It's weird how gaming seems to have passed Carmack by...I noticed a sense of resignation or lack of zest in his interviews for some time. Almost an old man, seen it all and tired of it.
He was king of twitch shooters, but he doesnt fit in todays high production value, story-laced games, IE your Uncharted, Gears, Creeds, etc.
Rage was sort of Id's attempt to go that rout, but it seems to have not worked out.
Also, this part is personal and many will disagree, but I feel like graphics are the biggest driver of game demand among the hardcore, and Carmack even doesn't seem to realize that much. He's made some odd, to me, statements in interviews, stuff like that, they draw so many pixels in 720P games that gamers dont even see most of them, or something. As if there was no point to it.
It's almost as if he thinks graphics are done for, or he's tired of pushing them, or he thinks diminishing returns is in full force, and I couldn't disagree more, I've always loved Mark Rein's take on it, because it mimics my own. I remember early in this gen somebody said "well isn't 360 just the same games with prettied up graphics" And Rein said something like "wait wait, go back to that graphics part. Because have you SEEN Gears? That's a really big deal".