John Romero says Doom Guy's name is Doom Guy

News
By published

Great Doom canon debate may soon be settled.

(Image credit: id Software)

Today is the 26th Anniversary of the launch of Doom 2, so John Romero was doing some trivia on Twitter and answered a burning question that lots of people wanted to know the answer to. I wasn't one of them and actually I can't guarantee that lots of people wanted to know the answer but I guess at least one person did. They saw their shot and they took it. 

Now we know: "Doom Guy's name is Doom Guy." That's canon now because John Romero made Doom, so unless the other John wants to weigh in he's right.

Finally, we know that his name is not Doomguy, but rather Doom Guy. Actually now that I think about it this is still more complicated. Guy is a surname of germanic origin common in France and England after the Norman conquests. So maybe Doom is a first name? Maybe it's short for something, like Adoom or Doominick? Does that mean we can't definitively use male pronouns for Doom Guy because Doom Guy might not be a Guy but might instead have the last name Guy? The plot thickens.

Doom Guy has had a lot of secondary names. There were Doom novels in the 90s, and Doom Guy had the name Flynn Taggart, but there were also Doom 3 novels and Doom Guy was named  John Kane. The Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal games just call Doom Guy "The Doom Slayer," which is more of a title than a name and is therefore fine to call Doom Guy.

Anyways, the first DLC for Doom Eternal is called The Ancient Gods, Part One and is a standalone expansion out October 20th. 

PRODUCTS
Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
More about fps
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Weapons from Counter-Strike 2

Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Counter-Strike 2 Inventory
kingdom come deliverance 2 thunderstone quest

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's masterful quest design can be summed up by one wonderfully weird search for a magic stone
See more latest
Most Popular
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'