going from that to Halo 4 where the soundtrack basically was generic nothingness until the final flight segment toward the Composer where the music actually felt like it fit with the series.
It's nice to know that O'Donnell is trying to make a difference in the real world beyond the awesome music he's composed over the years. Bungie is nothing but an ESG husk these days, so even if he did stick around they wouldn't have deserved his talents.
For the younger users: O'Donnell used to be the big music guy at Bungie from 1999-2014 (IIRC), most famously composing the soundtrack of the Halo series and Destiny. However, he was suddenly fired 'without cause' in his words a decade ago and Bungie further went out of their way to try to financially screw him over. In hindsight, it's very hard to not assume that he was purged as part of the drive to homogenize politics across gaming studios which was kicking into high gear in the early-to-mid-2010s, as he was (and is) an outspoken conservative.
Well, now he's running for the Republican nomination in NV's 3rd Congressional district. At a glance it seems like a competitive swing district; it was last held by the GOP in 2018, more recently won by non-landslide margins by the Democrat Susie Lee, and presently rated with a Partisan Voting Index of D+1. So probably (hopefully) not insurmountable for O'Donnell if he takes the Republican nomination.
Between this, Sweet Baby Inc. Streisanding itself by trying to suppress that Steam curator, and Maya Kramer re-emerging as a Sweet Baby consultant, it sure feels like I've seen an unusual number of gaming-related blasts from the past in the last few weeks.
Edit: Also, here's O'Donnell's official campaign website.
Haha thank you! Was gonna ask if he was that dude that was fired mysteriously back in the day
Heh, I recently replayed the Halo games and noted just how much O'Donnell's music helped bring the original trilogy and ODST to life. O'Donnell really showed out with the ODST and Halo 3 soundtracks -- those are absolutely epic-tier musical scores. Going from that to Halo 4 where the soundtrack basically was generic nothingness until the final flight segment toward the Composer where the music actually felt like it fit with the series.
It's nice to know that O'Donnell is trying to make a difference in the real world beyond the awesome music he's composed over the years. Bungie is nothing but an ESG husk these days, so even if he did stick around they wouldn't have deserved his talents.
O'Donnell seems like a great guy. He really stood out to me when watching this Crowbcat video on Halo. I definitely hope he has some success.