40oz
diRTbAg
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Post by 40oz on Jun 18, 2018 8:58:51 GMT -5
As a level designer for Doom, I fill countless hours of my time doing unimportant things that don't require too much of my attention so I can muse about what makes the perfect Doom map. I experiment, I practice, and I play what's out there in the world. I like to think I've developed a knack for knowing what "fun" in a game really means and be able analytically detect whether a particular feature has anything to do with whether or not I'm experiencing "fun" while I'm playing the game. Over the years new games come out, and I listen to people talk about them, get excited for new stuff, be the first to preorder a new game they have high expectations for, talk about how cool its going to be, and at the same time complain about the games they bought last year, get frustrated with terrible sequels and business practices of certain video game companies, and in general expose their cynical attitude for the present while keeping positive and enthusiastic for whats in store for the future. I don't get myself caught up in that. I haven't bought a new game since Doom 2016 came out, and while I liked what I played, it will never take the place of Doom 2 for me. It just won't. And even though Bethesda sells the new games with all the attention to true doom fans and nostalgia rubs and whatever, I don't think they really want to replace Doom either. Doom is too good. It's 25 years later and people still won't put this game down. They need people to forget about their games once in a while. How are they gonna sell more games if they make a game that's better than Doom? For that reason, I think video game companies intentionally oversell their games while delivering subpar games. There's a sweeping wave of excitement when its new but eventually after so many hours of playing, the true flaws in its design begin to reveal themselves and the interest in the game wittles away. There's an increasing investment in facilitating social networking into gaming so people buy whatever games their friends are buying just to keep the online friendships blooming. I make Doom maps the absolute best I can. I love having a fun experience with Doom and wish the same on everyone else. I care about what people say about my maps, I listen to criticism, and work at it. I listen to people's 'feelings' and try to gauge the range of emotion they have while playing the map so I can work on guaranteeing a fulfilling experience in my next one. I wish only the best experiences possible for my players. I do this shit for FREE. For that reason, I don't settle for mediocrity. I don't want rookie mistakes in my game. I don't want customization and personalization features, I don't want added fluff for replay value. I don't need to notify all my friends that I got a new game. I see through all that bullshit. There was a time where gaming was very innocent, and people struggled to enter this frontier with something that's just good, and that's how we got amazing happy accidents like Doom and Quake. But now that we can measure data like amoebas under an electromagnetic microscope, video game producers have mastered the art of making sales, and it comes with an innate requirement to deliver imperfect products to keep the loyal masses hungry for something better. I don't fuck with that shit, and for that reason, games are worse now than they've ever been.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 1:24:01 GMT -5
Games are way better now than they were just five years ago. Japanese devs finally learned to stop trying to un-Japanese their games, ultra brown realism has been dropped for the sake of what's more conducive to entertaining gameplay and interesting aesthetics, and companies being openly hostile to consumers has far more immediate repercussions. On the other hand it's probably the worst time for indie games. Anyone can make a game, but so many are so similar, so bog standard, and with so few notable titles, that it can hardly be considered any better than when publishers picked and chose which games to back (and a lot of higher-profile indie games end up backed by them anyways).
It seems like a very incestuous industry. So many indie games slavishly following trends, copying the same aesthetics or some other game from 20 years ago. Nearly every one is always fronted with "inspired by X game!" or "a spiritual successor to Y!" They rarely find their own identity, a lot of the time even going so far as to rip off said game's title. You can't imagine how sick I am of seeing every Mood or Doombringer or Damn or Dimmy drop by. Then when an actually outstanding independent game comes out they all turn around and cannibalize that.
I don't think there's some sweeping conspiracy to make games worse so they can obsolete themselves, at least, not outside of somewhere like Bungie or Bioware. In fact, I imagine if you talked to some of the people on the other side you'd find they're a lot like you and just want to do the best work they can in whatever department they're in.
I'd argue that Doom 2 was a mediocre sequel considering how innovative Doom 1 was, like it was made without ambition and simply to ride on the popularity of the first game.
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Post by Li'l devil on Jun 20, 2018 2:49:35 GMT -5
Games are way better now than they were just five years ago. I can agree with that, but the things major publishers now do to the games are the absolute worst so far and, it seems, it's only getting worse. It's obvious that certain publishers completely lack the interest in their own games and only interest in money. Some even go as far as they want to kill singleplayer gaming and turn multiplayer games into the live services. As for indie games, the situation is bad mostly on Steam, thanks to 0% quality control. GOG provides a much more refined indie game selection. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2018 3:01:37 GMT -5
I'd argue that Doom 2 was a mediocre sequel considering how innovative Doom 1 was, like it was made without ambition and simply to ride on the popularity of the first game. Exactly. Really it was an expansion pack on the original game: more levels, more monsters, new gun. Nowadays I’ve come to appreciate all of the monsters individually, but back when it came out I couldn’t stand them. Their attacks were far removed from the original enemies I’d come to know and love. Perhaps it was a byproduct of being a keyboard Doomer back then, default mouse controls were weird as fuck and wasd was nowhere near being a thing back then, and the new attacks were hard as fuck. I used to just cheese through the battles by skin of my testes. All of the iwads ran on the same executable, if you renamed it to DOOM.EXE DOOM1.EXE or DOOM2.EXE depending on your situation it would run that game perfectly. Nowadays I can appreciate the compactness of the engine, but back then it felt like a cop out. And let’s not get started on the Doom 2 map design. Or let’s. Deathmatch multiplayer was becoming the prime focus even then between the release of Doom and Doom 2, along with looking forward to the next thing in Quake. In interviews in that time id Software employees espoused how the new Doom 2 maps would play much better in Deathmatch than the original, which shines light on their design priorities for Hell in Earth. As a Doom fan of the day I can remember well the disappointment with the blandness, ugliness and perceived lack of inspiration for the new maps. I believe the fact of lack of decent city maps and texturing for said city maps played some kind of role in the immense popularity of Duke Nukem 3D. But still id Software made megabucks and that is what business is all about. First comes the inspiration, then it’s the perspiration, and finally with any luck the remuneration. I’m glad Romero and Carmack got their Porsches and Ferraris because that doesn’t happen for most, but I would have killed for just one decent city map. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2018 8:49:21 GMT -5
In terms of graphics, i think the early 2000s were probably the worst, since it was a transnational period to 3D. 2.5 D aged a lot better than early 3D.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2018 8:52:39 GMT -5
I think those high resolution rail-shooters with light-guns were far better looking, than say anything on N64.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2018 18:32:13 GMT -5
What will the games that those youngins that live and breathe /=0rT/\/!6[-]T make be like? How will today's design decisions and gaming trends influence the game makers of future generations?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2018 4:24:13 GMT -5
I'd argue that Doom 2 was a mediocre sequel considering how innovative Doom 1 was, like it was made without ambition and simply to ride on the popularity of the first game. Exactly. Really it was an expansion pack on the original game: more levels, more monsters, new gun. Nowadays I’ve come to appreciate all of the monsters individually, but back when it came out I couldn’t stand them. Their attacks were far removed from the original enemies I’d come to know and love. Perhaps it was a byproduct of being a keyboard Doomer back then, default mouse controls were weird as fuck and wasd was nowhere near being a thing back then, and the new attacks were hard as fuck. I used to just cheese through the battles by skin of my testes. All of the iwads ran on the same executable, if you renamed it to DOOM.EXE DOOM1.EXE or DOOM2.EXE depending on your situation it would run that game perfectly. Nowadays I can appreciate the compactness of the engine, but back then it felt like a cop out. And let’s not get started on the Doom 2 map design. Or let’s. Deathmatch multiplayer was becoming the prime focus even then between the release of Doom and Doom 2, along with looking forward to the next thing in Quake. In interviews in that time id Software employees espoused how the new Doom 2 maps would play much better in Deathmatch than the original, which shines light on their design priorities for Hell in Earth. As a Doom fan of the day I can remember well the disappointment with the blandness, ugliness and perceived lack of inspiration for the new maps. I believe the fact of lack of decent city maps and texturing for said city maps played some kind of role in the immense popularity of Duke Nukem 3D. But still id Software made megabucks and that is what business is all about. First comes the inspiration, then it’s the perspiration, and finally with any luck the remuneration. I’m glad Romero and Carmack got their Porsches and Ferraris because that doesn’t happen for most, but I would have killed for just one decent city map.
Man, you guys have a totally different view of Doom2 than I do. Doom2 was to Doom what Terminator 2 was to Terminator - It took most of the best aspects of the original and amplified them, admittedly not being as original or groundbreaking, it greatly improved something that was already really good.
I can see an argument for the texturing being bad in Doom2 compared to E1 (let's be honest, E2 and E3 often look even shittier than Doom2). I also was hoping for proper city-textured maps for a solid chunk of the game based on the description before I actually got to play it, but it wasn't that big a deal in the end because the maps were damn fun anyway - definitely more challenging and engaging than the "single barrel shotgun VS lone baron in a hallway" situation that comes up quite a lot in the original Doom. The SSG was the perfect fucking upgrade to take on the badass new array of monsters and is still to this day responsible for the reason that 90% of deathmatchers love the game. Doom1 DM is a snooze fest in my opinion since it takes so much longer on average to get a kill, since the only one-shot guns are the unreliable rocket launcher and the BFG.
The Revenant and Arch-vile are also absolutely key to the Doom community/fanbase not being about half it's current size. Every other enemy is the same - it throws some shit at you to easily dodge. The homing rockets of the revenant and the bizarre flame-explosion-attack and revival capabilities of the arch vile are so interesting and fun to plan around by comparison. They're not just big balls of meat that throw small balls of death at you, they require you to mix and up and be far more alert. Without these engaging enemies, Doom would simply not have aged as well. It would still be a fundamentally awesome game, but it'd be like a cake with no icing.
Don't even get me started on how like 70% of Doomers don't 'get' the IoS. Fuck, I still have fun beating that fuckface wall (with freelook off obviously) every now and again. It's roughly a gazillion times more fun than the Mastermind or the Cyberdemon. You get a different roll of demons spawned every time, meaning occasionally you get a good bit of time with weaklings like the imps and demons spawning so you can easily hop on the platform as it's raising slowly and own it, or sometimes you roll a fucking vile and a bunch of revenants right away so you have to work your ass off in seconds flat to stand a chance.
On my top 10 favorite games list, it would be dishonest for me to put Doom2 anywhere but #1. Doom 1 would probably be at #5 or so, behind a couple of the best Mario titles and possibly even Tetris.
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BIG DICK NIGGA
this post is a lie about my bodily proportions
Major Arlene obsessed, 100% verified freakazoid. AKA bzzrak
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Post by BIG DICK NIGGA on Sept 7, 2018 10:32:16 GMT -5
Did you just spell it as "fortnight" |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 8:38:30 GMT -5
Did you just spell it as "fortnight" |
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Post by thundercunt on Dec 23, 2018 19:44:22 GMT -5
there's a few surprises in a sea of shit
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2018 10:09:43 GMT -5
Kernels of corn?
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Post by optimus on Jan 21, 2019 14:41:23 GMT -5
I am not sure whether the gaming hobby itself is getting better or worse. There is a lot of negativity but we miss the positive side, which is for me that nowadays there are so many different choices, a lot of them retro. Do I dislike modern AAA games? There are indies which is growing like hell (one would argue market oversaturation though). There are old games in GOG, remakes (one would argue nostalgia selling), there is emulation, you can get cheap consoles, openhandhelds that can run a lot of stuff, an active hobby gamedev community, modders, speedrunners, gaming is big, Doom community is bigger and better than ever, so if anyone doesn't like one side of gaming, there are many alternatives.
But if we talk about AAA games themselves, what bothers me is that the FPS genre has regressed. I have seen and sometimes played some modern FPS, played all Doom 4 (2016) and while it was fun at times, I didn't got the hype. It's not feeling like a true return to the past. Doomers who still play classic Doom WADs will atest. It's like everyone is failing at reviving the elements that made Doom or later oldschool fps games (to me btw the peak was reached with Deus Ex (2000), although it's more than FPS, more genres, but that level design and exploration..). It's not the violence or heavy metal music. It's not just little details like no regen health, no reloading (these are easy to recreate), faster player speed (in Doom 4 it's not as fast as it seems while the monsters and projectiles are much faster). It's the level design, that feeling where you want to explore the level and there are very atmospheric and moody places to find, through caves, holes, going to the other side of the level, connecting parts, that thrill of discovery, that feeling that you are there on your own and you are exploring the very next corner.
This feeling is lost from modern games, everything is handholding, non-linear is like a game design sin (unless it's openworld games which is lazy non-linear), everybody is afraid they might confuse the players. And this has especially hit the FPS genre. Even the ones pretending to be retro blast from the past (Rise of the Triad remake, Shadow Warriors, new Doom, new Wolfenstein, Bulletstorm) they just don't get it imho and they also make a mix of newschool casual elements and wannabe oldschool.
I think I got some hope recently from indies (which were stuck to FPS rogue-like before) with the release of Dusk. And Ion Maiden from the pre-alpha levels I played, seems promising, inspiring level design, secrets, easter eggs, classic gameplay feeling too. Maybe indie FPS can go towards that direction instead of arena and rogue-like.
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