id founder John Carmack has been talking to Industry Gamers about the success of mainstream shooters like Call of Duty. He defends the series, saying "As long as people are buying it, it means they're enjoying it," and criticises the "snooty attitude" of indie developers who criticise the lack of innovation in the military squad shooter format. "It's almost as if it's popular, it's not good. And that's just not true," he says.
"If they buy the next Call of Duty, it's because they loved the last one and they want more of it," adds Carmack. "So I am pretty down on people who take the sort of creative auteurs' perspective. It's like 'Oh, we're not being creative.' But we're creating value for people - that's our job! It's not to do something that nobody's ever seen before. It's to do something that people love so much they're willing to give us money for."
"So I do get pretty down on people that - you see some of the indie developers that really take a snooty attitude about this."
id are currently putting the finishing touches on their open world shooter, Rage, which is not a squad military shooter. "I'm actually happy Rage is a little bit different in terms of feeling and tone," says Carmack. "It's not just, 'Here's your squad mates.' But that's still a proven formula that people like, and it's a mistake to [discount that]. As long as people are buying it, it means they're enjoying it."
Rage is due out on October 7. At E3, Carmack told us why it will run better on PC , and explained why the PC is the future of gaming, saying that they're now " an order of magnitude " beyond consoles.
