I actually never ever wanted to write an article about Brutal Doom here on the Realm667 and though I feel like having to make things clear now after people have asking me a million times "why I dislike about the project". Next to that I had a short discussion with SGtMarkIV himself on Youtube a few days ago and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
First of all it's not that I hate the mod at all. In fact there is a lot of effort put into and regarding the way Doom 4 ended up, I think it had a huge impact to the gaming community far beyond the borders. It brought a lot of attention to this damn old game that we love. It's not my personal taste of a mod, yes, but still I honor the project as a whole.
What really makes me boycott the mod is the author's attitude towards other people's work and behaviour when it comes to criticism (I mean, you have to be seriously anti-social to get banned on almost every community messageboard here) - and to be honest, it makes me totally sick. For the latest example of impudence, simply take a look at the trailer for Brutal Doom v19 - watch it to the end and as someone from the modding scene you will notice a lot of prominent releases being showcased in the trailer, for instance Scythe 2, Recurring Nightmares and Knee-Deep in ZDoom to name a few. But where was the credits? Seargent Mark IV most propably forgot them, so I pointed him towards these in the comments of the video. After a discussion of 4-5 comments (you can only see mine as he deleted his own ones already, where he was insulting me and justifying without even considering that placing credits would be a question of modesty) he obviously added the credits, so I guess my suggestion wasn't all that bad.
"Dude, why are you so crazy? Maybe he simply forgot to post add the credits to the video? What's the problem anyway? Other maps get attention as well!"
Yes, maybe he forgot to add the credits to the description of the video (it seems to be an inveterate pattern of behaviour in his case, but hey, let's look over that), and yes, why do I care? People from the Doom community recognise what map is being showcased with Brutal Doom's trailer... people from the Doom community... it suddenly might dawn to you. Maybe I am leaning out of the window, but SGtMarkIV doesn't seem to me stupid despite many of his public statements. So taking that for granted, I am pretty sure that adding credits for maps being showcased in his trailer isn't an impossible task to do, nor in terms of technique, neither in terms of care. Therefore someone like me could come to the conclusion, that SGtMarkIV simply doesn't care about other people's work, the principal thing is just to make his mod shine - and it definitely shines better on Scythe then it does on the original Doom. People outside the community could even consider that he is an amazing mapper - but that's another story.
Point is that this will be definitely the last news item about Brutal Doom here on the Realm667 forever and all eternity for the reasons said. I do support good new ideas, exciting mods and diligent efforts but I do not support people like Seargent Mark IV behind them, who base their personal stolen glory on the backs of other people's hard work. And if you have a spark of decency, I'd really suggest you do the same.
I noticed that "Doom the way id did" received an updated a few days ago brining it up to v1.1. If you haven't downloaded it yet, make sure to grab the latest version just here or take a closer look at the changes in the official release thread at ZDoom.org (or other community pages). Beyond numerous fixes and tweaks, the new version also features completely new intermission art by Kracov what makes the project now even more perfect. Beyond, Xaser announced that there will also be a sequel that aims for a total recreation of Doom 2 - not a surprise, but something we are looking forward to.
