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ixfd64

an idea for Doom's 20th anniversary

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So the 20th anniversary of Doom is coming up in a few months. This got me thinking: it might be an interesting idea if we did something intended to introduce a large number to the grandfather of first-person shooters. Although Doom is and will always be a great game, people tend to be less interested in the "retro" stuff. These days, it's all about BioShock and Call of Duty.

Anyway, my idea is to contact a well-known PC gaming magazine and try to convince them to write an article on the history of Doom and do a showcase on what our community has created. Many gaming magazines come with companion discs, so we could gather up the best source ports and maps (with bugs fixed and copyright issues resolved, of course) and get them (along with the shareware version) included on the CD, just like in the good ol' days. People who have never played Doom before will likely try it out, and we would potentially gain new community members (and thus mappers) in the process.

This is probably just a crazy idea, but I suspect it wouldn't be too hard to make it happen. Bonus points if id Software gets involved. :D

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I don't think this is something Bethesda would approve of for some reason, at least just the CD idea.

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I really like this! Why not interviews with some prominent mappers too? Also, if they talk to Bethesda, I don't see why they wouldn't agree.

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DooM_RO said:

I really like this! Why not interviews with some prominent mappers too?


One name that immediately came into my mind was Tormentor667. No big surprise there, I'm pretty sure you think.

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Good idea, should be doable I think since many magazines will be interested in writing an article about Doom's 20th anniversary.

DooM_RO said:

Why not interviews with some prominent mappers too?

People outside of this community will not be interested in that. They don't know who the hell Tormentor or Eye del Cul are.

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Who reads magazines anymore? It'd probably be more efficient to mention Dooms upcoming anniversary to the more prominent gaming websites. Gamespot, IGN. I'm sure Kotaku and RPS would do something special for it.

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Maybe we could make our own compilation where anyone can submit their wads along with a picture of themselves and a write-up of when they started playing Doom and what it means to them. Then the compilation could be sent to magazines/websites/idsoftware.

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QuakeCon and Doom's 20th anniversary are the only things I'm looking forward to this year.

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Perhaps a community project where mappers cover different styles from the origins of Doom right up to the modern day? Perhaps with mappers that worked on Doom wads right back in the day up to those that have just started out?

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I understand there are potential legal issues with regards to putting WADs and source ports on a CD, but I think it can be easily resolved as long as it's clear that the add-ons can be downloaded for free. After all, the goal is to spread the word about Doom rather than make money (a Doomworld store would also be cool, but that's probably for another thread). :-)

In any case, I think the following WADs would be good candidates:

The Serenity series
The Community Chest series
The New Doom Community Project series
WADs on the Top 100 list
Cacoward winners
Other well-known megawads (Memento Mori, Claustrophobia 1024, etc.)

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He's going to make you all his bitch! You'll get slapped around like a bunch of red-headed stepchildren! You better update your status bar dude's hair color!

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I love the idea, but you NEED to contact Bethesda/id about it, if only so that they may include the full game on the CD as well.

It's great and all that you want to introduce people to Doom and the current maps, but it's all but useless to someone new that doesn't own the game. Throwing the shareware version in doesn't do a whole lot when all of the mods you include won't run with it. It's not good enough to say you can just buy Doom for $5 on Steam; you already alienate a huge portion of potential players that way.

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One problem with distributing mods in an official capacity like is being suggested is that so many notable Doom projects are built around ripped commercial content to some extent or another, usually either textures or music at least. The Community Chest series, Alien Vendetta, Scythe 2, etc. would all be questionable to include. Putrefier has all original textures by Ed, I believe, but has ripped monster sprites, so that's out. Even Suspended in Dusk, which is primarily Doom and Doom-based textures with some edits and original art from Espi, has textures based directly on Hexen (rock textures) and Quake 2 (wire textures).

There are exceptions to this, of course, even among wads that feature large quantities of original content. Two that come to mind are KDiZD and I think Plutonia 2, whose developers made a conscious effort to create their own original replacements for any would-be borrowed content. (And I can of course toot my own horn and mention BTSX.) But there are a ton of significant projects that would be shoe-ins otherwise whose copyright status could give publishers cold feet.

Of course, there's also the possibility of just ignoring it like the online community normally does, and hoping no one makes a stink over it. :)

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Thread said:

...best source ports and maps...WADs on the Top 100 list...Cacoward winners...Other well-known megawads...notable Doom projects...significant projects...

This is sounding like just another way to popularize stuff that's already popular.

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Probably all those texture/sprite IP issues would just go away if a bunch of existing maps got relicensed to Freedoom BSD license. Plus it would allow people to play wads immediately from the CD.

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hex11 said:

Probably all those texture/sprite IP issues would just go away if a bunch of existing maps got relicensed to Freedoom BSD license.

Even admitting you relicense the maps themselves, I doubt it'd change anything to the problem with the ripped sprites, textures, musics and sounds.

Of course this never prevented publication of Maximum Doom (among many other shovelware CDs), which did contain its fair share of copyrighted material used to make stupid mods more stupid.


The real question, though, is whether gaming magazines made of paper and with accompanying disc still actually exist. I thought they all went bankrupt when the young gamers, born and bred on the Internet and cell phones, forgot how to read words printed on something that is not a screen. (As well as any word containing more than six letters.)

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Gez said:

The real question, though, is whether gaming magazines made of paper and with accompanying disc still actually exist. I thought they all went bankrupt when the young gamers, born and bred on the Internet and cell phones, forgot how to read words printed on something that is not a screen. (As well as any word containing more than six letters.)


Wow, you're right. I looked at the magazine section at Fry's today, and all of the gaming magazines no longer have accompanying discs. But on the other hand, there is no shortage of computer magazines that have CDs or DVDs. Computer magazines don't really cover gaming that much, but it definitely won't hurt to try to get in contact with them. After all, the gaming market is a lot larger than it used to be. :-)

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As long as we're reaching out, we may have better success approaching online publications like Rock Paper Shotgun and somesuch since they do seem to be more relevant these days than paper mags. Though I would definitely obtain a days-long ear-to-ear grin if I saw an article about Doom modding in Game Informer, which for some reason I have a subscription to and I can't remember why.

LUDICROUS PIPE DREAMS

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