John Romero could be ordained as Pope, and people would still come up at mass and ask him about the early days of id Software and Doom. One of the key figures in early FPS history and by far the most infamous and outspoken, Romero's brand of hirsute grungy swagger worked for a very simple reason: the games he designed and promoted were brilliant (until they weren't).
These days Romero is head of Romero Games, currently working on an unannounced FPS, and has given an interview to Ars Technica about being known for Doom over three decades. Doom of course was the culmination of id's work up until that point, but that was standing on the shoulders of the successful Wolfenstein 3D, which itself had followed from the earlier id titles Hovertank One and Catacomb 3-D.
