Last night we filmed a bonus feature for Preserving Worlds, where my cocreator and I went into a bunch of random Doom multiplayer servers via Zandronum and Doomseeker. There was immense variation in the wads people were playing. There was one that REALLY stood out: Community Hotel.
It’s a modification of the popular multiplayer mod Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch that turns the competitive arena mod into a social/roleplaying/fishing game.
You choose your character from a VERY long list that included every Mega Man character I could think of, as well as a bunch of random other NES characters (I saw Bub from Bubble Bobble in there). Each have their own unique combat abilities, but this mod isn’t about combat at all. In some common spaces you can fight, but people were really there to chat and vibe out. The whole thing was soundtracked by a surprisingly robust playlist of upbeat chiptune music and city pop.
It’s a rather large map, and much of it is taken up by a large hotel filled with rooms that seem to belong to prominent members from the player community. Each room had its own unique style, and all were immaculately designed.
There was a whole fishing minigame, complete with multiple bodies of water, a ton of fish you can catch and log in a guidebook, and an economy of fish trading.
There were a lot of fun hangout zones, including a hopping bar with a jukebox that allowed me to change the music. It had all the meme songs… The Pumpkin Hill rap from Sonic Adventure 2, like every Homestuck song, Plastic Love, as well as a few surprises.
I recently read Masters of Doom and I was shocked by a much-too-brief aside about how, following Quake 2, John Carmack wanted to get back together with Romero and create a social “metaverse” using the graphics technology he’d developed. I would love to hear more about that, but it’s lovely to see fans actually making something like that happen decades later.
