This article was compiled by Mattrim Dixon in cooperation with Doomworld.

First, the cast of characters:

Ola Björling

• Texture author extraordinaire, having contributed textures for projects such as The Darkening Episodes 1 & 2, Gothic DM 2, the currently unreleased Mordeth Episode 3, and Overload DM.
• DOOM(2) level author, responsible for wonders like Tantrum, Tantrum 2, Venom, and co-author of Overload DM, The Talosian Incident (MAP08) and The Darkening Episode 2.

Deathmatch level designer responsible for AmberX1. Contributed several levels to Gothic DM, Gothic DM 2, and Gothic99.
• Level reviewer for Doomster, and regular contributor of rare levels to Ricrob's Place.
• Self-proclaimed 'WAD historian' and level playtester.

• Webmaster of Doomster, a DOOM level review site.
• Released several levels, including UACCorp, Crestfal, INMCorp and SM.
• Worked with a variety of DOOM projects, including Beyond Doom, Mordeth Episode 2, Ninja Doom, Overload, Surge and Gothic99.

• Hired by id Software to work on the much ignored add-on pack "Doom2: The Master Levels". Did four of the 22 maps featured, namely We Who Are About To Die (arena.wad), The Express Elevator To Hell (teeth.wad), Mephisto's Mausoleum (mephisto.wad) and Black Tower (blacktwr.wad).
• Created the Cabal series of seven stand-alone single-player maps.
• Helped England's Channel 4 put together a map for their Bad Influence show, featuring the show's presenters as cacodemons and pain-elementals.
• Additional design credit for DETH, the premiere tool for Doom-engine map-building.
• Released the single-player/deathmatch map "Deadlock" for Hexen.
• Made 600+ textures and three maps for Eternal DOOM.
• Did three and three-quarters maps for Xatrix Entertainment's Redneck Rampage (Junkyard, Smelting Plant and Uranium Mines, plus some of Beaudry's Mansion and the deathmatch map Kiln).
• Contributed various pieces of map to Ion Storm's Daikatana.
• Currently lead designer and mapper on Third Law's upcoming game, KISS Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child (seven single-player maps in the game (Bad Streets (2), Earthrift (1), Wastewharf (3), and Gloomvale (1)).

• Spawned The New Breed, a DOOM mod with with serious new weapons (dual Apache chainguns).
• Worked for Banjo Software on the commercial DOOM add-on, HacX, doing textures, sprites, sounds, and coding for a few items, as well as three very large and complex maps (map03, map16, and map17).
• Created ROKS, a one level project that included a few weapon modifications, looping ambient sounds, and a very incredible DM only map designed for 8-12 players using the GothicDM texture set.
• Also worked on a DM only port of New Breed called Breed DM, and ROKS Rocket Arena.
• MIDI author, responsible for fourteen songs for Gothic DM 2 and six songs for Gothic99.
• Also wrote twenty professional tracks for QDOOM, a translation of Quake into DOOM. A compact disc of the QDOOM soundtrack is available.

• Longtime DOOM player, level playtester, and part-time level designer. Visit Ricrob's Place for a huge list of some of the best levels ever made for the games Doom and Doom2, reviews, and a section of tools and tutorials. Has worked with a bunch of people in the community on their levels.

• id Software co-founder, founder of Ion Storm, and DOOM(2) co-creater and co-author. John Romero's Ion Storm recently finished and recently the long-awaited Daikatana.

• Founder and webmaster for Doomworld, the wonderful site on which you are now reading this.
• Level designer and writer for the Army of Darkness Doom TC.
• Level designer for Gothic99.

Will the recently announced DOOM3 break the classic DOOM franchise?

Ola Björling:

Both yes and no. It will not be another DOOM to us that have stayed with the original game throughout the years, but it won't "break" anything. I think it'll get a new group of followers. When Quake came only a handful of the successful DOOM mappers made a name for themselves with the new game and that will probably go on. DOOM is DOOM and this DOOM 3 thing will be a brand new game with some resemblance to the old games only in its name and perhaps some weapons/foes.

By resurrecting the DOOM series, id has some very powerful expectations to live up to. Remember, DOOM was the game that initially launched id Software into the spotlight, propelling them from being an upstart company to being the 'messiah' of first-person shooters. To try to re-capture the magic of their most successful game is...dangerous.

I hope all goes well.

I think it will, but I don't think it will do anymore damage than the mud-throwing going on right now in the doom community. The break will come out positive in the end I am sure. What makes me a bit mad is how bad doomers are threatened by gamers from newer games... It is a pity.

I think as long as people keep recycling their PCs the answer to that is no. Even the though the number of owners of cutting edge PCs keeps growing, there is always going to be need for quality, in-depth entertainment for the proven systems, and Doom is it. The original Doom runs just fine on the larger part of the world's active PCs. The next Doom won't. Community is largely driven by creativity and an active imagination, not a fat PC or the 0.5D added after the original.

I don't think so. id has a worldwide following from just the DOOM shareware released long ago, and I can't remember any other announcement of a game that hasn't even started production to cause such an uproar of interest. Some people love the idea, some people hate the idea. Either way, everyone is talking about it.

I think the old Doom "franchise" will die out on its own in time. It's dying as we speak. However, yes..with the release of Doom3, this will obviously help to kill out what fragments are left of the old school.

I'm hoping it will cap it off nicely, not "break" it.

I don't think that the new Doom game will break the "franchise" because no such thing exists. The concept of "Doom" is not exactly a big business in and of itself, unlike, for instance, the Star Wars name, or to strike a little closer to home, the Duke Nukem or Tomb Raider franchises. Doom and Doom 2 are really the only "official" Doom games, not counting Final Doom and Doom64, both of which aren't really considered part of Doom gospel. id Software hasn't commercialized and serialized the Doom universe to nearly as great of an extent as many other companies with other licenses.