Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

I enjoyed the world that David Kushner painted and enjoyed even more the way Wil Wheaton brought it all to life (he is an extremely talented narrator and if you have not listened to anything else he has narrated, you are missing out in a big way). I spent many lonely and bug-eyed nights playing Doom and its many sequels. I admired the way I could actually download a game and play it for free. I loved killing the demons and then being so hooked that I had to buy the whole game. This is what I loved about the first portion of the book: hearing about others and their experiences with the game. Then we moved on into the in-fighting and the clashes of personality. I was okay with that too. But when they got to the point where they split off and were no longer able to work together (big shocker for such big personalities), I kinda lost interest. I finished it, but often found myself daydreaming instead of listening. But, I will put that squarely on my own shoulders. I found myself psychoanalyzing these guys and trying to put them back together the way they were when they first started. I rooted for the lone programmer whose brilliance behind the keyboard drove the success.

I liked this book. It was a fun primer for the uninitiated (like me) in the story behind the rise, descent, and ultimate destruction of id!

It is amazing what 2 men could/did for an entire industry and pop culture. Having known bits and pieces of the story before this brings it all together and at a great pace. A must for gamers wanting to understand where and how this came to pass.

I absolutely recommend this book. The reporting by David Kushner is thorough and balanced. I didn't like Wil Wheaton before I picked up this title, but the work he does here is incredible. If you are even considering getting this one, just go for it. You won't regret it.

This book is not unlike Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The teamwork between Jobs and Wozniak in founding Apple and going big with the Apple II is mirrored in the collaboration between John Carmack and John Romero. Anyone interested in the development of modern computer technology should look into both of these tomes.

I have listened to one other Wil Wheaton performance: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Wheaton did a great job there as well (Ernest Cline's book is somewhat mediocre). The great thing about Masters of Doom is that Wheaton's performance is surpassed by the quality of the text (Wheaton is great though, so it makes for a terrific combination).

There are a number of inspiring moments where Carmack makes an incredible break through; these just blew me away.

I won a badge in the Audible app for listening to the entirety of this book 3 times.

Masters of Doom was a treat to listen to, and finished it completely in a few short days (I went on extra walks as an excuse to listen to it).

Wil Wheaton nailed the narration and David Kushner really captured the time and the two starkly different personalities in Carmack and Romero.

Glad I took a chance on this. Well worth it!

This was a surprisingly suspensful story, everybody who is familiar with Doom and Quake should be interested in the story behind the games. I was one of those who were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for John Romero's Daikatana and I finally gave up waiting, now I know what happened!!! The reader gives such a great performance that the book is elevated to a new level. I really liked this one.

I hate that audible makes me submit 15 words, even though this question only asks for 3 words.

look at an unfamiliar world

Great Book! Heavy and graphic in detail (in a good way), the book covers the rise of id software and its highly influential games Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake.

However, the story becomes much more about two people - John Romero and John D Carmack. David Kushner goes into a fascinating level of detail and realistic information or fictionalised narrative to give a sense of really being in the room with these guys.

He does end up clearing a lot of "conspiracy theories" and appears to give an honest account of the rise and then middling of id software.

The book lingers at times on dungeons and dragons too much as well as wolfenstein - but at no time I was bored listening to the book.

Highly entertaining, I would recommend this book to anyone - whether they are interested in computer games or not.

A must have for gamers, entrepreneurs, and programmers alike! Though this book is not labeled as an entrepreneurship resource, as a software developer and entrepreneur myself, I place this book above the many other great books in the entrepreneurship/startup category.

Great book. Excellent performance. I highly recommend this book. Shows a side of the gamers and gamer passion that is rarely seen by the public.

Johns are sad.

When Romero ends a multi-year D&D campaign by essentially ending the world - it was an interesting way to foreshadow the events that were about to happen in the real world.

Probably not. Like all things Wil Wheaton is involved in, he really doesn't bring anything interesting to the table. He was inconsistent, to say the least - he only made voices for half of the characters with dialog in the book (which in a biography is strange to begin with) and even then, he inconsistently changes or stops the impressions. I wouldn't avoid a book that I was already interested, just because he narrated it, but it could be the tipping point that keeps me from downloading something I was unsure of.

Two Johns. One Empire.