I don’t know that it’s quite that big of a thing anymore, but it’s still somewhat shocking to see Id Software has been bought. I just assumed they had enough money to do whatever they wanted for as long as they wanted. Maybe being the grand daddy of the FPS genre just doesn’t pay as well as it used to.
I don’t know how long you guys have been games, but I remember playing Doom I//II on the PC in my math lab in high school. I learned two things from that. 3D games are awesome and even then, pirates existed (a friend installed the full version he got from somewhere). I played the original QTest, convinced the entire office to play Quake when it first came out (and was the best in the office of course). After that…well, I played each and every game id released since then, though most of them for not quite as long. Quake Arena holds a special spot in my heart for all of the multiplayer and mods that came from that. Shit, anyone else play ActionQuake? It was the spiritual precursor to Counter-Strike.
Id Software started the whole thing. And now they are just another development house owned by a big corporation. A time as passed, an old era left beyond. Maybe this will mean good things, like Betheseda will have pretty engines for their games or Id will start releasing games again (maybe even without monster closets). Who knows.
What I do know is this. Today, Id Software is no more. That is a sad moment.
What Would Matt Do: Pour out some OE for my fallen homies and keep fighting the good fight. Because those Terrorists/Monster/Demons aren’t going to kill themselves.