Where do you obtain your levels from?

Do you download your levels from the /Idgames or somewhere else?

And do you check the /idgames at a regular date or do you just wait for the /newstuff reviews?

I download levels from Doomworld's unofficial /idgames mirror. The layout and review sections make it nicer than the actual FTP sites. Generally, I download because of word-of-mouth: I see or hear about WADs that sound interesting and decide to go download them. I have no particular "schedule" for it.

Approximately once every month I fire up FileZilla, link to the Archives and update my permanent copy of it in its entirety.

Herculine said:

Approximately once every month I fire up FileZilla, link to the Archives and update my permanent copy of it in its entirety.

Wait, so you keep a copy of THE WHOLE THING on your PC? Isn't that a little extreme? I mean nobody is going to play literally every last level or Pwad. Why not just download the ones you care about?

hardcore_gamer said:

Why not just download the ones you care about?

How do I know whether or not I care about them unless I download them and try them first?

Some people judge WADs according to all that anonymous drivel that gets posted beneath them in the Archives; I am not one of those people. I prefer to take a look for myself and form my own opinion.

I use this list by GreyGhost of doom2 levels on /idgames, playing from oldest to newest, and I'm on June 1996 so far.

From http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/ :)

Herculine said:

Approximately once every month I fire up FileZilla, link to the Archives and update my permanent copy of it in its entirety.

Same here, usually from the German mirror. I also download wads that are posted in these forums but mightn't necessarily find their way into the archives.

Wherever said levels are located.

Also yes.

hardcore_gamer said:
Do you download your levels from the /Idgames or somewhere else?

I don't limit myself to anything but I get most from idgames and try to use it if I can choose between it and something else, but I'll even search elsewhere if there's something wrong with the PWAD at idgames. For example, if someone uploads a '90s WAD but with an altered date stamp or without the original text file.

And do you check the /idgames at a regular date or do you just wait for the /newstuff reviews?

I haven't really been accessing /newstuff directly lately, but I have been checking the Chronicles. I also often get PWADs when checking the DSDA or links to WADs or demo recordings on these forums and occasionally other community sites.

Herculine said:
Some people judge WADs according to all that anonymous drivel that gets posted beneath them in the Archives; I am not one of those people. I prefer to take a look for myself and form my own opinion.

That sounds really pretentious. I mean, yes, there are some stupid comments at the database, but many are intelligent and helpful opinions, some of which are signed or otherwise identifiable. In addition, many other (generally signed) comments appearing on the forums or elsewhere can be useful to determine if a PWAD is worth downloading.

I always play the wad first and only then read the reviews because I don't like spoilers. I don't want to know what I'm going to play, I want to find it out by myself. I also never read movie/anime/book/etc reviews for the same reason and usually I don't even read annotations. I like gambling. :)

helpful opinions, some of which are signed or otherwise identifiable

I wonder who is the guy that starts his reviews with "this is dated ****"". :)

hardcore_gamer said:

Wait, so you keep a copy of THE WHOLE THING on your PC? Isn't that a little extreme? I mean nobody is going to play literally every last level or Pwad. Why not just download the ones you care about?

Your posts always seem to have a very negative or cynical connotation. I do the same thing, (except for the music, graphics and sound replacements) which reminds me, I haven't updated it in a while. I also have various Doom PWAD compilation CDs and can honestly say I've played through about 75% of each CD.

I get my levels mostly from /idgames, as I imagine the vast majority of the community do too. However, I will go looking in other places for WADs as well.

I normally decide what to play based on what I've read online, be it IRC or these forums. I will also say that demo recording activity affects my desire to try out a level significantly, and that I've played and enjoyed many WADs after watching uv-max and speed demos of those WADs.

The other thing I like is to use the random option that the unofficial /idgames web interface has. If my Internet connection didn't strictly limit the amount of bandwidth I could use, I'd also just download the entire archive. Then write myself a program for browsing it and choosing to play things randomly. There's just something about playing something and not knowing what you're going to get that I like.

These days I either download directly from a project thread, or I use the Doomworld /idgames front-end (usually using the Germany mirror). The latter tends to have been linked to by the Doomworld /newstuff centre though, which is where I actually tend to pick .WADs to play from these days (all in the line of reviewing, of course). Just this week I've played and reviewed 10 new .WADs, just picking unreviewed, unlocked ones from the /newstuff centre :)

myk said:
That sounds really pretentious. I mean, yes, there are some stupid comments at the database, but many are intelligent and helpful opinions, some of which are signed or otherwise identifiable. In addition, many other (generally signed) comments appearing on the forums or elsewhere can be useful to determine if a PWAD is worth downloading.

No pretentiousness was intended; just statement of fact. I'll try a WAD myself whether it's called the best thing to ever happen to Doom or steaming vomit. We could argue the integrity of some of those anonymous comments, but I just don't have time for that as I'm certain it would not be productive.

I usually just get the WADs that are posted here in this forum or I just wait for Newstuff reviews.

burning falcons deliver them on my door once a week

Newstuff Reviews or whatever has either 3-5 stars or 0 stars on idGames, just for the lols.

Megamur said:

I download levels from Doomworld's unofficial /idgames mirror.

Doomworld itself doesn't have any mirror. Just a web interface driven by a database that lets you access the main FTP and its official mirrors.

Siggi said:

The other thing I like is to use the random option that the unofficial /idgames web interface has.

There's such a thing? ...Well, I'll be! There is! This could be quite handy. :)

Gez said:

Doomworld itself doesn't have any mirror. Just a web interface driven by a database that lets you access the main FTP and its official mirrors.

Well, that's why I said "unofficial," since I know it's not really a mirror.

I've only got about 20 gigs left on my hard drive. No way I'm downloading the whole archive.

TimeOfDeath said:

I use this list by GreyGhost of doom2 levels on /idgames, playing from oldest to newest, and I'm on June 1996 so far.

Where are the FDAs, then? ;)
The first two dozen you posted two years ago were really great, better than most of the "normal" runs posted by ppl pretending they record for Compet-N.

I stopped recording FDAs for those because it was more fun and easier to play using saves. :) Also sometimes I need to look in doom builder, etc.

"normal" runs posted by ppl pretending they record for Compet-N

Lol, what does that mean? You either record for Compet-n or you don't.

I would guess N_A is trying to claim people are misrepresenting themselves in FDAs by playing in a more serious manner than they actually would if they weren't recording.

I usually get wads from the idgames archive and project threads that interest me.

/idgames used to be really important to me but over the last year or so, most of the projects that I have been interested in have not been on /idgames - at least not at the time I downloaded them. So I just get them from wherever the person who made the mod uploaded them to.