I’ve been watching with interest the hype surrounding Doom 4. I’m an old Doom and Quake player from way back. I was introduced to Quake 1 in 1997 while working at Time Warner’s Full Service Network (FSN). The engineer who introduced it to me was a good ten years younger than I, with quicker reflexes that quickly got me fragged while playing in a multi-player game. But it was still fun and I still have the original disks, although I haven’t fired up Quake (Quake III) in a good decade.

My Doom experiences are a bit more recent (2008 with a copy of Doom 3 I bought on discount at a local Best Buy). But my Doom playing came to an end even quicker than my end with Quake.

I’ve seen the trailers for Doom 4. It’s at this point where I have to say “enough.” Maybe the idea of walking up and ripping a demon apart with your avatar’s hands looks like good fun to you, or slicing up demons with the chainsaw is particularly inviting gameplay, but for me it’s close to nauseating. It’s the same negative reaction I get to watching Deadpool movie trailers, and why I never wanted to see the movie.

There’s enough violence and gore in the real world: ISIS atrocities, the migrant crisis in Europe, the decade-and-a-half War on Terror, the Trump presidential run… enough. I know I purchased the earlier versions of these games, but that’s no reason for me to purchase the latest now. There’s a reason why I’ve not touched those older versions in at least eight years, if not longer: I’ve grown to find them all repulsive. That comes with finally growing up.