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Doohnibor

WHY are you STILL playing Doom?

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If i am asked what my alltime favourite computergame is i do not have to think a twice. i play doom almost since day one and i still nothing comes close.
(btw: just because i am a newbie here on the forum doesn´t mean i just got my first copy of doom yesterday - i am just not that much into forums ;)

anyhow... between 98 and 01 i worked with two game companies - one of them a major player. during my time there my love for doom caused me quite some huge problems. people there had no understanding why someone who is involved in creating the "newest, greatest and best" stuff would still play this "old game".... (and don´t forget, that was already almost six years ago) whatever i tried.... people did not understand me. or i guess they just did not want to. i mean chess i also old. should people stop playing it just for that reason? ;)

ok, now the question. can you give me a serious reason why you still play doom? (besides "....and yesterday granpa gave me this great 486..." :)

i am really interrested in serious, thoughtful answers.
...curious if other peoples reasons are similar to mine.

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Two things for me; the gameplay and the ease of use (technologically). I just love the cannon fodder AI of the monster, and the fact that thay always act a little differently. That makes the game unpredictable unlike most new games that rely on scripted events and stuff like that.

The technological aspect may seem weird, but I'm really interested in how the enigne works and how I can modify it. It's not like new engines that require you to click on 20 different buttons just to create a proper wall, or write 20 lines of text just to add a texture into the game. Also pretty much everything of the Doom engine is documented or just free to look at (the source code is pretty much free for everyone).

Most new games can be just as much fun as Doom (or other older games), but usually not for long. When I play through maps (either ones from IWADs or user-created ones), I always get the feeling that the maps were created because the author had fun in making them, not just to beef up his ego or to show off.

All of the above make Doom almost timeless to me, and I hope I'll still be playing it for another 10 years from now. Perhaps until I die.

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DOOM has a high reply value, unlike most modern games that have a detailed plot, in DOOM you just go and kill monsters. I like inmersive plots, but after you beat the game, it's not that interesting to replay it. Also, the bosses in DOOM can be reused and reused in mods, instead the bosses of modern games (wich have a plot behind them) just look weird.

Practicaly everyone can create a mod for DOOM, and with all kinds of themes. The monsters and items can be used to create whatever scenario you want (a dark cave, a wood, a medieval castle, a futurist space station, a city, a wild west village, and so on).
Also, add new monsters and weapons is each time easier, you don't need to be a coder, it's just, use your imagination, and the easy to use editors. Of course with some kind of staff you still need to be a coder, but they are minimal.

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DOOM's gameplay is classic and flawless. The graphics and sound fit perfectly with it. If you want a FPS where all you do is slaughter tons of enemies, there's really no alternative. I still have the desire to blow away those ugly freaks .. it's just so satisfying :O

There are still new levels being made today. Even if there weren't, there are hundreds of quality levels out there. Also, with the release of DOOM's source code, there's a whole new reason to stay around - advances in DOOM's graphics and ability to be modified.

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Heh, that's actually a very hard question... I guess it's the gameplay indeed... and the sense that DOOM didn't want to be 'realistic' like all modern games. The gameplay of DOOM is truly unique, evident by the fact that the game still lives after TEN years.

It's hard to say why I still play DOOM, as every part of the game is a reason. The way the monsters are designed, how they act in the game, the sounds thay make; and the level-designs, following many classic themes as the Knee-deep in the Dead tech-base-theme, the half-base half-hell theme of The Shores of Hell, and Inferno's inferno-theme :)

I still play DOOM because it's DOOM. Sounds deep, doesn't it? :P

However, as great a DOOM-fan I may be, it is not my absolute favourite. That titel would undoubtedly be given to C&C: Red Alert.

...although I do play DOOM more often than any other game :)

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I generally like to go back and play old games. I recently got back to playing Battle Chess 4000 - or rather...watch the computer play against itself (I suck at chess), hehehe.

Doom just stands out among the older titles, because...dunno, because it's fun to play.

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Doom is still fun.
Also it isn't always old, as there are still new maps created and engines improved.
Doom is still the first person shooter I play most.

Though, I play much older stuff as well, as they are frequently C64 Boulder Dash (in case you don't know, there is a similar amount of caves and mods for this old game), and the LucasArts adventures which are kept alive with ScummVM.

Good stuff simply won't die.

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Scuba Steve said:

Someone please tell me WHY!!


ain't nothing but a heart-ache?
ain't nothing but a mistake?


OMG BACKSTREET BOYS DOOM!! CONTACT ME ON IRC SCUBA, WE HAVE MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

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Cyb said:

CONTACT ME ON IRC SCUBA, WE HAVE MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

Keep your torrid love affair off the forums

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Scuba Steve said:

I will no longer allow you to suffocate our love Linguica!

That's like asking for moderation abuse.

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Quite simply, the gameplay and atmosphere.

The basic gameplay is really extraordinarily simple; and it's that simplicity which allows the most versatile and varied possibilities within it. A game like baseball, having a fairly rigid set of rules and limitations, tends to be relatively straightforward; while the ancient board game Go, in contrast, has a very small number of rules, which allows it to be extremely complex and different throughout every permutation of play. Doom is the same way: you have a base set of weapons and enemies that can be used in just about any way possible, with the simple objective of killing monsters and completing the level. Later FPS games introduced more plot- and mission-oriented gameplay elements that, while improving other aspects of the game, took away from that fundamental simplicity and made things more linear and less varied. To make a good, long-lasting FPS game, you have to balance the number of features you have with the versatility and simplicity of the game; and I think Doom achieves this perfect balance.

The fact that modding and mapping tools for Doom are so simple simply supports and expands upon this gameplay element. With the "base set" of monsters and weapons, you can combine them with any kind of architecture to achieve almost any effect you desire, with a reasonable amount of time and effort. And its miniscule system requirements allow the very limits of these kinds of gameplay to be explored and broken. If the Doom mapping community weren't still around, I doubt that HR/AV-type gameplay would have surfaced as readily in any other FPS. So, in essence, Doom's key asset is its simplicity, in that it allows for just about any kind of gameplay you can imagine, and lets the community achieve those kinds of gameplay itself by being so simple to modify.

And while Doom is notoriously light on plot, its theme - the invading army of Hellspawn - allows for and creates an atmosphere that I have yet to see fully duplicated to this day. The monsters are designed excellently to fit both the game's atmosphere and the simplicity of its gameplay, while the architecture creates an incredibly ominous sensation. I have yet to come across a FPS with a theme that captivated me as much as Doom's, and I think that's due to several different reasons: Hell is, quite simply, the conceptual epitome of terror, and allows game designers to absolutely run wild with ideas for enemies and architecture. The real clincher, though, is the fact that iD turned the concept of Hell on its head by adding technological elements to its architecture and monsters. Hell's demons are horrifying enough as it is; now, multiply that horror by one rocket launcher and cybernetic leg. I think that's why the Cyberdemon is both so popular and so emblematic of Doom: it epitomizes the game concept so well and so effectively.

I like other FPS games, but Doom has given me hundreds of incredible maps, dozens of different kinds of gameplay that I can't find elsewhere, and a concept that has yet to be matched in its simple effectiveness. More than anything else, though, it's just plain fucking fun.

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Well, I guess the gameplay is a good place to begin. The basic objective is simple, you start at one point, and have to get to another point to finish the level (though in a few levels, the level is finished when you kill a boss). Various scores are given for the optional goals (kills, items, secrets, time), so you can just try to beat the level, or try to REALLY beat it. Also, the gameplay is not interrupted by annoying puzzles, cinematic sequences, or listening to some jerk telling you what to do. The levels stand on their own so that you can jump to whatever one you please and be able to play through it, rather than being linked in a rigid sequence that must be completed. The Nightmare difficulty mode gives you the opportunity to kick the pace up several notches for truly frenetic action, if you like.

Of course, fighting monsters is a very important part of the gameplay. The sprite monsters look good without being overdone or chugging resources. They seem to have just the right balance between grotesque and cartoonish to be fun. Doom's combat has an essence of brute savagery, with monsters relentlessly attacking the player and being slain in large quantities. The enemies are cruelly violent and can be incited to injure and kill their own comrades. They do not simply collapse or spray into nondescript red pieces when they die. Bodies are torn apart, blood and demonic ichor spill, and organs splatter.

The weapons are straightforward and easy to use, yet satisfying. There is no "best" weapon, as they all have situations where they are most useful, yet at the same time are not so specialized as to forbid general purpose use.

The tone of the game is neither silly nor overly realistic. The environments capture the player's interest and are fun to explore and fight in.

The game is relatively easy to modify and allows some useful modifications that you don't generally see in newer games, such as adding custom music. Due to the relative simplicity of the map format, thousands of add-on maps are available, many of which are good enough to be worth playing.

Doom doesn't take an overly large amount of HD space even with a reasonably large collection of add-ons. It doesn't require a lot of RAM and processing power, and doesn't need graphics acceleration at all.

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O GN0! NOT ANOTHER CS PLAYER!
Well. DooM is still a classic. And if you don't like it, you go away, but you don't need to post things like these.

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udderdude said:

If you want a FPS where all you do is slaughter tons of enemies, there's really no alternative.


Except the Serious Sam games, which are the only true modern analog of oldschool Doom. I still prefer Doom, of course, but Serious Sam still has a hell of a lot more frenetic gut-splashing action than most other FPS games these days.

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Because of the weapons and enemies. They're so perfectly balanced it's not even funny.

Most of all though it's the community. Every week there's more levels to play. So many people are modding doom in such unimaginable ways. And these forums are just an all around riot.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot the Nightmare difficulty setting. I dont think I've ever experienced anything like it in any other game. It's not just harder, it changes the way you play the game. Playing a map on nightmare is almost like playing a new map altogether. Unlike other games where a higher difficulty means nothing more than stronger/smarter enemies. Smart enemies in today's games are nice. But they pale in comparison to the art of playing on nightmare.

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My two major reasons for still playing Doom, and considering it one of the top five FPS's I've ever played are:

1. The near (if not completely) perfect weapon and enemy balance. The stats on everything just all feel right and even, especially in Doom2, imo. I can walk into a room, and depending on which monsters are in there, along with the weapons I have, I can determine just about how hard it's going to be and what I'm going to have to do to stay alive.

2. The huge variety of levels. It's no doubt that Doom 1&2 have the largest amount of user-created full level packs available in PC video game history. I am pretty much sick and tired of the original Doom levels, but I can always just download a new set and I'm good for the next few days to a month-- However long it takes for me to complete the game, or get bored of it.

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Because it runs on everything!

Especially the 8 computers' worth of outdated parts I've accumulated over the last 10 years. LAN SKULLTAG! WOO! NOW ALL I NEED ARE 7 FRIENDS!

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Assmaster said:

Because of the weapons and enemies. They're so perfectly balanced it's not even funny.

Most of all though it's the community. Every week there's more levels to play. So many people are modding doom in such unimaginable ways. And these forums are just an all around riot.

Edit: Oh, almost forgot the Nightmare difficulty setting. I dont think I've ever experienced anything like it in any other game. It's not just harder, it changes the way you play the game. Playing a map on nightmare is almost like playing a new map altogether. Unlike other games where a higher difficulty means nothing more than stronger/smarter enemies. Smart enemies in today's games are nice. But they pale in comparison to the art of playing on nightmare.

Hahaha For a second I though AndrewB had something insightful and incredibly inspiring to say.

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1. Ease of editing. Map editor is cake to figure out, doesn't require visualization in true 3D, which is something I suck at.

2. Familiarity. It's one of the few games I feel like I have a mastery of. Now, its not really a \mastery', as there are plenty of people who can beat me, but I jus got Quake 3 Arena and feel almost totally lost. I don't feel like that at all with Doom.

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Well, I guess because

a) The first Doom is one of my favorite games
b) It's fun and reasonably easy to map for, and a good way to express creativity

Grazza said:

No, we want more confusion!

YES!

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