Study questions for Masters of Doom 4 - 6

1. How did Carmack and Romero perceive time according to the author? Which one of them are you more like in this respect?
2. What is a "bit flip" in reference to Romero's personality?
3. What do you think about the borrowing of SoftDisk's computers for other work?
4. What is a "death march" in relation to software projects?
5. What are some of the most important assets of technology companies?
6. What is a loss leader?
7. What is shareware? Are there parallels today?
8. Does a software company face the same manufacturing issues as company that manufactures toasters or cars?
9. What broader issues did Tom Hall want to explore in Commander Keen? What are examples of socially relevant games? How do those games perform in the market?
10. How does Carmack feel about patenting his work? What was Visicalc? Was it patented? Why did Google buy Motorola Mobility recently?
11. What is an Easter egg in video games? Are they still popular?
12. What was the initial id formula for their games?
13. What is id's view on violence in games? Has violence always been a part of culture, art, and entertainment?
14. What were the popular, main stream PC games in the early 1990s?
15. One of Carmacks' first innovations was implementing scrolling on a PC in an efficient way. What is his next goal?
16. How do you feel about Romero's handling of personal relationships and responsibilities?
17. What different roles are necessary for the creation of a medium t large sized game? In the creation of Wolfenstein 3D how were these roles distributed?
18. The author claims "the software industry had never experienced anything as rebellious as Wolfenstein 3D." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
19. What is Id's business strategy for its games?
20. Who are the most well known game designers today? How many can you name without consulting a reference?
21. Who would you rather work with, Romero or Carmack?