From the book I got that Romero had the vision. He had kind of an epic vision of what games could be, and would do everything with his money to achieve that vision. Sometimes he failed, and other times he succeeded massively.
He also, like Jobs, had a sense of what could be insanely great. In the book, when you read about the offices that he wanted for Ion Storm, you get a feeling of Jobs' perfection and micro-management. Romero, like Jobs, wanted to take things to the next level.
I feel compelled to do that, too. Sometimes I think it's a curse.
Right now, I'm working on the same engineering problems that Twitter and Facebook have already solved[1] for a tiny, underfunded startup in San Diego, and I can't just do what Twitter or Facebook did and get paid for it. I have to do it better, "take it to the next level".
I feel absolutely compelled to do something that would make my engineering buddies go: how the fuck did you do that? Oh well—at least I still get paid either way. :)
[1] Or did they? Now that I've spent time in that space, I've developed a taxonomy of how social networks are constructed and grow, and it's obvious (at least to me) that what we've got today is like the Altavista of search engines, just waiting for a Google to come along and apply superior algorithms and data center design and kick some ass. We'll see.
He also, like Jobs, had a sense of what could be insanely great. In the book, when you read about the offices that he wanted for Ion Storm, you get a feeling of Jobs' perfection and micro-management. Romero, like Jobs, wanted to take things to the next level.