Man, I just never get tired of reading pretty much anything about Id. I think I speak for a lot of programmers, and not just game devs, when I say that the romanticization of Id's history has painted one of the most ideal programmer stories, and one that I often have fantasized living, or at least have imagined what it would have been like to be on that team in the glory days.
I never played Commander Keen, or Wolfenstein 3D, or even Doom, which were all before my time. But when all my friends were getting high speed internet and playing the newest FPS games online, I dreamed of the day I'd have a computer good enough and connection fast enough to join in on the fun. Then one of my older family friends gave me his old copy of Quake 3 Arena, and suddenly I was thrown into this unbelievably fun world of online death matches. Even on my weak family desktop, I could play the game with good FPS. This was my first real interest in computers.
Then when I started programming and learning the history of the field, I of course came across the Id team and connected the dots between my first online gaming experience, programming, and how Id created these games with it. It's been one of those magical "good old days" of programming culture that I look back on for inspiration and motivation and why I like this field so much.
>>I think I speak for a lot of programmers, and not just game devs, when I say that the romanticization of Id's history has painted one of the most ideal programmer stories, and one that I often have fantasized living, or at least have imagined what it would have been like to be on that team in the glory days.
I guess. I assume you've read Masters of Doom and other relatively factual accounts of their history? It's not exactly the most reasonable behavior, and you can get that kind of death march abuse on any sort of game development team today.
We owe Carmack a lot. Doesn't make working for him some sort of pleasurable experience. Most innovators are like this.
I never played Commander Keen, or Wolfenstein 3D, or even Doom, which were all before my time. But when all my friends were getting high speed internet and playing the newest FPS games online, I dreamed of the day I'd have a computer good enough and connection fast enough to join in on the fun. Then one of my older family friends gave me his old copy of Quake 3 Arena, and suddenly I was thrown into this unbelievably fun world of online death matches. Even on my weak family desktop, I could play the game with good FPS. This was my first real interest in computers.
Then when I started programming and learning the history of the field, I of course came across the Id team and connected the dots between my first online gaming experience, programming, and how Id created these games with it. It's been one of those magical "good old days" of programming culture that I look back on for inspiration and motivation and why I like this field so much.