Engl 1301 Essay 2 Revised

Larumbe 1
Omar Larumbe
ENGL 1301-211
Prof. Jarrell
3 May 2024
DOOM: An Unashamedly Dumb Power Fantasy
Video games are a commitment. With new games
ranging from $60-$70, and most larger single-player games
taking dozens of hours to complete, potential buyers need to
feel assured that their time and money will not be wasted. So,
video game developers must put great care into how they
present their games to persuade these highly selective buyers.
A video game’s box art is particularly effective at this as this
one image will often be a person’s first exposure to the game
and could be the deciding factor of whether or not they
purchase it. For example, the people at id Software do a perfect job of selling their video game
DOOM (2016) using its box art alone. Id Software proudly displays DOOM’s personality, using
its box art to establish its mood, setting, protagonist, antagonists, and the player’s role in the
game, ensuring buyers know everything they need to know about the game before purchasing.
Beginning at the very center of the box art, the game’s protagonist, an armored man
wielding a double-barreled shotgun, is pictured triumphantly standing atop a pile of bones while
battling hordes of demons. How the protagonist’s placement, color, and pose relate to his
surrounding environment, helps establish his nature and motivations. His green armor starkly
contrasts the reds and oranges of the demons surrounding him, clearly and straightforwardly
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marking the armored protagonist as the hero and the surrounding demons as the villains. His
armor and shotgun also seem to be the only instance of human technology in an environment
filled with flesh and fire, and the pile of bones implies a significant passage of time. He is also
pictured fiercely glaring at the demon caught in his clutches, rather than splitting his attention
between the countless demons surrounding him. Altogether, these details imply that the
protagonist is a human who has willingly thrown himself into the demons’ world, fighting an
endless battle not for his survival but for their extermination. It frames the protagonist as an
unstoppable, violent, hate-fueled man, which is likely the sort of feelings id Software was trying
to evoke from its buyers. Clearly, id Software seeks to empower its potential buyers by
promising the chance to play as such a ludicrously strong protagonist.
Directly above the protagonist is the only text found in the image: the title, “DOOM.”
Colored bright white, filled with scratches, and vaguely shaped like jagged teeth, it appears to
mirror the game’s protagonist. The text’s white color contrasts with the background’s deep reds
and oranges, acting almost as a beacon of light against the hostile environment. However, unlike
a beacon of light, the text is nowhere near perfect. It is chipped, scratched, and bloody, as though
it has endured countless battles. Its fang-like shape gives the impression of it being a savage
beast, molded by the very environment it resides in. It evokes feelings of heroism, power,
resolve, and animalistic violence. By no coincidence, these are all traits that could be applied to
the previously mentioned armored protagonist. Knowing now that the title is meant to mirror the
game’s protagonist, it is likely the word “doom” also intends to establish the protagonist as a
bringer of doom to his enemies, further emphasizing his power over them. Id Software cleverly
uses DOOM’s text not only to display the game’s title but also to further reinforce its protagonist
as a fearless, savage, beast of a man.

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Going into further detail on the image’s surroundings, the background environment is
filled with the oranges and reds of flesh and fire and is overflowing with hostile creatures.
Demons surround the edges of the image, an unfathomably large skull looms in the background,
and the ground seems to be made up of gore, basalt, and lava. This location is clearly meant to
represent hell itself, but not in the biblical sense. There is no depiction of poor, tormented souls
receiving punishment for past sins. Not once does the box art propose the moral dilemma of
whether or not hell’s inhabitants deserved their punishment. Instead, this version of hell consists
of comically grotesque demons who appear to live purely for the sake of violence. They have
beady yellow eyes, ribs protruding from their backs, an absurd amount of fangs, and claws sharp
enough to cut through the protagonist’s armor. Id Software, with DOOM’s box art, goes to great
lengths to communicate how inhuman and evil hell’s inhabitants are, expecting both the player
and the protagonist to feel no remorse for killing them. It creates a straightforward, black-and-
white relationship between the game’s protagonist and its antagonists: the villains are evil just
for the sake of it, and the hero seeks to defeat these villains simply because they are evil. It is
clear that Id Software does not care much for profound stories or morally ambiguous characters,
instead choosing to attract its buyers with the simple, violent fun that comes with killing
irredeemably evil creatures.
Simply by examining its box art, the viewer can understand exactly what kind of game
DOOM is trying to be. It is an excessively violent game where the player controls a rage-filled
beast of a man who slaughters comically evil demons for no other reason than because they are
evil. There is no deeper meaning to its story, there are no morally grey characters, there is no
justifying its antagonist’s actions, and the protagonist’s actions are always morally justifiable.
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Where most other single-player video games choose to focus on grandiose stories, id Software’s
DOOM stands out by promising consumers a simple, gory, power fantasy, and nothing more.
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Work Cited
DOOM. id Software, 13 May 2016.

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Larumbe 1

DOOM: An Unashamedly Dumb Power Fantasy

Video games are a commitment. With new games

ranging from $60-$70, and most larger single-player games

taking dozens of hours to complete, potential buyers need to

present their games to persuade these highly selective buyers.

A video game’s box art is particularly effective at this as this

one image will often be a person’s first exposure to the game

and could be the deciding factor of whether or not they

promising the chance to play as such a ludicrously strong protagonist.

as a fearless, savage, beast of a man.

irredeemably evil creatures.

DOOM. id Software, 13 May 2016.

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