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Favorite map\wad names

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What map\wad names do you like the most? I'm always very serious about choosing names for my wads, so I'm rather curious.

I think my current favorite is "Wrath of Man" from Revolution.

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I like inventive names, but not nonsensical ones like some people call their speedmaps or jokewads. Puns/portmanteaus are a hit or miss for me, but they're mostly OK.

The map names in Going Down are mostly inventive and fitting, I like those a lot.

Also, DTWID has a map with an awesome unconventional name "Mental Ward".

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I hate those with 'hell' in their name, there are too many of them and this is confusing.

Some of classical ones I liked: Hip Deep (cleim20), At The Heart of Decay, Lucifer's Laboratory (darken2), Promenade (strain), Rats in the Walls (requiem), High-Tech Grave, Kinetics (MM), Prestidigitation (icarus), Reactor Related Fuel Refinary, Kings of Metal (MM2)

Ah, also Whispers of Satan was cool (there's a piano composition by Prokofiev with this name edit: i checked it now and it's known as "suggestion diabolique", I only knew the Polish name, wow, surprise) and the name of WoS' parody ;)

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I like abstract names, as opposed to concrete names.

No: Nukage Processing, Storage Facility, Jail, Bunker, Mental Ward, etc etc

Yes: Stench of Evil, Whispering Shadows, Ancient Hatred, Dawn of Possession, etc etc

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Abstract names themselves might be interesting and memorable, but if they don't reflect the maps particularly well enough, I'm not keen on them. I personally prefer maps with fitting names to them, and concrete names are specially interesting for me if they fit the maps. Still, the more ungeneric/unconventional, the better.

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Off the top of my head..

P.E.T. Rescue(Icarus)
Skinny Puppy(Requiem)
City of the Unavenged(Memento Mori)

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vdgg said:

What does 'P.E.T. Rescue' mean?


No clue but I remember when I played that map for the first time I thought that part of the story is to save your lost pet and that you'll see a puppy or a bunny sprite somewhere in the level, possibly in the end.

Still, cool name for a level IMO.

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Bingo Pool Hall of Blood. Blatant Doom Trip.

Also I just now realized that Jaws in Space's avatar is a line of planets + star and not a chaingun firing from 1st person perspective.

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Tarnsman said:
Also I just now realized that Jaws in Space's avatar is a line of planets + star and not a chaingun firing from 1st person perspective. [/B]


Yeah it's a combination of 3 different sources, the original cover to the Jaws book, a 2001 A Space Odyssey poster, & a poster for Cruel Jaws


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcST67mABzVVKPSs6XF21TrHAZDIk2nWqruNonWGYArS3tEt9Hdm

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Totally agreed about High-Tech Grave and Whispers of STARTAN. :)

From Icarus I like "Another Fine Mess" the best, a good name for a level with hordes of monsters.

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vdgg said:
Rats in the Walls (requiem)


You'll have to thank H P Lovecraft for that one. Even if he was a racist jerkface.

Whispers of Startan is pretty brilliant IMO. But then I like the poor maligned star* textures.

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Huh, how odd. Just a few hours ago I've been thinking "Man, if someone made a thread asking for the coolest pwad names, I know what I'd post!" I come home, and here it is. Synergy? Telepathy?

Anyway. Titles! I must admit... I'm something of a weird guy in this regard. A title nerd. I just love titles. Love thinking about what makes them tick and what makes a good title.

I think there are a few aspects to consider:
1. The title should be memorable, catchy and intriguing
2. The title should evoke the feeling of the work. If your pwad is named e.g. "Coffee Break" I don't expect an epic story
3. The title should SOUND good. Say it out loud and hear how it flows. Use alliteration, contrasting words, etc. to make it sound great.

In Doom, the typical fallback way seems to be choosing a random badass/atmospheric-sounding word (such as: Vanguard, Serenity, Sunder, Void, etc...)

Another interesting tidbit: the same title can sound different when applied to different things. "Monday Morning" would sound mundane as a book title, but as a Doom map title it gives an entirely different impression.

So! What are my favorites? In no particular order...

PWADs

Suspended in Dusk - Excellent sound
Twice Risen - Intriguing, enigmatic
Swim With The Whales - Exotic, memorable, interesting
Crestfallen
Cyberdreams
Eternal Doom - The title promises you something grand and epic, and it sure delivers
Jenesis
Jactory - Sure is memorable
Troopers' Playground

Maps

Worst Case Scenario
Through the Black
Another Dead Hero
The Colossus Crawls West
Corporate Hell
City Heat
Undead Nation
Bitter Harvest
Dig - short and punchy
UAC in Exile
Imptech Rampage - good sound
Reaper's Digest - memorable, funny
The Mucus Flow
Ruby Abyss
Mr. X
Redemption Denied
Last Look at Eden
Beyond The Sea - pity the map itself isn't near as good
Twilight Descends
The Room Taking Shape
Summercore
Total Exposure
Beginner's End
Basement Jazz
Crimson Tide
Trapped on Titan - great sound. Perfectly "balanced" words
Mostly Harmful
No Brakes
Neurosphere
Everything Dies - short and punchy
Alien Resurrection - taken from a movie, but sounds badass
Graverobbers - I just love the word
Postal Blowfish
Demonic Hordes - you'd think it's a generic phrase, but for some reason I love it as a map title
Midnight Tek Frenzy - perfect sound balancing
Big Time
Escape from Ghost Town
Shipping/Respawning
Geist Halls - good sound
Mineopoly - witty
Storm Approach - Dark City - never got this one, did the mapper come up with two names and couldn't choose one? For some reason though the two-name thing sounds well
Rusty Rage - great alliteration
Shocker in Gloomtown - I know, BTSX's map names were originally song names by Guided By Voices, but I absolutely love this one
Serenity Forever - you gotta love the trilogy's mapnames
Hangman's Paradise
Spook House
Sunset
Electric Wizard
In Defence of Demonsex - From Mock II. What? It's memorable and sounds good.
And possibly way more I forgot.

My least favorite ones include:

Alien Vendetta - it just looks weird. So random. A clash of "alien" (a sci-fi word) and "vendetta" (Italian mob themes?). It doesn't even seem to fit Doom - after all, they're demons, not aliens. It almost looks like someone couldn't think of a good name, so they gave up and just called the WAD "Alien Revenge", then hit the thesaurus to make it sound less lame.
The Plutonia Experiment - I just don't like this one...

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JudgeDeadd said:
"Monday Morning" would sound mundane as a book title, but as a Doom map title it gives an entirely different impression.


Suddenly I want to see a map named "Monday Mourning".

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Well my wad-in-progress is currently called shithaha.wad... I think the primary reason I've been working on it so slowly is that I can't come up with a proper name, and I don't want to accidentally complete it before it even has one!

Speaking of map names, I don't like excessively abstract ones that have absolutely no connection to the level beyond thematic (hell = something metal/sinister sounding). Although even that is better than using song names for maps...
I remember when map names were really interesting to me when playing doom, and it was obviously when I was only a kid. I can recall why they were interesting: they carried information about where I was (or was going to be if I looked at the name as soon as I got to a level), what the place I'm in was supposed to be. For me a name of a map has kind of a symbiotic relationship with the contents of it in creating immersion, since I love maps that have that Doom degree of abstraction to them while still looking strangely reasonable. So when you add a name to such a level, your imagination starts seeing exactly what the name suggests in the abstractness. So, maps that have relatively straightforward (if maybe a bit fancy sounding sometimes) names which describe the location in the map are my favorite. Kind of boring, but the way the IWADs do it is the best for me.

Additionally, for hellish levels the references in the names were an extra layer of interesting, like mt. erebus, or dis.

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Deus Vult, Crucified Dreams, Russian Overkill (do gameplay mods count?), Black Hell, The City of the Damned, Community is Falling (pretty hilarious), No Rest for the Living, the list goes on...

As for map names, Demonic Hordes, The Spirit World, Hell Beneath and everything involving biblic quotes or hell related stuff.

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I'm a fan of most MAP01 mapnames in megawads. "Ignition!" In HR2, or "First Blood" in Speed of Doom. Another favorite is "Scary" in The Darkening. For some reason that map name just makes me smile when I read it.

I prefer one word mapnames like "Attack" in The Master Levels or "Apparatus" in Biowar. I also prefer two word map names if they are "The something" like "The Gantlet" in Doom 2 or "The Teleporter" from Memento Mori.

With few exceptions, I dont like map names that dont give a good sense of location. Map names like "To be or not to be..." in Kama Sutra or "Rusty Rage" in Alien Vendetta are pretty weak to me. I also really dont like non-English map names unless of course the map is by someone who is not a native English speaker. My least favorite map names are puns or plays on words like "Hecknology" in Plutonia 2 or "Natas Ot Etubirt" in Requiem.

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*lazily checks Doomwiki, Levels by name, I definitely don't remember playing most of these*

my favorites would be:

Atlantis Rising (Cchest3)
Between Scattered Corpses (MM)
Citadel at the Edge of Eternity (Cchest)
Damned Bastards (sudtic)
Ein Lustiger Ort (WOS)
Fire Walk With Me (AV)
Godforsaken Hole (Cchest3)
Huitzilopochtli (Cchest3)
I'm Just a DOOM Addict (ksutra)
Locus Perditus (PL2)
Militiant Reprisal (Requiem)
nataS oT etubirT (Requiem)
Odyssey of Noises (Plutonia)
Pathway to Elysion (WOS)
A Question of Time (MM2)
Ratamahatta (MM2)
Suicidal Tendencies (AV)
Twilight Massacre (SODfinal)
Unto The Cruel (Doom)
The Verge of Revelation (WOS)
Where Hate Runs Red (PL2)
Xenturion (ndcp)

also anything by TimeOfDeath.

favorite wad name? this

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Names that aren't boring / too silly.
Off the top of my head:

Wads
Necromantic Thirst
Crucified Dreams
Memento Mori
Demon Fear
Realm of Chaos
Requiem
Eternal Doom
Alien Vendetta

Maps
City of the Unavenged
Where Serpents Ever Dwell (shameless self promotion, feel free to find it on idgames so you can rate it '0' and call it overrated etc)
Crimson Tide
Cryptic Realms
Dark Pulse
The Beginning of the End
Toxic Touch
Overwhelming Odds
Brutality
Unknown
Blood Sacrifice
Misri Halek
Fire Walk With Me
Sacrificium
Viper
Rites of Passage
Den of the Skull
Dispensary Beta (techbase name that doesn't sound redundant)

+ the ones that Darkreaver mentioned.

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