2017 has come and gone, and with it comes another installment of Doomworld's Cacowards. Doom is now twenty-four years old and has successfully weathered the release of its technologically superior progeny; in fact, I'm certain that public interest has only increased since Doom 2016's release the previous year. If anything had a chance of doing any damage to its longevity, it would have been the end of development on ZDoom. Thankfully, developers were more than prepared to pick things up, and the torch continues to burn in QZDoom and GZDoom.

The Doom community is one of the oldest and most vibrant game modding scenes. It has accrued a lot of baggage over the years, but I would be surprised to find one without. 2017 was relatively drama-free compared to others, provided you don't count the Doomworld forum's transition from woefully outdated software to Invision. People were quite vociferous about the dissolution of Post Hell. The original /idgames frontend disappeared, too, but got reinstated until its issues get sorted out. Two things the community definitely wasn't ready for were making "liked" posts a measurable quantity and a status feed update on the Index, both of which were later deactivated.

The biggest change for me: this is the first Cacowards since I volunteered to help back in 2012 where I was essentially uninvolved. Sure, I'm writing this foreword, but about halfway through the year I told our gracious host Linguica that I was no longer willing to shoulder part of the responsibility of the Cacowards. As a result, he drafted two more voices - Not Jabba and Demon of the Well - to help author the ceremony presented to you today. The greater breadth of writers has resulted in even further expansion, something the awards have been leaning toward since I took the reins alongside Alfonzo and Xaser during the great no-show, and which should please those readers who have been clamoring for more mentionations so as to better showcase the wonders that this community is capable of.

My only real contribution to the 2017 Cacowards appears to be my endeavoring to keep the door open for releases published at the end of the 2016 season, a decision many people did not remember either in its specifics or in full. The ensuing arguments made a bit of a mess in the official forum thread. Which is OK, really. If I've learned one thing about the members of the Doom community, it's that none of you lack for passion, an essential element of its ongoing strength whether you make maps, graphics, music, art, demos, videos, prose, or just play the game. Thank you for being a part of Doom.

- kmxexii

Programming note: In previous years, the Cacowards were referred to in a number of confusing and contradictory ways: for instance, last year's ceremony was labeled the "23rd Annual" Cacowards in the title, while the logo referred to it as the "13th" Cacowards, and the sidebar referred to it as the "2016" Cacowards. To keep things simpler going into the future, Cacowards will simply be labeled by year.

2017 Cacowards

Espi Award for Lifetime Achievement

Top Ten - Page 1

lilith.pk3
Shadows of the Nightmare Realm
No End in Sight

Top Ten - Page 2

Dead.air
Brigandine
Counterattack

Top Ten - Page 3

Legacy of Heroes
Saturnine Chapel
Stardate 20X7
Void and Rainbow

Multiplayer Awards

Pyrrhic
Progressive Duel 2

Gameplay Mod Awards

Doom Delta
Final Doomer
High Noon Drifter

Other Awards

Codeaward
Mordeth Award
~~Mock~~award
Mapper of the Year

RUNNERS UP

Rise of the Wool Ball
Hadron E2
Revilution
Waterlab GZD
Disjunction
Curse of the Demon Lord
Water Spirit
Hellscape
Dark Tide