Carmack attacks "snooty attitude" towards mainstream shooters

id founder John Carmack has been talking to Industry Gamers about the success of mainstream shooters like Call of Duty. He defends the series, saying "As long as people are buying it, it means they're enjoying it," and criticises the "snooty attitude" of indie developers who criticise the lack of innovation in the military squad shooter format. "It's almost as if it's popular, it's not good. And that's just not true," he says.

"If they buy the next Call of Duty, it's because they loved the last one and they want more of it," adds Carmack. "So I am pretty down on people who take the sort of creative auteurs' perspective. It's like 'Oh, we're not being creative.' But we're creating value for people - that's our job! It's not to do something that nobody's ever seen before. It's to do something that people love so much they're willing to give us money for."

id are currently putting the finishing touches on their open world shooter, Rage, which is not a squad military shooter. "I'm actually happy Rage is a little bit different in terms of feeling and tone," says Carmack. "It's not just, 'Here's your squad mates.' But that's still a proven formula that people like, and it's a mistake to [discount that]. As long as people are buying it, it means they're enjoying it."

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.