Should the Doom guy have a name, and talk in game?

[Lengis]

Not including the Doom novels, and Quake 3, the Doom guy was always anonomous(sp), and ofcourse he never spoke a word (other than grunts, and screams of pain). But actually I think he should stay the same, and be annonomous(sp), and not talk. However I do think other people should communicate with him, and have dialouge which would create a rich story. This was done in Half-Life (without a rich story), and it did fine.

[Lupe nukem]

He doesnt have a nave because each one of us is the doom guy!

we are all the marines that are figthing against those monsters.

[SoKatH]

The word is anonymous...

And as for a name? No he shouldn't have one, Lupe said it quite well, We are all the Doom Guy. Besides, the plot has always been relatively secondary to gameplay. Sure the basic elements of the plot are great. But that's where it ends and our imaginations, and the game itself take over...

Anyhoo... Did I mention I was back? And deadnail's still here? Holy Kee-rist...
Haha

S./

[Lord FlatHead]

The Duke Nukem method of automatically letting the character say stuff certainly won't do. I don't want a wise-cracking blonde Doomguy with sunglasses - I want a quiet, barely sane killing machine grasping on to two things : his Shotgun, and the hope he can save the world from Evil. Or, y'know, whatever.

I'm guessing that to supply information and 'interaction' with NPC's, id will be going for in-game cutscenes kinda like RTCW's, radio messages etc.

[Naked Snake]

Should he have a name? Maybe, just maybe, and a little backround to go along with it.
Should he talk? Not unless it was to say "now where is that *color* key?" when he sees a door he cant open :)

[Prime]

Should he have a name? Maybe, just maybe, and a little backround to go along with it.
Should he talk? Not unless it was to say "now where is that *color* key?" when he sees a door he cant open :)

How about the voice of Corey Taylor screaming whenever you are firing on a squad of monsters for more than a few seconds? No? Yeah, you're probably right...

[Zaldron]

I wouldn't mind a name for the Marine. Afterall, I don't happen to like my real life name in games. But he shouldn't speak, mainly because this is not a RPG where you can at least say approximately what you're feeling. All dialogue would be scripted and fixed, and in most cases that will be anti-climatic.

[silent_killa]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

[Lord FlatHead]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

No shit.

[Zaldron]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

Yes, but the id guys pretty much loathe the DooM novels.

[Naked Snake]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

Yes, but the id guys pretty much loathe the DooM novels.

And 97% of the DooM community as well.

[Tetzlaff]

Oh no, Flynn Taggard rises his stupidly grinning face again
X-0

erm...well, like they say, everyone of us is the Doom marine when playing the game, the feeling of identity with the player character is most important, and a somehow independent acting, babbling character wouldn´t match this concept.

And in situations, where a NPC, a sargeant for example, talks to you, couldn´t he just say:

"Listen, marine, we have..."

Or is this unusual? Would the sargeant more likely say:

"Listen, private *insert name here*..." or

"Listen, commander *insert name here*..." ?

[SoKatH]

I dunno, if you had the marine saying the guy's name then by that rationelle, it'd make more sense having them say your ACTUAL name, which isn't technically (or at least easily) possible. I'm of the oppinion that sure the plot could be expanded on, but one of the integral factors of Doom is its immersiveness, you ARE the doomguy, (now granted I was 11 when this happened) you do shit your pants when you come into a room full of Demons at 1 in the morning (and I really didn't shit my pants, honest). But the fact that it's immersive and non-descript, would be taken away, I think, by more emphasis on the character. That's the last thing you should care about.

It's actually kinda funny, just like the devellopment of media, computer games keep leaving less and less to the imagination. Think about it, books really make you imagine what's going on, radio allows you to hear it, but you still have to envision it, Television.. pssht.. speaks for itself...

Text-games, a whole shit load of imagination required there.. and as games progress they keep making them more and more foolproof...

It's kinda sad actually. Well, anyway, bottom line, newbies suck. Wait, that wasn't it. Bottom line: name and extensive background of the main character should be left out.

Cheers

S./

[tsareppsun]

I feel that the Doom Marine shouldn't have a voice in the game because it will kinda kill the feeling of "BEING THE DOOM GUY" and not just controlling the DooM guy. When playing the game, and you have those moments of fear or frustration, you'd talk out loud? You'll hear your voice,RIGHT? And even if you don't talk out loud and think out sentences you'd still imagine your own voice. So hearing an onominous voice over would just kill the feeling. But I would like him to say alot more, what I mean by this is I want him to be alittle more like(DAMAGE) that guy in "MAlICE"(MAN,I LOVE THAT GAME!!)And YEAH,YEAH I know he has a voice, but only on the cutsences. But the ingame he just walks to certain objects and utters various types of grunts,snorts or growls but you would see alot of sentences,quotes,snide remarks or whatever appear on the screen. I would prefer the DooMguy be like that.

And also, Back to "BEING THE DOOMGUY" It's pretty EASY for all of ya'll to say. Not so easy for the player who is not white. This is why I, as well as "deadnail" was stressing the idea about being able to manipulate the "SKIN TEXTURES" of the marine to suit our(non-white)preferences,something like a skin color sliderbar that can morf from the darkest brown all the way to palest white texture. My hope was that id would put this in as an "UNLOCKABLE OPTION" after you complete the game the first time as the traditional white doom marine. WELL,I can only dream....I know id wouldn't bother to put in the effort,even though It should do wonders for REPLAY value, especially if you can create your own teams for CO-OP play with bots or whatever........

Here's my two cents for this post,
The Tsar's out.

[Prime]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

Yes, but the id guys pretty much loathe the DooM novels.

And 97% of the DooM community as well.

They were really that bad? I've never read them...

[EllipsusD]

This is why I, as well as "deadnail" was stressing the idea about being able to manipulate the "SKIN TEXTURES" of the marine to suit our(non-white)preferences,something like a skin color sliderbar that can morf from the darkest brown all the way to palest white texture.

That sounds like a really great idea. Shouldn't be too hard to implement. The question is, will id spend that time to do it? Even though it wouldn't really affect me, I hope it is included.

Somebody mentioned further up that other marines might call you by your rank. That got me thinking. For any of you who have seen Event Horizon, remember the guy who burned up that the captain couldn't save all those years ago? What if one of the zombies still had enough intact to remember you. He/she might call you by a nick-name of some sort, but imagine how creepy it would be to hear nothing but the voice echoing down the hallways, call to you, letting you know it's coming, but you can't see who is calling for you and you don't know where the voice is coming from.

Just a thought.

[danarchist]

If it were any other FPS, I'd say go all out on the character and background. But since this is an Id game, the only point is lonely survival. A voice might work, as long its not as frivolous as Duke Nukem.

[Dark-tenshi]

A voice might work, as long its not as frivolous as Duke Nukem.

agreed.

like the old id titles(wolf3d ,doom,quake),i want to see the option to turn on/off the doom marine's face being displayed below the screen in DOOM3.it is not just some sort of health indicator but it also show doom marine's expression(the face when he take damage,smile when got new gun)back in the doom(2) day,when i played the original doom,becoming low on health,blood's covering doom marine face.that kinda raised the tension to me,and make the game a bit scary.

just my 2 cents..

[Alboroto]

I really like the idea of your name being echoed around the dark passages, well, remember my FEAR FACTOR post, something like the way the wachammacallits were making eerie sounds on Silent Hill.

I think that instead of listening to your voice you shoul be able to listen to your helmet's communicating system.
Listening your objectives, gunfights, people screaming... sort like Quake II did, but better.

Something like soldiers triying to get trough a room full of zombies, and they are loosing the battle, you can listen to them fighting. Sounds of guns, sounds of pain, maybe someone calling for a medic, a soldier calling his mother.

-you get the point-

[Naked Snake]

---

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

Yes, but the id guys pretty much loathe the DooM novels.

And 97% of the DooM community as well.

They were really that bad? I've never read them...

---

Consider yourself lucky my friend...

[Tetzlaff]

The thing with demons calling your name is a very cool idea!

It could be done whith a simple trick: the monster that talks to you is a android bio-mechanoid, a cybernetic enhanced demon with a somewhat human appearance, and he has a strange synthetic voice. Before you start the game, you can type your nick name (or real name or whatever you want) into the player setup, and then it will automatically generate your name and include it into the sentences that demon speaks, so that you hear him call your name with that strange artificial voice.

[Katarhyne]

I'm sorry. I liked t-...no, I loved the (first two...more on this later) Doom novels. They were extremely well-written, and in fact, a large portion of my writing style is borrowed directly from Brad Linaweaver and Daffyd Ab Hugh. They really brought out...well, Doom! I mean, c'mon. Go back and read 'em again, and honestly tell me that the story doesn't apply.

Now, that being said, I want to say that the above only applies to the first two books in the series. The second two were...well, crap. The third one was fairly well written, but it was so far off of the Doom storyline that I just stopped reading before I ever got to the fourth one. Extradimensional aliens? Riiiight.

Still, go get Knee-deep in the Dead and Hell on Earth. Read them, enjoy them for what they are.

[Zaldron]

I'm sorry. I liked t-...no, I loved the (first two...more on this later) Doom novels. They were extremely well-written, and in fact, a large portion of my writing style is borrowed directly from Brad Linaweaver and Daffyd Ab Hugh.

Ummh your writing style seems much better than the one found in the novels. I really disliked the writing in the novels. A matter of tastes I guess...

[doomsick]

quiet, barely sane killing machine grasping on to two things : his Shotgun, and the hope he can save the world from Evil.

i love doom.

[Prime]

I rather liked the fact that the only noises the DoomGuy made was the straining when (a) pushing against walls, and (b) when under attack. Just make the pushing sound a little less "bathroom-sounding." Oh, and I also liked the varied screams used at the moment of death...

[DooMBoy]

Flynn Taggart is an insanely gay name.
No, he shouldn't talk at all. He didn't talk in the last few Doom games, and he should not talk in Doom3.

[Prime]

Okay people, what I am about to say should pretty much recap everything that has been said here concerning the DoomGuy's name and speech in the upcoming game:

name - The original Doom worked perfectly without giving any name to you, the hero. However, if it is the immersiveness of the plot and gameplay that you're concerned with, don't be. Despite what others say, I believe that Quake 2 had in fact some interesting mission points that involved you in the game well without giving the hero a name. He was always referred to, even in the manual story, as 'You,' and I think this should be continued here. Not having a name gave a sort of mysterious feel to the marine, one which I think involved the player more because you felt like you were really there (due also to the 3-d environment).

Voice - Again, a lack of qualities for the marine would be best for this game and its feel. Afterall, to kick ass through endless hordes of demons requires a serious demeanor, not someone who yells out ridiculous dialogue whenever it is event-triggered. I think the original Doom did well by limiting his speech to grunts and death screams.

Ok people, that's enough for me. I meant to possibly quell the unrest here, but I might have just stirred up more...

[Tetzlaff]

... I believe that Quake 2 had in fact some interesting mission points that involved you in the game well without giving the hero a name. He was always referred to, even in the manual story, as 'You,' and I think this should be continued here. ...

The Quake2 marine had a name: Bitterman. It was written on his drop pod that crashed trough the wall in the "Outer Base". In Q3 the character Bitterman is described as a hero from the Strogg war, who got caught by the Stroggs and biotechnically enhanced... But then again, was it really Bitterman you played during the game? Wasn´t the Q2 marine a completely different character than that guy? It remains mysterious :)

I think the original Doom did well by limiting his speech to grunts and death screams.

It should also include various pain sounds, telling you much you have been hurt, without looking at the HUD health. And jump sounds (slightly varied, not alway the same "hugh") and all the other stuff, just like Q2 and Q3A.

[pritch]

In the novel series, theres a marine called Flynn Taggart.

Yes, but the id guys pretty much loathe the DooM novels.

And 97% of the DooM community as well.

At least someone tried... proof that Doom was inspiring. If only it hadn't had all that pseudo-erotic shit in it with that Arlene girl and bullshit names for monsters...
I mean, what the fuck is a steam-demon?

[Lengis]

Yea, I think the head in the hud should reflect how much dmg the character took as well. It was kewl to see how much like a raw piece of meat the guy progressively got.