[William Beavis]

Jimmy, on 29 April 2021 - 05:37 PM, said:

You're posting cringe

He's just doing his JSJ impression.

[Avenger]

Why do you care so much about what jon st john thinks anyway? Let’s be honest, the guys washed up and his biggest achievement is voicing video game characters, most of which haven't been relevant outside a niche online circle for decades now.

The guy isn’t a programmer or artist so other than providing a few second long audio clips he had literally nothing to do with Duke Nukem. What’s even better is that if you’re truly this pissy about it you can turn his voice off in the game settings menu rather than going on a page long rant about what's already well established in that liberals are cry baby SJW's that throw tantrums based on irrational emotion rather then utilize logical thought.

[hismasterplan]

Another random hit piece on Duke today, this time from Looper.

[DisgustedGrunt]

hismasterplan, on 30 April 2021 - 12:09 PM, said:

Another random hit piece on Duke today, this time from Looper.

From that article:

Quote

"When you play "Duke Nukem 3D," it becomes abundantly clear that this video game character is totally inappropriate in this day and age"

"Oh no! a 25 year old videogame offends my modern sensibilities, i must complain!"

[jkas789]

Game journalist vs Duke Nukem 3D enjoyer.

[Outtagum]

"this video game character is totally inappropriate in this day and age"

[ck3D]

hismasterplan, on 30 April 2021 - 12:09 PM, said:

Another random hit piece on Duke today, this time from Looper.

Not going to giving those guys my clicks, I'm not familiar with Looper but I assume it's in the same vein as the Vice bullshit I've seen? No one in their right mind should take those outlets seriously, in journalism working with Vice is half a joke, half a no-no, they will just run whatever is bound to catch the most views so that they can keep living off advertising placement and fail to pay contributors. All for numbers, zero meaning or substance, not worthy of any more attention than the next tabloid. I've seen people get seriously heated over such articles but that's a waste of energy, at this point they might as well be AI-generated. Just don't look.

[William Beavis]

hismasterplan, on 30 April 2021 - 12:09 PM, said:

Another random hit piece on Duke today, this time from Looper.

LOL, they're right, but for the completely wrong reasons.

[MusicallyInspired]

Everyone I talk to to this day, leftists and righters and centrists alike, all agree that they miss Duke3D and it was a fantastic game and that Duke Forever missed the mark and wasn't truly representative of the world or the character. This whole Duke hate thing is failed attempted social engineering. It's not real.

[jkas789]

MusicallyInspired, on 02 May 2021 - 02:17 PM, said:

Everyone I talk to to this day, leftists and righters and centrists alike, all agree that they miss Duke3D and it was a fantastic game and that Duke Forever missed the mark and wasn't truly representative of the world or the character. This whole Duke hate thing is failed attempted social engineering. It's not real.

I agree.

Though I do wonder at times how present the game is in the collective consciousness of gamers. Like sure, at best the "trinity" of Build games are classic high quality "retro shooters" to varying degrees of success. However for whatever reason in this new age of "retro FPS revival" there are no games (at least AFAIK) that are actually a spiritual successor in some shape or form to Duke Nukem 3D, or even a Build Engine game. And Ion Fury does not count. That is a Build game balls to the ground. Ion Fury is the definition of a damn unicorn in the wild.

In fact, I would even go as far as to say that Build games are maybe regarded as cult classics at best. Like the general public is aware of them, and "oh yeah they were genre changing and what not" but they are regarded as one would regard a classic seminal piece of film. Kinda like Gone with the Wind. At the very least, the new generations see them in that way IMO. I have tried to get some hospital interns and other young gamers I know to play or recognize at the very least Duke Nukem 3D and I usually get a "Cool, what is it Doom?" or a "Is it a Doom mod?" (That one killed me) or "Can you build things like in Fortnite?" (That one ress'ed me than killed me again). I don't think I need to say more of what i think about this.

Although perhaps it may have to do with the demographic I live in. After all Duke Nukem and co never did sold well in Mexico AFAIK. In fact, I have never seen a physical Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, or Shadow Warrior box on sale or in real life. I remember seeing Quake, Doom, and Diablo 1 & 2 PC boxes in my local Walmart & Sanbors but not any Build Engine games.

But getting back on topic the only game that I have known to be in anyway shape or form inspired by a Build Game (Blood specifically) at least in terms of mechanics and gameplay feel is Cultic. However that game is still in dev and as we very painfully know big sweeping changes can happen. Also, level design is super important to a spiritual successor of Build engine games.

Anyways if you are interested in Cultic you can watch some dev videos here: 1 2 3.

[High Treason]

A couple of things I run into a lot;

- People only know what they see on YouTube. The larger channels only talk about ID games, despite the fact they're fucking boring!

- People then whine about my views of said ID games, but when I play through said games and remark "Yeah, so now what?" at the bullshit, I'm usually met with an "Umm... I dunno, I never played past the first two levels."
So, again, they only know what they were told. This even goes for people who are active in the community, build machines, make videos about them and whatever else, they just repeat what they heard rather than do their own research.

[jkas789]

Quote

This even goes for people who are active in the community, build machines, make videos about them and whatever else, they just repeat what they heard rather than do their own research.

Pardon, my spanish speaking ignorance, did you mean "build machines" as in building a PC?

[High Treason]

Yeah, or more specifically, build old computers, though there are a fair few who buy them pre-built or are into crappy OEM gear, like Packard Bell, exclusively.

[jkas789]

Cool.

To be fair to youtubers, there is only so much content they can shit out when making Build Engine videos. Compared to Doom, with it's gigantic repertoire of user generated content, Duke Nukem 3D and co look less desirable in comparison. Ergo, people make more videos of themselves playing x or y map with z gameplay mod.

[MrFlibble]

jkas789, on 02 May 2021 - 07:51 PM, said:

To be fair to youtubers, there is only so much content they can shit out when making Build Engine videos. Compared to Doom, with it's gigantic repertoire of user generated content, Duke Nukem 3D and co look less desirable in comparison.

A while ago I was actively looking for videos of Duke3D usermaps, and what I have found is certainly only a fraction of what is actually available, e.g. from the Dukeworld archive. Moreover, not ong ago I talked privately to FirstMarine/Running Duke and he mentioned a few Duke3D TCs from the late 90s that I had not been not aware of (but I have to admit that personally, for a long time I only played the official levels), and I could not find any videos about those on YouTube.

Conversely, almost anything that gets mentioned at Doomworld forums (e.g. in suggest-a-WAD topics) has at least one video, either from dedicated channels or random users.

I can only assume that people are probably either not interested enough to look into Duke3D stuff, or do not find the old content accessible enough (some older TCs can be only run in DOSBox for example). Perhaps if someone from our community had a channel for "old and forgotten" content, that could produce some useful "exposure" to a wider audience.

But generally one cannot shrug off the feeling that Build engine games are notably more "niche" compared to Doom, for which it is not as easy to find an explanation. For all the argument about comparative accessibility of map editors and modding tools (opinions vary greatly here), this does not in the least account for the player base because these factors have no bearing on the accessibility of playing.

Duke3D may not have as much user-made content compared to Doom overall, but there is undoubtedly enough content to make one dedicated player busy for months if not longer.

[The Battlelord]

High Treason, on 02 May 2021 - 07:00 PM, said:

A couple of things I run into a lot;

- People only know what they see on YouTube. The larger channels only talk about ID games, despite the fact they're fucking boring!

- People then whine about my views of said ID games, but when I play through said games and remark "Yeah, so now what?" at the bullshit, I'm usually met with an "Umm... I dunno, I never played past the first two levels."
So, again, they only know what they were told. This even goes for people who are active in the community, build machines, make videos about them and whatever else, they just repeat what they heard rather than do their own research.

I can't totally blame youtubers for being politically correct since Youtube is, sadly, under Google now, and they practically repeat the exact same on-trend crap heard on other famous channels, very few will run against the tide and will be noticed speaking about what they thinks for real.


Is 2021 and to me looks like most people are just like ignorant sheeps, everything is based on other's opinions, when the pack hate or love something everyone do the same, without realizing that there's a big difference between opinions and fucking informations for their own knowledge and sake!

[Aleks]

MrFlibble, on 03 May 2021 - 03:42 AM, said:

A while ago I was actively looking for videos of Duke3D usermaps, and what I have found is certainly only a fraction of what is actually available, e.g. from the Dukeworld archive. Moreover, not ong ago I talked privately to FirstMarine/Running Duke and he mentioned a few Duke3D TCs from the late 90s that I had not been not aware of (but I have to admit that personally, for a long time I only played the official levels), and I could not find any videos about those on YouTube.

Conversely, almost anything that gets mentioned at Doomworld forums (e.g. in suggest-a-WAD topics) has at least one video, either from dedicated channels or random users.

Funnily enough, a few days ago I was discussing with the very same FirstMarine/Running Duke that it would be a good idea to run something similar to that "suggest a WAD" thing on Duke4, i.e. choosing an older map/mod that everyone interested would play and discuss, that would surely also result with someone making quality videos to put on YouTube. Not sure how much audience they would get from people outside of this community though.


Also ck3D mentioned some videos of people playing Duke 3D for the first time ever (in 2021!) and Hollywood Holocaust still doing the trick for them, so who knows?

Quote

I can only assume that people are probably either not interested enough to look into Duke3D stuff, or do not find the old content accessible enough (some older TCs can be only run in DOSBox for example). Perhaps if someone from our community had a channel for "old and forgotten" content, that could produce some useful "exposure" to a wider audience.

That's another idea I was tinkering with some time ago, but due to too little time, I can't get myself to do it. I've been replaying some very early user maps from 1996-1999 that are mostly completely forgotten for the past year or so, and there's a lot of gems there, so it would be good to present them to some larger audience. As for the current content, it seems this Radar Duker guy on YouTube, whoever he is, has an aim to record a blind playthrough video of every new map/mod that has been released up to 24 hours after the release, he even already did Submachine yesterday.

Quote

But generally one cannot shrug off the feeling that Build engine games are notably more "niche" compared to Doom, for which it is not as easy to find an explanation. For all the argument about comparative accessibility of map editors and modding tools (opinions vary greatly here), this does not in the least account for the player base because these factors have no bearing on the accessibility of playing.

As for the new generation of players, the problems might be accessibility (only Duke World Tour on Steam and regular Duke 3D with addons on obscure Zoom) and YouTube brainwashing, helped by DNF's reception. I was probably born in a perfect time to just precisely get hooked up on Duke (I still remember logging on for the first time at AMC almost 20 years ago as a 14 year old and realising that all these authors of my favourite maps are pretty much the same age as me ). Back when I started playing games, Doom was already considered quite archaic (not to mention Wolfenstein), Quake required higher specs to run (and looked quite fugly IMO), while Duke 3D was the thing - relatable city locations, interaction, actual character, lots of variety in level design. I knew about Blood, Shadow Warrior and Redneck, but they were all considered very niche here, while back in 1997-1998, every kid I'd talk to would know what's Duke and played it.

I know some younger people who got hooked up on Duke recently as well (and in retro games in general), but then a lot would consider it just pixelated mess, and that might be understandable first impression when there's no nostalgia trigger involved. Duke probably also takes more time/dedication to really get into for someone completely new than e.g. Doom.

Quote

Duke3D may not have as much user-made content compared to Doom overall, but there is undoubtedly enough content to make one dedicated player busy for months if not longer.

Dukeworld archives are quite enormous, the problem is probably filtering the good stuff out. Depending on the release year, there's more % of stuff worth playing each year, but then less releases each year as well.

[Jimmy]

Aleks, on 03 May 2021 - 05:20 AM, said:

As for the current content, it seems this Radar Duker guy on YouTube, whoever he is, has an aim to record a blind playthrough video of every new map/mod that has been released up to 24 hours after the release, he even already did Submachine yesterday.

Radar is based.

[William Beavis]

The fake outrage blows.

[FistMarine]

Quote

FirstMarine/Running Duke

FistMarine actually (based on a gif of DoomGuy holding his fists). Maybe I should add the avatar (and the Duke running as signature or something).

Regarding those Duke3D mods that don't get shown on YouTube, I'm also puzzled by this. There are a few worthy 90s mods/TCs and they don't have playthroughs recorded for them. Why is that? Is it because people don't find the mod or can't install it or it is simply not well known? As far as I know, stuff like LR&WB should have had a playthrough recorded on YouTube but there isn't one, other than some half-assed one where the guy records 20 or so videos barely making progress (though to be fair, those first couple of levels are pretty bad) and gets stuck in third level and it seems that person even disappeared from internet since 5 or so years ago (I'm talking about some guy called Mikkel Frost Gaming). Another well known TC is The Gate which got a playthrough recorded a few years ago by someone called Arrowdance. I know there's various popular TCs that should have been showcased before (even if it was just their first level), however in last couple of years, I noticed a person called November Blue that has been going through various TCs all over the years (and even some user maps), so maybe that person can do a playthrough of LR&WB sometime (and its sequel, Chimera).

What's funny is that last year I considered to record videos of myself playing those TCs and upload them on YouTube but since last month I took down my YouTube channel (sorry for those Duke3D playthroughs I recorded last year, not many people watched them anyway). I even had two Copyright Notices on the original levels Death Row & Lunar Reactor (as well as on a bunch of user maps I had recorded for my friends Aleks & ck3D), they were all played in DOSBox and was surprised the YouTube algorithm still managed to detect the songs how they sound in Sound Blaster. It was a Copyright Notice, not a strike thankfully. The situation is worse with the custom maps coming with their soundtracks that are often copyrighted.

Aleks' idea (which is really cool) about choosing an entry (a custom episode or TC or whatever, even the original game/addons can be chosen) and playing it throughout the month and people telling their thoughts is an idea I got from Doomworld where they have this Megawad club going on since back in 2012 or so, they randomly choose (in last few days of the month, people vote for their next month entry) an entry and once chosen, a new topic is opened (preferably by the person who is in charge with making the topics) on the first day of the month, download link is given for the mappack/TC in question (or even a buy from Steam/GOG link if the original game gets played) and then a maplist and a short description. Then people have to play daily a map and comment on it, example if it's the 4th day (today example), we are supposed to be playing on the 4th level today. It's no problem if we fall behind, we can catch up but try not getting too behind or too ahead, of course this is important to not spoil the next levels. While we play, we can comment about the level. Optionally, we can specify the port being used (original DUKE3D.EXE, EDuke32, etc). Since Duke3D doesn't have many "full game replacement" mods, we can try an alternative to combine multiple episodes being played per month (like Doomworld has also done in some rare cases), example if we choose Metropolitan Mayhem and Duke Hard (both should have 15 levels each), then in first 15 days we play MM, then on 16th and rest, we play DH. How is the idea sounding?

Also in regards to accessibility, this is sadly true. Although Duke3D is fairly popular, it is slightly harder to introduce to new players compared to Doom. Most people of my age should know and played Doom and Duke3D was also fairly popular in my country as well. I kinda wish I was born a couple years earlier because back when I was a teenager (around 2009 or so), most people of my age (that were gathering up around the area I live in) were playing other games, mostly random online MMORPG games. I didn't have anyone to talk to about games I'd play, when I tried to show them Doom (in Skulltag source port, which I was running at 640x480 back then and was my main Doom/Heretic/Hexen source port, as I haven't heard of DOSBox yet at that time) when they visited me one day in 2009, they told me it has crappy/pixelated graphics, which is odd since they'd play Counter Strike 1.6 without problem (I always found weird that almost everyone plays and heard of CS 1.6) when I visited them. But then when I showed them Quake 3 in same day (most of them were also more familiar with Quake games, while they never heard of Doom/Duke) and it was also running at 640x480, they said it has good graphics! Well sure, there were few games I could talk about back then, like GTA VC (one game I also enjoyed a lot in my teen years) but most others were playing GTA SA at that time and I just couldn't get into the game at that time (I was always liking VC much better), especially with my crappy hard disk space I had left back then (as I was sharing the PC with my father, didn't have yet my laptop/PC at that time). At least they didn't move to GTA IV, so I wasn't too far behind here.

Also, what's up with those bullshit articles about Duke that keep appearing as of lately? Are these fucking journalists so desperate, trying to hit on Duke just because he is an easy target nowadays? I haven't checked the last one from Looper but I remember getting annoyed at the VICE one, it was complete garbage. I don't understand their logic, are they trying to bait people into clicking their bullshit article? And why is it like in last few years people are now suddenly hating on Duke3D? I remember until mid 2010s, most people were hating on DNF and as of lately, we started seeing Duke3D hate articles. Why? I remember noticing this trend a while ago and wish I could find someone's post on the forum that also wondered why is this sudden hate of Duke3D as of lately (don't remember the topic where it was posted), I'd say it's thanks to DNF ruining the franchise reputation. When you think about it, it's quite sad because I look at the Doom franchise doing so well and then I look at the Duke Nukem franchise. Then I wonder what the hell happened? How did we reach from the top to the bottom so quickly? I know about the whole DNF fiasco but why is it like so many failures have happened, like one after another in such a short period of time (mostly since DNF came out, all we've had is one failure after another) and almost no success? It is quite fascinating and depressing at same time. It really seems that Duke belongs with the community now. It's our only hope to keep Duke alive. I'm afraid to think what will happen in 20-25 or so years, when most of the longtime Duke fans will be old and then everything lies in the hands of the newcomers to the community. Then I look at the Doom community and the community is still going strong, will most likely stay strong in the next 1-2 decades as well. I think a similar situation is with the Quake community (maybe Blood as well?), though I'm not as familiar with their output as with the Doom/Duke3D communities. I'm just assuming based on the releases we've seen as of lately (Blood Death Wish, Quake Arcane Dimensions, etc).

I still have a slight hope that Duke may come back one day. Whether in 5 or 10 years, I'm sure we will get another Duke3D re-release or even a new Duke game. We just have to wait a long time...

[jkas789]

I still think the 20th anniv world tour edition was a wasted opportunity. You can see the founding blocks there. All they needed to do was add the expansions, add community user episodes, add maybe some community maps and fix the bugs.

But from what I have seen and read across threads/articles, this was just a cashgrab to capitalize on the 20th anniv. (apparently)

I mean compare it to the modern Doom unity ports. They have been adding so much content to those games, it is insane! Yeah you need to sign up to the dumb ass Bethesda account but otherwise? It's frankly a lot of quality content for "cheap" with a competent sourceport that any normie would be satisfied with.

I do wonder though, out of morbid curiosity, how much money has the 20th anniv edition has gained in it's lifespan (release-2021)? After the surprisingly good Switch port it was basically completely dropped like a wet fart on wood.

[ReaperAA]

FistMarine, on 03 May 2021 - 09:47 PM, said:

Aleks' idea (which is really cool) about choosing an entry (a custom episode or TC or whatever, even the original game/addons can be chosen) and playing it throughout the month and people telling their thoughts is an idea I got from Doomworld where they have this Megawad club going on since back in 2012 or so, they randomly choose (in last few days of the month, people vote for their next month entry) an entry and once chosen, a new topic is opened (preferably by the person who is in charge with making the topics) on the first day of the month, download link is given for the mappack/TC in question (or even a buy from Steam/GOG link if the original game gets played) and then a maplist and a short description. Then people have to play daily a map and comment on it, example if it's the 4th day (today example), we are supposed to be playing on the 4th level today. It's no problem if we fall behind, we can catch up but try not getting too behind or too ahead, of course this is important to not spoil the next levels. While we play, we can comment about the level. Optionally, we can specify the port being used (original DUKE3D.EXE, EDuke32, etc). Since Duke3D doesn't have many "full game replacement" mods, we can try an alternative to combine multiple episodes being played per month (like Doomworld has also done in some rare cases), example if we choose Metropolitan Mayhem and Duke Hard (both should have 15 levels each), then in first 15 days we play MM, then on 16th and rest, we play DH. How is the idea sounding?

I am totally down with this. It would be great to have something like DW's Megawad club but for Duke mapsets. I love Duke3D, but I am not familiar with many Duke3D mapsets unlike in Doom's case where I am familiar with many many Doom wads. We can call it DukeClub or something

Also I think that a thread where people vote the top Duke community mapsets would be nice, like this thread for top Doom community wads:
⬆️ Doomworld Community Top WADs of All Time (resurrected) - Doom General - Doomworld

[ck3D]

As far as I'm concerned, I actually like that Build games are a tad more niche than Doom. They may not be in the forefront of gaming history but they're in the timeline somewhere, it takes some sincere research and passion to get into them and as such the existing community is a lot more tight-knit, that may be a trap though as you don't really want gatekeeping (at least for a video game that would be ridiculous), communities that fail in the end are the ones that can't renew themselves and that's usually due to the old guard doing just that, guarding the torch instead of passing it. That's why I think it's important to welcome new members and mappers and spread knowledge about the people's work old and new. Who gives a shit about to which extent the medium is recognized by the mainstream, what matters is how alive it remains by itself and I don't think there is that big of a correlation between both, I'm willing to bet most people serious about gaming and engines know about Build just like you still have folks programming in QBasic or calculator games, or shooting 8mm film, or recording jazz. Like I was saying it's part of history and so as such there always will be new enthusiasts regardless of how scarce. The constant appearance of new members on here in 2021 is a remarkable instance of that.

There is disparity between the Build scene and its (current) YouTube representation because there is a dichotomy between the people mapping/modding and the people playing/uploading. Myself I don't mind it and if anything I find it interesting to study. On my work breaks (so pretty much daily) I often look up "duke 3D user map" on YouTube sorted by date (filtering the most recent uploads) which takes 5 seconds and is enough to give me an idea of the evolution of the representation of Duke 3D/Build content on that platform, I do that because as a mapper watching players interact with levels is always interesting and I'm always too short on spare time to play games and so I consume a lot of Duke content indirectly (one could say for the sake of the art - I've actually posted about that parallel I like to make before). My observation is historically, perhaps just half a decade (but probably a bit more) back, there was literally nothing on YouTube pertaining to Duke 3D or Build but the occasional basic clip of random gameplay footage; then as streaming services became popular, people started exploiting that platform a lot more and a few occasional uploaders of user map playthroughs started to appear. Then around the time World Tour dropped, there was this huge rise where tons of people were uploading different videos every day, before it started slowly calming down again but some of the effervescence still remained. Since then we got big channels like Civvie11's, the general representation of video games on YouTube has gotten huge (I feel like it used to be more exceptional, probably pre-Twitch popularity peak), 'retro gaming' has become a gimmick but also an attractive trend, and there are a few uploaders that specialize in Duke 3D/Build or the pre-Quake era of FPS's in particular. And very naturally, things will keep developing and evolving, but as long as the mappers/modders are (understandably and logically) too busy creating to also rep the field with marketing there will always be some kind of breach. Again that's not necessarily a bad thing, I regularly run into new maps people just post on YouTube that aren't available anywhere else until I rep them, which creates an exchange and raises awareness about this website as a community hub too, or sometimes via YouTube comments you can make people know of classic maps or mods they weren't aware of due to their more casual approach that they end up enjoying and recording. The community just gotta keep feeding itself.

Now if someone is really concerned about making a solid representation of Duke 3D on YouTube then I'm tempted to say that's easy, just follow into the footsteps of what Arrovfnukem or CGS have been doing. Arrovf had the right idea with a YouTube channel with a video playthrough for each map and its review on his website then basically quit when he was ahead, CGS has been trying to include videos to their reviews too but those aren't original uploads, Puritan is just hosting other people's videos and so the exposition is one-way. Mikko does some great work with MSDN but without outside representation, his website is bound to remain niche. Just come up with the same thing Arrovf did but in 2021, upload several times a week, link to your website with reviews, make the occasional Build/Mapster tutorials as people love that shit, keep it Duke 3D/Build-centered, play every map/mod respecting the renderers they were intended for, basically don't do anything stupid and there you go. Now that's work and probably the equivalent to a full-time job and that's exactly why no one's doing it, most people are too busy, the others may be too lazy and that's fine. But if that's somebody's goal and they have time and elbow grease then it's attainable. I like High Treason's Build porn tutorials for instance, remember this is a community so whoever is down to go all out for fame could always work with such people, uploaders and activists to alleviate workload if that's a concern. Duke4 could and would probably host something like this too. Complaining <<< initiative (and both take comparable energy and time).

And yeah the people just now finding out about Hollywood Holocaust and all the tricks still working on them was interesting to say the least, like Aleks was saying I watched two of those videos the other day that two random French video game YouTubers posted about last year. Both were claiming to 'have played Duke 3D on a PC as a kid' but at least one of them knew shit about the game (he thought it had been released in 1998 and sector-over-sector referred to the ability of aiming up and down), and both were playing E1L1 like it really was their first time and I loved how they both made the exact same mistakes: missed all the secrets, fell for the mirror in the bathroom (one of the dudes even kept shooting at both the troopers' reflections and his own for maybe 30 seconds before he realized the trick), visited the arcade and encountered the locked door before getting the card. Both were also blown away by the way the cinema actually functioned when you triggered the projector, seemed like the craziest thing they had ever seen in a video game, and from the looks of it both probably weren't even born in 1996 so experiencing that retroactively is saying a lot. I also thought it was funny how both got caught in the rooftop explosions and so later in the arcade room, they were scared of the barrels again and took good care of not shooting them, having recognizing them as hazard because that was their experience when the object in itself isn't necessarily that. Also the random earthquakes and collapsing walls made both of them freak out because they couldn't recognize the event being simulated and so to them it just looked random and weird. Finally, one of them thought the Holoduke was draining his HP away and quit on E1L2 because he didn't know how to deactivate it.

FistMarine, on 03 May 2021 - 09:47 PM, said:

Are these fucking journalists so desperate, trying to hit on Duke just because he is an easy target nowadays?

Yes, absolutely fucking yes! Look no further. The people vomiting that bullshit haven't even played any of the fucking games, they're just shouting buzz words into the void hoping for echo and also to get paid. You could replace the words Duke Nukem in those articles with an endless list of names and yet as long as they catch your attention then they win. And they know you will give them. And they live off your clicks. Except their content is nothing and so they aren't worthy of even coming close to your concern even if they try to speak in a familiar language. Don't let them touch your emotions, just ignore.

[NNC]

FistMarine, on 03 May 2021 - 09:47 PM, said:

FistMarine actually (based on a gif of DoomGuy holding his fists). Maybe I should add the avatar (and the Duke running as signature or something).

Regarding those Duke3D mods that don't get shown on YouTube, I'm also puzzled by this. There are a few worthy 90s mods/TCs and they don't have playthroughs recorded for them. Why is that? Is it because people don't find the mod or can't install it or it is simply not well known? As far as I know, stuff like LR&WB should have had a playthrough recorded on YouTube but there isn't one, other than some half-assed one where the guy records 20 or so videos barely making progress (though to be fair, those first couple of levels are pretty bad) and gets stuck in third level and it seems that person even disappeared from internet since 5 or so years ago (I'm talking about some guy called Mikkel Frost Gaming). Another well known TC is The Gate which got a playthrough recorded a few years ago by someone called Arrowdance. I know there's various popular TCs that should have been showcased before (even if it was just their first level), however in last couple of years, I noticed a person called November Blue that has been going through various TCs all over the years (and even some user maps), so maybe that person can do a playthrough of LR&WB sometime (and its sequel, Chimera).

What's funny is that last year I considered to record videos of myself playing those TCs and upload them on YouTube but since last month I took down my YouTube channel (sorry for those Duke3D playthroughs I recorded last year, not many people watched them anyway). I even had two Copyright Notices on the original levels Death Row & Lunar Reactor (as well as on a bunch of user maps I had recorded for my friends Aleks & ck3D), they were all played in DOSBox and was surprised the YouTube algorithm still managed to detect the songs how they sound in Sound Blaster. It was a Copyright Notice, not a strike thankfully. The situation is worse with the custom maps coming with their soundtracks that are often copyrighted.

Aleks' idea (which is really cool) about choosing an entry (a custom episode or TC or whatever, even the original game/addons can be chosen) and playing it throughout the month and people telling their thoughts is an idea I got from Doomworld where they have this Megawad club going on since back in 2012 or so, they randomly choose (in last few days of the month, people vote for their next month entry) an entry and once chosen, a new topic is opened (preferably by the person who is in charge with making the topics) on the first day of the month, download link is given for the mappack/TC in question (or even a buy from Steam/GOG link if the original game gets played) and then a maplist and a short description. Then people have to play daily a map and comment on it, example if it's the 4th day (today example), we are supposed to be playing on the 4th level today. It's no problem if we fall behind, we can catch up but try not getting too behind or too ahead, of course this is important to not spoil the next levels. While we play, we can comment about the level. Optionally, we can specify the port being used (original DUKE3D.EXE, EDuke32, etc). Since Duke3D doesn't have many "full game replacement" mods, we can try an alternative to combine multiple episodes being played per month (like Doomworld has also done in some rare cases), example if we choose Metropolitan Mayhem and Duke Hard (both should have 15 levels each), then in first 15 days we play MM, then on 16th and rest, we play DH. How is the idea sounding?

Also in regards to accessibility, this is sadly true. Although Duke3D is fairly popular, it is slightly harder to introduce to new players compared to Doom. Most people of my age should know and played Doom and Duke3D was also fairly popular in my country as well. I kinda wish I was born a couple years earlier because back when I was a teenager (around 2009 or so), most people of my age (that were gathering up around the area I live in) were playing other games, mostly random online MMORPG games. I didn't have anyone to talk to about games I'd play, when I tried to show them Doom (in Skulltag source port, which I was running at 640x480 back then and was my main Doom/Heretic/Hexen source port, as I haven't heard of DOSBox yet at that time) when they visited me one day in 2009, they told me it has crappy/pixelated graphics, which is odd since they'd play Counter Strike 1.6 without problem (I always found weird that almost everyone plays and heard of CS 1.6) when I visited them. But then when I showed them Quake 3 in same day (most of them were also more familiar with Quake games, while they never heard of Doom/Duke) and it was also running at 640x480, they said it has good graphics! Well sure, there were few games I could talk about back then, like GTA VC (one game I also enjoyed a lot in my teen years) but most others were playing GTA SA at that time and I just couldn't get into the game at that time (I was always liking VC much better), especially with my crappy hard disk space I had left back then (as I was sharing the PC with my father, didn't have yet my laptop/PC at that time). At least they didn't move to GTA IV, so I wasn't too far behind here.

Also, what's up with those bullshit articles about Duke that keep appearing as of lately? Are these fucking journalists so desperate, trying to hit on Duke just because he is an easy target nowadays? I haven't checked the last one from Looper but I remember getting annoyed at the VICE one, it was complete garbage. I don't understand their logic, are they trying to bait people into clicking their bullshit article? And why is it like in last few years people are now suddenly hating on Duke3D? I remember until mid 2010s, most people were hating on DNF and as of lately, we started seeing Duke3D hate articles. Why? I remember noticing this trend a while ago and wish I could find someone's post on the forum that also wondered why is this sudden hate of Duke3D as of lately (don't remember the topic where it was posted), I'd say it's thanks to DNF ruining the franchise reputation. When you think about it, it's quite sad because I look at the Doom franchise doing so well and then I look at the Duke Nukem franchise. Then I wonder what the hell happened? How did we reach from the top to the bottom so quickly? I know about the whole DNF fiasco but why is it like so many failures have happened, like one after another in such a short period of time (mostly since DNF came out, all we've had is one failure after another) and almost no success? It is quite fascinating and depressing at same time. It really seems that Duke belongs with the community now. It's our only hope to keep Duke alive. I'm afraid to think what will happen in 20-25 or so years, when most of the longtime Duke fans will be old and then everything lies in the hands of the newcomers to the community. Then I look at the Doom community and the community is still going strong, will most likely stay strong in the next 1-2 decades as well. I think a similar situation is with the Quake community (maybe Blood as well?), though I'm not as familiar with their output as with the Doom/Duke3D communities. I'm just assuming based on the releases we've seen as of lately (Blood Death Wish, Quake Arcane Dimensions, etc).

I still have a slight hope that Duke may come back one day. Whether in 5 or 10 years, I'm sure we will get another Duke3D re-release or even a new Duke game. We just have to wait a long time...

Don't you want to publish your own book with your posts, mate? It should be titled "War and Peace: Atomic Edition".

[ck3D]

The Watchtower, on 04 May 2021 - 09:18 AM, said:

Don't you want to publish your own book with your posts, mate? It should be titled "War and Peace: Atomic Edition".

Skill setting: Lorem Gitsum.

[Ninety-Six]

Yeah I rarely click those links anymore. Don't want to give them the traffic, and don't want to get angry at the same stupid uninformed bullshit time and time again.

It's funny since I distinctly remember a woman writing a defense of Duke Nukem and the lack of true "misogyny", even as far as DNF. Not that these idiots care for the opinion of a woman who deviates from the dogma, but still.


I think she had an account here on duke4 even...?

[NNC]

ck3D, on 04 May 2021 - 09:31 AM, said:

Skill setting: Lorem Gitsum.

kek

[Aristotle Gumball]

Ninety-Six, on 04 May 2021 - 11:10 AM, said:

I think she had an account here on duke4 even...?

Are there any women here besides leilei? Actually unsure whether that's a woman. Probably not.