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John Romero, the Man Behind the Hype

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the life-in-the-spotlight dept.

rockstarenvy writes "In a recent interview with the Escapist, Russ Pitts reveals a lot about who John Romero really is. As Romero puts it: 'After 10-plus years of reading about yourself, all the good and bad, it all just becomes irrelevant after awhile. I know what I'm capable of doing and the people I work with are united in our mission, and they treat me just like they treat each other. The whole fame thing doesn't come into play when we're in development, because we're all a team. I know some of my guys read a lot of forums and sometimes they'll see some remark that someone clueless made and show it to me, chuckling because they know the truth of who I am and how I work. The media personification of John Romero is not who John Romero is.'"

7 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Bob Dole by dancingmad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The media personification of John Romero is not who John Romero is.

    John Romero, like many washed-up has beens, likes to refer to John Romero in the third person.

    Seriously, for a guy that's a laughingstock in the video game industry, he sure does still have an ego. Come on man, when are you making me your bitch? :P

    --
    "There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
    1. Re:Bob Dole by rtrifts · · Score: 4, Insightful

      John Romero, once upon a time, had a lot to be jealous about. He was the cool guy, the one with the ferrari, the tats, the boss with the rocsktar long hair - and he was rich and successful. His GF, Stevie Case, was not only a gamer - she was a definite *babe* and - not coincidentally - JR helped create Doom, the game which remains the #1 computer game of all time. Romero, the quintessential developer-as-rockstar, inspired the jealousy which is a part of the fabric of every one of us.

      When you are a guy who is prone to excess - and someone who had previously been prone to success - people enjoy watching your fall. Sad, but true; we are a petty lot.

      For all that, while people may have laughed at Romero from time to time - John Romero was never a "laughing stock". That wouldn't be accurate at all.

      In any event - it is wiser to keep your words soft and sweet, in case you are forced to eat them.

      --
      .Robert
    2. Re:Bob Dole by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How many people do you need laughing at you before you are officially - I mean on Wikipedia and everything, Snopes confirms - a "laughing stock"?

      Slashdot has a lot of readers; I bet we could do it if we really pulled together. Who's with me? Let's roll!

      John Romero? Aaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaaahaha.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
  2. From the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the who-really-gives-a-crap? department.

  3. John Romero is a tool. by dafragsta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's all that really needs to be said. For further reference, look up the amount of talking, egotism, and otherwise useless rhetoric he's shat out over the past 10 years. All that plus one crappy game and the demise of an otherwise good gaming studio that resulted in the Romero fallout. I would say that Romero was all sizzle and no steak, but that implied that there was worthwhile sizzle to begin with. It's all pretty much flatuence at this point. Stop wasting people's time John. Get a real day job. You rode your useless reputation to the ground and that's where all us day working schmoes exist. We don't have a rediculously inflated reputation to ride from publisher to publisher asking for insane advances for absolutely no substance to speak of.

  4. Fame? by glwtta · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, the guy is more or less well known, for something he did 13 years ago, but does that really qualify as "fame"? All this talk about how his "fame" doesn't go to his head has a distinct "protesting too much" feel to it.

    The media personification of John Romero is not who John Romero is.

    Don't tell me, John Romero is a series of... of nevermind.

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  5. Re:Who the hell.... by tverbeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "You might be too young to know who John is."

    Nice try, but I'm 41. I know of Doom (I had a few friends who were really into it back in the mid-90s), but I couldn't care less about it. The provincial assumption that every nerd knows or cares about the FPS gaming subculture and its "important" figures is the fallacy I'm pointing out. Maybe if the original submitter had enough sense of perspective to explain who this John person was before gasping about how he's not just the legend everyone knows him as, I wouldn't find it so thoroughly absurd.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/