These days, the employees at id need to play with pain. They're hard at work on Doom III, which is already a shoo-in for event of the year in the $10.8 billion videogame industry, even though it's not expected out until fall. In the dozens of times I've come here to research Masters of Doom, my book about John Carmack and his ex-partner, John Romero, I've never seen id's office as focused as it is now. There are no CDs whizzing into walls like Frisbees. No keyboards being hammered during Quake III marathons. No screams of the traditional shooter deathmatch taunt, "Suck it down!" Right now, the only things being sucked down are the brownies and coffee in the kitchen - a caffeine-sugar slammer to fortify the troops for yet another late night.