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Memfis

How to promote classic Doom?

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Let's say I want to convert some people to Doom. What are my options? Should I start streaming and try to become popular? Make topics on random gaming forums? Create a dedicated blog? What if I want to target a specific region, for example Uruguay, which probably has, like, no doomers at all? Are adults who are nostalgic about the game my only hope?

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I wouldn't say nostalgia is your only hope. Take my wife for example. She hated doom thought it was cheesy. So I found brutal as a good entry (because of the modern features as compared to doom) after finishing that I had her try doom 2 vanilla. She got through it but didn't like it much because of the lack a feeling in the weapons. Though she did finish it on her own without needing to be pushed into it. I have yet to get anyone who didn't play it as a kid to like or LOVE it. Most people hate the lack of freelook and jumping/crouching.

 

It is MY opinion that a high resolution texture pack and a weapon "oomph" mod minus the jumping and crouching would do the trick. I can't think of a way to make vanilla interesting to a world of COD/BF1 lovers.

 

As for blogging and streaming, I couldn't say much as I don't really watch streams or read blogs.

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Don't you think it would be great to have more mappers, speedrunners, playtesters, musicians, graphic artists? Or simply people with things to say?

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Play it in (G/Q)ZDoom or Zandronum and it is more like a modern game, except that there are so many more maps and mods to play than any modern game to hope to have, and more are still being made.

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3 minutes ago, Memfis said:

Don't you think it would be great to have more mappers, speedrunners, playtesters, musicians, graphic artists? Or simply people with things to say?

That is a very good point. I just met a really good guitarist with LOTS of equipment. We are probably going to to remake some doom music. Just because they do not like doom doesn't mean the do not have something to contribute.

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You like it or you don't.

If somebody has no notion of what unique joy "classic" Doom provides than something else(another game) may be more appropriate.

Just expose more people to the things you like on a channel on yoootube... the rest takes care of itself.

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From what I've seen, there are a good number of young people here on DW, might be interesting to hear from them. Although I don't have a ton of interest in playing them myself, I think Brutal Doom as well as meme-y projects (InstaDoom, Tim Allen Doom, Seinfeld Doom, unfortunately TrumpDoom) that get news coverage are probably important to advertise that Doom is still a relevant thing. Could be nice to have a "Doom ambassador of the year" Cacoward for a person or project that helped bring attention and people to the community in some outstanding way.

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I'm not sure whether the type of people who need to be persuaded that Doom is good are the type of people who will contribute much to this community. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but most of the time those are people who stumbled onto Doom or remembered it from their childhood and rekindled the spark.

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As much as I hate to say this, and I really don't want to give this mod any press, but you could definitely use Br*tal Doom as an entry level introduction if the base game doesn't do it for them.  It's practically a normie mod at this point, and when they inevitably get bored of it, you can show them some of the more unique mods.  Guncaster, Russian Overkill, Hunters Moon... Hell, show them Golden Souls.

 

And if that doesn't work, they're filthy casuals and don't deserve your respect.

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First thing you should know: an adult old people likes Doom not because it was released when those people were young. They likes Doom because it is A GAME. You should think about words "video" and "game".

 

Teens plays classic Doom today, because it's a action-shooter game with outstanding (sic!) graphics (due to realistic looking sprites; no ugly 3D models, thanks to JC).

 

Present Doom as GAME and you will have no problems with it. But please remember, if people which you want to "convert" doesn't like First Person Shooters...it would be a problem, lol.

 

P.S.: Create a Doom Clan. You mentioned Uruguay - create the Uruguay Clan. Play with people online. And possibly those guys and girls will attract more people into this. The Domino Principle. And you'll get fresh blood for the Doom community in a whole.

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I think streaming, youtube videos, speedruns, flashy new mods, and stuff like that are good ways to bring people into Doom. I'm a nostalgic adult, long considered it my favorite game, played through Doom and Doom 2 every now and then, but never really got into the community. I've always needed some creative outlet as well. In retrospect it's kinda weird how long it took me to realize that Doom was a great hobby for me. It was a combination of Doom streams on Twitch, the release of Tech Gone Bad, and my waning interest in Mario Maker that finally made me realize. I'm sure there are many others out there like me.

 

Clearly, there are also young people without nostalgia who are drawn to it for various reasons. Maybe because it's cheap and runs on old computers? There's lots of free, quality content. It's easy to mod and there's a big enough audience that someone will play your mod even if it's not great, probably.

 

The community just needs to keep on doing what it's doing, and people will come.

 

To target a specific audience like Uruguay, perhaps a forum in the native language? Or maybe make content like Youtube videos with titles/descriptions in specific languages.

 

I also think classic Doom is under-represented on Reddit. r/Doom is mostly New Doom, but there's a convenient way to filter posts to just see Classic Doom posts, so all it really needs is more people posting classic Doom stuff on there.

 

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Me : "We should try playing classic doom sometime later"

Others : "Ew, want me to play that old ass game, what do you think I am ?"

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What kind of "brought me back" into Doom is the expansive modability. Just the idea that you can craft any sort levels you like, just by dragging some lines around and adjusting the sector's vertical space is something that is fairly exclusive to Doom (and Duke 3D, but it doesn't have the same workflow).

I think most people are familiar with classic Doom in some way, so promoting it from a mod standpoint might just work (if they're into that, obviously).

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i'd beg to say the opposite, start with showing them PWADs, best to start them in vanilla and if that doesn't work, slowly work your way up the alteration ladder until it reaches a point of enjoyability

 

if not? oh well, different strokes for different folks

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Tell them Doom is the very first Call of Duty game, but it takes place in the future from all other CoD titles.

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The problem with vanilla Doom is that it is judged by the graphics today, when in fact it is many years old. 

If the potential player takes the graphics too seriously, then not even the whole Doom gameplay of the world will change that image in his mind.

But if we could make someone play it and ignore graphics, then there is a greater chance of that someone staying. That's essentially how I got into Doom, via Doom1. I laughed at the visuals at first, but I knew that this game from another time was something special, so I kept playing out of curiosity...

 

For an example, I once played some stupid card game with my younger sister, but we had a bet. If she won, I would do her a favor. If I won, she would play E1M1 (yes, I am that evil!!!). Anyways, she forgot to take into account my extreme luck (it comes and goes, but when it arrives it can be a streak of lucky events), so I won and she had to play. I taught her pretty quickly the buttons (WASD, horizontal mouselook and E for use, in ZDoom) and she finished the map with ease. She didn't hate it or anything, but she never played again, because she is not that much into games and that is perfectly fine (last time she played anything must have been CoD 4 multiplayer or AC2).

 

Another example is when I kept telling to my friends with every chance I got about Doom (usually in talks about our favourite games or good games in general). They didn't try it out, but later, when Doom 2016 came out and a friend of mine finished it 2 or 3 times, he then played E1M1. Unfortunately, he got stuck! I told him to change the Use button if needed and then he found his way again. At a later time, he comes to me and he says: "Hey, I beat Doom 1."

I explained to him he had beaten just the first episode and there were 2 more episodes waiting (mentioning Thy Flesh Consumed to a beginner in Doom is like putting a curse on him imo, so I omitted it). He probably got bored and didn't play the rest, but still, he tried the whole first episode, which was a pleasant surprise!

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2 hours ago, dmg_64 said:

Me : "We should try playing classic doom sometime later"

Others : "Ew, want me to play that old ass game, what do you think I am ?"

 

Doom, like tabletop RPGs, is a niche interest. You don't try to convince or persuade somebody to get involved with it, you suggest it to them because you have reason to think it might appeal to them.

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Come to think of it, my wife only played because she felt like it was her duty to play my maps/mod(we always take part in each others interests). She had a reason for appeal.

 

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The game is +20 years old, Of course people will wonder why the hell you still play it especially if they don't know about source ports and pwads. 

 

I think what would resurge the game the most would be ID doing some kind of remaster like a lot of games have been getting lately. 

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4 hours ago, DemonusDefunctus said:

brutal

 

Why does everyone use this as an "Entry" into the Doom community?

 

4 hours ago, DemonusDefunctus said:

high resolution texture pack

 

And this too.

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Because in this day and age, it more than reasonable if you wish for people to get 'into' doom classic. People are spoiled and don't know what makes a game truly enjoyable. Some of us who love doom wish others could share in our joy(hence the OP). Their is nothing wrong with that no matter how much you 'don't like Brutal Doom ANYMORE'. On top of that their are plenty of people who do not even know about doom modding. They find out they they can do what they want with it, then they go for it. Considering how accessible doom modding is, It is not difficult to see how once informed about it, one could get into it. As said before, the modern features are what make it such a worthy entry into doom modding due to its display of capabilities. People will tout Russian Overkill or Beautiful Doom and a better foray to the "new" user, but it would still appear to be doom as it was. Russian Overkill would come off as a short lived joke and Beautiful doom as just a unsuccessful attempt at re-doing doom. Again this is to the NEW user. I think they are great but I did play doom as a child at the age of 6 or 7 and have a true comparison to make.

 

Also as mentioned earlier in this thread, a lot of games are getting reboots. Think DOOM 2016. It has much of the ''Brutalized" things/concepts that BD showcases. This makes a great first impression into classic doom modding. While it is not the favorite choice of many (including myself), it is compatible with the newcomer. I would rather have shown High Noon Drifter, PRODOOMER, RO, Skulldash but it would not have been appealing to my wife....at least not at first. Some of the aforementioned mods are barely doom anymore... but non of the fans are complaining because it is fun.

 

You do not have to like Sgt Mark or his mod(I don't care much for him either), but he DID make on of the most conceptually adaptive mods of doom for the new doom player. It is what it is and we all have to deal with it. BD brought my wife and me closer and no forum member is going to diminish that. 

 

Sorry for my windy response but I grow tired of the insults to a mod I have quite enjoyed and still do. Obviously, feel free to rebut, I welcome the debate.

 

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Perhaps things like Minor Sprite Fix, Smooth Doom combined with Droplets and SpriteShadow would be a good starter map set instead of a mod that has controversy and/or stigma behind it.

 

I say this as being an ex-BD user myself.

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I would not bother pestering people to try games unless you're already sharing common interests to begin with, and I can't speak from experience too much about other ways because the games I feel like I've made some positive impact on are more obscure ones than Doom, which most people who are into gaming very much are probably aware of on some level.  I mostly just run my site, work on projects, and from time to time announce stuff relating to those projects on relevant boards.  Hyping things up is just a good way to get people to respond with "it sucks actually".

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for what it's worth, i, personally, got back into Doom (i had played the game as a toddler, but never with mods, so my re-discovery of the game began in 2008) thanks to the Doomsday engine, 3D models, and hi-res textures, which also led me to discover Heretic and Hexen shortly thereafter. then i discovered the power of GZDoom mapsets, such as JudgeSpear's X-Mas Nightmare remake, of all things, as well as various old weapon mods from wildweasel. i got my friend all head over heels when i showed him the then latest trailer of Brutal Doom, which completely captivated him, and another friend of mine discovered Doom for the same reason, more or less.

 

if you absolutely want your friends and colleagues to get why Doom is such a big deal, show them the big ones. hi-res models and textures, Brutal Doom, GZDoom mapsets like Winter's Fury and Ultimate Torment 'n Torture, other weapon mods like Demonsteele, Russian Overkill and GMOTA. these things are what sold me on Doom, and made me greatly appreciate how far the capabilities of modding and customizing the game had gone to. i then went down the barrel and played lots of weapon mods and classic mapsets, like Memento Mori, Requiem, The Darkening, Icarus etc.. that's what people would flock to and get intrigued by.

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8 hours ago, dmg_64 said:

Me : "We should try playing classic doom sometime later"

Others : "Ew, want me to play that old ass game, what do you think I am ?"

Me: You guys should check out Doom, it's a legendary first person shooter where you fight demons with shotguns and chainsaws.

 

Others: The graphics suck!

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8 hours ago, Glaice said:

Perhaps things like Minor Sprite Fix, Smooth Doom combined with Droplets and SpriteShadow would be a good starter map set instead of a mod that has controversy and/or stigma behind it.

 

I say this as being an ex-BD user myself.

 

Pretty much sum up and also to supplement my previous rant(sorry Glaice...had a few last night..Mon=Sat in my work life). My admiration forBD aside, Brutal Doom is maybe not the best way to introduce someone to the world of Doom modding as it does not accurately represent most other mods. There is a high likelihood that they will play BD and become tired of doom after beating it(like I did with CoD:AW). Unless they also discover PB, they will find little else to suit their interest and it my wane an a result. If they do not appreciate and love the other, MORE true to Doom mods, then you just end up with a BD purist...which..no.

I have played smooth doom a bit and it does lack a bit of that oomph kind of feedback that I (and others) find so satisfying when firing weapons. That is not to diminish its value though as I did find it VERY fun even after playing BD. Kudos to the guy who put in all that work. I do need to look up Minor Sprite Fix...never heard of that before now.

 

Maybe taking the best of what the community has to offer(in your own opinions) and keeping our own kinds of 'starter packs' to have ready for the rare opportunity to share the joys of doom. I have been working on a weapon "POWERIZER" and an SG-1 weapons pack for my wife so we can go though id games archive together.

 

EDIT: I don't know how I forgot about Beautiful Doom. The action is greatly increased with that mod while still being doom. I am going to have the wife try it today.

Edited by DemonusDefunctus

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10 hours ago, Marnetstapler said:

Doom, like tabletop RPGs, is a niche interest. You don't try to convince or persuade somebody to get involved with it, you suggest it to them because you have reason to think it might appeal to them.

Yeah, basically it's very similar. That's also what I got if I promote strategy board games. People just will look for many types of excuses to deny this, so there's no way to actually promote Classic Doom. If someone is interested in it, he/she will, but if not, usually you can do nothing about it.

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I mostly share my screenshots from various maps/mods on my private facebook account or in groups. Some non doomers admire it. My entry to doom community was gzdoom, bd and aquarius199 channel with all those bad wads. These days I rarely play bd, but I still play maps on gzdoom and watch that channel. 

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You can't. It's too edgy for the normies. Even though retro gaming is the wave now, it's not a platformer so people don't care. They just associate Doom with school shootings and gothic metal kids they went to high school with that always played hackysack in the cafeteria. 

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