I remember the first time playing Doom was actually Doom II. It was on my aunt's laptop. The brightness setting was incredibly low to the point where I could barely make my way down the hall in to the first room. All I would see are muzzle flashes and then I would die. I would try shooting the muzzle flashes but the keyboard only scheme was beyond me at that age. I was plenty scared and never got back in to the game until years later.
In late junior high, I took up Counter-Strike. I achieve a high level of play after a few years. It was one of the three major past-times during high school. Another past-time was Quake III. It was a personal preference, and I was the only one who played amongst all the people I knew. It was all about Counter-Strike at the internet cafes.
Counter-Strike was an addiction that drew the worst in people. Much profanity and beef came along with the internet cafe territory. One time, I was playing at a local internet cafe that I had just discovered. I was manning a horrid 512 x 384 resolution. The standard at the time was a 3D accelerated 800 x 600. After playing at a disadvantage, and plenty sick of playing Where's Waldo on the computer. I snapped. The CRT I was playing on had a slide out tray to hide the monitor buttons. I slid that out inserted my gum. Pulled out the CD-Rom tray and snapped that off. Spat all over the keyboard. I sat there until everyone else was ready to leave.
Quake III wasn't popular at all in New York. I've tried to convince people to take it up. Showing them rocket jumps and 360 degree spins in to rails. While impressed no one was interested in playing. Until one day, I challenged some of my friends to a 7 on 1. With the last ten or so minutes of our Counter-Strike session, we all booted up Quake III. I won the match 27-0.
Nowadays, my accuracy in Quake III has improved to approximately an 80/60/35 percent ratio for the RG/RL/LG, respectively. My map control is below the average Quake player. I probably spent too much time playing against bots in high school. Any time on the internet was spent playing Counter-Strike.
I turned back to Doom in college. In all the years of first person shooters, never have I played anything so visceral. Quake I and Quake II single player was boring compared to what Doom has to offer. Now, Doom has stuck with me past college and I have begun mapping. What better way to put all my observations to use?
