The curse of Doom

Doom accounts for like 80% of my time spent with video game related things, if not more lol

I haven't actually played that many different Doom wads, to be honest, but I nonetheless have easily spent more time playing Doom than any other game I've known, which has been true since roughly 2004 or so.  The only game/modding scene that would come close for me is Commander Keen, and oddly enough I've probably played through more Keen mods, more religiously, than I have Doom wads; my vast amounts of Doom time are more a function of how much time I've spent working on maps, or playing a selection of my most favorite maps and mapsets that I never seem to get tired of.

I dunno, I guess I found all the games I really wanted to get into by age 13 and decided to just dig deep into them for the rest of my life.  Doom (and Keen) have enough usermade content to keep me busy forever and tbh it's probably a great way to save money since I'm perennially uninterested in playing new games of any kind

I played shareware Doom as a kid in the 90s, but I never got around to buying all the games and playing through them until last summer (I know, I know, it was a long gap.)  I started playing wads in August and I haven't played much else since.  I'm sure I'll play other games again eventually, but uh, I got like 27 years of Doom content to catch up on and there's more good stuff every day.

There's just something cathartic about good wads.  Having that general pool of commonly understood enemies, weapons, and keys but being able to iterate on that thousands of ways with different aesthetics and progression and sub-genres is really cool.  Beating a good Doom map makes often feels weirdly fulfilling, either like you just won a game of chess or ran a marathon (or both).

when my hyperfixation switches over to doom, i hyperfixate very hard and for a very long time. it's like...a special sorta hyperfixation for me, where it's a lot more intense than other ones. i think part of it is how active the community is and the ridiculous amount of custom content that there is (and probably cuz i first started playing doom when i was like 11), cuz a lot of the time when i'm hyperfixating on a game the community tends to be a shell of its former self

hopefully i can keep it up so i can finish the map i'm working on, i don't wanna switch over to something else and lose all motivation to work on it ):

I first got into Doom on June 10th, 2020...and every day my life has been all about it.

Don't worry, you'll play lots of other games, and even get into them for long periods of time I'm sure. But you'll be back. They always come back. *queue the thunder*

Besides HROT and Prodeus, I have played nothing but Doom for almost an entire year and been enjoying every minute of it. This is a curse I can get behind, fam.

The sheer amount of custom content for the classic Doom engine games is staggering, and at this point is basically impossible to play in it’s entirety by any one person. Doubly so with the rate new projects are released currently!

 Saying that, after 26 years or so, the novelty has worn off to the point that I’m doing more other stuff than Doom, these days. Enjoy the “curse” while it lasts, and then you’ll discover the real curse. You’re never really finished with Doom, and you’ll always come back eventually, until you’re dead. That 200+ game backlog that somehow built up will loom over you just like mine does to me.

I think it's only natural for Doom to take up so much spare time from someone considering the plethora of wads available, and more coming out on a regular basis, meaning that there's a regular supply of content to be played for a very long time without even thinking of playing something else.

That being said, it can get repetitive sometimes, these last few days I've gotten a bit tired of Doom, Build, Doom, and what a surprise, more Doom afterwards, so the new CG3 hub coming out recently was a nice change of pace for me. And continues to be, as I've decided to play more HL2 mods for some time too.

I'm a game reviewer at Cubed3.com (small site, but that means we love doing what we do, and we are honest) so I've played a shitload of games, but that has turned me into a nitpicker that doesn't easily get excited any more...

...And yet, Doom has never left my PC. This is a masterpiece. One that even many of those who play it don't really understand that it is a masterpiece.

EDIT: I Should add that I'm one of those people who have been there from day one. I've experienced the change in the industry that Doom brought forth.

I bought Ultimate Doom in april of 2020, and have been playing almost exclusively ever since. I have over a hundred games (mostly strategy) spread across various digital libraries, many of which have playtimes in the thousands of hours, yet the presence of so much high-quality fan content and the possibility of creation my own have kept me coming back to an FPS from 1993. Last time I counted, I had somewhere in the region of ~1,500 Doom maps in my collection. I've probably played only a fifth of 'em.

I haven't played anything other than Doom since 1995...

it could be even worser: you may start coding a sourceport...

I don't have much time to play most of my games in Steam, I don't dare play a lot of AAA (most of them are the same thing anyway) or indie or other retro that are on the list to play. Occasionally I play something else, but usually I fire up another WAD or replay an old one. Now I do recordings of replaying some of my favorite WADs I already played many times. I've installed a tool called ManicTime which really tracks how much each application is used. I was curious. Since 3 years I started GZDoom comes at 1182 hours! For comparison, the next games Daggerfall Unity and Borderlands 2 are at about 150hours. And I have a long long time since I last played them.

So definitely, throw me in an abandoned island and give me a computer and Doom with a bunch of WADs and I am done.

no.

I played Doom every few years in my childhood and teens. Got back to it last April and played it almost every day for the rest of the year. Then I got sick of the game and didn't touch it or visit the forums as much for nearly 2 months. Now I am back and have finished 4 wads in about 2 weeks. I expect to stop playing again soon for a couple of weeks if not months when life will inevitably get in the way. This will keep happening. 

I haven't played any other game all this time. I have never been much of a gamer, let alone a skilled one. I'm at a point in life where I want to play just to unwind. I don't have the time to learn a game's mechanics just to be able to enjoy it, nor am I inclined to spend money on buying new games or  upgrading my PC/ console to be able to play the latest releases. 

Doom works just fine for me. Don't have to worry about my specs. Don't have to learn the mechanics of the game. There is an infinite supply of custom content (getting better and better every year) out there. I can just load up and play anytime. If I get bored, I'll just not play for a while, or play stuff with a lot of custom weapons and monsters (like I am doing now with the excellent Rowdy Rudy series).

If you are worried about DooM's curse, then DON'T get delta touch, or you'll find yourself playing DooM at work, on the bus, in the bathroom, before sleeping, after waking up... You'll surely be "Doomed" by it. hahaha I'm so funny (NOT)

But seriously, i don't know what kind of sorcery the developers had put on this game, since it keeps me hooked me up with it almost EVERYDAY from the last 20 years since I first played PSX DooM.

You surely can blame the unlimited amount of maps, mods etc, but it goes beyond that for me. Sometimes, while i'm playing the Ultimate DooM IWAD for the 127th time, I stop and ask myself, "why the heck I'm still playing this thing and killing the same damn things over and over?", just to go back and continue playing. I have lots of games on my backlog, but I always go back to this damn thing.

Maybe the reason of it are the simple game mechanics? The music? The graphics? The fact you easily can mod it as you wish (like some crappy MK3 bone explosions i made lol)? I just want to know.

Now if you excuse me, I'll go back playing Doom, DTWID won't finish it itself you know? :P

The only other game I've played lately is Doom Eternal, which doesn't come anywhere close to the fun I have playing classic Doom/Doom2 etc. Currently on the last few maps of alien vendetta and its the most fun I've had playing games for years.

alas, when I first laid my hands on the BFG edition of Doom 3, thats when the curse started.

I think the last time I touched another game that's not Doom was in mid September last year, so yeah.

Pretty much the only single player game that I play these days is Doom, all my non-Doom gaming is multiplayer. Like others mentioned, it's great to quickly pick up and play, and it's also a great saver of money - rather than keep buying loads of games, I can just download and play endless free custom content for Doom.

While I started playing Doom way back in '99, it was pretty sporadic up until around 2013, which is when I started playing it pretty much non-stop. There are short periods of burn-out, sure, but I rarely play anything non-Doom (or non-retro shooter, at least) these days.

Oh, and... CURSE YOU HIDEOUS DESTRUCTOR I DEFINITELY SPENT LIKE 600 HOURS THERE

Since 1998, i spent more time with classic doom games than any other game, even before having internet access and finding out about custom WADs.

I have gone back to Doom several times when I can't think of anything better to play. That's been the case for most of this year so far and I've been discovering several wads I haven't played through before, so it's good to know Hell will always be there for me to blow up when I'm out of ideas.

Once you start Dooming, you'll be addicted. You've been warned.

Classic Doom is a good game to play while listening to podcasts.

gonna say i play doom so freaking much that when i play a different game i apreciate things like:

story

graphics

art style

characters

gameplay

way way more

Happened to me a few times in the past but I like variety.

Usually some wads wear me out due to the difficulty spikes or unnecessarily long maps, so I have no spare Doom fuel to continue till it's recharged some time later. That's when I try out some games from the same genre or a different one.

For example: January of this year, I played Doom wads strictly & when February hit, I decided to check out some steam games like Catherine, Oniken, Shantae Seven Sirens & Talos Principle.

It was a refreshing experience.

Now I'm playing Shadow Warrior 2 & never had so much fun in a non-Doom game.

Maybe at this moment, you feel the strong urge for Doom but that will change, which also depends on the person.

Before I started seriously getting into Doom I was able to rotate between what, 2-3 games every month? And I felt great about it! But now I can BARELY do that.

Bought Going Under and Caves of Qud recently and I STILL play those half as much as Doom.