Who are some people that every DOOM player should (eventually) know?

[Trigsy]

Obviously, there are the guys who worked at Id back in the day, especially John Romero. You're welcome to geek out over any of them here, but I'm referring more to the exceptional community members who may or may not have received Cacowards. Whose next projects should I keep my eyes out for, as kind of a new member of the community? And what should I check out that they've already made? Which groups have been the most influential? What are the stories of these people and projects? Rant, get passionate, send Pastebin links because the character limit is orders of magnitude too restrictive, I'm here for it.

I'm especially curious to hear from some of the legends who are currently active here, such as... the ones I maybe shouldn't name? lol
Xaser I love you

[GibFrag]

Spoiler

 

[TheCarsEdge]

decino lol

[Trigsy]

8 hours ago, TheCarsEdge said:

decino lol

hell yeah, I watched Pumpkin Head play MyHouse.wad live :)

[Trigsy]

13 hours ago, DNSKILL5 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Spoiler

 

[WhateverComic07]

Decino - The Pumpkin Man

 

quality youtuber, and one of the main reasons I got into doom a few years ago.

 

Coincident - The Facerocket Man

 

Quality streamer who posts his stuff to youtube with the occasional youtube specific content. Plays a pretty large variety of stuff, but mostly old school shooters and has lots of doom specifically.

 

MtPain27 - The Dean of Doom Man

 

The other main reason I got into doom alongside Decino. He reviews doom wads.

 

James "Jimmy" Paddock - The Music Man

 

Composes music for many different projects around here. he's not the only composer, he's just the first one that comes to mind for me. Also worth noting in a similar vein is Stuart "Stewboy" Rynn

 

Nirvana - The Podcast Man

 

an accomplished mapper who has some pretty major projects, but I reccomend checking out his podcast "An Evening With Nirvana," as it's whole gimmick was talking to prolific members of the community.

 

lots of others as well. This is a community with 30 years of history after all. I've learned some of it, but I am by no means an expert, having only played anything that's not an Iwad for the first time back in late 2019.

[LadyMistDragon]

ShiroiAkuma: His map quality is such that imo,  he's eventually going to end up comparable to Lainos when he finishes his solo project. Already, a map he did for a speedmapping event, along with first prize in a Russian mapping competition, make him, imo, really someone to watch.

 

WIP, Irregular Entropy

RRSP #2 - All three of his maps here are pretty good, but I would point especially to the last one Violent Dream

Vogel im Kafig - A horror-focused map, quite dark and classically surreal

 

Speaking of, look into Lainos if you're interested in a sort of atmospheric approach.

 

I also would suggest looking into DMPhobos, particularly his maps of the last few years (Eviternity II and Hispanic Community Project specifically). 

[Goldar]

ZeroMaster, because of course

 

BigMacDavis, who might be an acquired taste but he's one of the OG YouTubers

 

UltraViolence, who seems to have stopped posting all that often but showcases wads and mods (including what looks like the development of his own)

Edited April 16 by Goldar

[june gloom]

He's retired, but KMX E XII was a big influence on me and really helped me appreciate Doom modding in a way I'd never even considered before.

[DRON12261]

AD_79 - great composer, his tracks are one of my favorites among all doom midi tracks.
A2Rob - great level designer, I like his approach to the implementation of gameplay and difficulty curve, as well as the way he realizes the visuals with competent texturing and work with lighting, without going into over-detailing, almost every wad of his guarantees a pleasant and memorable pastime.
Paul Corfiatis (pcorf) - a fairly old in the community mapper who has managed to do a lot in the doom community. I would like to single out his most outstanding work - 2022 A Doom Odyssey. For me, it's the best wad I've played so far for Ultimate Doom.
Somniac - a great mapper too, who knows how to build the right atmosphere and mood in his levels.

Alexander S. (Eternal) - who I consider to be the most successful and skillful mapper from our russian doom community.
ViolentBeetle is another talented mapper, but I personally remember him for successfully leading community projects with a fairly high level of quality on release.
 

 

 

 

Separately, I would like to take a moment to promote mappers from our local russian doom community. You can take a look at the recent projects that have come out of our pen:
Russian Random Speedmap Pack #1
Russian Random Speedmap Pack #2
Gift for DRON12261
ENDOOM Mapping Contest 2024
30 Years With Doom
 

We have quite a large number of mappers, both old and newer, who have just recently joined the community, and I recommend you to read their works in detail, because many of them have not shone much light in the whole Doom community, but are able to show amazing things sometimes.
These are Slavius (aka Shiroi Akuma), RastaManGames, Track Federal, Volter/Voltage, Doom Wads (aka dragzxnd), Nikolanchik, George Nash, Man With A Gun, StormCather.77, GranitMaster, Petyan, dashiefrickintyan, StorkGreen, CblBOPOTKA, InfernalSky, Chainie, Serious_MOod, Kisadillah, Demonologist, Shadowman, Lainos and a huge number of other talented people, the creativity of each of which can be considered separately.

I also plan to start Russian Random Speedmapping Sessions #3 in our community soon, where I want to attract more of our mappers.

[Tompig]

Doom kid and Scuba Steve

[roadworx]

+1 for kmx; he's someone that a lot of newer people likely don't know about because he mostly wrote instead of mapped, but he was once a very prolific figure in the community. not only did he write for several cacowards, but he also maintained a very extensive blog with reviews for over 800 wads, both well-known and obscure, all of which are highly detailed and even go so far as to include screenshots and reviews of individual maps if there's multiple in a wad. it's a great resource, both for people looking for something to play as well as the mappers looking for insights into their favorite wads.

 

he also has a ton of old posts scattered around the forums that likely provide a lot of useful insights into level design and such

[realjohnmadden]

7 hours ago, DRON12261 said:

I also plan to start Russian Random Speedmapping Sessions #3 in our community soon, where I want to attract more of our mappers.

Oh, sweet! Maybe I might join in. (..though, I am in Kazakhstan, and not Russia, so..)

 

I suppose the only people I can really mention have already been mentioned by other people, so..

[Nikolanchik]

1 hour ago, realjohnmadden said:

Oh, sweet! Maybe I might join in. (..though, I am in Kazakhstan, and not Russia, so..)

 

I suppose the only people I can really mention have already been mentioned by other people, so..

Don't be afraid, I also live in Kazakhstan.

[Budoka]

I really don't think it matters. Although I'll agree a mention for Zero Master makes sense, considering what he's accomplished.

[Explorer of Time]

How have we gotten this far without mentioning Esselfortium?

[Wo0p]

Who should you know?

 

Spoiler

Yourself :^)

 

[Immorpher]

Kaiser (The First Lifetime Achievement Cacoward Winner) - https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Samuel_Villarreal_(Kaiser)

This is what said ten years ago: https://www.doomworld.com/20years/lifetime.php
"When naming names for the first recipient of the new award, Kaiser was the first on almost everyone's tongue. Part of it might be the fact that he's practically a household name at this point (at least in households enamored with a certain FPS), but such a thing wouldn't exactly be possible for someone who hasn't already made waves. While Kaiser's total efforts extend beyond the realm of Doom and into Unreal Tournament, Doom 3, and his professional game design period at TimeGate Studios, it's the Doom stuff alone that keeps him in our hearts and makes him a worthy recipient of this award."

Prior he was a twice cacoward-winner for his Doom 64 Absolution TC project and the "Community is Falling 3" Doom 2 project. He probably would have won a cacoward for Doom 64 EX as well, but by then he was a shoe-in for the lifetime achievement award. These days all PC ports of Doom 64 (and even some N64 ones) can trace back to him. Back when most people considered Doom 64 forgotten, he did the hardest work in keeping it alive. His knack for cracking classic game code spread to various Doom console ports and shooters in general. If you have played any of Nightdive's remasters for classic shooters, it is likely based on the engine Kaiser started and continues to work on (KEX).

[june gloom]

3 hours ago, roadworx said:

+1 for kmx; he's someone that a lot of newer people likely don't know about because he mostly wrote instead of mapped, but he was once a very prolific figure in the community. not only did he write for several cacowards, but he also maintained a very extensive blog with reviews for over 800 wads, both well-known and obscure, all of which are highly detailed and even go so far as to include screenshots and reviews of individual maps if there's multiple in a wad. it's a great resource, both for people looking for something to play as well as the mappers looking for insights into their favorite wads.

 

he also has a ton of old posts scattered around the forums that likely provide a lot of useful insights into level design and such

 

Yeah, my own blog is rather intentionally and explicitly modeled after his.

[Lila Feuer]

3 hours ago, roadworx said:

+1 for kmx; he's someone that a lot of newer people likely don't know about because he mostly wrote instead of mapped, but he was once a very prolific figure in the community. not only did he write for several cacowards, but he also maintained a very extensive blog with reviews for over 800 wads, both well-known and obscure, all of which are highly detailed and even go so far as to include screenshots and reviews of individual maps if there's multiple in a wad. it's a great resource, both for people looking for something to play as well as the mappers looking for insights into their favorite wads.

 

he also has a ton of old posts scattered around the forums that likely provide a lot of useful insights into level design and such

Aww, I didn't know he stopped. Yeah I love his blog, I bookmarked it as a nice resource reference for anything I haven't played or just want to see what he thought of something I did. It's a real treasure trove.

[whatup876]

One thing is names but i also think of certain events and concepts like how we use the term "Doomguy" to this day and some stuff that affected how people look at or talk about Doom.

Part of why i wrote this blogpost and made this blog to begin with.

The community in itself has its own lore that i think is always worth learning.

[elborbahquarama]

zan-zan-zawa-veia, nanka kurashiki, fletcher', numetalmaniak, jazz mickle, esselfortium and sophie kirschner

 

men are deeply uninteresting persons ! ! !

[ALilGrayBoi]

i have a feeling everyone will say this but, decino the pumpkin man

[Robo_Cola]

Y'know I want to answer this question as diligently as I can, but the problem is I would be starting off with 100+ names with descriptions and that still would just be cracking the surface.

You're probably better off just searching through the Cacowards and reading the pinned threads in the Classic Doom threads.  Putting in key words into the search like: "history", "MIDI", "mappers", "development", "source ports", "resources", "40 oz", etc.; can also broaden your horizons quickly and give you a feel for what these groups/users are like.

[Nikku4211]

Lil' White Mouse. Chosen was such a good total conversion.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Too many. I could seriously write a whole page worth of names. I've been around for a while so I'll do a good amount of OG names. If there's any notable names I missed anyone would like added, please let me know. I will not put the entirety of the Doom Wiki here which is 1200+ names.

 

Active

 

Andrew Stein (Linguica or Ling): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Andrew_Stine_(Linguica). Creator and Head of Doomworld.

Chris Oelckers (Graf Zahl): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Christoph_Oelckers_(Graf_Zahl). Without him, no GZDoom! Longtime member of DW.

Dean Joseph (deathz0r): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Dean_Joseph_(deathz0r). Newstuff, Odamex, Unidoom.  Mock2, DOTims, Poogers 

Andrea Gori (batandy): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Andrea_Gori_(Batandy). Golden Souls, 'nuff said.

Daniel Gimmer (Tormentor667): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Daniel_Gimmer_(Tormentor667). Custom Monsters and Weapons Resources. ZDCMP & KDIZD. Stronghold. 

Joshua O'Sullivan (Dragonfly): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Joshua_O'Sullivan_(Dragonfly). Skulldash. Evilternity.

Marcos Abenante (Sergeant_Mark_IV): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Marcos_Abenante_(Sergeant_Mark_IV). Brutal Doom. 

Xaser Acheron (Xaser): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Xaser. Too much to list. Zen Dynamics, BTSX, etc. Read the article. Also,  Xaser, when will you do Stomper map 20? Lol.

James Paddock (Jimmy): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/James_Paddock_(Jimmy). Also too much to list. The Adventures of Square is an example.

decino: The famous DOOM Youtuber.

Steve Browning (Scuba Steve): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Stephen_Browning_(Scuba_Steve). Action Doom.

Zero Master: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Zero-Master. Considered the greatest DOOM player. Speedrunning champion. Achieved significant accomplishments such as 100% E1M8, Map30 Pacifist, 100% Nuts Run. 100% Secrets Map 15.

TimeOfDeath: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/TimeOfDeath. Slaughtermap author/player. Slaughterfest.

Pascal vd Heiden (CodeImp): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Pascal_vd_Heiden_(CodeImp). Doom Builder.

Simon Howard (Fraggle): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Simon_Howard_(Fraggle). Chocolate Doom. FraggleScript.

Roofi and LadyMistDragon: If you make a map, they'll most likely give it a try. Endless Random Adventure champions. Especially LadyMistDragon who I always see her playing through before deciding whether to download it myself.

Santtu Pesonen (Mfg38): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Santtu_Pesonen_(MFG38). Prayers of Armageddon. Lead a significant number of community projects.

Aleksey Kamenev (4shockblast): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Aleksey_Kamenev_(4shockblast). Hangar in 8 seconds, Map01 in 4 seconds. E2M8 Pacifist.

 

Possibly Active

Bill Koch (Bloodshedder): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Bill_Koch_(Bloodshedder). Long time Doomworld Admin. I remember when he was a supermod!

Owen Lloyd (SargeBaldy): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Owen_Lloyd_(Sarge_Baldy). Speedrunning series. 

Paul Thrushell (Wow): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Wow. Known for one of the worst levels. Precursor to many puns, and jokes.

 

Inactive

 

Marisa (Randi) Heit: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Marisa_Heit_(Randi). ZDoom creator. Precursor to GZDoom. 

Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Hell_Revealed. Hell Revealed. Map24 said to be the first Slaughtermap.

Fredrick Johannson: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Fredrik_Johansson. If you remember Post Hell you'll remember him. Also, Vrack.

Huy Pham (Doom Marine): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Huy_Pham_(Doom_Marine). Deus Vult.

Chris Crosby (NoSkill) and Dylan McIntosh (Toke): Early DOOM Speedrunners. Chris died in 2001, Dylan in 2006.

Esa Repo (Espi): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Esa_Repo_(Espi). Suspended in Dusk. Back to Basics. Espi reward named after him. Died in 2009.

Ty Halderman: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Ty_Halderman. TeamTNT member. TNT Evilution, Icarus, and Daedulus.  Boom. IDGames maintainer. Died in 2015.

Jim Flynn: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Jim_Flynn. TeamTNT Member. Boom. Master Levels. Died in 2018.

Raphael Quinet: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Raphaël_Quinet. DEU - first editor.

Brad Carney (Carnevil): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Brad_Carney_(Carnevil). Skulltag. Precursor to Zandronum.

Mike Watson (Cyb): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Mike_Watson_(Cyb). Massmouth series. Void.

Kim André Malde (Mutator): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Kim_André_Malde_(Mutator). Alien Vendetta - especially Misri Halek. Died in 2012.

Stephen Clark (The Ultimate Doomer): https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Stephen_Clark_(The_Ultimate_DooMer). Fragport, Super Sonic Doom.

Greg Lewis: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Greg_Lewis_(Tree) DEHACKED. First custom resources.

Simon Widlake: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Simon_Widlake. Compet-n. Doom Honorific Titles. Died in 2003.

 

The Villain Section

 

Yes, there are a few "villains" of Doomworld. They shall not get links but: Terry, Doomguy2000, Tom Kochal (DRE), and most notably Eric Harris. 

Edited April 18 by Pure Hellspawn

[TF_Doomer]

On the content/YouTube side of things watch decino watching him can really help you with understanding how DOOM works and how to make a map and NEVER listen to like anything Midnight says unless is like a full on proven fact. There are also many others you should watch which have been mentioned in here except for Doomkid really. Honestly most of the content for DOOM is some pretty great stuff and there’s Midnight but eh.

 

For gameplay wise uh how do I say this oh yeah to defeat the Cyberdemon shoot at is until it dies.

[Async Unicorn]

Welp, there are many interesting persons in the community, but I recommend BigMacDavis walkthroughs, cause he has unique charisma and with his voice he sounds like this dude from the 90s employee video guide.

I watched only his videos about IWADs back in the days when I first played Doom games, just because he's very unique and he is playing step-by-step.

 

Edited April 17 by Vanilla+Unicorn

[Trigsy]

19 hours ago, Pure Hellspawn said:

The Villain Section

 

Yes, there are a few "villains" of Doomworld. They shall not get links but: Terry, Doomguy2000, Tom Kochel (DRE), and most notably Eric Harris. 

Your response is absolutely fantastic and I love how many links you included. Thank you! This is basically what I was hoping someone would contribute to this discussion. :)

I'm also fascinated by your inclusion of a villain section. I know of Terry, Doomguy2000, and Eric Harris. When I search for that other person, though, I don't seem to get any results. Does someone want to summarize it?

[june gloom]

That's because it's mispelled, it's Tom Kachel. And he's (in)famous for Doom: Rampage Edition, a rather amateurish mod that had you playing as the Baron of Hell. By itself it was just a disappointment but Tom's reaction to criticism propelled him and his mod into the assosphere.

 

Apropos of nothing, Torm is still active? I thought he retired.