What are the biggest misconceptions regarding DOOM?

[MassiveEdgelord]

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions and repeated false infomation you've seen regarding DOOM? For me it's these:

 

• DOOM 64 isn't canon.
• Being able to shoot enemies above you isn't a intentional design choice.
• Doomguy is completely nameless (Although we don't know his first name, his last name is likely "Blaze")

[Doomkid]

People often seem to get confused as to how the BFG works, how armor works, and how RNG is calculated.

 

It’s a common myth that Doom didn’t have mouse support early on. In reality, the mouse has always been usable by default.

 

Doom is the game that introduced international multiplayer gaming/real-time global deathmatch. Other games are often incorrectly credited, the wave was started (and popularised to a significant degree) by Doom.

 

Doom uses 3D game logic. The only thing “2D” about Doom are the sprites and map blueprints, the world is very much 3D.

 

Actors aren’t actually infinitely tall, even in vanilla Doom. Explained here: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Z-clipping but even that wiki page isn’t telling the full story, as it says Z heights only matter for projectiles, hitscans, and allowing solid objects to pass into a sector if the heights allow it. In reality, getting the player to “touch” and thus collect weapons, items and power-ups is also completely dependent on this behaviour. If you walk 100 units above an item you won’t pick it up, because actors are only infinitely tall in the case of two actors with the “solid” flag set attempting to enter the same X/Y coordinates.

 

This last point is nonspecific, but I often see misremembered “facts” about the origins of certain source ports, source port branches and moreover history about the development scene of the late 90’s and early 2000’s in general.

 

There’s way more, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

[ValeriyPipick]

The biggest misconception about Doom series that it is all about violence, gore and ''fun (if you catch my meaning)''. Sadly enough, this misconception leaded to creation of such games as DOOM 2016 and Doom Eternal.

[jazzmaster9]

10 minutes ago, ValeriyPipick said:

The biggest misconception about Doom series that it is all about violence, gore and ''fun (if you catch my meaning)''. Sadly enough, this misconception leaded to creation of such games as DOOM 2016 and Doom Eternal.

Inversely, another misconception is Doom series pure horror, corridor crawling and teleporting demons, Sadly enough, this misconception leaded to the creation of Doom 3.

[ValeriyPipick]

8 minutes ago, jazzmaster9 said:

Inversely another misconception is Doom series pure horror and dread, Sadly enough, this misconception leaded to the creation of Doom 3

True, can't complain.

[versionfiv]

"imps aren't actually jerks, they're just born that way. "

no - this is a common misconception. it was a conscious decision on their part.

[Senor500]

Many people don't realize about the pistol spread if you don't wait for it's firing animation to finish.

[Boaby Kenobi]

It was the first FPS game is a common one.

[taufan99]

That the Doom Bible unmaker was meant to be in the final game. I've read somewhere in the DoomWiki.org that it was meant for the sequel (aka. DOOM II), which made it get scrapped since v0.3 alpha.

[Chow Yun Thin]

That Doom (and FPS in general) are murder simulators.

[Senor500]

10 minutes ago, Chow Yun Thin said:

That Doom (and FPS in general) are murder simulators.

Let's add to that, "Doom worships Satan".

I've been told this, it's extremely funny when it only takes a quick look to notice that Satan is something you should despise in Doom.

[fraggle]

The biggest myth about Doom is that it's a game where you play a macho superhero gunning down monsters in a non-stop gorefest to the riffs of a pumping heavy metal soundtrack

[HorrorMovieRei]

That in Doom you never need to take cover as if hitscan and Archviles didn't exist.

This is usually repeated by people when they want to criticize cover shooters, but to me this feels more like a half truth and there's better ways to address this topic.

[MassiveEdgelord]

1 hour ago, ValeriyPipick said:

The biggest misconception about Doom series that it is all about violence, gore and ''fun (if you catch my meaning)''. Sadly enough, this misconception leaded to creation of such games as DOOM 2016 and Doom Eternal.

2016 and Eternal are great though.

[Super Mighty G]

A hugely common one is about the Berserk pack. Berserk lasts until the end of the map, not just while your screen is tinted red. 

[unerxai]

That E1M1 is Master of Puppets

[Doomkid]

4 hours ago, fraggle said:

The biggest myth about Doom is that it's a game where you play a macho superhero gunning down monsters in a non-stop gorefest to the riffs of a pumping heavy metal soundtrack

In reality, you play as a macho marine who spends half his time gunning demons, and half his time exploring, looking for keycards, etc. while metal music occasionally shows up in between long bouts of ambient music!

 

I have to say, it annoys me how the more subtle elements of Old Doom’s greatness seem to often get lost in modern chatter about the series. The old Dooms weren’t pure horror or pure action - they were perfectly balanced. As all things should be.

[seed]

That classic Doom is 2.5D.

 

Considering that Doom has 3 axis (albeit the Z-axis is perhaps limited), I think it's more along the lines of "2.9D" rather than 2.5D. Use of sprites for decorations, weapons, and enemies doesn't count.

[dmslr]

I think lack of 3D floors by itself costs 0.5, not to mention lack of free look.

[NoahRules]

Bethesda are making the new doom games

[seed]

58 minutes ago, dmslr said:

I think lack of 3D floors by itself costs 0.5, not to mention lack of free look.

 

3D floors are possible in vanilla as well afaik, but it's hackish.

 

Freelook has more to do with the player perspective more than anything IMO.

[Redneckerz]

That Brutal DOOM is the original DOOM game.

 

1 hour ago, dmslr said:

I think lack of 3D floors by itself costs 0.5, not to mention lack of free look.

 

1 hour ago, seed said:

 

3D floors are possible in vanilla as well afaik, but it's hackish.

 

Freelook has more to do with the player perspective more than anything IMO.

Vanilla 3D floors come in the form of 3D bridges - Which is indeed a Vanilla trick or hack as Seed puts it. Mordeth's accumulated tutorials are still an excellent resource for this and much more Vanilla trickery.

 

Actual 3D floors are a source port invention.

[NuMetalManiak]

One I heard often was that cacodemons actually run away from the player if the chainsaw is used. Doesn't seem to really happen.

[Mr. Freeze]

That Doom is pure action. Doom has three pillars of gameplay: Action, Suspense and Exploration. Mindless shooting isn't Doom, that's Serious Sam. 

[Jayextee]

Anything other than absolute acknowledgement that DOOM II's soundtrack is more jazz and blues than it is heavy metal.

[Eurisko]

It's a mindless shooter that requires little to no thought other than picking which gun to use. 

[famicommander]

That Doom 3 is a video game in the Doom series.

 

Common mistake, it's like that time my mother confused DC's The Flash with Flash Gordon.

[CasualScrub]

Not the biggest, but it's often commonly said that Doom wasn't originally designed to be used with a mouse, only with the keyboard. I mean:

 

 

If that's not more solid evidence to the contrary, I don't know what is.

[cybdmn]

11 hours ago, MassiveEdgelord said:

2016 and Eternal are great though.

 

Maybe, but they aren't Doom.

[jazzmaster9]

28 minutes ago, cybdmn said:

 

Maybe, but they aren't Doom.

Why? because its not a carbon copy of the original with flashy graphics?

There is exploration, Fast paced Combat and elements of horror (gore horror).

 

25 years and no one is able, and will never be able, to define what Doom is. It's purely subjective.