: I too think Doom's a fine game. I am a little curious about how you find it
: more intellectual? (and I don't mean to ask this in an offensive way, I'm
: genuinely curious). Doom did seem like a basic run and gun. But that said
: I can certainly respect you preferring it.
Well, true that in many ways Doom was just a run and gun game, but that does not mean it required little or no thought. I think that the consideration of how intellectually productive and usually helpful video games can be is very low, far, far lower than it should be. In fact, in my opinion many games such as Doom are as intellectually productive as other genres such as on Age of Empires, just with different attributes. There was more need for quick thinking in the game (in my opinion), and you would have to make very great strategizing and quick thinking when attacking the monsters. The attack pattern thing found in Marathon's monsters was unique and interesting, but it was predictable. True, I will admit that Doom didn't have much of an AI, but while I want a very good AI in the game's characters, I don't want them to be predictable either. With Marathon, it seemed more of "stall/run for a couple seconds, shoot, repeat". As for Doom, sometimes I don't think that Doom's enemies were exactly, shall we say, direct or that they always knew what the hell they were doing, but they weren't predictable.
So yes, Doom's gaming concept may be simple, but when you look and play with it properly, it is, in the end, quite intellectual indeed. Marathon's levels did include puzzles and Doom didn't, but when making custom levels you could put puzzles into Doom. There are some expert Doom players I've met who may not be the brightest (at least they don't act the brightest), but I know an idiot who kicks ass at chess and did pretty well in school.
One thing that I liked about Marathon that I wish there was in Doom was the shield recharging stations and pattern buffers. That, for me, was probably the only challenge superiority that Marathon had. Whereas in Doom you might just expect a medkit around the corner and you could save your game every 5 seconds, you had to be more cautious in this respect in Marathon. Someone should make a mod.
Personally I think that I see Doom differently than how many others see it. Others see it as just a game where you go around shooting crap. I, however, see it as not only an addicting, challenging, intellectual etc game but also a unique world that I always find myself going back to. My feelings towards Doom are generally indescribable. But I still believe that both are equally good games. Neither Doom is better than Marathon or Marathon is better than Doom. In fact, I don't mean to perhaps sound like I'm stereotyping here, but I believe that those who are going on a run with this whole Doom vs. Marathon subject really need to look at the matter some more.
