Mr.Walrus

6 comments by Mr.Walrus on Apr 3rd, 2011

Well, as a good many of you probably already know (Yes, this is news from a month ago, so naturally I just got it today), Kelly Bailey appears to have disappeared from Valve. He's made the music for all of the Half Life games and several other Valve projects, developing a pretty large fanbase. His tracks are the embodiment of awesomeness, just like everything else in the Half Life series, and everyone agrees that without him it just wouldnt be the same. He also was the example used to construct the layout of Gordon Freeman's face. And now he's just gone. He's not on their site, Valve isnt saying or answering anything on the subject, and apparently he's been out for over half a year and there's no news from him or anybody else about what he's doing. 

I've searched the web thouroughly and gotten no answers on why he's absent. Was he fired? Did he leave? Did Gabe Newell accidentally sit on him? I think that the theories involving him leaving without having something against Valve or him dying (Definately that one) can be ruled out. If he had left without argument or died, I'm almost certain that Valve would have put up something thanking him for his hard work on their games. But Valve isnt just ignoring the subject, theyre intentioanlly avoiding it; From what I've heard, literally nobody has gotten answers from them. There was apparently also a "last post" from him in Valve's forums, which got deleted. Hmm...

Did Valve fire him? I find that unlikely, as tons of their community simply adore his songs (Me included) and having him gone will likely decrease popularity. I also find it unlikely that he would just suddenly leave, as he's put enormous amounts of effort into the company. The really strange thing is just that neither he nor Valve seem to be saying anything whatsoever- There are no announcements on his new projects or reasons for why he left.

My current theory is that the Gman kidnapped Kelly Bailey, much like Gordon Freeman (They're arguably the same person) and Kelly Freeman will appear a few decades in the future to fight a giant alien race or make a soundtrack for those that do. That, or Valve decided to place him into stasis for defiance or something.

Anyway, the reason I made this post (Other than to gripe about it) was to ask the Moddb community the same questions everyone else is asking. Do any of you guys know why he's gone, or where his next piece of work will appear next? If not, what are your theories and thougts on the matter?

Thanks for reading,

Mr.Walrus