IDK i go back and play Doom 1 every few months and I love it. The small mechanics, the abstract level designs, mowing down hundred of demons with plasma rifles and miniguns is super satisfying to master. I didn't even grow up with doom, I only started playing it back in like 2015 or so.

But it is dated, and if you dont mesh with the mechanics, i sorta get it. I never really liked old platformers myself, so probably something to do with that.

I like to go back every now and then and play through some of the more creative WADs people made over time. It blows my mind there's even a working copy of Chex Quest with added content out there.

I played it for the first time a few years ago and had a blast. But I'm also not big on modern FPSs. I just liked the simplicity of Doom

Doom still has a massive community for custom maps and mods, entire games have been made using gzdoom as an engine. Myhouse.wad made the goty list on IGN back in 2023. Safe to say yes, people do play these a lot.

I have to say I take issue with the idea of something being objectively worse, that's not how objectively works. Objective is a statement like "doom came out over 30 years ago".

There are an awful lots of games out there for this game engine, quite a few modern well done retro shooters you can buy as well. but yea not so much actual doom play going on.

Casual player who mostly plays the occasional WAD in multiplayer but I just like the action. The weapons are fun and straightforward and the enemies can be used in a variety of ways to be interesting

I play Brutal Doom a lot when I don't know what else I feel like playing. It's especially fresh and fun in VR through the various GZDoom ports to Quest.