Laura 'Bad Company' Herrmann
Hi! Tell us your name:
Laura 'Bad Company' Herrmann or BahdKo for short. Bad Company was my original handle on the local Maryland and DC Doom BBS's I was on back around 1995-1996. This handle was taken from the song "Bad Company" by the group "Bad Company", a song with lyrics that could be construed to be applicable to Doom2 Deathmatch. When I got on the internet, Bad Company was too long for a good net handle, and not very unique, so I picked the adaptation BahdKo as a unique internet nickname.
Where are you from?
When I started dooming, i was living in Randallstown, MD. At the time of this writing, I live in northern Virginia.
How old are you?
Born in 1970.
How long do you play Doom?
I started dooming single player as a keyboarder right when Doom2 came out. I think that was Fall of 1994? I converted to mouse+keys a few weeks before I started deathmatching, which was in Spring of 1995.
Why did you start to play it?
My mom had been playing single player doom1, that's where I saw it first. I played a little bit of doom1, but doom2 came at just about the right time for me to like it better. Some trivia: My mom was also the first person I played multiplayer with, it was a coop doom2 1.666 game over modem, she was at work and I was at home. On Map4 in the room with the switch that lowers the blue key, I turned to the right to shoot the couple of shotgun guys that stand there, and my mom got in front of me and took a point blank SSG blast to the back. This was my first frag. My second one was telefragging her in just about the same spot later on in the game.
Do you still play it?
When I have time, sure.
What does Doom have that other games doesn't if you like(ed) it?
Doom2 deathmatch has the perfect combination of speed, player movement precision, and weapon balance/handling for me. In contrasting it with the newer games: They have added a lot of eyecandy that just doesen't make a lot of difference for me in a deathmatch game. The speed of these games is lower. The weapon balance and handling details usually have problems. The item setup in many of these games turns it into an item or ammo-hoarding strategy, which players like me avoid, even within Doom2 itself (we play "Old Deathmatch" and not "altdeath" on almost all maps {Doom2 Map11 is the one exeption I can think of for this}). The player movement abilities have been completely rewritten by removing the straferunning speed boost and adding mouselook (cannot make forward and backward positional changes with the mouse anymore). Also, for me, the ability of a game to have large numbers of people playing together doesen't do much. I prefer 1 on 1 as it is, and the more people in a game, the more chaotic an affair the thing is. In summary: These newer games just lack too much as a pure, hard, and fast deathmatch game to make me want to mess with them for deathmatch, and the things that were added are not of much value to me.
Did you made any maps / demos / stuff for it, where can that be found?
I made a thing called the "Deathmatch Training Facility". I have a web version up at http://www.doom2.net , currently in the catagory "combat training". There's also a downloadable zipfile, which was the original form of the release.
What do you think of Doom now?
I think the same as I did in 1996 about Doom. It remains the best Deathmatch game available. Probably the best single player game too; My mom does not play the newer games in her single player ventures. She's now playing a Doom1SE and Doom2 setup I made for her that uses the Legacy Doom port, but with no "jump" configuration.
Why do you play doom rarely now?
I'm always working and doing other stuff.
What is (or was) your favourite map(s) [Singleplayer, Deathmatch, ... max. 3 maps]?
Deathmatch: Doom2 Map1, Dwango5 map1, Dwango5 map2 (danzig map 11 I think is the real origin of that).
Your favourite megawad(s) [Singleplayer, Deathmatch, ... max. 2 megawads]?
I just like certain maps out of certain megawads on ocassion. Dweller2 has three maps that are pretty cool.
As I know, you still play DM alot, is it important to beat somebody if he came from, dunno ... Hungary or Norway to a Lan party?
First of all, country of origin has no meaning to me, except that they are farther away and I wish that all good doomers lived within a 10 minutes drive of my house (netparties and modem games are greatly simplified with such locals). Secondly, playing people who I can beat has less of a value to me than playing people who are better. It's never important to beat a particular person, with the possible exception that some people will make you want to beat them if they insult you or otherwise act stupid before the game.
What does your parents think about Doom?
My mom is a single-player doomer. My dad doesent have much of an opinion on it.
Do you think that Doom should be forbidden for kids?
Of course not. The people who would claim that it should be forbidden for kids are usually overlooking the fact that television and toys are usually more violent than doom, and pretend that the interactive nature of Doom makes it more evil, for some reason, than these other things. People who would claim this are obviously not familour enough with the many, many people of all ages who play doom and are nonviolent in real life. The best players I've played happen to not own guns and would probably crap their pants if you asked them to hold a gun.
What do you think about Doom CPL 2000?
No comment at this time.
Should CPL have some European base so we don't have to travel to USA for qualifications and then pay airplain tickets for best EU player(s) (finalist)?
Sounds reasonable.
What do you think about Doom 3, and what are you expecting from it?
I have a wait and see attitude. So far ID software made two games that I would play, and three that I won't. I have no idea how this sixth one will go. I do hope its not embarrasing because it does, after all, have the name DOOM in it.
When Doom 3 will be out will you play it?
I'll check it out, and if it has more to offer than Doom2, I'll play it.
If it has less, than I won't.
Is Id Software making games too fast? I mean the period between releasing quake 1,2,3 is very small.
I don't know.
What PC configuration do you have?
I never upgraded from my old P-166. I have the money to upgrade, and have helped others buy/build PCs that are up to date. I never had what i felt was a good enough reason to upgrade, so I never did. The most recent game I enjoyed for the whole game was Jedi Knight, and my machine ran this almost acceptably.
If you wan't attach your Doom 1,2 & Quake 1,2,3 config to email.
Well its nothing special... ASD and space for backup and use. joyb_speed set to 31 (autorun). Mouse has high accelleration and its a nice DOS driver that feels smooth.
Do you play Quake 1, 2, 3 [Singleplayer, Deathmatch, Team Fortress, Capture The Flag, ...]?
Nope.
Do you play any other games? Wich ones?
Sure. Xtetris and Sim City 2000 once in a while. I'm real good at Xtetris.
If you would win some CPL what would you want for a prize?
A new mousepad. The one I've got is starting to feel the last 3 years of dooming.
What would you say to me if you see me in real life first time?
Hi!
How are you wasting your free time?
Lotsa different stuff... none of my time is really "free" these days. I like hiking in the park, i have a horse, but time with those things isnt really free because of the nature of my job.
Do you have a job? Which one?
I do network operations/engineering/linux administration/router programming/peering/ uh well just a lot of internet related stuff at the T1 level and higher.
Do you love pizza, if you do, wich one?
I like pizza with everything except fruit or fish-related things or olives or very hot peppers. I can sometimes tolerate fruit on my pizza if im hungry enough and someone else just HAD to have it.
Do you drink alot?
I don't drink alchohol at all actually.
What's your favourite drink & food?
Drink: Mountain Dew. Food: wow I don't know...
What do you think about Grenpeace, WTO and EU?
I'm an american and, like most americans, have only a limited clue about international type things. I think Greenpeace is people in boats who put thier boats in the way of other people. I have idea what WTO is. I think EU means "European Union?" but I don't know for sure what it's about.
What's your favourite color, number? Why is it your favourite?
I like green because its the color of leaves and grass. My favorate number is 666 because of the concern and fear it envokes in christians (my least favorate religious group).
Add here anything you like ...
My website is currently http://www.doom2.net .
And whatnot.