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D88M

What does DOOM means?

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So, this is gonna be kind of a strech and bare bones opinion, but i was thinking for a while now, what is the metaphor? What is Doom really about? I think i figured it out, but i could also be totally insane, i will never know for sure until i play both original games and D16 on LSD, but here i go:

I think that Doom is a journey through violence, where we fight our own violent instincts/impulses.

Think about it, zombieman is the same exact model as Doomguy/marines, but "evil", so there is our nemesis right there, the guys with the shotguns are us but with shotguns, and all the other creatures also represent ourselves/the player but in other aspects.

The thing that got me thinking about it is the Spider mastermind design and how it reflects the player (also is not a coincidence that is the final main boss of the first game and the master planner behind it all, not sure about the Icon of Sin symbolism yet):

Is a brain attached to a gun and legs, just like us when we play are our brain attached to the "gun" (the mouse) and the other hand we use to move, is like an evil reflection of us not as a character but as a player through the game, see what i am getting at?

Now i am not so sure about Doom 2 but might be more of the same, with the Earth setting having something to do with a hidden meaning in the game too.

I know it sounds like a crazy, fragmented theory, but hopefully someone will think about it and see what i am saying, is something that i wanted to say to someone for a time now and this seems like the right place.

D16 might be about the same thing, but i have to reflect on it.

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I think you might be reading too much into this, but it can't hurt to share your own interpretation of the game, in any case.

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This video explains well what Doom is, a melting pot of pop culture with a fun gameplay and badass monsters to destroy.

 

 

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@D88M

You may find this video right up your alley, complete with UAC's collapse of morals, Doom 2 being a metaphor for facing one's own demons, understanding how Doom is really just a moral lesson about reforming society, etc.

 

 

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53 minutes ago, Job said:

I think you're just supposed to shoot the bad guys. 

Don't forget about pacifist style gameplay.

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The demons are a metaphor for our inner demons. They represent the things that we struggle with, so we symbolically kill them. Or some similar pretentious horseshit from an armchair internet psychologist shit tier internet columnist. 

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This is a really good thought, but I don't think that the game was actually this philosophical.  On a side note, I have noticed that DOOM actually helps my mental health.

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On 9/6/2018 at 7:18 PM, D88M said:

So, this is gonna be kind of a strech and bare bones opinion, but i was thinking for a while now, what is the metaphor? What is Doom really about? I think i figured it out, but i could also be totally insane, i will never know for sure until i play both original games and D16 on LSD, but here i go:

Nothing wrong with a little self-reflection and a search for meaning. But I can't say that I agree with your conclusions at all.

 

First of all, inner demons are inside - that's why they're called "inner". If I've been fighting demons inside me, I should be one of the most righteous people on Earth at this point. And, damn, I sure had a lot of demons inside me...

 

Doom let's the player assume the role of a hero, who fights evil demons spawned from hell. That's a far cry from fighting myself. With Doom, I choose when to fight, how to fight, what to fight, and, no, I don't relate to the zombiemen, or any other game sprite.

 

I do agree that the world is currently infected with feelings of self-loathing, which, over time, causes many of them to start to lash out at anyone who doesn't feel that way - misery loving company and all. Also, that is not the state of mind you want to be in when deciding to take an acid trip...heh.

 

This *is* just a thought experiment, right? Personally, I exorcise my inner demons by trying to be a good person.

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Robert Frost once said, "That little poem means just what it says and it says what it means, nothing less but nothing more."

 

This is also true for Doom. Carmack, Romero, Petersen and company were not delving deep into psychoanalyses and installing hidden layers of meaning into Doom. They played a lot of D&D and watched a lot of Aliens and other sci-fi movies and came up with a game where you play a Marine who has to single-handedly (or with up to 3 friends) oppose the demonic forces and save humanity. Aquila and Job were right on the money.

 

Anyone who claims that there is intentionally anything more in Doom is the kind of person who sees social commentary in everything. Or, as Doomkid suggested, that person is coming down off a 3 day binge.

 

Or we really are living on the thumbnail of a giant (go watch Animal House if you don't get the reference).

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i mean personally how one can not actually realise that when fighting the spider demon we are actually fighting the shackles of our imagined maternal oppression, that the whole process of the game, buying the game to piss off your parents and then actually finding such a brutality accurate depiction of her at the end of episode 3, with a chaingun, an AUTOMATIC weapon, ceaseless and repeated conflict, and finally hell is defeated.... for me Doom was a obvious depiction of the brutal post freudian nihilism... there is no god, we are simply controlled by our animal instincts, and even the demons of hell can't stop us, they're probably our schoolmates

anyway to me this is obvious, but i think just people exist on different levels, and no true one answer, right or wrong, black or white, egg or yolk, or indeed egg or chicken are correct entirely

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On 9/6/2018 at 5:18 PM, D88M said:

So, this is gonna be kind of a strech and bare bones opinion, but i was thinking for a while now, what is the metaphor? What is Doom really about? I think i figured it out, but i could also be totally insane, i will never know for sure until i play both original games and D16 on LSD, but here i go:

I think that Doom is a journey through violence, where we fight our own violent instincts/impulses.

Think about it, zombieman is the same exact model as Doomguy/marines, but "evil", so there is our nemesis right there, the guys with the shotguns are us but with shotguns, and all the other creatures also represent ourselves/the player but in other aspects.

The thing that got me thinking about it is the Spider mastermind design and how it reflects the player (also is not a coincidence that is the final main boss of the first game and the master planner behind it all, not sure about the Icon of Sin symbolism yet):

Is a brain attached to a gun and legs, just like us when we play are our brain attached to the "gun" (the mouse) and the other hand we use to move, is like an evil reflection of us not as a character but as a player through the game, see what i am getting at?

Now i am not so sure about Doom 2 but might be more of the same, with the Earth setting having something to do with a hidden meaning in the game too.

I know it sounds like a crazy, fragmented theory, but hopefully someone will think about it and see what i am saying, is something that i wanted to say to someone for a time now and this seems like the right place.

D16 might be about the same thing, but i have to reflect on it.

 

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On 9/7/2018 at 4:23 PM, Doomkid said:

This sounds like the type of theory I'd conjure up while I was coming down from a 3 day adderall and weed binge

 

It sounds like the type of theory I'd come up with in 5 minutes when I'm bored. And that seems to be a fundamental difference between you and me.

 

Or between you and a lot of other people (who also aren't Job or Aquila).

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Taken from https://web.archive.org/web/20131028050052/http://www.doomworld.com/interviews/int7.shtml


"John Carmack

 

The man, the myth, the legend: John Carmack. He's considered the greatest programmer of his type in the entire world, and he's stunned the gaming community numerous times with each new 3D engine he's created. We had an opportunity to talk to Carmack about the "good old days" five years ago when he and id Software were in full Doom swing...

 

Doomworld: Who came up with the name "Doom" itself?

 

Carmack: There is a scene in "The Color of Money" where Tom Cruise shows up at a pool hall with a custom pool cue in a case. "What do you have in there?" asks someone. "Doom." replied Cruise with a cocky grin. That, and the resulting carnage, was how I viewed us springing the game on the industry."

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14 hours ago, RaphaelMode said:

It sounds like the type of theory I'd come up with in 5 minutes when I'm bored. And that seems to be a fundamental difference between you and me.

 

onya m8

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