You have one chance to get a modern FPS gamer into doom. Which wad do you show them?

[invictius]

And to make things interesting, you can only pic one wad. What will it be?

One of the Community Chest megawads?
Zdoom community mapping project?
Something else?
Or "I don't care, if they don't like Doom it's their loss"? :P

[Cynical]

Hell Ground.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it depends on the person. For quite a few people, I'd go with Demonfear.

[Doomkid]

If they like some newfangled competitive thing that translates to "deathmatch" in my mind, I show them something like UDM X, Cybercrime 3, EXEC, or maybe even a CTF match if there's one going while you're showing them. The speed usually blows people away!

[Devalaous]

wow.wad

[Memfis]

Showing the most extraordinary wads would be wrong perhaps since the rest of the wads are worse, so the person would get disappointed and quit Doom pretty soon. It's like when you start watching anime you're amazed by all the new concepts, unique storylines, unconventional thinking and awesome production, but soon after you realize that most of it is just a bunch of same recycled plots and characters again and again, and a lot of stuff is quite low-budget. Only irrational fans like me continue watching after this realisation, the normal people just go away. So if you want a person to really get into Doom, you shouldn't show them too much of the good stuff immediately. Make them taste some mediocrity as well but temper it with awesomeness. Be careful and don't give them false hopes.

[T-Rex]

Memfis said:

Showing the most extraordinary wads would be wrong perhaps since the rest of the wads are worse, so the person would get disappointed and quit Doom pretty soon. It's like when you start watching anime you're amazed by all the new concepts, unique storylines, unconventional thinking and awesome production, but soon after you realize that most of it is just a bunch of same recycled plots and characters again and again, and a lot of stuff is quite low-budget. Only irrational fans like me continue watching after this realisation, the normal people just go away. So if you want a person to really get into Doom, you shouldn't show them too much of the good stuff immediately. Make them taste some mediocrity as well but temper it with awesomeness. Be careful and don't give them false hopes.

Yeah, perhaps to introduce newbies into Doom, show them some 1994 wads since that's pretty much the pool of mediocrity.

[Doomkid]

T-Rex said:

Yeah, perhaps to introduce newbies into Doom, show them some 1994 wads since that's pretty much the pool of mediocrity.

Oh lawd, just pretend 1994 never happened ;) I would start with something like Momento Mori or Icarus if they like cooperative stuff, so it's still fun and engaging, but there's better stuff to see as well.

[yakfak]

show 'em an unfair level! pistol start Realm while they watch or something. your tastes might not be their tastes so instead of trying to mold their impression of the game, show them how hard it can be because that's universal

[Remiel]

invictius said:
Any memorable anime/jrpg themed wads that you know of?

Brutal Doom

[scifista42]

Some years ago, I've shown Hell Revealed and some other mods to a friend who mostly plays CoD and MMORPGs, I failed, Doom didn't appeal to him enough to continue.

Today I'd try BTSX E1.

[Steve D]

scifista beat me to it -- BTSX E1. Or maybe Sunder if they think they're a badass.

[Obsidian]

I ended up reintroducing a mate of mine with Brutal Doom on HR by accident. He likes blasting enemies into "gratuitous mince", as he calls it.

[Linguica]

Doom Episode 1, if they don't like that then screw them they're hopeless

[mouldy]

Here you go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yIxUOWrtw

[Shadow Hog]

Linguica said:

Doom Episode 1, if they don't like that then screw them they're hopeless

Pretty much. Still some of the finest maps available for play, and it has the bonus of being maps that pretty much everyone's played, thanks to the shareware model, so there's a little bit of common ground should discussion arise.

[Phml]

Linguica said:

Doom Episode 1, if they don't like that then screw them they're hopeless

The only right answer, no matter the intent. ;)

Most people don't want to bother with mods, anyway. Any "official" status outshines objective qualities in the eyes of many.

This is true even when said status is arbitrary. For example, Doom's "fifth" episode is somewhat popular amongst casual doomers, arguably disproportionately so.

That's not a slam on Xaser, rather I think even he would agree there's more interesting PWADs out there, including some of his own.

[Salt-Man Z]

Definitely BTSX E1; that MAP01 is just so visually-striking. (It's a fun map, too.)

[Steve D]

mouldy said:

Here you go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yIxUOWrtw

The ultimate nightmare.

"Press E to call your mama."

[Jaxxoon R]

WOOO 2

[esselfortium]

Linguica said:

Doom Episode 1, if they don't like that then screw them they're hopeless

From experience I have to disagree here. When I showed Doom to my girlfriend a few years ago, I started her with E1 and it just bored her. She loves Doom II though (or, at the least, modern PWADs built from it). Don't underestimate how much the SSG and more varied monster behaviors changed the game :)

[durian]

In the past, I've gone for Thunderpeak. Not that I find it to be an especially good representation of what's fun about DOOM, gameplay wise, but obviously it's stunning in terms of atmosphere, and has some marginally more contemporary objectives, as well some tunnels for the adventurous to explore.

[cannonball]

For me it has to be Scythe I think. Starts off very easy difficulty wise and the levels are so short that you can't really get lost. The levels gradually build in difficulty which will bring the new player into the groove, though some of the later maps might be a little too much.

[Xaser]

Phml said:

That's not a slam on Xaser, rather I think even he would agree there's more interesting PWADs out there, including some of his own.

Nah, no offense taken. In retrospect, I do quite feel it was a mistake to try and be all "hey look it's almost official guys" given how nutty I made the maps. :P

As for the original question, it's hard to say. A few years back I'd have chosen DV2, now it'd probably be either BTSX or ZDCMP2, depending on which definition of "cool impressive stuff" the person would most likely be wowed by.

[j4rio]

Linguica said:

Doom Episode 1, if they don't like that then screw them they're hopeless

I hated doom epiode one (and the other three) when I played it for the first time when I was six and I still dislike it now. I've never figured out a single reason to prefer it over doom2.

[scifista42]

HATED?!?!?!?!?!?

[Pencil of Doom]

First begin with Episode 1 and then move on, after that Doom 2 and finally Winter's Fury.
This is what i would show to a modern FPS gamer.

[MisriHalek]

Doom is an old game, so if u want to get new people into it I think the best way is to invoke their nostalgia and curiosity to know how FPS evolved from Catacomb 3d to the modern games.
But I think there is something other than that. Hardcore wads. Because I don't think that there is any modern game has slaughtermaps.

[j4rio]

scifista42 said:

HATED?!?!?!?!?!?

Yes. It really didn't do absolutely anything for me. I played it after iddqd-ing through plutonia so I was disappointed with all the weak monsters and weaponry. That was quite a long time ago though.

[purist]

I got hooked playing Scythe, Classic Episode, 10 Sectors, TVR! and Claustrophobia so I guess those. Scythe if I have to just pick one.

[Reisal]

Sunder.