John Romero - The man we love to hate
Krud
(please don't say that you're simply jealous because that's a given). This
way I don't have to read through 10 different threads to see how many total
mental cases there are in this newsgroup.
One suggestion - wouldn't it make more sense to hate someone who will
respond on the newsgroup? Where's Derek Smart when we need him? (just
kidding Derbish :)
-Krud
Destroy
Diakatana just to piss off all you Ion Storm bashers.
Bart-W. van Lith
is up to today ZERO/NADA/NILL :-)
But he would have been a great secret agent. (preferb. for the KGB :-)
Bart
Krud wrote:
>
> Everyone use this thread to list the reasons why you hate John Romero
> (please don't say that you're simply jealous because that's a given). This
> way I don't have to read through 10 different threads to see how many total
> mental cases there are in this newsgroup.
>
> One suggestion - wouldn't it make more sense to hate someone who will
> respond on the newsgroup? Where's Derek Smart when we need him? (just
> kidding Derbish :)
>
> -Krud
--
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-------------------------------
"Do or do not, there is no try." -Star Wars (Yoda)
Joe Ankenbauer
JMA
Destroy wrote:
> Hell, I'd party with Romero anytime. He knows how to have fun. And I'm gonna buy
> Diakatana just to piss off all you Ion Storm bashers.
>
Trent
Preacher Boy and concentrates on games, he can still make Ion work.
----> Trent
TuKuuL
away. He'll wind up an EXCEL phone operator like MC HAMMER.
TuKuuL
DVS Lurker
Krud wrote in message ...
Joe
>I don't hate Romero, but Porter seems like a prick. If John ditches
>Preacher Boy and concentrates on games, he can still make Ion work.
I agree. I suspect Romero still has the talent, but he really needs to
ditch the dead weight.
Joe
MB
The problem is, he is the dead weight. Which is why he was canned at id.
He obviously needs someone to be an authority figure. A slacker surrounding
himself with useless slackers is not a good idea.
Froyd
I think you're cutting the rest of Ion Storm too little
slack...I agree fully that Romero is THE dead weight slacker, but not
the rest of the staff. I mean, honestly...who do we think actually
got Dumbinion to shipping status? Porter?! And even Daikatana...what
little there is about it that's impressive at all...does anyone
honestly still believe Romero had anything substantial to do with
that? Lord. I think the whole reason the place WAS in such turmoil
is that the staff was rife with those who really did believe in a work
ethic and in what they were doing, like Corinne Yu, Warren Spector
etc.. Romero is nothing. Ok, well, not ENTIRELY nothing...if he gets
back into practicing, at least he might be able to use those supposed
deathmatch skills to enter an id contest or two and at least walk away
with another Carmack Ferrari. He could sell it for food. :)
Froyd
edo...@pcisys.net
In article <36AB58BB...@radiks.net>,
Joe Ankenbauer <anke...@radiks.net> wrote:
> I guess that pretty much validates the old saying, "A fool and his money...."
>
> JMA
>
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
BooI...@paradoxoflove.com
wrote:
>I see John Romero as one of those people who pisses their fortune
>away. He'll wind up an EXCEL phone operator like MC HAMMER.
MC who?
Romero... Romero... oh yeah, he's that guy who made the black and
white "Dawn of the Dead" movie right?! Or was it "Down of the
Duped?" Or was it "Game Dorks do Dallas?" or was it "Doofus falls
on own Diakitana?" or was it....
"Major Strasser has been shot!...Round up the usual suspects!"
JackyO
>
> Trent <tlu...@bu.edu> wrote:
>
> >I don't hate Romero, but Porter seems like a prick. If John ditches
> >Preacher Boy and concentrates on games, he can still make Ion work.
>
> I agree. I suspect Romero still has the talent, but he really needs to
> ditch the dead weight.
>
> Joe
why the hell did he hire Porter anyway?
What has Porter ever done except ruin a few companies <Merit, 7th level,
Ion Storm> and piss people off?
Wasnt Porter a stipper or something? Gigolo maybe? Exotic Escort?
There next venture,
Todd PORTER, Executive Producer Extraordinaiire of DOMINION, proudly
Announces the Next Generation in Home Entertainment :
ION ESCORTS
Servicing the Gaming community in Every Way.
Porter needs to be axed, methinks. His greatest feat was conning Romero
into hiring him in the first place.
Awp lonert the human
> Hell, I'd party with Romero anytime. He knows how to have fun. And I'm gonna buy
> Diakatana just to piss off all you Ion Storm bashers.
> Krud wrote:
> > (please don't say that you're simply jealous because that's a given). This
> > way I don't have to read through 10 different threads to see how many total
> > mental cases there are in this newsgroup.
> >
> > One suggestion - wouldn't it make more sense to hate someone who will
> > respond on the newsgroup? Where's Derek Smart when we need him? (just
> > kidding Derbish :)
> >
> > -Krud
Justisaur
The only thing I even recognize out of the things he was possibly involved
with was Marvel Heroes. It's not clear if he even was involved in it though
other than as co-founder of the studio that developed it.
- Justisaur
Rin Stowleigh
career out of not having a career.
It's sort of like an anti-accomplishment, but there are those that
believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, so....
Spalls Hurgenson
fanboyism, marketing, or his own words - as an auteur genius almost
solely responsible for the great works with which he has been
involved. And I don't think it would be fair to diminish his
accomplishments - he's had a hand in the development of some really
great games. He's an imaginative artist with skill in programming and
game-development, some surprising talents for business development,
and an undeniable skill at self-promotion.
But a lot of his talents are rooted in the days of DOS games
development, when games could be created by individuals or small
teams, and are reliant on others to take his creative impulses and
massage them into working products. Without somebody to rein him in we
end up with stuff like Daikatana - big, messy project that have good
ideas at their heart but lack the polish to actually be interesting or
fun.
(There's also the problem that Romero projects tend to feel rooted in
the zeitgeist of the mid-90s, when teenage fads - Gore! Boobs!
Sophomoric rebellion! - were the rage. But whether this is because
Romeo's ideas haven't advanced since then, or because that is just
what the world expects from a "Romero game" and he's trying to deliver
what people want - I really couldn't say. But the allure of that
angsty age is rapidly losing its appeal to the audience at large)
TL;DR: Romeo is evidence of the Peter Principle in real life; a very
smart man promoted beyond his capabilities. Had he remained just part
of a team, he'd likely be seen as less of a joke.
rms
>development, when games could be created by individuals or small
>teams, and are reliant on others to take his creative impulses and
>massage them into working products. Without somebody to rein him in we
>end up with stuff like Daikatana
gamerchick back in the '90s, but come on: That was a long time ago, and
he's still rocking along doing his thing in Ireland, and I hope having a
grand ole time. He quite frankly is a damn cool guy, with no shade of
vindictiveness or bad intent that I've ever seen mention of, that many
people are still jealous and envious of.
rms
JAB
mixture of truth with brand promotion. A really good example of this is
Imagine who were a Speccky 48k developer in the early 80's. They lived
the high life including flash cars so much so that the BBC even made a
documentary about them. That turned into somewhat of a goldmine as it
coincided with Imagine going bankrupt in a somewhat dramatic way*. Some
of the key players later did admit that although they enjoyed the
lifestyle it was also done to give a certain allure to the company.
Remero, I have heard of him but I'm not sure quite what he did that
annoyed so many people**. The positive is at least he's not trying to
flog NFT's unlike certain developers from that era!
*There's even an episode of Blackmirror that plays of the game that was
there downfall, Bandersnatch.
**Or indeed why someone dug this thread up.
Justisaur
for Daikatana used a catchphrase that it would make you his bitch - which
is crap the marketing team did and he didn't want according to him. I
guess it was so bad, it did if you bought it? I don't know, I never had any
interest in it even before it came out and proved the hype was just that,
and never played it.
Even this thread in 1999 there's no one hating on him particularly, but the
consensus seems to be he was just dead weight, which his following
ventures proved.
> *There's even an episode of Blackmirror that plays of the game that was
> there downfall, Bandersnatch.
>
> **Or indeed why someone dug this thread up.
24 year old posts somehow. I personally find it interesting to have someone
comment on something that old that I never saw or participated in.
This does seem an odd one to pick though.
- Justisaur
Spalls Hurgenson
On Tue, 31 Jan 2023 10:25:55 +0000, JAB <no...@nochance.com> wrote:
>Remero, I have heard of him but I'm not sure quite what he did that
>annoyed so many people**. The positive is at least he's not trying to
>flog NFT's unlike certain developers from that era!
1) He left Id to form his own company, with the suggestion that Id's
products (Wolf3D, Doom, Quake) were only as good as they were because
of his contributions (he granted that Carmack might have helped with
the programming ;-).
2) A very unfortunate ad campaign for "Daikatana" claimed "John Romero
is going to make you his bitch". The campaign itself was not Romero's
idea and - reputedly - was allowed only with some misgivings by
Romero, who trusted his marketing team knew what they were doing.
Unfortunately, the ad rubbed people the wrong way.
3) John Romero's brash, loud personality didn't help. He reveled in
his new success (famously buying a Ferrari) and his braggadocio was
offensive to some (I know it did to me. I'm sure he's a great guy, but
he's never seemed the sort of person I'd want to hang around with)
4) The Molyneux-levels of promotion for his games, even though reports
during development indicated otherwise. Best graphics, best AI, best
story, super-optimized programming, all made by the best and happiest
free-range programmers, he claimed. Nothing was ever going to top
"Daikatana" and Ion Storm was going to rule the gaming world. It was
non-stop, often felt disconnected from reality and sometimes felt
obnoxiously over-the-top.
5) And worst, after all that... he didn't deliver. "Daikatana" was an
infamous flop. Ion Storm - Romero's company - crumbled shortly after,
despite being the publisher of cult-classic games like "Deus Ex",
"Thief: Deadly Shadows", and "Anachronox". Stories of delays, employee
dissatisfaction, internal conflicts were common in the industry press
of the time. Romero's later efforts - both in business and game
development - all proved futile and none of his games have reached any
real success (or even notability) since Quake.
6) A seeming lack of any growth or evolution. Today's Romero doesn't
seem much different from the Romero of the late 90s (perhaps a bit
more subdued and aware that his presence can be offensive to some).
His tastes in games seems rooted in the mid-90s and even to this day
he keeps pushing Quake-style games despite the industry as a whole
having moved in other directions.
TL;DR: He has an extremely brash personality that doesn't match up
with his portfolio, and some people find this offensive.
I don't dislike Romero, but I can't say I like him either. I find his
story fascinating though. It's sort of the story of PC gaming writ
small; fascinating, boastful, a tale of talent and luck and missteps,
and full of unrealized potential. In some way, Romero represents
everything awesome and awful about our hobby.