Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

I'm Nicholas van der Waard, host of "Hell-blazers: Speedrunning  Doom Eternal ."  My blog is about horror, but also sex, metal and videogames ; this article explores some of those idea in  Doom Eternal . What follows is my interview with  DraQu , a Twitch streamer & FPS Speedrunner. "Hell-blazers" interviews Twitch streamers, speedrunners and Doom fans about  Doom Eternal  (2020); it asks them, based on their own experiences, to compare the game to the rest of the franchise, and what effect it will have on speedrunning and gaming at large. General information about "Hell-blazers" can be found,  here ; a compendium of the interviews as they are published can be found  here  (which also includes interesting videos, break-downs and other articles). The Runner Nick:  What got you into Doom ? Do you remember the first game you played? DraQu:   A close friend of mine introduced Doom to me back in middle scho...

Hi, this is Nick van der Waard. Starting next Friday, I will starting interviews for "Hell-blazers: Speedrunning Doom Eternal ," my new Q&A series on Doom Eternal (2020). My blog is about horror, but also sex, metal and videogames ; "Hell-blazers" explores some of those idea in  Doom Eternal .   For all the interviews, please refer to this compendium .  The Q&A This interview series examines Doom Eternal as a game to be played fast—not just by speedrunners, but Twitch streamers of all sorts: DraQu , The Spud Hunter , Byte Me , King Dime , and Under the Mayo . The Spud Hunter isn't a speedrunner, for example; he's an arena combat specialist, but still plays the game quickly because of its design. This Q&A examines different aspects of gameplay in Doom Eternal . These include: Difficulty, Speed, Glitches, Game Length, and Technique. It  also examines how  Doom Eternal is played by speedrunners. Doom Eternal  caters to many differen...

This compendium contains the interviews for "Hell-blazers," my Doom Eternal Speedrunning Q&A Project, and any salient links. Note: When new interviews go live, this compendium will also be updated. Foreword Aimed largely at the Twitch crowd, but also speedrunners, Doom Eternal can be speedrun like any videogame. I've followed Doom Eternal closely to see how speedrunners feel about it. In time, can it rank alongside classics like Super Metroid (1994) or  Goldeneye (1997)? My name is Nicholas van der Waard, and I'm independent researcher/post-grad whose work is focused on Metroidvania, but also horror-theme FPS. For more information about my work, as well as the Q&A and what it covers, please refer to  this extensive post . The Compendium The Players These are the persons who have kindly agreed to be interviewed for this project. While all of them are gamers, each person represents a differen...

This review is for  Doom Eternal . It strictly covers the game's single-player campaign, not the game's lore or multi-player.  Update, 4/13/2021: With the release of part two of "The Ancient Gods," I've revisited this review, rewriting the introduction and adding a DLC section at the end.  To hear my final, updated thoughts on Doom Eternal—especially speedruns of it—check out my longread, " Spectating FPS Speedruns: Potential Pitfalls Exemplified by Doom Eternal ." Introduction; Gender Trouble In these latter days of nostalgia mania,  Doom Eternal shamelessly panders to an older audience. I don't mean that in the sense of gore and violence; I mean it's literally made for an audience that craves an older time. Not just demons and castles (though it has plenty of those), but those from 1980s and '90s. Those decades were a time of fixed gender assignment, where men were heroes and girls were damsels-in-distress.  Not always. Consider Ellen Riple...