Would you play Doom 1 and 2 if community content had never existed?

[HombreSal]

Let's face it we all play Doom 1 and 2 mostly to use it as a base wad to play other way better wads, like Alien Vendetta or Sunder. Some levels have not aged very well (I find most of Inferno to be bad in particular). I mean yes, The Chasm, Mt Erebus, The Living End, etc? We all love those levels, but Beast Island and Babylon's Chimera are and look better for example lol.

[Biz!]

Well, yeah I would. I know it would get old but yet again I enjoy doom no matter what, I would spend more time trying to beat DOOM 2016 then Eternal / DLC more if the community content and editing tools didnt exist though :P

[1Destro3456]

Probably yes because of its historical value but not as much as I do now

[roadworx]

i would've played both a few times but that's it - they wouldn't be among my favorite games if it weren't for the modding community

[D4NUK1]

Mostly Doom II levels because i like to speedrun them, so that will escalate to a 100% kill speedrun in the loong run. 

But would be a niche speedrun, the same that i do many times with Quake and then go back to other game.

[Doomkid]

Due partially to the butterfly effect, the trajectory of my life would be so different without Doom wadding and modding that I honestly don't want to think about it. In the universe where Doom wads don't exist, I might be a millionaire or I might be homeless in the streets..

 

But yeah, if the world was somehow unchanged otherwise, I'd still give each one a playthrough every 3-4 years. I was playing Doom1 and Doom2 unmodified for at least a couple years before playing my first wad.

[continuum.mid]

Assuming my interest in retro gaming remains the same, I'd probably give Doom 1 a go at some point because of its influence on the first-person shooter genre.

 

That said, if we take the knock-on effects into account, in an alternate universe where Doom was impossible to mod, Doom might not be considered important, I may not have an interest in retro games, or I may not even exist. I can't give a reason why any of these outcomes would be the case, but that's the thing about the butterfly effect - I have no idea.

Edited April 22, 2021 by northivanastan

[Komenja]

16 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

But yeah, if the world was somehow unchanged otherwise, I'd still give each one a playthrough every 3-4 years. I was playing Doom1 and Doom2 unmodified for at least a couple years before playing my first wad.

^^^ Pretty much this. Even without the endless, ever-increasing supply of custom user content, the Doom games are still great, and I'd get the itch to play them every now and then just like my other favorites.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Yes, but, it would become a little bit boring at some point.

[Capellan]

Probably not, to be honest.  I rarely replay Doom content of any type.

[HombreSal]

I've also just realized that Dean of Doom would only have 2 episodes.

[ketmar]

i am replaying both Dooms at least two times per year, usually much more. i still love to spend a hour occasionally, rushing through E1-E2.

[leodoom85]

Realistically, no. I would have the same outcome for other games that I've played in the last 10 years, which is the "play-finish the game-play another game-time passes-play the game out of nostalgia" routine.

[joepallai]

for me it would have been played a couple of times before making room for the next big rpg.  It's all about user-made content and exploring other people's ideas.

[BaileyTW]

I've only played the 4 main classic wads up to this point so I guess my opinion is a bit skewed on that, but I'd still play em, I like the feel and ease of access of speedrunning Doom and even aside from that I'd go back to the games every once in a while like any other game I have, even if some of Doom 1 and 2 do feel really dates as far as level design goes.

[Crock Wilson]

I would definitely not play as often. I'd probably come back to ultimate doom every now and then, but never doom 2. I didn't have doom 2 growing up and I'm just not as fond of those levels as anything from ultimate doom.

[Pseudonaut]

I was initially just interested in Doom 1 with the original levels, and wanted to get good enough to beat it on Nightmare. If there was no community content, I probably would have given up on that eventually and played some other game that isn't even a shooter. Community content is what made me stick around, eventually losing interest in Nightmare difficulty (for the most part) because playing hard custom wads on UV is better.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Probably about the same as I do now, tbh.  Much less if you count playtesting, assuming I wasn't making maps for it. 

[Endless]

Definitely. I like to play old games simply for their historical value and to improve my own retrospective point of view. The first Doom I played was Doom 3 in the BFG Edition; thanks to the (not perfect and honestly mediocre) port it offered to play the classics, I fell in love with the first Doom. Even if WADs didn't exist, I'm sure I would play the first ones at least once a year.

[Mr. Freeze]

If Doom had no community content I'd probably switch to Duke or Quake. 

[The_SloVinator]

Maybe once a year or once every two years.

[Murdoch]

I never knew mods were a thing when I first bought the games so yes. Would I still be playing them? Occasionally maybe but not often.

[dei_eldren]

Sometimes, but not even once a year or two years, and before Si666il came out there was well over a decade, maybe 15 years, i hadn't played it at all, even if i always thought that one day i will again.  Doom is a fantastic game, and has replay value in itself, but the endless amount of IWADs keeps it fresh and interesting, it's like a never-ending game.  Bit similar for me is Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, which obviously don't have the replayability of Doom, but there's tons of mods for them, and i play those, too (not for a while, though, but i will again.) 

[Kokoro Hane]

Honestly, I probably would still be playing DOOM regardless of community content or not. Yes, community content means endless new things for DOOM, but every so often, I just love booting up the original wads and playing them without any mods. It's truly a fun game! If the game weren't good by itself, there wouldn't be a thriving community in the first place keeping it alive today!

[Gez]

Probably not.

 

Maybe once every ten years or so.

[out_of_service]

Realistically I would stop playing DOOM after a good twenty eight years.

[Azuris]

Yes, it is a pretty pick up and play Game.

 

Its Level Design gives the Game more Variaty as other "pick up and play" Titles,

so it engages you more to play it again

 

[deleted.]

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Edited June 12, 2022 by deleted.

[NoXion]

I would probably have ended up playing it a few times, but without the modding community I wouldn't have played it anywhere near as much as I have. I didn't play Doom when it was new, I was drawn in later by all the mods and custom content.

[floatRand]

I did play Doom 1 and Doom 2 before I got into community content, so I guess I could have gone through Final Doom (but would that even exist without community? Probably not.) Maybe replay once and a while.

 

Brutally honest? Community has eclipsed the original product in many ways. 

 

I think the endurance of Doom is testament to its good enemy and weapon design, as well as release of source code so it is still playable post-DOS and tools to make maps. I have my questions if Doom 2016 and Eternal would exist in the form they are now. Could be more akin to that earlier Doom 4 footage.