Classic Doom community is the most wholesome community ever

[Kinsie]

It's easy to look this good when the Elder Scrolls and Fallout mod communities are next door.

[Argent Agent]

1 hour ago, Shepardus said:

Being mostly focused on single-player content helps. Competitive multiplayer tends to bring out the vitriol from players, especially if there are rankings and carrots dangled in front of them to fight over.

Can confirm from being in the Skulltag/Zandronum community; that community has had a pretty large share of toxicity throughout the past.

[Varis Alpha]

out of the various forums i've been a part of, the doom ones has not only proven to be the most long-lasting, but also the most encouraging to newcomers and free of the bullshit that large forums tend to congregate.

 

one forum i met some of my best and most long-lasting friends at, and when it grew bigger, it generally took a turn for the worse and become less appealing to be around. we then started to drift off towards our own created forums (with blackjack and hookers! :P), which also we drifted off from as it eventually shut down, turning into a Discord group which, also, got taken down, mostly just leaving us with our friendship ties that we had made (and another, signficantly less active Discord group). another forum was just a giant mess the second that i entered it, full of hostile people that were going at different sub-communities within the community. i trust it is no different now than when i left it.

 

this forum meanwhile, and the zdoom forums, has had its fair share of bad apples and drama throughout the years, but it's never dwelled on those things, always striving to remove those apples, and curb drama, offensive content and low-effort posting. you get the sensation that these places grew up with the members, getting more mature and hospitable in general. i can't think of a single reason that i'd want to leave this community behind, the only thing holding me back being my interest in other games for the time being, but i always seem to find myself gravitating back towards here with regular intervals.

[MurrayTC]

It really is, I've felt the same since I first joined circa April 2020. Just don't wander into the bad parts though

[Sonikkumania]

Well to be fair we don't really compete or think about ranks so there's no reason to be a dick. Sure there is online gaming but imo it's just more laidback and chill than LoL or even Battlefield. Which it should be in the first place.

 

Here's a welcoming community which likes to support and it's pretty awesome. Surely differing opnions arise but as long as discussions remain stable there isn't any problem.

[heliumlamb]

i feel there absolutely is something nefarious going with so many of the modern competitive (forced esports) games, especially with regard to human-to-human communication. it's almost as if cultivating some of the nastiest social communication is part of their design ethos. every time i hear about toxicity in competitive games, or see something even tangentially close to that sort of toxicity, i'm reminded of a person who was once very, very close to me, whether i want to or not. that person now yells at teammates on the mic about how bad they are, at least once a day, seemingly not having fun, and making sure everyone else has no fun for hours on end in the process. perhaps seeing so many people end up that way has caused me to be somewhat dogmatic in opposition to such competition and behavior. anything feels more welcoming in comparison.

most people here seem to be having fun, and are trying to make sure others have fun too. while fun is subjective (no single map is going to please everyone), at least here it's imperative. i tend to have so much more fun in singleplayer games as a whole these days, even if i'm losing horribly and repeatedly.

speaking for myself and my brief time here: i absolutely deserved to be put on blast the single time i ended up causing a ruckus with a post, and it was completely due to my own distorted perception of toxicity. (toxicity that, let's be real, didn't exist outside of whatever my doofus brain was perceiving and spewing.) [put highly ambiguous representation of some human facial expression here]

i guess the best sort of competition is improving upon your past self.

 

[Kinsie]

Also whenever someone describes some videogame-related something or other as "wholesome" it inevitably has some dark, dark shit going on just below the surface. Every time. Without fail. So I'm afraid I'm gonna have to reject that particular part of the thread title with a visceral intensity.

[Mr. Freeze]

8 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

Also whenever someone describes some videogame-related something or other as "wholesome" it inevitably has some dark, dark shit going on just below the surface. Every time. Without fail. So I'm afraid I'm gonna have to reject that particular part of the thread title with a visceral intensity.

 

HDoom is living in our heads rent-free. 

[forgettable pyromaniac]

12 hours ago, DSC said:

Also, this is completely unrelated, but I saw there a comment by a dude with a cat profile pic named Taxtro. I've seen them and their comments in several unrelated videos at this point... Pretty funny coincidences if you ask me.

Well now the only person I can think of is Justin Y.

[Eurisko]

I’ve been here coming up on 4 years and I’ve seen very little negativity and bitching. Most folks are chilled and any drama always seems to get squashed with a snappy one-liner from someone. 
Doomworld is the safe haven of the internet. 

[Mystic 256]

I love doom community

even though things have been quieter these past years, there's still a lot wads/mods, cool people, and dedication in this community

[DeathWolf1982]

I joined the forums in early 2022 of march, since i got back into doom recently.

 

I did play Doom 3 on the Xbox 360 in 2013 along with Doom and Doom II when i was like 7 it was kinda cool though but the Monster credits sequence in Doom II scared the shit out of me and i didn't never play doom for 9 years until 2022 i finally braved it up since i'm 16.

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by DeathWolf1982

[Captain POLAND]

I don't know, lots of people were pretty mean to me when I made my first thread here...

[TheHambourgeois]

I am guessing part of it is a lot of us are 30+ and so have been socialized into not being reflexive assholes

[HeatedChocolate]

I kinda wanna say it's cause we've all been mushed together, cause Doom was the maypole for the whole "Bideo gaems cause violence!!!" stuff that facebook moms continue to spew, so we all stuck together to defend our favorite pastime. The days where that was strong are long over, of course, but I'd say the experience still left a mark.

Edited October 4, 2022 by HeatedChocolate

[Dark Pulse]

On 10/2/2022 at 3:53 PM, SFFlowerBoy said:

I got fairly recently into doomworld, but one that catched my eyes is how nice and friendly everyone here is. Communities from other Games I experienced like League of legend where the opposite of that.

The ghosts of Post Hell are always attempting to pry their lid away...

 

More seriously, probably a number of factors.

• It's generally not a uber-competitive game - at least, not by modern standards anymore, and needless to say its time as an eSport is long, long dead - for like 25 years now. Obviously there's multiplayer, but it's of the "drop in and have some fun" type. Not to say you can't find competitive (and/or toxic) players, but by and large it's much more chill.
• The game is nearly 30 years old, and its fanbase thus skews older. Most of us are grown adults, people with jobs, some even have children. This goes in like with #1 - sometimes it's fun to just chat with friends and have some frags. (Doomkid does a series literally called "Chat 'n Frag.")
• There are often interests that have nothing to do with extreme competition. Mapping contests, speedrunning, etc. Some people in this community gain their enjoyment out of making resources for others to use, from textures to music.
• A focus on modding the game means that often there are a lot of helpful and knowledgeable people around, reducing toxicity.

So basically, this community is not full of younger guys for whom that competitive urge is all-consuming and they've got all the time in the world to play games. A lot of us just make a bit of time to have a few hours of fun and then we're good.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Dark Pulse

[tanapo]

we take out our anger on the demons so we're always nice on the forums

[sandwedge]

Joined this community at the start of this year and can confirm it's great.  The mods do a great job of keeping this place fairly tidy and positive.  While I see complaints, no social space is going to be perfect, and many negative claims that I see are blatantly unfounded.  I have a great time and have met some great people on here and on related discords and such.  Hope you enjoy your stay!

[Herr Dethnout]

You know, I'm actually impressed that Doomworld is the most wholesome community even among the other Doom forums.

I was part of ZDoom forums briefly, and boy, I've seen some dramas in that short time on it, particularly, one involving a GZDoom commercial game (I don't remember exactly the reason or even the game name but was pretty active drama iirc). 

It doesn't help the fact theres a public archive of all toxicity on the forum (not all of that is just drama but theres a lot lol). I prefer more the way how Doomworld handles this kind of things. This doesn't mean that ZDoom forums is ToxiCity (heh), the 90% of the times is fine.

Here, the only big drama I've seen on this forum was Graf with Lilith Cacoward nomination lol

 

On 10/2/2022 at 3:53 PM, SFFlowerBoy said:

So what do you think is the reason for that? Your thoughts on that would interest me.

Idk the reason, but the people here is really nice and willing to give constructive criticism and accept it rather than just fight because xd

[Stupid Bunny]

I joined back in 2007 and let me tell you the place sure was different in those days. In fact I vanished from 2014 to like late 2020 and even when I came back it felt totally different, like certain forms of open derision and excessive abrasiveness were no longer as normal and tolerated as they had been. Banishing Post Hell to hell and allowing anyone to choose a custom title, rather than having an (often mocking) one bestowed from above, was kind of the culmination of all that I suppose. It’s not to say it was total horrible chaos then but I think we have all literally grown up a bit since then. There’s no better place on the internet to come chill and share our creative fruits in general peace and siblinghood

Edited October 7, 2022 by Stupid Bunny

[NiGHTS108]

I usually attribute classic Doom having such a welcoming community (nowadays) simply to the fact it’s been around a really long time, both the game itself and the community 

[Codename_Delta]

On 10/2/2022 at 8:56 PM, SFFlowerBoy said:

That's true but that is the only frame of reference I have unfortunately. But I am still of the opinion that this community here is truly something special.

The Overwatch Community is pretty bad too...

 

(Haven't played 2 lmao)

 

But yeah, The Doom community is one of, if not the best one, at least on DW and the discords I'm in.

[HorseJockey]

On 10/4/2022 at 11:00 AM, TheHambourgeois said:

I am guessing part of it is a lot of us are 30+ and so have been socialized into not being reflexive assholes

Can confirm for my part, I'm too old and tired to be an ass. Everything comes back around, you get what you put out into the world or on an internet forum. I just want to make maps and talk to chill people. I am a big fan of the Souls Borne games, and that community can be toxic AF. I think there is a pervasive opinion from the toxic individuals in different gaming circles that there is only one "right" way to play, and there is, whatever ever way you find the most fun. I think allot of people in this community enjoy Doom in their own way, but aren't concerned with forcing their play style or mapping style or what have you onto anyone else. 

[Koko Ricky]

This forum discourages political discussion which helps with civility. Mods are good at keeping out the riff-raff and there's enough older folks here to instill wisdom and maturity in the younger ones. 

 

I also think Doom as a series has also been good about being friendly, sometimes silly, and non-toxic. In some of these game franchises, there's so much focus on competition and macho bullshit that it brings out some really ill behavior in fans. I like to think Doom, front to back, works really well as a series you can enjoy on a hardcore level while minimizing crappy fandom. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by Koko Ricky

[Doomkid]

The single-player Doom community has always stood head and shoulders above its peers. None of this “just in the last 8 years” shit either, I mean always, if we’re using other gaming communities as a bar of comparison.

 

The MP side of things was always a little more crazy. Even then “no drama ever” would be an insane expectation and brief peeks into other gaming communities at the time has me convinced that Doom’s community at large has always been one of the “least crazy”, lol

[MrGigglefingers]

Yeah it's pretty chill on here but that wasn't always the case. A lot of people here now weren't around for the Terry wad era.

[LadyMistDragon]

On 10/7/2022 at 1:50 AM, Stupid Bunny said:

I joined back in 2007 and let me tell you the place sure was different in those days. In fact I vanished from 2014 to like late 2020 and even when I came back it felt totally different, like certain forms of open derision and excessive abrasiveness were no longer as normal and tolerated as they had been. Banishing Post Hell to hell and allowing anyone to choose a custom title, rather than having an (often mocking) one bestowed from above, was kind of the culmination of all that I suppose. It’s not to say it was total horrible chaos then but I think we have all literally grown up a bit since then. There’s no better place on the internet to come chill and share our creative fruits in general peace and siblinghood

 

 

Rando from back in the day returning "Where's Post Hell?" as if we needed more blatant reminders of negativity of any sort. You joined roughly around the same time I discovered Doomworld and a section when joining up that read "look something up before asking," told me all I needed to know. I was regularly making an ass of myself in other forums and had no wish to repeat that experience anywhere else.

 

Regarding something OP said, I think 'wholesome' might mean something different. I agree with the sentiment though: Doomworld might have gone "PC" when compared to the old days, but truthfully, it's so tiring having to listen to someone be a dick over a simple question or something.

[PineFresh]

8 hours ago, Doomkid said:

The MP side of things was always a little more crazy. Even then “no drama ever” would be an insane expectation and brief peeks into other gaming communities at the time has me convinced that Doom’s community at large has always been one of the “least crazy”, lol

Echoing the point about drama here - having played other games including MMOs with guilds/factions, it always struck me as ludicrous to come across some little subcommunity which insists on "no drama." Um... we're human. Drama's gonna happen. Put on your big boy pants and resolve it like an adult.

 

But yeah. I hung out here for a bit in the early aughts (under another name though) and as far as I can tell, "Doom community be chill" is as true today as it was then.

 

It doesn't hurt that this game is old enough for most toxic individuals to dismiss it (and its players) due to age and go back to Call of Duty or whatever.

[CasualScrub]

The Doom community ain't perfect. I've run into my fair share of assholes in it, including on here. But frankly compared to most other communities it really is a nicer place to be in.

[TheSlipgateStudios]

Doom community is one of the best ones, alongside Quake, Wolfenstein 3D and Jazz Jackrabbit 2