If you were to make one PWAD canon, what would it be?

[june gloom]

Okay, so canon doesn't actually matter in Doom, but bear with me. Evilution started life as a PWAD but got official recognition and was therefore arguably made canon with D1/2, right? So if you were to pick one mapset and declare it official canon, what would it be? (Not counting other official mapsets like Doom 64 or NRFTL)

This was a huge pain in the ass to write on my phone so I'll answer my own question later. Meantime have at it.

[BaronOfStuff]

teh gools froest!!11!1!

Really though, it'd be one of the older ones, and a PWAD for Ultimate Doom at that. I'll have to look through the folder before I decide though.

[scifista42]

I don't see the point of the question. What benefit would the PWAD get after becoming "canon"? On what basis should we pick it, other than pick our own favorite wad? What is it supposed to say about the PWAD, or about us?

[Maes]

What is a PWAD? A miserable little pile of THINGS, NODES and LINEDEFS!

[Jon]

UAC_DEAD

[Maes]

A better question would be how you would compose a full episode replacement for Doom, for every episode, with specific PWADs. I'd leave Doom 2 out of this, for obvious reasons.

[Patrol1985]

dethtoll said:

Evilution started life as a PWAD but got official recognition and was therefore arguably made canon with D1/2, right?

The word "arguably" being the most important here as "Final Doom" isn't canon at all (assuming any canon exists at all, I always thought "Doom II" was followed by "Doom 64" and then there was a reboot with "Doom 3").

However, to answer your question:

Jon said:

UAC_DEAD

This.

The more time passes the more I appreciate this WAD and its influence, especially considering how early in the game's history it was released.

[40oz]

If you use your imagination, every pwad is canon.

[Maes]

Jon said:

UAC_DEAD

Well, it's influential, sure, but how would it fit into Doom's canon? E.g. as a E1M1 replacement? Or as something else?

[dew]

Disgruntled Former Employee">

Disgruntled Former Employee said:

One awful day, the misguided management at
your high-paying UAC desk job decides it would
be a good idea to replace all the SGI Unix workstations with Apple Macs.
You refuse to cooperate and soon your manager informs you that your
services will no longer be required at UAC.

Like any red-blooded American, after weeks or months of brooding on this
indignity, you determine that your only recourse is to grab your gun and
as much ammo as you can carry, stroll into your former workplace and
TAKE OUT AS MANY OF THEM AS YOU CAN before they get you.

You phone your buddy up to warn him. "Better take the day off Monday in
case something terrible happens." "Huh, what do you mean? What could
happen?" "Just take the day off, do it!"

The day arrives. Getting an elevator to yourself, you pull out your
trusty Glock on the way up. Funny, there didn't seem to be the usual
number of people coming and going in the lobby. And what about all
those black vans parked outside and all the black helicopters buzzing
around. Could your buddy have squealed? Nah...

The elevator door opens. AGGHH!! The building is crawling with Federal
Law Enforcement agents, the same Gestapo-like goons responsible for the
death of Vicky Weaver and the Waco massacre! The elevators are locked!
Barricades have fallen into place in the stairways! The building is
surrounded by machine gun nests! The heavily armed Feds have plastered
Clinton posters everywhere! Can you show the thugs of the Federal
Gestapo that an armed and desperate psycho is not so easy to kill as all
those peaceful, law-abiding civilians including women and children? Can
you blast a path to freedom?

[Xaser]

I'm fairly certain we've reached the point where everyone knows exactly which wad I'm linking here without me having to mention it by name.

[Quasar]

UAC Ultra. The episodic format and the story/setting make it perfect to fit in. It was sort of a proto-NRFTL.

[Maes]

Xaser said:

I'm fairly certain we've reached the point where everyone knows exactly which wad I'm linking here without me having to mention it by name.

TBQH, I thought you were going to link to the Harris levels.

[june gloom]

I've been thinking about it and part of me says Back To Saturn X deserves the spot. It's vanilla compatible, brings no major changes to mechanics, is episodic in nature, and looks gorgeous.

UAC Ultra is another good choice, though -- it's such a stark vibe it really stands out from the IWADs.

[Protester]

just wait for doom 4 to turn out to be the TRUE and ONLY CANON

I vote mars war. its the only obvious answer.

[deathbringer]

My own personal "canon" is Doom and Doom 2, with somebody else going off on Icarus / Daedalus. After Doom 2, the world continues to fight the demons for many years - that other megawad about "returning to earth" (it's quite old, and the first level is called A Walk in the Park) is what the Doomguy goes through.
Later, humanity develops better weapons and other technology, and Twice Risen (anybody got the demo?) happens. Eventually the earth is cleared, then Doomguy goes off on Phobos: Anomaly Reborn.

[printz]

DrSleep's /idgames levels, seeing some of his other work is already in Ultimate Doom and the Master Levels.

For similar reasons, Sverre Kvernmo's levels.

BRUTAL DOOM.

[raymoohawk]

Hdoom! oh wait, its no a pwad, still better than brutael dooms tho

[paymentplan]

Perdition's Gate. Hell, it came pretty close to being part of Final Doom anyways. It's a fantastic set of levels, very much in line with what id set up with Doom II.

[Reisal]

Jon said:

UAC_DEAD

This too.

[Superluigieth1]

Jon said:

UAC_DEAD

I agree.

UAC_DEAD is love, UAC_DEAD is life.

[purist]

I guess Perditions Gate or Plutonia 2 make some sort of sense but I agree with Scifista, I don't see what values we're supposed to judge on or what purpose it would serve. I do think it would be cool for id software to commission a Master Levels 2016 where the community could compete to earn a spot on an "official" release that maybe ties in with Doom 4 in the same way No Rest for the Living did with Doom 3 BFG edition.