Mappers of Doom

Post by **redfella** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:52 am

Many of us mappers are familiar with David Kushner's masterpeice; Masters of Doom. The book toke us inside the universe that is id software, beginning with id's humble beginnings all the way right up to the development of Doom 3. The book is expertly crafted in its writing and beutifully delivered in its storytelling, as we all know. Hearing about how id came together and all of the crazy and zany stories along the way, thrilled us. -What if by chance someone created a "Mappers of Doom"?

"Mappers of Doom" (not real title, title is WIP) could be a grandeous look at the culture and mentality of the level editing/modding community. The title could speak about the common mapper's influences, inspirations, reasonings, and doings. It could speak about how the general modding and mapping community thinks about computers, video games, mapping, creating new worlds/content and modding... It could talk about the culture as a whole.

The title could also retrace the tracks of several very popular mods and/or mappers. These accounts would be told similar to the way id was incarnated by Kushner's epic, Masters of Doom. Perhaps there could be 2-5 different and seperate stories following the tracks of influential mapping hobbists and amatuer-to-professional mappers/modders alike. These stories would give structure to the title and would help to setup descriptitory sections regarding the culture of mapping.

Anyways, I hope this doesn't sound too much like a Harry Allen hack... I have had similiar ideas about writing a book on the culture and events of the mapping scene. I just haven't had the inspiration/desire to do it until now... don't ask why, long story.

I am posting this because I don't want to come off as a greedy bastard by using the community to make a buck if, by any chance in the world, it does get to the point of publishing, selling, and eventually making money. I want to open the idea up to the community and see what everyone thinks. To be honest, I am not really sure how far the project will go, how much I will write, and when, if ever, the project will be completed. However, being that there may be the possibility of money involved, I will perhaps be inspired to continue on where I would have quit if it was "just for fun". We shall find out.

So what do you guys think? Would you read a book about mapping? Keep in mind that the book would be about the culture and major events of mapping and its history. It would NOT be a tutorial or "how-to" book. The book would also be cogniscant of ALL video game custom mapping outlets... Not just Quake 3 or Unreal... Not even just First Person Shooters, for example. It would be a detailed look at everything, in general, from past to present regarding mapping/modding.

Word.

Post by **TempSonicClang** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 1:15 am

Neat idea. Anything to give the public a look into the world of mapping would be damn cool and I think a lot of people would read it. Hell, I hang out here and I don't make levels, I must be intrigued by it... either that or I just like making music for you guys.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED "Masters of Doom". Actually, that's the reason I started coming to this forum. I read that book and wanted to be a part of the community again. I took a few years off during college. Ahh it feels good to KNOW I'm a dork and I'm fine with that. My wife wears a shirt that says "I 'heart' nerds". Life is good.

Post by **Wo1f** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:42 am

Sounds like an awesome idea. I'd definately read it, and I'm sure most mappers would. Good luck

Post by **StormShadow** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 3:24 pm

Interesting idea.. but I think it would be pretty difficult to cover all the bases in terms of getting a feel for the mapping culture of other games that you have never designed for. There are probably dozens of games out there with active level design communities, and trying to familiarize yourself with all of them will be quite a task

Maybe just focus on q3 in general? Or focus on a handful of the top games(q3, ut, cs, rtcw/et, etc)?

Im not sure who your audience would be either.. as a mapper I would certainly be very interested in reading something like this - as would most other mappers I would guess. But we only make up a small portion of the gaming community.

Still a really cool idea

Good luck!

Post by **redfella** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:37 pm

StormShadow, I am assuming that mappers from other games think and act very similiar to the way any q3 mappers act. And that would be the very thing I would research and try to expound on... the culture of mapping. I could begin with the very first editors all the way up to HL2, giving a cross-section of mapping's history and its importants events/milestones (akin to how Kushner speaks of the "hacker's ethic" in Masters of Doom).

It's really just an idea at this point in time. Something that I have been considering for a long while. Right now, I am thinking that this book would be similar to 'Masters of Doom' since I am drawing a vast amount of inspiration from it... However, it could quite possibly become an "art book" of sorts, classifying and displaying some of the greatest works created in mapping. Ballistic Publishing might be the way to go if we decide to go that route (art book).

Post by **TempSonicClang** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:30 pm

Red, would you have a section about really cool guys who make music for mappers?

There's gotta be a small spot at least for a guy like me in a book like that.

Oh yeah... and what you just added in your last post gives me a clearer picture of what you're talking about. I think it would be an AWESOME book. I think that would be a page turner.

Post by **StormShadow** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 12:17 am

its a really neat idea, i hope you decide to pursue it..

there might be some legal stuff involved with publishing screenshots from games? cant say for sure..

Post by **Pext** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:15 am

i'd like/love to read such a book. but the task sounds like a lot of work to me.

Post by **Survivor** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:31 pm

Would love to read about this, but like said damn that's a lot of work.

Post by **redfella** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 10:33 pm

Survivor wrote:Would love to read about this, but like said damn that's a lot of work.

Yea, so much that I don't even know where to get started. David Kushner said that it toke him 6 years to research/conduct interviews for Masters of Doom.

Post by **SonicClang** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:35 pm

redfella wrote:Yea, so much that I don't even know where to get started. David Kushner said that it toke him 6 years to research/conduct interviews for Masters of Doom.

Well dude, you'd have to know going into it that it would be a massive project. Master of Doom was so fact-filled and filled with little details I can see why it took him 6 years.

What you need to do is come up with one thing to focus on. If you try making a book about all things mapping, you'll never finish. Stick to what you know and are pasionate about. For interviews you don't even have to meet with the people, you can conduct it all over e-mails if you need to. Kushner probably had a signing bonus from the publisher so he could afford to fly places. If you're planning on writing it and then getting published you need to do what you can to make it happen. I think you could do it man. I think most people would be tickled pink to be interviewed for a book about mappers.