"The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often. And that was id’s mantra for so long: 'It’ll be done when it’s done.' And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by—if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game."
This is what ultimately did 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever in.
There was a lot of overlap between Apogee Software (later, 3D Realms) and id Software in the early days. The mantra of 3D Realms was, during Nuke Forever, that the game will be done when it's done.
That mantra works great at a small scale. But when AAA titles go from Duke3d to Halo/CoD within the span of one development iteration, you're screwed. The cost of keeping up was, I suspect, just too great for a company the size of 3D Realms to keep up. Even id Software was diminishing, post-Quake 3.
Companies like Blizzard and EA have the resources to pump out WoW expansion #9, or Madden 2035 or whatever. For better or worse (my opinion, usually worse) the industry has become more like Hollywood blockbusters. The whole world hears about when GTA 5 comes out and makes billions of dollars the first week, or whatever. As a result, we're just going to get what Hollywood gives us in movies: sequel after sequel.
Perhaps I'm wrong but the opening sentence - "At the stroke of midnight on December 10, 1993, an executive at id Software uploaded a file to an FTP site on the University of Washington’s network" - seems inaccurate - the big ftp site back then was actually Washington University St. Louis - a different entity than U of W.
"A sympathetic computer administrator at the University at Wisconsin, Parkside, named David Datta volunteered to let id upload the Doom shareware to a file transfer site he maintained on the school’s network." (page 123)
Yes-- wuarchive.wustl.edu and ftp.wustl.edu are what I was thinking of, too. I fondly remember pulling Aminet and Linux-related files off those servers back in the early-to-mid 90s.
"And I have to say I was pleasantly heartened when the Call of Duty wave came over in more recent years and really took first-person back to the top of the heap in prominence."
CREATED DOOM AND QUAKE, THE EXEMPLARS OF ADRENALINE ACTION FPS
[Good Guy John Carmack]
HAS NOTHING BUT KIND WORDS FOR DILUTED ALSO-RANS LIKE COD
Seriously, I probably wouldn't be so soured on "modern warfare" shooters if I hadn't played so much Doom and Quake in my teens-to-early-twenties. They set the bar, a bar which has proven very difficult to meet.
You have to consider that Doom and Quake are on the same level that modern generic shooters. They were basically, find the keys( up to three ), find the doors and kill the monsters and nothing more. I think Doom and Quake were what CoD is today. And there is nothing wrong with that if you like twitch shooters, because that is what Doom is. ::hides::
> HAS NOTHING BUT KIND WORDS FOR DILUTED ALSO-RANS LIKE COD
I'll go on record as saying I liked the first few CODs (up to the first Modern Warfare). Sure, they were full of scripted set pieces, but pretty enjoyable set pieces. A completely different experience than Doom, to be sure, but atmospheric in their own right.
The original Call of Duty from 2003 is built on the Quake III Arena engine (id Tech 3) so John Carmack and ID made money licensing it. So of course he has kind words for that franchise.
After reading this book, I realized I had WAAY underestimated Romero's impact on iD.
Point blank - without Romero, there is iD Software (it was his idea to form a new company). There is no Doom. There is no Quake. Romero was one of the primary creative forces behind iD.
Carmack was the tech genius who made their ideas come to life.
I enjoyed this book SO MUCH. I've actually begun learning C++ because of it. The world of programming is just fascinating. I know I'll never be the next Carmack, but I really want to turn some of my ideas for fun games into a reality.
As I've also recently finished reading _Masters of Doom_ (as a result of HN's discussion of Jeff Atwood's blog post about it [0]), I know that the Wired article has it wrong in the first sentence. Doom wasn't uploaded to a Univ of Washington server, rather Univ of Wisconsin.
The book was a really good and quick read. One point I'll make about its content was how it told of Carmack reading Steve Levey's _Hackers_ (1984) and thought that's where he belonged. I was happy to learn about his alignment with free software.
Wolfenstein 3d was my first non-console game. I enjoyed it tremendously, as with Doom and Hexen. I'm currently a COD addict.
The term "deathmatch" was an insight of Romero's upon experiencing the beginning of multiplayer. That was also nice to find out, that deathmatch came from Doom. It has totally stuck since, as team deathmatch is considered the default game type in COD.
If you enjoyed reading this and want to learn more about Carmack, Doom and id software, Masters of Doom by David Kushner is a well researched and enjoyable read.
[+] [-] rpm4321|12 years ago|reply
"The worst aspect of the continuing pace of game development that we fell into was the longer and longer times between releases. If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often. And that was id’s mantra for so long: 'It’ll be done when it’s done.' And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by—if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game."
[+] [-] aryastark|12 years ago|reply
There was a lot of overlap between Apogee Software (later, 3D Realms) and id Software in the early days. The mantra of 3D Realms was, during Nuke Forever, that the game will be done when it's done.
That mantra works great at a small scale. But when AAA titles go from Duke3d to Halo/CoD within the span of one development iteration, you're screwed. The cost of keeping up was, I suspect, just too great for a company the size of 3D Realms to keep up. Even id Software was diminishing, post-Quake 3.
Companies like Blizzard and EA have the resources to pump out WoW expansion #9, or Madden 2035 or whatever. For better or worse (my opinion, usually worse) the industry has become more like Hollywood blockbusters. The whole world hears about when GTA 5 comes out and makes billions of dollars the first week, or whatever. As a result, we're just going to get what Hollywood gives us in movies: sequel after sequel.
[+] [-] subsystem|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ojbyrne|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] schainks|12 years ago|reply
From Masters of Doom:
"A sympathetic computer administrator at the University at Wisconsin, Parkside, named David Datta volunteered to let id upload the Doom shareware to a file transfer site he maintained on the school’s network." (page 123)
Edit: formatting
[+] [-] EvanAnderson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bitwize|12 years ago|reply
CREATED DOOM AND QUAKE, THE EXEMPLARS OF ADRENALINE ACTION FPS
[Good Guy John Carmack]
HAS NOTHING BUT KIND WORDS FOR DILUTED ALSO-RANS LIKE COD
Seriously, I probably wouldn't be so soured on "modern warfare" shooters if I hadn't played so much Doom and Quake in my teens-to-early-twenties. They set the bar, a bar which has proven very difficult to meet.
[+] [-] deletes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eps|12 years ago|reply
Your reddit is leaking.
[+] [-] mercurial|12 years ago|reply
I'll go on record as saying I liked the first few CODs (up to the first Modern Warfare). Sure, they were full of scripted set pieces, but pretty enjoyable set pieces. A completely different experience than Doom, to be sure, but atmospheric in their own right.
[+] [-] saltado|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CaptainZapp|12 years ago|reply
It tells the story of ID Software, the groundbreaking games they developed up to the split of the two Johns and then some.
A real interesting read for anybody interested in the subject.
[+] [-] Bamafan|12 years ago|reply
Point blank - without Romero, there is iD Software (it was his idea to form a new company). There is no Doom. There is no Quake. Romero was one of the primary creative forces behind iD.
Carmack was the tech genius who made their ideas come to life.
[+] [-] tripplethrendo|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianzelip|12 years ago|reply
The book was a really good and quick read. One point I'll make about its content was how it told of Carmack reading Steve Levey's _Hackers_ (1984) and thought that's where he belonged. I was happy to learn about his alignment with free software.
Wolfenstein 3d was my first non-console game. I enjoyed it tremendously, as with Doom and Hexen. I'm currently a COD addict.
The term "deathmatch" was an insight of Romero's upon experiencing the beginning of multiplayer. That was also nice to find out, that deathmatch came from Doom. It has totally stuck since, as team deathmatch is considered the default game type in COD.
[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6570439
[+] [-] AJ007|12 years ago|reply
Carmack doesn't mention it, but you can get Doom on the Oculus here: https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=4...
[+] [-] joepour|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmarin|12 years ago|reply
What atrocity! Only us the programmers can apreciate his brain dump style of writting.
[+] [-] acomjean|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitops|12 years ago|reply
"There’s something just intrinsically rewarding about turning around a corner and shooting at something."
Do others feel this way? I've played shooter games when I was a kid, but I don't know that I feel intrinsically rewarded by shooting at stuff.
[+] [-] TillE|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prawn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Crito|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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