NYT on Game Mods 172
Bansuki writes "The New York Times has an article about the role of the modding communities in the games industry. It's a decent overview of the current state of modding though it focuses heavily on Epic Games and the Unreal engine. They spotlight the Unreal University program (an Unreal sponsored event giving classes to potential modders) and Red Orchestra (a highly ambitious mod of the Unreal Warfare engine). The article also mentions machinima as a type of mod with artistic potential and gives due credit to Id Software and Bioware for their work in making engines available to the community. But here's a glaring omission: Half-life and its wildly successful mods. Odd."
Building a mod inside a level editor... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've poked around a bit trying to find a way to generate DOOM PWADs using a script... but I can't see a way to build a map outside a level editor. It seems like there are two components necessary - a sector layout thingy and a binary space partition calculator.
At any rate, I've started a little project to generate DOOM levels [rubyforge.org] via a Ruby script. And if it turns out this is already possible via other means, I'll shut the project down
The Darkest Day (Score:3, Interesting)
Simon.
They should be thanking us! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Game mods are the best card for PC games (Score:3, Interesting)
And using a subscription service to distribute some additional content is not really an option. Content management systems on consoles are still so clumsy as to barely qualify as usable - I'd rather just use my pc and know I can do what I like with the game.
Quake, not Q2 (Score:2, Interesting)
But it was Quake IIRC which was the first 3d shooter to actively support and encourage a modding community by releasing QuakeC.. I guess half-life's huge mod community is just an extention of that success.
Re:Building a mod inside a level editor... (Score:5, Interesting)
The utility came on the CD version of the game. It would work as advertised and generate random levels. Every now and then you'd get a good deathmatch level out of it.
So I would imagine that one could write an engine to generate a random level for any game. This would be a bit simpler probably for older 2 1/2 D games like Doom, ROTT and Descent, compared to full 3D engine games like the Quake and Unreal series. But definitely do-able I think.
wbs.
Speaking of Mods (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Building a mod inside a level editor... (Score:5, Interesting)
What the article poster forgot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's not a coincidence (Score:5, Interesting)
My point is that the NYT doesn't know much about modding. They only know what they can see, and that's a wall of information. They don't have good resources for tapping into something like modding. Part of that is our fault, because there isn't a central information base for modding anymore, and there hasn't been since Slipgate Central was shut down. NYT wouldn't know what Allstar CTF was, and they would likely think that Zoid was a little toy.
But patiently, with time, maybe the rest of the world will get it, when it comes to mods. Until then, we have to make do and we have to try and keep working towards that connection.
Of course it's not a coincidence (Score:3, Interesting)
The games with wildly successful modification scenes are games that are commercially wildly successful, in general. The positive correlation is real.
Being "commercially successful" means just that. That is sells many copies, it does not mean that people are actually playing the game out of the box .. Take Half Life for example and look at how many people are playing Un-MODed HalfLife today .. Not many .. The ONLY reason Valve is still selling HalfLife, is because of the MODs..
Therefore talking about a "positive correlation" is, mildly put, misleading.
Re:Building a mod inside a level editor... (Score:2, Interesting)
Nifty! That should be helpful for figuring out how to write out the files, thanks much! I need a general purpose scripting API to Doom maps, so I'll keep plugging away on Ruby-DOOM. Thanks for the pointer, though.
TF a Halflife mod? (Score:3, Interesting)
So there might be a TF for HL, but TF is and always shall be a Quake mod. After all, Quake was the first engine that was open to modding by average Joe.
Re:It's not really all THAT odd... (Score:4, Interesting)
Future of modding... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a big fan of Desert Combat [desertcombat.com] mod for Battlefield 1942, seems as though the designers/coders have formed their own company [traumastudios.com] headed by founder Frank Delise. This seems like a great way for mods to break into the gaming scene, release an amazing mod for free, then start a company, then PROFIT! (sorry..). I'm really looking forward to see what these guys are comming up with next.
Urban Terror (Score:2, Interesting)
Most of the time I need to get on and get my fix in a hurry. I know this sounds sad, and yes I'm addicted.....admitting is the first step towards recovery. - MK-Ultra (to Urban Terror regulars)
Re:Half-Life (Score:3, Interesting)
No, I don't buy that. By that argument, almost 50% of the games out there are just mods. Is Jedi Knight II just a Quake 3 mod? It uses the same engine. Same for most of the Star Trek games, Heavy Metal, etc. I don't think that just because a game uses a licenced engine, it can be referred to as a mod.
Technically, yes, it is a 'modificaton' of an existing game, but I believe the term 'mod' means something a little more specific. Can't mods use the original games' content (sounds, models, textures)? If you licence a game engine, I'm pretty sure that's all you get. The game engine and maybe the net & scripting code. Also, mods *require* the original game in order to work. I don't think owning Q3A is a requirement for playing JKII.
I'm probably just arguing semantics, but in my mind there's a big distinction between a mod and a licenced-engine game.
Re:It's not really all THAT odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I used to get interviewed by the AJC [ajc.com] on technology issues. Seriously, I could have told them Linux is more popular than Windows and they probably would have published it.
Most reporters have a few pals in several industries. For instance, a doctor they call on medical issues, an IT guy for tech stuff, etc.
Reporters do one thing: Report
What about Barney... (Score:2, Interesting)
The story ignores the real base mods from the DOS era when the tools/source were not released and had t obe reverse engineered by users.
The Alens total conversion for Doom is still the best mod I've played.