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KVELLER

How much do you care about Doom's plot?

Do you care about Doom's plot?  

115 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you?

    • More than I should, probably
    • I just want to have a general idea
    • You know what Carmack said...


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Because I do care a lot. I know it's silly, but I've always liked to know the why behind everything that's happening on a game, no matter if it's important to the gameplay or not. I even think OG Doom's story is pretty cool, all things considered.

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I really love the idea of how Doomguy stays back with a shitty weapon to guard the space ship or whatever and then he has to progress alone, in demon infested grounds, because his squad members were all killed, when they carried some really heavy hitting guns.

 

After that, the badassery begins and I didn't follow much of Doom2's or TNT's/Plutonia's plot. I know I am playing as Doomguy and that's enough.

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I don't care about it, but I appreciate it, especially Doom 64's, its little bits of story about Doomguy being like "You know what, its nice and warm here." deciding to stay in hell is fun and wholesome.

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i liked the plot when I misunderstood it lol

from the "doomguy is the last person alive in the universe who lives and dies a thousand times in a thousand different visions of hell" perspective that arose in my mind while playing through shovelware it was perfect

the idea of this spiteful dumbass rescuing anyone or doing an intelligible mission is way beyond plausibility. I just like the idea of him being a futile and vengeful remnant of humanity

 

that doom 4 plot was doubly terrible I'm still trying to unsee it

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It's definitely going to be the first option for me. It just so happens that if a game has a story I become very focused on it, the narrative and the gameplay and expect them to complete each other and add to the experience in a meaningful way. I've always been a sucker for good stories in video games and they are the main reason why I am a SP guy, that and the total lack of endless oceans of morons seen in MP games nowadays.

 

This, however, is not something I ever cared too much about in the classic Doom games because of its simplicity, except maybe for Doom 2016 (and Doom 3 actually, there's lots of details in this game) which actually had a real story and not just something to give you reasons for killing demons and a very simple context to the actions and whatnot.

Edited by Agent6 : Too much grammar for me to handle.

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Depends on what DOOM we're referring to.

 

1990s originals: fuck it let's genocide some hellspawn

2004: ah yes the hellspawn are genociding us this time

2016: let's see why we're genociding hellspawn

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Depends on the game. In DOOM's case, if its story was wiped from my mind completely I doubt it would change how enjoyable the game is for me. This is typical for most gameplay driven games.

 

You are space marine. Space marine has gun. Monsters all over. Kill monsters with gun.

 

Victory.

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I like a general idea of what's going on, you know, context to the actions and what not. I'm a sucker for those 90's backstories 'The Story So Far' write-ups and I'll always read one if its supplied with a PWAD so long as it's not full of broken English or memes or something.

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For Doom alone, I'm kind of over it in the same way that I don't really play the IWADs for entertainment, but rather for warming up or to study.

 

I've been trying to figure out what it is about certain older wads that I really value. Not all older wads, but a particular kind of older wads that I'd describe as vintage wads. I think something many of these types of vintage wads have in common is that there's some sort of well-developed storyline that is either a continuation of the existing Doom universe, or a separate timeline that utilizes similar events and characters. It can either be written blatantly in the text file, or 'suggested' in the way the wad is presented.

I think this is how I distinguish wads I really admire such as Eternal Doom, Hellbound, or Tangerine Nightmare that use map names like Time Gate, Venom Canyon and The Forgotten Land compared to nonsensical, comical, or pun names that caricaturize and babyfy Doom. 

 

I don't think people realize they're doing it, so I don't blame them for it, but wad and map titles like Hecknology, Big Chief Chinese Restaurant and Alfonzo's Mariachi Band Expedition to the Popcorn Jungle Abyss are really lacking that sense of good narrative that is hard to find in Doom anymore.

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No because it's not the actual plot.
The real plot is:
You man
You shoot gun
You kill demon
You like kill demon >:}

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I enjoy the true subtlety of everything not in Doom's plot, but exists in Doom such as:

 

John Romero is Doomguy and the only way out of "Doom" is to destroy yourself. Death alone doesn't stop "Doom" once "Doom" has happened. Instead... Doomguy is the son of Commander Keen and Doomguy must travel back in time to Nazi Germany to murder his own father as a child to prevent his own birth, because Doomguy must be what caused "Doom" to happen.

 

Chances are there's something unwritten where after Doomguy killed John Romero / Icon of Sin, he didn't save Earth, but rather he was sent back in time to before Doom 1 which explains how he was in the right place at the right time. Infinitely stuck trying to stop "Doom" from happening. If you think there's no time travel in Doom, Doomguy can go back to Nazi Germany. Stuck in an endless cycle for the past 25 years, which is why the only way out is to kill his own father.

 

John Tarmack may have once said "story in video games is like story in porn," but he's also the guy who wouldn't put secret doors into Wolfenstien... because he had already put them into the game and waited for people to find them. 25 years later no one thought to look for a story that's clearly there.

 

Then again its probably just a guy angry they killed his rage suppressing bunny wappit.

Edited by geo

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At the very beginning, the very first time playing Doom (or any FPS for that matter), the plot could have been useful to me. The game told me nothing - it's just a first-person view of me looking down a gun barrel. I knew I had to shoot stuff. But, are there friends in this game? Will firing my gun alert any guards (like in Strife)? Here, the plot could have helped a bit.

 

But, honestly, after 10 minutes of play, it's obvious what must be done. The plot sorta fills in what the game doesn't show - it kinda answers the question "Why?". Other than that? Not very important to me.

 

On the other hand, in Doom 3, even after knowing Doom/Doom II's "plot", I wanted to know everything I could about the Doom 3 story. I'm not sure why that is. In Doom 3, it was cool to hear more about what happened, what UAC was, and what its goals were. I don't know why that stuff was more interesting in Doom 3, but it was.

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In some games a plot and other storytelling elements can be used to great effect. In Doom, it's not really necessary. After playing through the original IWADs and certainly fanmade WADs, Doom starts to feel like an electronic Lego set that can be rearranged in infinite ways with the basic concept of one versus many in a series of labyrinths. It starts to develop its own story via gameplay and what the community puts Doomguy through rather than what the canon walls of text say at the end of each episode. While certain official story details such as, "There's a giant fucking grinning computerized goat skull sealed into the wall of an acid room eternally summoning demons to take over Earth because evil and one of the game developers is actually the brain of said goat skull," are amusing, they really don't have to be there for Doom to demonstrate what makes it great.

 

All that you need to know is that you're a space marine who's best friend is a civilian firearm from the 20th century and evil's doing evil things and that's bad.

Edited by VanillaExtract : Misidentified WAD type

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I wrote a book that expands upon it, so I guess I care quite a bit about it. I actually really like the plots behind the original Doom games. Sometimes it's the only thing I like about them, like with Plutonia and Evilution.

 

Even a dumb action game needs a plot of some kind. It doesn't seem like it makes a difference in how invested you are in what's going on, but it does have that effect. That said, I appreciate the game keeping story in the backseat in favor of uninterrupted gameplay.

 

I'm not a fan of the 3do Wolf3d port mainly because of its total lack of intermissions. If I'm shooting nazis because nazis should be shot, I'm not gonna play that long, and I don't really even know where I am. Tell me I'm going into a nazi bunker to shut down a chemical weapons program and I suddenly have a sense of purpose -- then I'm more likely to keep at it.

 

If it's a game like Minecraft, where the whole point is to play in a sandbox, it's different. There's a lot more to do in Minecraft than in Wolf3D, and I can do it all at my leisure, so I don't need a plotline so much.

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I've actually been considering doing a video thoroughly investigating the Doom plot throughout every licensed campaign, from Doom1 to Doom4. There seems to be a pretty strongly implied overarching narrative - Yes, it's basic, but it's there and should be pretty fun to dive into from the position of being a long time player/Modder/general Doom fanatic. Most videos I see on Doom that discuss it from a storyline perspective have left me pretty unimpressed so hopefully I can avoid falling into that same trap.

 

So uh, stay tuned for that if you're interested. This thread gave me the inspiration necessary to start chipping away at it!

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12 hours ago, Novaseer said:

Depends on what DOOM we're referring to.

 

1990s originals: fuck it let's genocide some hellspawn

2004: ah yes the hellspawn are genociding us this time

2016: let's see why we're genociding hellspawn

Why hasnt this been highlighted

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You know,for a community constantly telling themselves that the plot doesnt matter,they sure make a lot of threads talking about the plot :P  

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1 minute ago, Chewyninja69 said:

What did/does Carmack say?

"Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but its not that important" - John Carmack

Yep,i somewhat disagree though.

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Motivation is more important than story. If you can achieve it without spelling the chain of events out and keep it in running in the long term, great. I used to have a real craving for rationalising any videogame I played when I was younger, often finding games without any "motivating factors" to have a big gaping hole in them. I'm not quite as needy in this aspect as I used to be, but I love the hell out of a good story. However, I don't like over-complicated clumsy patched on pastiche that obviously were made up after the fact (e.g. Star Wars episodes I-III). I'd rather have less than more, but if its good, give me plenty. Without atmosphere, story's nothing.

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I'm not care about plot. 

Spoiler

In my childhood I thought that monsters from Doom & Doom 2 are not from Hell - they're made by evil scientist. In Doom some locations like an Deimos Anomaly or House of Pain are a complex of secret laboratory of evil scientist.  In Doom II evil scientist built a secret super weapon that called an Icon Of Sin that creates monsters and Doomguy must destroy it.

 

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Doom's story is like story in a porn movie- it gives context and makes the experience better. 

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5 hours ago, BJ34 said:

I'm not care about plot. 

  Reveal hidden contents

In my childhood I thought that monsters from Doom & Doom 2 are not from Hell - they're made by evil scientist. In Doom some locations like an Deimos Anomaly or House of Pain are a complex of secret laboratory of evil scientist.  In Doom II evil scientist built a secret super weapon that called an Icon Of Sin that creates monsters and Doomguy must destroy it.

 

Dr. Goldfire would like a word with you.

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17 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I've actually been considering doing a video thoroughly investigating the Doom plot throughout every licensed campaign, from Doom1 to Doom4. There seems to be a pretty strongly implied overarching narrative - Yes, it's basic, but it's there and should be pretty fun to dive into from the position of being a long time player/Modder/general Doom fanatic. Most videos I see on Doom that discuss it from a storyline perspective have left me pretty unimpressed so hopefully I can avoid falling into that same trap.

 

So uh, stay tuned for that if you're interested. This thread gave me the inspiration necessary to start chipping away at it!

I pretty much gave up on watching Doom lore videos for the exact reason you mentioned... but I'd definitely be interested in seeing what you come up with! :-)

 

Generally, I don't care about the lore in games. All growing up, I think I played all my games (Hexen, Heretic, Commander Keen, Hocus Pocus, Catacomb 3D, Terminal Velocity, Descent, etc.) without ever having the foggiest clue what the story was about. :-P

 

EDIT: As of right now, 42% of people agree with Carmack. ;-)

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Yeah, I care about the plots of these games a lot. There's nothing to lose if they have ambitious plots, even if the gameplay is so simple and unrealistic (lone dude winning against thousands of disorganized enemies).

 

There is a huge potential for stories and events after Doom 2:

- how big was the damage? Is most of the land still habitable?

- do scientists manage to perfect teleportation and avoid all the setbacks (brain damage, alien/demonic invasion)? If so, then that's a revolution.

- are there focused efforts to eradicate the alien/demonic threat and possibly colonize "hell"?

- alternatively, if humans are all doomed and possessed, does Hell find new alien worlds to conquer?

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I like stories in shooters for the ambience as long as it stays as a backdrop. I think Doom 1 does it very well where the text between the episodes enhances the feeling that you're generally just screwed - going to hell and not coming back.

 

The story in Doom 2 on the other hand just seems way too disconnected to the actual maps. I've seen porn movies with a better story than what Doom 2 had.

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