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XBox (Games)

User-made Content Part of Xbox Live 2.0? 33

Posted by Zonk from the nowhere-good dept.
The first details of the Xbox Live 2.0 service were revealed at the Game Developer's Conference by Microsoft VP J. Allard. Now GamesIndustry.biz has a discussion on the possibility that end user made content may be a part of the micropayment economy mentioned in the keynote. From the article: "...allowing players to create and trade their own in-game items, although presumably the game would have to provide some creative tools for this to be possible in the first place, so we wouldn't expect it to be a feature of every title."
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User-made Content Part of Xbox Live 2.0? More

User-made Content Part of Xbox Live 2.0?

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  • Interesting concept. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by BaronSprite ( 651436 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @09:10AM (#11964423) Homepage
    Sounds very interesting and possibly addicting. Small sums of money can add up very quickly, especially when you think to yourself, oh hey that's cool and it's only 2$!!! And that is cool too... and that... and that...

    But then again will we be looking at this as the retail computer view? Cheaper games that are missing modules? Sure we lose some on the computer (game), but we make it up on the accessories (in-game micro content.)

    I wonder how long it will be until you don't even need to buy the game, you just pick the game type module (RTS-FPS-RPG-Ect), download some character modules (Oh hey I want to be a paladin, I'll get him for 2$), buy a story module, bam.
    • Well, it would have to be more complex than that. For example, Max Payne could fit in the FPS code, but would have to be modified (A LOT) for the bullet time. And, seriously, who is going to want to pay $2.00 to try out a new class? It would be a great way to start playing a game, but I don't see it catching on...
      • Actually, there's a mod out there for Max Payne 2 that lets you play in FPS mode. While obviously a bit buggy and awkard, with a little bit of fine tuning it would have been awesome. I only tested the beta versiom, so it could have been improved, so I don't think that game would require THAT much modification.
    • From my understanding micro-payments are much less than $2.00. As I understand it you would be paying fractions of a cent but more often. Its almost a virtual currency. You'll be trading a few of your micro payments for material. If people can accru payments with material I doubt it will be any real way to acquire income, but rather will total up enough to offset all the mirco payments you're MAKING for other game usage. If not all your micropayments for a month might total up to $4-$5 or some such. T
      • They gave out $0.10 and $0.25 as examples. I'm about 99% sure most stuff will end up being $1.00 to $2.00 a few months after launch, once people get hooked on it. My opinion.

        And this module business from the grandparent... interesting, but that would really squash a lot of the creativity out of the industry. Where does (brace yourself for the overused example) Katamari Damacy fit?

  • ..and what exactly.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @09:18AM (#11964485) Homepage Journal
    ..is keeping gamemakers from doing the same thing already with current xbox live?

    as such, it's just hyping up possibilities.
    • Today, making something available on Xbox live for others to download is completely under the control of Microsoft. They probably don't have an open system for adding content, since it could overwhelmed very easily. So they need to design a new system that allows for hundreds of thousands of people offering things for download, maybe even for a fee. That is what's new.
      • well, but surely a game could download data while being played from the server?

        it's not like in an mmorpg your 'stuff' would be stored on your personal computer anyways, all that could reside on the server like any other 'points' the players get.
        • Downloaded from where? Only EA runs their own servers, and they had to really twist MS's arm to get that to happen. I don't think Xbox Live today could handle a large amount of downloads per game, and that's what would happen if we had user-created content.

          If some game company told MS, "here are 200 maps that we want you to offer for download for our game", MS would say no. Even the Xbox Live user interface couldn't handle that.

    • Re:..and what exactly.. (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's the scope, hassle, and cost. Micropayments (charging a nickel for a new decal on your character) isn't feasible, because the fees that the credit card vendors charge to process a transaction mean that you LOSE money doing this. MS is proposing that they unify the system, aggregate transactions so that you can charge really small amounts, without worrying about the Visa/MC fees. If the account is independent (but possibly linked to a credit card account), then they you can "buy" money for your micropaym
  • Essentially, this would be an extension of the current customisability rush we're seeing with characters at the moment; currently crafting is limited to preset recipes (examples d2, WoW); in d2 we see random bonus mods on crafted items, in WoW they've given a huge list of items to which you can add one custom mod in the form of a patch. Customisability would remove the element of chance of getting great mods at a lower level compated to d2; however it would reduce the time needed to spend on these items. I
    • WHAT!?!? Naming items is one of the things I want to see in more games! It would give equipment more uniqueness and importance. Who wouldn't want an axe named Bleeder like in the R.A. Salvatore novel Sojourn?
      • Ok, there's a certain attraction to it... but I for one will refuse to ever trade for an item I like if it has a name like "OMGT3H 1337BR1NG3Rz0r" or "Your MOM" or "boobies". multiplayer game moderators already seem to have trouble enough keeping tabs on player names, and adding item name customisation when there's 10 or more usable items per person would mean they simply wouldn't moderate them.

        Unless the item names were changeable - THAT I could deal with.

        I suppose with item naming and inspection you'd a
        • Well, you'd have to be able to change the names of items, or you would get stupid 1337 names. But I doubt anyone here can deny that "Meagermanx hits FirienFirien (Not to pick on oyu :P) with Twinkle(Drizzt Do'Urden's scimitar) for 3 Damage" would be cool. Of course, you would still get dumb names, but maybe you could report stupid names to a mod or something

  • This is bad... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @09:22AM (#11964523)
    If this actually becomes reality, we'd be making console gaming more like PC gaming.. in a bad way.

    Think of it this way: How fun would it be to play PC mods if they were ALL made by the developer themselves? How many 'good' maps/mods/skins do you normally see developers releases to the public AFTER the game has been released? (Don't say Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat either they're player-made.) Remember people Xbox Live (2.0) is for the Xbox2/Xenon/Xbox360 and probably will be locked out by PC gamers. Chances are individual mods won't be allowed to create their own content and then play it on their (non-modded) Xbox2s.

  • Paying for mods and such? Is that a joke? It shouldn't cost anything. Anytime any form of currency is involved in gaming, it messes it up. Go into any MMORPG and just sit around for a bit. Count how many people say "LEVELER FOR HIRE 2.50 A LEVEL WILL PL 4 FOOD" or "WILL TRADE CREDITS/INFLUENCE/GOLD FOR $$$!! CONTACT NOW!!". Money always brings out the worst in people. Theres gonna be a deluge of crap mods that people made in a "get-rich-quick" type thought pattern that're going to flood the "market" with
    • I've been sitting around in WoW since late November, and I'm still yet to see anything remotely like those two statements. The most frequent (and annoying) was the casino spammers, but they were declared illegal a few weeks back, and I haven't seen them since.

      But, I do agree that there will be a deluge of crap. There will be too many untalented people that will be trying things out that the bad will greatly out-total the good.

      Also, many Live users will use the camera to take pictures of their balls, then
  • They're already on version 3.0 on Xbox 1. But I think I know what you really mean.

    And no mention (in the /. story) that this (ridiculous) rumour is sourced from the US Official Xbox Magazine.

    Oh look, *yet another* unsubstantiated rumour on /. games. Sigh.
    • Well, it's not from Microsoft Press, but the Official Xbox Magazine is, uh, *official* you know. Chances are that they know more than anybody else about the Xbox 2. (Although from reading the same article this appeared in, I doubt it. About the only fact that could even somewhat confirm is that those leaked Xbox 2 controller photos are kind of close to what the final controller will look like maybe.)

  • Good. That is the main reason many Thief fans have been staying away from the console versions of their precious game.

    It's going to be a good thing indeed for them.

    I don't like the model (micro-payments for new content, part of it going to the content creator and a probable large percentage to the distributor, ie: microsoft), but at least it will pave the way for the capability.

  • Embracing the modding community sounds like a great idea, except companies like Tecmo seem to think suing their fans [slashdot.org] is a good idea.

    Thank goodness for companies like Bungie who actually enjoy seeing all the mods people make for their games.
  • The upcoming game Pariah for the Xbox allows users to design their own maps and share/play them online.
  • By Xbox Live 2.0, I assume the author means xbox live for the next xbox. The current one has already reached Live 2.0. Anyway, notice the setting to allow or disallow user created content in your account settings? A version of dance dance revolution allows users to create their own dance steps for the songs. Timesplitters: Future Perfect (almost here, yay) allows players to download custom made maps from others.

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