Warm Machine
Member
What a great book.
The impression that I got was that Carmack cannot see the big picture, only what applies directly to him does he ever care about. He is certainly a programming genius but he can't connect the dots beyond his own work.
Romero got caught up in his own legend status that was given to him too freely. He really was trying to make Id an industry leader and a gaming empire with the dealings with Raven and other developers but Carmack just had his blinders on to the benefits of Romero's actions. That said, Romero should have cut himself loose from designing Quake and put someone else more dedicated and competent in charge while he tried to manuever the company.
I can truely respect and understand what Romero was trying to do with Ion Storm but he took it too far and was far too short sighted when it came to the technology and simply didn't have the management skills to follow through. I really feel sorry for the guy as he had the best intentions.
With hindsight it is pretty easy to see where they both went wrong especially knowing the way everything panned out in the industry over the last 8 years. Most of the time I was thinking that the 2 guys as well as the employees could have solved their problems by just talking and actually listening to each other instead of having petty little infighting and political arguments.
Still, the two of them made Doom together and it was a pretty important game. Most modern game development methods use today can be traced back to it.
The impression that I got was that Carmack cannot see the big picture, only what applies directly to him does he ever care about. He is certainly a programming genius but he can't connect the dots beyond his own work.
Romero got caught up in his own legend status that was given to him too freely. He really was trying to make Id an industry leader and a gaming empire with the dealings with Raven and other developers but Carmack just had his blinders on to the benefits of Romero's actions. That said, Romero should have cut himself loose from designing Quake and put someone else more dedicated and competent in charge while he tried to manuever the company.
I can truely respect and understand what Romero was trying to do with Ion Storm but he took it too far and was far too short sighted when it came to the technology and simply didn't have the management skills to follow through. I really feel sorry for the guy as he had the best intentions.
With hindsight it is pretty easy to see where they both went wrong especially knowing the way everything panned out in the industry over the last 8 years. Most of the time I was thinking that the 2 guys as well as the employees could have solved their problems by just talking and actually listening to each other instead of having petty little infighting and political arguments.
Still, the two of them made Doom together and it was a pretty important game. Most modern game development methods use today can be traced back to it.