carmack sells middleware to other studios. id hasn't had a good game since quake 3 which is largely just a technology update of quake -- a game romero was integral to. he's a gifted programmer and i admire his work with armadillo aerospace but his post-quake accomplishments aren't much better than romero's. his biggest edge over romero is his humility. if romero had quietly released daiktana instead of endlessly promising how great it would be his reputation would be much the same as carmack's