TheEyeOfStone

I was 12, on a Packard Bell 368x SX IBM clone. I couldn't tell you what the specs were, and at this point I don't even want to know. This was still well within the pre-Pentium era. My first copy of the shareware version was a 5x7" floppy disc. My first copy of the first full commercial release was on four 3x5" floppy discs. DOOM II was the first CD-ROM game I ever owned.

I voted for DOOM II. Overall, I feel the levels were better in DOOM, though there were plenty of awesome levels in DOOM II. But I went with DOOM II because I also feel that without all the different and new monster species that DOOM II adds, that DOOM would have had far less staying power for all these years than it has had. I say less staying power, I do not say none, but I feel that the monsters added by DOOM II really brings id Software's original idea to its full fruition.

I ban the person above me because replying to threads like these is a cheap way for me to bloat my content count.

A couple books, a bowl and an incense burner.

No matter how hard Hell tries, no matter how many demons they breed or humans they slaughter, DOOMGUY keeps on thwarting them. No matter how bad Hell gets, DOOMGUY (That is to say, us) are always much, much worse. I would not describe either DOOMGUY or myself while I'm playing DOOM as a good guy. Cause when I'm playing DOOM I'm the furthest thing from a good guy, I am what we can call a Demon's nightmare. True, it does benefit humanity if we slaughter the demons, and I don't object to that and I don't think DOOMGUY does either. But that includes the UAC, and as long as Hell endures, the UAC will still be there to stir them up yet again. So who's a good guy? Sometimes you gotta fight evil with evil, though evil isn't homogeneous. DOOMGUY believes in what he's doing, just like Sergeant Barnes did. It's about strength, but that's become a four letter word these day, le sigh. As for that officer who got assaulted, who issued what should have been an illegal order to fire on civilians? I'd probably have fragged him.

E1M5 opens with a moat of green slime that goes out from under one wall, across the room and under the other wall. The level has other green slime pits as well. I always interpreted this to mean that UAC was creating or processing slime on an industrial scale. Pretty much the same goes for E2M4. My preteen brain interpreted what I was seeing as industrial / tech base even back then. I got no gothic, medieval vibe from either level. Although, in line with the novelization and the one of the readings during DOOM, the Demons were subverting the bases with their own reality. I saw this as applying a great deal more to Phobos than Deimos, but that's just me. This is almost entirely a matter of interpretation, and interpretations can be very personal. I say almost entirely, because sometimes the developer's intent was obvious and a given interpretation can sometimes be an absurd interpretation. Hell is not a Tech Base, and Plutonia style IS distinct from TNT style.

It took a long time for me to learn to keep moving. It also took a long while to master Cyber Kills, but fortunately I've gotten the hang of both.

A Universal Truth = If a single sentence question requires a single sentence answer, I will answer with one paragraph for each letter of the question.

No purity factor here. Anymore, I'd say 3 or 4, someone else looking at me might well say 1 or 2. - I use Mouselook, and as of last night I am going back to using a Crosshairs. Consider, what's more bad@55? Using something that helps you shoot accurately, (assuming the crosshairs actually does, personal preference) or risking less accuracy? I shoot real firearms in real life. Sure, at 15 or 7 yards or below, it is useful to be able to point shoot and hit the center of mass, but beyond that the idea of not aiming is ridiculous and is almost certain to give rise to bad habits, to say nothing of reduced accuracy. You need to be able to engage and kill the Demons at longer ranges than 15 yards equivalent in the game. I dunno how many DU's that is. I play enough DOOM that not using a crosshairs while I play could damage my program compliance when I'm at the range or God forbid in a self defense incident. DOOM has so many red textures that I prefer a smallish, bright neon Green circle. I focus on the sight and fire when I see a demon centered in it. In real life I favor either a white or Tritium three dot sight OR, lately I have a red fiber optic front sight with a painted white U rear sight, Ball in a bucket, seems to be accurate and quick. So, long story long, that's why I've decided to go back to using the crosshairs. Not very authentic, I suppose. Same goes for mouse look, but again, I don't want to be doing anything which trains the idea that you have to move your body just to move your head to assess a situation. Playing too much DOOM authentically might give you bad ideas about reality, all kinds of bad ideas actually, lol...oh wait...too late. Oops...oh well. - I use GZDOOM and PrBoom+, so not Vanilla or Chocolate or Stawberry DOOM, so I am assuming that would be points off for authenticity right there. - I also mess with the screen resolution and HUD until I get them the way I want them, and I like the PrBoom+ text only HUD, even though I mainly use GZDOOM and its similar full screen HUD. I push myself harder to stay in a fight when my health is just a number, not DOOM guy subjectively seeming to get worse and worse visually. I also like knowing how many DEMONS are left. I will be more likely to engage that nest of Arch Viles if I know that one more push will clear me the level than if I have no idea what's after them. If they're the last five Demons left after I've fought through 1430 Demons, I daresay, I'm entitled to know how far I've come by that point, but I concede that that's not what the guys at id Software originally intended it seems. Again, not really authentic at all. - What else do I do? These are the biggest ones, I think. So yes, as the years have gone on, I have not been above making use of some of the more modern conveniences on offer. Then again, Alien Vendetta or Bloodstain on UV are not DOOM II, or Final DOOM for that matter. The community has stepped up the difficulty a great deal. So is using a crosshairs and mouse look to aid your accuracy and situational awareness when you are becoming surrounded by a telehorde in an open area with no cover the same thing as typing IDDQD? I would say it is not, but that is just my opinion. I am sure some people want to make the game AS HARD AS POSSIBLE for themselves. Others probably don't consider just playing with the classic controls to be "making the game as hard as possible". I am sure some people just see playing authentically as playing authentically. For me, I always play on UV, so selecting how sadistically I want to treat myself is all about deciding which Megawad I'm gonna play next. The selection of a Megawad and its characteristics IS my difficulty selection. That is also a very inauthentic way to go about this, but I am a better player for it.

St. Louis, Missouri.

Completed the survey and would be curious to see which trends the data reveals!

the meaning of life = does not compute "Meaning", is a very troublesome word. The meaning of life, if there is one, is certainly not a computation, so I certainly can't discuss it in a way that is going to be equally useful to everyone who might be curious. And, I am skeptical of anyone who says that they can.

A flux of the people involved and various levels of internal strife have jointly been responsible for some of our favorite films, games and franchises. Of course, the team has to stay together long enough to get the final product made, so if drama kills the project, then it's not a good thing. I am sure that sometimes the people involved and the finished product would have been better without internal strife. Indeed many times it did prove to be a disaster when someone left a project or a company. But honestly, how many of our treasured franchises were born and forged in crucibles of internal strife and witnessed a flux of the people involved? The answer is; A great many of them. They had to figure out exactly how to make TRON as they were doing it. The production of A L I E N was riddled with technical issues and interpersonal tensions. Yes, John Carmack and John Romero ended up parting ways during the production of Quake, was it worth it? Opinions on this will vary. I say it was. As for olde skool id Software, there are only so many hit singles and good albums that any given rock band can make. It's not like it would have lasted forever or all have been perfectly okay absent some kind of CURSE! As a fan, a gamer, and a consumer, I gotta ask myself, what really matters more to me? Having something like Quake and DOOM and all the things they inspired, or knowing that somewhere in Silicon Valley or Hollywood, John Carmack and John Romero are still besties sipping tea and noshing scones? I mean, I never wish anybody or their friendships ill, on the contrary, but they don't go into work to be buddies, they go into work to make us kick ass games. And so they have. If they got sick of each other eventually, that's probably inevitable and might have had as much to do with ego as any legitimate work related issues that may have come up. So, the creative process may regularly give rise to "curses" that cost some creators their friendships or make things awkward or difficult between them for a while, but more often than not that's a blessing for us because they still release a kick ass product. Of course there are exceptions. There's all kinds of films and games I would like to have seen or played that died in development Hell, and I consider us to have missed out as a result. But I think that more often than not, when things get messed up in production, if the finished result survives the process, it's brilliant as a result. Just to offer some context, we're talking about the possibility of a curse hovering over the production of a franchise of computer games where the basic idea is that you go into Hell, alone, to kill and to survive. The End. That's the whole point of the game. And having done it once, we are all still doing it again, again and again. If that's not a curse I don't know what is, but that's DOOM, that's what we do. And since we all seem to enjoy it so much, isn't some vague ironic curse hanging over all of us a good thing? No matter how long this goes on we keep coming back to play DOOM games which are marketed to us. And a great many people, a few of them are here on this Forum, even make their own versions of the game for everybody to play. So if it's true that for us as the gamers, playing DOOM is a state of being in which you are consigned to eternally battle an infinitely regenerating horde of relentless Demons, why shouldn't the production of these games and the people who made them also be cursed? They created the curse. Honestly, how could DOOM be what it is if there wasn't some kinda grim dark aura here? I don't think the Masters of olde skool id Software are ruined and miserable, as far as I know they've all been doing well enough and, generally speaking, are all prosperous and still doing the things they love to do. And I sure do hope that those of us who are still playing this game, some of us literally since 1994, are all, on the whole, happy and well. At the very least, it seems that we all DO want to keep playing this game. I know I still want as much as I can make time for. What is a cursed production or franchise? What is a curse? I understand the definition you've linked to, but I am speaking epistemically here. Maybe as far as DOOM is concerned, it is self evident that a curse is a desirable thing. Maybe by continuing to play, we all therefore share the justified belief that it is a curse which has had the effect of keeping this going for us.

So, out of an interest in hearing more about your opinions, I'm curious about the above quoted statement. Unless I've misunderstood, you seem to be implying that DOOM II MAP 29 The Living End is "better" because it does not include tightrope walking. Far be it from me to imply that harder is ALWAYS better. That being said, I am curious, why do you feel that tightrope walking is not a relevant or rewarding challenge to overcome? I kinda like it. While I'm trying to keep my balance on those knife edge walkways, especially when there's Cacodemons or Lost Souls about, between what I'm seeing on screen and how I'm forced to control my finger work on the mouse and keyboard, those narrow tightropes kinda feel like I'm being strangled. It's like I'm in a very hands on fight with the level itself, like the whole situation is trying to kill me. I feel that Mr. Petersen really felt the motivation with this level, and bothered to get creative about getting in between me and that final switch pull. Say what you will about The Chasm, it's not typical, it's a curve ball of a level. I like being required to defeat challenges outside of the norm now and then. But I guess the tightrope segments of DOOM II MAP24 The Chasm are just merely annoying to some people. We don't all get thrilled by the same things.