This is what makes Doom Doom

[Job]

I think it's pretty simple, really. The textures are what gives Doom it's character. They lend a lot to providing a unique and varied number of atmospheres.

[Ralphis]

I agree not only with textures, but with the actual artwork itself. Its not the maps, rather the art. The textures and sprites blend beautifully in my opinion. There isn't ever really a DRAB scene in doom due to the use of many colors. I happen to think newer games are lacking this variety. Then again, nice color doesn't mix with "realism"

[Job]

Ralphis said:

I agree not only with textures, but with the actual artwork itself. Its not the maps, rather the art. The textures and sprites blend beautifully in my opinion. There isn't ever really a DRAB scene in doom due to the use of many colors. I happen to think newer games are lacking this variety. Then again, nice color doesn't mix with "realism"

Well, I imagine Doom was meant more to be a creature of fantasy than one of fiction, so I think Doom was a success in that sense.

[myk]

Ralphis said:
I agree not only with textures, but with the actual artwork itself.

I'm not sure exchanging ideas with wad lumps can be considered healthy behavior.

[Graf Zahl]

Job said:

I think it's pretty simple, really. The textures are what gives Doom it's character. They lend a lot to providing a unique and varied number of atmospheres.

No, not the textures - the monsters and the weapons! Many WADs with new textures still feel like Doom. The same cannot be said about any total conversion (and even some partial conversions which replace too many monsters.)

[Grogglogobofink]

the doom textures are really good, yeah, but i wouldn't say they're the thing about doom that makes it doom for me. because no matter how many pwads i play, i've never found a group of levels using those same textures i'd take to the original ones. the level design and monster design are the two most important things to me.

[Aliotroph?]

Yeah, all those things count. So does the engine. You can play DooM on some ports and it just feels wrong. Vavoom comes to mind. It just doesn't feel the same when you play it despite having the same wad.

[geekmarine]

Yeah, I just love the misaligned textures littering the game. Wait a minute... WHY ARE ALL THE TEXTURES MISALIGNED!?!?!?! You know, I think id set a very bad example by not aligning a lot of their textures in their levels. Anyways, personally, I think that Doom means all things to all people. There is no just taking one aspect of it and going, "This is what Doom is all about."

[Torn]

geekmarine said:

Yeah, I just love the misaligned textures littering the game. Wait a minute... WHY ARE ALL THE TEXTURES MISALIGNED!?!?!?! You know, I think id set a very bad example by not aligning a lot of their textures in their levels. Anyways, personally, I think that Dom means all things to all people. There is no just taking one aspect of it and going, "This is what Doom is all about."

Uhm, they didn't have the editors we have today. There was no auto alignment fuction in their editor, nah, it was calction and stuff.

[NiGHTMARE]

geekmarine said:

Anyways, personally, I think that Dom means all things to all people.

Who's Dom, and why does he mean so much to everyone? =P

[Fredrik]

I have a personal view of what makes Doom Doom. I've written an essay about it, though it's in Swedish. By random chance, I once found another essay by a person with an identical view. Interestingly, he too was a Swede.

[Colusio]

Dom is the one who makes everyone happy.

http://www.humanitas-international.org/newstran/

[deathz0r]

DM is what makes Doom Doom. I mean, nothing can surpass it in pure intensity.

[Ralphis]

Job said:

Well, I imagine Doom was meant more to be a creature of fantasy than one of fiction, so I think Doom was a success in that sense.

I was referring to newer games pushing realism crap down our throats rather than have anything really new or cool. All FPS seem the same these days

[geekmarine]

OMG Nightmare, you don't know Dom? I thought everyone knew him. He's like, the coolest person ever. Geez, I'd give you his e-mail address if I could remember it. I know they didn't have auto alignment, but still, I remember back when I started editing using Doomcad, and it didn't have auto alignment, either. Actually, now that I think about it, it took me a long while to get the hang of manual texture alignment. Heck, even with auto texture alignment, it can still be a pain in the butt sometimes, especially in rooms with a lot of detail. Ugh, cursed texture alignment.

[EllipsusD]

Ralphis said:
There isn't ever really a DRAB scene in doom due to the use of many colors.

*cough*Doom2*cough*

[Draconio]

What makes Doom Doom? That's a pretty difficult question, but having played a fair deal of other (mostly older) FPS games, and comparing them to Doom, I can make these observations.

For one thing, while it's not too realistic, it doesn't go all the way into the far-fetched. Real world things like guns, computers, and cities are blended with fantasy horror elements like demons, fleshy walls, and medieval-like structures, and also a touch of sci-fi with moonbases, energy weapons, and cyborg creatures. It's a strange mix that leaves you unsure of what to expect next. The juxtaposition of the real and not real adds a lot to the feel of the game.

While on the subject of realism, I think one of the things that makes Doom's gameplay as good as it is, is that Id knew when to throw realism aside in favor of fun. It's not realistic that you can be blasted with a shotgun in the face at point blank and survive. But instant deaths aren't fun. It's not realistic that you can fall any height unscathed. But you have to admit, dashing out of a window at full speed and landing on a platform 40 feet below and continuing to run is great fun.

I think the appearance of the monsters is another big factor. I read somewhere, (I don't remember where), that one of the things people usually find revolting is a twisting of the human form. Look at the pink demon. If you look at it a certain way, it looks almost human, yet it is twisted, warped, not human. It is grotesque. The mancubus is another good example of this. Elephant feet, severed arms, huge rolls of fat, yet the vague impression of a human figure is there. The monsters are vile in other ways as well. Try sneaking up behind a cacodemon. What are those gaping orifices? One shudders to speculate. It's things like that which help make the monsters all the more unnerving.

It stays serious. No dumb jokes, swearing characters, or babes here. Doom doesn't need to rely on such gimmicks to be fun. Ok, so there were a few not-very-serious things thrown into Doom 2, but they're all hidden and can be considered as easter eggs.

You can immerse yourself in the character. Going beyond Half-Life's level, the Doom character doesn't even have a name. The only things that give him a shred of his own personality are some parts of the background story, the little face on the status bar, and the sounds that he makes.

I may have missed a few things, but I've already said quite a lot. I hope it's not too incoherent.

[Reisal]

geekmarine said:

Yeah, I just love the misaligned textures littering the game. Wait a minute... WHY ARE ALL THE TEXTURES MISALIGNED!?!?!?!

My DC3COOP.WAD fixes that

[Grogglogobofink]

deathz0r said:

DM is what makes Doom Doom. I mean, nothing can surpass it in pure intensity.

except not. most doomers don't even DM. for some people that might be where the staying power is, but personally i don't even even like doom's dm all that much.

[Draconio]

Grogglogobofink said:

except not. most doomers don't even DM. for some people that might be where the staying power is, but personally i don't even even like doom's dm all that much.

Agreed. I don't really dislike deathmatch, but I play single player much more. However, I think that Doom 2 (via ZDaemon or Doom Connector) is my second most played online game (Quake Team Fortress being the first most.) I don't play online games much though. Crappy connection and preferring to use what bandwidth I have to transfer files being the main reasons. Sure there are the bots to play with offline, but they get boring much faster than playing with real people, and most of them have weird AI.

Heh. As I wrote this I felt a bit in the mood for some DM actually. Maybe I'll kick up ZDaemon later and see if my connection can actually manage to stay connected this time.

[DooMBoy]

There a couple of things, in my view, that make Doom Doom:
1. Textures
2. Enemies

[Reisal]

How about the music?

[Draconio]

Mr. Chris said:

How about the music?

IMHO it could have been better. It's decent, and works to set the mood, but most of the tracks seem to be lacking a little something, I'm not sure what. Maybe I'm just weird.

[Graf Zahl]

Draconio said:

IMHO it could have been better. It's decent, and works to set the mood, but most of the tracks seem to be lacking a little something, I'm not sure what. Maybe I'm just weird.

They just lack a decent format. MIDI just wasn't sufficient for them.

[Grimm]

Yeah, I just love the misaligned textures littering the game. Wait a minute... WHY ARE ALL THE TEXTURES MISALIGNED!?!?!?!

Heh, Hexen has an assload of misaligned textures, too. Unless jHexen is just screwing with me. (Since ZDoomGL apparently has a texture misalignment problem, I guess very possible this bug has crept into jHexen, too.)

Things that make Doom Doom? Well:

1. Textures
2. Enemies

And, to a lesser extent, music.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Speed, pace, facing 50 odd monsters at once and running round at 100mph dropping them all in less than a minute. (as opposed to creeping round and facing no more than 5 monsters at once in today's FPS's and then getting killed instantly with one shot fired from 20 miles away)

[Draconio]

The Ultimate DooMer said:

Speed, pace, facing 50 odd monsters at once and running round at 100mph dropping them all in less than a minute. (as opposed to creeping round and facing no more than 5 monsters at once in today's FPS's and then getting killed instantly with one shot fired from 20 miles away)

I agree almost completely with this. But I will note that the monsters with hitscan weapons (zombies, spidermind) can kill you from a great distance without any chance to dodge, if you're low on health. But maybe you're refering to attacks that kill a full-health player in one hit.

[myk]

Two things distinguish the first two DOOM games from other games and define what they are.

A) The relatively simple engine: the lack of a real 3D environment (including the absence of freelook and vertical jumping,) and the arcade-like bent (straightforward action with many relatively weak or simple opponents, intermap screens with stats, relative independence of the individual levels, and purely functional resources.)

B) A whole set of particular resources that give it a theme that blends certain influences, prominently Aliens, Evil Dead and relatively classic hellish environments.

[Captain Red]

Why, it’s low-res graphics, annoying controls, inability to look up or down or walk under flying monsters, that it crashes if you save on lifts or under doors, annoying auto aim, that everything get an icky shade brown if it’s more then a few yards away, and the fact the DOOM.EXE IS THE ONE TRUE DOOM AND ANY OTHER EXE INCLUDING DOOM2.EXE IS A DISGRACE TO DOOM AND YOU WILL BURN IN POST HELL FOREVER IF YOU USE THEM.

[Grimm]

Evil Dead? Where the heck do you get Evil Dead from?