They Just Released A New O.G. 'DOOM' Level To Play (For Charity)

The only possible excuse you can have for not accepting John Romero as the daddy of competitive online games is being too young to even know who he is. Romero was the level designer of the original DOOM and Quake, and the person who coined the term “Deathmatch”. Remember that the Roman empire rose and fell without ever being able to come up with any name nearly as awesome for the thing they were doing all the time, whereas Romero did that in his twenties. After Quake, however, Romero left id to make Daikatana, a game that went through such a messy development that it caused Romero to fall off the map of, uh, map design – up until now. In order to help the people of Ukraine, Romero decided to go back to the original DOOM and created “One Humanity”, a new map that he's now selling for just $5 dollars that will go straight to a Ukraine emergency response fund.

So far, the level has already raised over $30,000

That's a pretty neat conclusion for the redemption arc of a man who never really needed one. Yeah, it's true. One of the main reasons Romero saw his career imploding was the monument to human hubris that's the poster for Daikatana, you know, the one that infamously claimed that John Romero was about to turn the entirety of humankind into his singular bitch. That's something you shouldn't say to anyone even if the game you're advertising is good.

This dumb ad campaign strained the stellar relationship Romero used to have with his fans, but the thing is that it just wasn't his fault. Surprisingly, the poster came not from the map guy, but from some douchy ad guy who pressured Romero into going for it despite his opposition. Even though it was never his fault, Romero still apologized for the incident. That, together with his wise teachings on how one should only wage war against space demons, should be about enough to make you his fan.

Top Image: Bethesda