Id Software
id Software is a video game development company, based in Mesquite, Texas. Founded by John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack, the company is known for creating video game series including "Doom", "Quake", "Wolfenstein 3D", and "Hexen". id has come under criticism due to the violent nature of their titles and the potential effects that this violence could have on young people. With their "Doom" series, the company pioneered the idea of allowing users access to design tools in order for them to create their own maps. (Back to index)
History
After the release of their first title, Commander Keen, id released its first effort into the First Person Shooter genre of videogames. Wolfenstein 3D is widely recognized as the first title in the history of first person shooter (FPS) computer games. The title was among the first of games to have pseudo-3D graphics.
DOOM, id Software's next title, was released on December 10, 1994 to critical acclaim. Its advanced graphics, innovative gameplay, and the ability for users to create their own levels ("mods") contributed to the title's popularity world-wide.
Success with the FPS genre continued with the Quake series, along with sequels of the Wolfenstein and DOOM series. With these titles, the audio and visual aspects of these virtual worlds have become more realistic, along with increasingly sophisticated elements of gameplay.
Modding and Open Source Game Engines
As stated by John Carmack, a founder of id, in a Slashdot interview, "DOOM was designed from the beginning to be modified by the user community." (Citation needed)
In 1997, the source code for Doom was released, which allows for programmers to create not only their own levels, but also add their own gameplay. id has been a pioneer in the realm of open source software through its distribution of its game engines' source code.
Whole "modding" communities have sprung up around id's open source engines, with many projects involving antiquated software such as the DOOM source code continuing to be actively worked upon. This has created similar activity around other games, where it is now common for game development companies to release level-creation tool kits for their software.
Controversy and Legacy
As a pioneer in 3D game engines, first person gameplay, and pushing the boundaries of violence in games, id Software has been recognized by its industry as a leader. With the critical acclaim, there has been substantial criticism of multiple aspects of the company's products.
One of the critical elements to id's popular series is the first-person perspective that the player gains. In fact, co-founder John Romero stated on a message board that the protagonist of the DOOM series did not have a name because the player was the protagonist. This perspective, compounded with the amount of graphic violence in the game sparked controversy with the DOOM series, along with the company's other first-person titles. This controversy was magnified when the media reported that the perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre were avid DOOM players. The game's violent nature, along with being associated to such real-world acts of violence, propelled DOOM to be considered one of the most controversial games of all time. (citation needed)
