Profit of doom: how violent video games drove the new economy.

• Author: Peters, Justin
• Position: Book Review: MASTERS OF DOOM: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture - Book Review

MASTERS OF DOOM: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner Random House, $24.95

I SPENT THE BULK OF DECEMBER 1999 trying to murder my friends with a rocket launcher. When the rocket launcher wasn't available, I used a shotgun, or a knife. I wasn't picky--it was all a game to me. Literally. The game was called 'Quake III Arena," and it was the baddest-best computer game I had ever seen. Eschewing storyline and subtlety in favor of relentless action, "Quake" was permanently set in "death-match" mode, which basically consisted of bouncing around a giant unearthly auditorium trying to kill as many people as possible as fast as possible before you ate a rocket yourself. It was ultra-violent and ultra-addictive. Happily neglecting my collegiate studies in pursuit of pseudo-militaristic glory, I stayed up nights in front of my computer, trying to take down friends and strangers from around the world who had dialed into the same server. Eventually, with both grades and personal hygiene slipping, I forced myself to delete the game from my hard drive. But, for a brief period, I had been hooked.

This was my first real foray into the world of super-violent computer games. Overprotective parents had restricted my childhood game consumption to innocuous rifles like "Math Blaster" and "Wheel of Fortune: The Electronic Version." I had surreptitiously played games like "Doom" at friends' houses, but had never had the opportunity to become obsessed. In the waning days of 1999, however, deathmatching constantly and feeling a very real adrenaline rush each time, I could well understand how such games became so popular, and how id Software, which created "Quake," became the definitive name in entertainment software publishing.

David Kushner's Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture tells the story of id with admirable aplomb. Although the subtitle sounds hyperbolic, it's basically true. In their bloody excess, programs like "Doom" and "Quake" reinvented computer gaming and gave birth to a generation of garners who lived by the mantra that, when it came to guns, guts, and demons, more was definitely better. Kushner takes an in-depth look at the rise of id and the fall of its founding partnership, with sidelong glances at its social and political ramifications. The result is a breezily engaging, fascinating examination of an authentic cultural phenomenon.

The Egos behind id

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