Someone is recording himself playing through every WAD ever made

[NightFright]

How it's gonna end:

 

[Pegleg]

9 hours ago, joshthenesnerd said:

my plan is to stop once i get to the april 2018 wads.

As has been pointed out, that's still an ambitious goal, regardless of the order you're playing in. If you downloaded every wad from idgames and removed all of the cross-referenced ones (i.e., levels that were submitted individually as well as part of a megawad), you're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of 15000 - 18000 wads (assuming you exclude terry wads and pornographic wads). @TimeOfDeath666 has spent years (literally) playing and, as of a year ago, was up to 2007. If you include levels on D!Zone and other related packages (which some would come shovelware), you're adding potentially thousands of other levels. (See here for some idea.)

 

That being said, I think @Caffeine Freak had a decent suggestion, to play the top 100 WADs from 1994-2013, followed by the Cacoward winners (you could add the honorable mentions for each year, too). Without the honorable mentions, that would give you 241 (which includes Romero's "Tech Gone Bad") wads, several of which are megawads. If you include the 55 honorable mentions, that would bring you to 296 levels. If you were to play 2 or 3 a day, that would be a solid 3 months or so of streaming.

 

Another suggestion would be to just pick a month at random (e.g., September 1998) and play all the wads that were submitted to idgames for that month (excluding terry wads and pornographic wads, due to them violating Twitch guidelines).

[TimeOfDeath666]

Yeah, I'd be surprised if he even finishes the 90s wads. I was only playing doom2 single player wads (mostly excluding /ports). This seems more like clickbait than anything else. Actually completing this requires severe life-crippling dedication and way too much time. Like that Indian guy who stood next to a tree for 7 years straight, you'd have to be a crazy religious nut. Is he going to exit every map? Is he going to kill all monsters? Is he going to cheat on hard maps? When he gets stuck on a map, is he going to look in an editor to figure out if he missed something or if it's a map bug? etc. etc. etc.

[croma]

This is totally mental but I'm following it! I'm just subscribing to Twitch.

[joshthenesnerd]

OK, 9 questions roughly have popped up so far, i'm gonna quickly answer them here short answers will be seen, long answers in spoiler tags.

what order am i playing the wads in: chronological

Spoiler

so, technically chronological. basically, i'm using the doomworld front end search function and searching the most common 2-letter combination in the english language (that's "TH") and then broadening my search to entire textfiles and then sorting it all in release order. now, this may  exclude files without th words in the text file (this,that,the,without,they,there,they're,their,than,these) but, i figure more than 99% of textfiles have these words in them before the archive was as popular as it is today

what is my definition of "playthrough" in the context of this project?: finish and rate.

Spoiler

so, my plan is just to get to the exit, seeing what i can and then rating the wad on a scale of 1-5 based on what i saw. so far, most early 90s wads haven't broken 3.

which wads am i leaving out?: some

Spoiler

i'm leaving out a fair portion of wads in this. i'm leaving out wads that don't have levels, wads for deathmatch, wads for strife, wads for hexen, x-rated wads, possibly terry wads (still undecided there), and with heretic i may play heretic levels every once in a while to mix things up.

the archive does not contain every wad ever made: that is true.

Spoiler

while the archive does contain the majority of the wads from 1995 onwards, it does not contain the thousands of wads uploaded to BBS services but never archived, shared only in IRC channels, shared between friends, and uploaded to forums and nowhere else.

without cheating?: maybe?

Spoiler

i've already broken that wide open, there have been many times where i had to IDDT due to unclear direction.

is there a list of wads i've played so far in this project?: kinda

Spoiler

i'm keeping track in a text file on my computer, but i really need to put that on a google sheet for all to see.

are the streams good? does the streamer comment or play well?: HAHAHAHA

Spoiler

I'm my worst critic, and not the one to answer these questions, but in my opinion: i'm a pretty bad streamer and i suck at doom. but i try my best.

you won't manage 100 wads: maybe?

Spoiler

last night was my sixth might playing the wad, i had just finished my 49th wad.

is this just clickbait?: you won't believe what happens next

Spoiler

i didn't really expect clicks on this project. it's an overwhelming thing that i really thought only i would care about doing and no one would care about watching

i should probably write up an FAQ or something in a google doc.

[Suitepee]

Best of luck on this monumental task joshthenesnerd!

[dobu gabu maru]

19 hours ago, Alfonzo said:

Not like this is the most of his problems, but on some days WAD production would actually outpace a reasonably skilled player.

 

I've long held the belief that we have more active mappers on the forums than playtesters :P

 

Good luck to Josh—you'll need it. Hopefully you'll play more good things than bad.

[Capellan]

1 hour ago, joshthenesnerd said:

is there a list of wads i've played so far in this project?: kinda

  Hide contents

i'm keeping track in a text file on my computer, but i really need to put that on a google sheet for all to see.

 

 

If/when you do switch to a google doc, it would be good to include the day on which you played the wad in your data - that way if someone is desperate to see your thoughts on say shuttle.wad, they can find it more easily (at least for as long as the videos remain on twitch).

[joshthenesnerd]

Just now, Capellan said:

 

If/when you do switch to a google doc, it would be good to include the day on which you played the wad in your data - that way if someone is desperate to see your thoughts on say shuttle.wad, they can find it more easily (at least for as long as the videos remain on twitch).

the vods will also be put up on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/joshthenesnerd11/ i'm caught up to day 5 (last night was day 6) and i'm about to stream day 7 in half an hour. so, when i make the google doc, i will say which day in the project i have played it.

[Memfis]

Search for "zip" in the filename. That should give you all files.

[joshthenesnerd]

1 minute ago, Memfis said:

Search for "zip" in the filename. That should give you all files.

i'll do that right now. thank you.

[Impie]

Correction, he's playing every wad on the idgames archive, not every wad ever made. He'd have to go fishing for some obscure wad archives, grab everything on moddb, and be the fifth person to ever visit my website. lel.

[Capellan]

3 minutes ago, joshthenesnerd said:

the vods will also be put up on my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/joshthenesnerd11/ 

 

Excellent.  Now I don't have to suffer through watching it on twitch :)

[hardcore_gamer]

[xvertigox]

6 hours ago, hardcore_gamer said:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Why does he have 2 mice o_o

[joshthenesnerd]

so, i really need to build an FAQ for this project. if anyone has any questions in the next 48 hours, put them in this thread and i may or may not add them in (already got 9 up there that i will put in)

[Rosh Fragger]

Greetings from Rosh to Josh:

 

YO man! I see you have found yourself quite an ambitious goal there, full of passion and hilarity. It's pretty inspirational to see such dedication being a Doom lover. I feel like doing a playthrough of all the top 100 or so WADs and see how it goes. My advice is to take as many breaks as possible in-between, and don't ever force yourself to play when you don't feel like doing it. It's good to focus on your other hobbies too every once in a while so you don't feel burnout and depressed, which I doubt. Will definitely check out your streams in the future, and I hope this becomes a World Record!! :D

[KVELLER]

On 16/4/2018 at 5:30 AM, guitardz said:

This guy stole my profile pic ;)

 

I actually thought you two were the same guy for a moment lol.

[Pegleg]

16 hours ago, joshthenesnerd said:

what is my definition of "playthrough" in the context of this project?: finish and rate.

  Hide contents

so, my plan is just to get to the exit, seeing what i can and then rating the wad on a scale of 1-5 based on what i saw. so far, most early 90s wads haven't broken 3.

 

So you're not trying to UV-Max every map and you're willing to use cheats, when you deem them necessary. These concessions should make your task easier, but still enormous.

 

Do you plan on writing a short review of the wad (e.g., "This wad had a good flow, but the one secret was too obvious and the monster placement could be improved") or were you just leaving a numerical score (e.g., 3/5)?

 

5 hours ago, joshthenesnerd said:

so, i really need to build an FAQ for this project. if anyone has any questions in the next 48 hours, put them in this thread and i may or may not add them in (already got 9 up there that i will put in)

Related to my first comment, at what difficulty level are you playing?

[A Nobody]

I find Twitch very overrated. Anyway, is this real?

[croma]

2 minutes ago, The-Heretic-Assassin said:

I find Twitch very overrated. Anyway, is this real?

Yes.

[A Nobody]

5 minutes ago, croma said:

Yes.

Ok.

[StevenC21]

@Impie Whats your website?

[Soundblock]

@joshthenesnerd Good stuff on the stream today dude! Seemingly making good progress, and I think you're making the right choices so far concerning how long to spend with each map and when to cheat up. Looking forward til you get to Nukemine (August '94) so I'll be sure to try and catch that.

 

I'm "Skiltpadde" on Twitch btw (my PSN tag - Rocket League finally got me to go on Twitch).

 

Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO SAVE! ;) You'll save weeks of your life if you should manage to go all the distance (I have my doubts, but so far so good. :)

Edited April 18, 2018 by Soundblock

[joshthenesnerd]

2 hours ago, Soundblock said:

Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO SAVE! ;) You'll save weeks of your life if you should manage to go all the distance (I have my doubts, but so far so good. :)

it was fun with having you in chat skiltpadde (i kept saying your name wrong. i think at one point i said skilletpaddle, and then skillpaddle, i think i even once said picklepaddle) thank you for being there. i'm gonna go as far as i can, life will eventually get in the way. but i'll do my best to get as far as i can. the first upload of may 2018 will be the last one i play (hopefully) in this project. worst part is that i'll have to play my first upload to the archive.

[Soundblock]

4 hours ago, joshthenesnerd said:

i kept saying your name wrong

 

Hey, you landed at "Skilt" which is what it usually boils down to. Will be interesting to see how far you get. Having a free glimpse back at the wads of '94 has been worth the while in itself, so everything else is a bonus.

[Impie]

12 hours ago, StevenC21 said:

@Impie Whats your website?

MikesToyBox.net. I link all my books, comics, and doom related stuff there.

 

I hope he can find the wads that aren't easily available anymore, too. It'll be funny if he ends up visiting the "help me find a specific wad" thread a few hundred times.

[joshthenesnerd]

9 hours ago, Impie said:

I hope he can find the wads that aren't easily available anymore, too. It'll be funny if he ends up visiting the "help me find a specific wad" thread a few hundred times.

again, i'm only playing the wads on the archive itself.

[The_MártonJános]

I have only one, um, quite stupid question here.

Would you nominate a successor in case you - God forbid - die in midst of your pursuit?

Edited April 26, 2018 by Cell

[Soundblock]

1 hour ago, Cell said:

I have only one, um, quite stupid question here.

Would you nominate a successor in case you godforbidnot die in midst of your pursuit?

 

Would certainly be possible for someone to pick up the torch if joshthenesnerd ever announces he's calling it quits...