The Rebirth of PC Gaming? Bring On the Modders! 249
Deathspawner writes "The future of PC gaming is oft-debated, but one thing's for certain: modding has always made it better. With that, wouldn't it make sense for developers to focus more on giving the community the modding tools it needs? Further, couldn't publishers look to modding as a way to increase revenue, by allowing modders to sell their sanctioned creations? Valve already offers robust community options in its Steam platform — and already has payment processing in place. Is this the natural next step for PC gaming?"
The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
How much do I make off mods?
Nothing
And where are most of my sales?
On consoles.
And where are most of my pirates?
On the PC.
Who do modding tools benefit?
Only the PC gamers.
Does developing modding tools cost me?
Yes.
And remind me again how much I make off any given mod?
Jack and shit. And Jack left town.
I think I've made my decision.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is one reason for piracy.
I enthusiastically purchase well-made games that are enjoyable. I can think of one game that I've logged hundreds of hours on and that I've purchased four times (once on PC, once for console and two for gifts to friends). If the company announced they were making a sequel, I wouldn't hesitate to pay 0-day price and pre-order.
There are other games, that for various reasons, feel like nothing but money-grabs by developers who are out of ideas. Unfinished, unloved and leaving me pissed off.
I recently played a game called "Gas Guzzlers Combat Carnage" by some indie studio (I think in Eastern Europe) called Gamepire that was a hoot to play, worked very well and cost less than $20. I even wrote the devs a fan letter telling them I hoped they'd go bigger and do a "Burnout Paradise"-style game with lots of wild arcade racing and crashes and explosions and stunts and stuff, because they did Gas Guzzlers with such elan and a sense of fun. It's basically Forza with guns. Good single player, good multi-player. Good all around.
But when a company has done such a bad job over and over, and ripped people off by not giving them value, I don't see how it's a surprise that people are pirating their games instead of laying out $60.
I know for a fact that there are people who have pirated a game and then liked it so much that they went and bought a copy. I actually think this is pretty common.
I'm not convinced that a big shakeout in the PC gaming industry is a bad thing. There are a lot of big-name game companies that are putting out crap and ripping people off and deserve to go out of business.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Interesting)
Hi! Obese leech basement dweller (neckbeard) here!
Or I must be since I make maps and mods for video games. We are basically level and game designers (mostly amateur) who have a real passion for creating content and perhaps more importantly, creating good content. We're basically like a whole team of content designers that don't actually ask for anything in return but a handful of tools to help us do it. That's a small price to pay for the huge amount of content we can really churn out, note that the competitive maps that really made Starcraft what it is today were designed by us, not Blizzard.
Oh, and I'm skinny, live on the ground floor, and don't receive one cent from my parents.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
He's not an outlier. I've done the same thing nearly 14 years ago, just for the hell of it.
A bunch of guys took Quake 2 (then Quake3, then Unreal Tournament), and all together, we made one hell of a mod out of it [wikipedia.org].
The result wasn't counted in dollars, but was counted in untold hours of solid fun gameplay for thousands of people. Almost everyone involved did it for fun, and even looking at it from well over a decade, it was still worth it.
Y'all can keep your hypothetical $10m that 99.9% (or so) of all aspiring game designers will never see. I'll keep the awesome memories gathered over years of kick-ass gameplay and a ton of sweat.
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You don't get it, do you? You'll never see that $10m, nor will the vast majority of other developers.
So unless your name is, say, John Carmack? Keep dreaming.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's a handy checklist of wrong reasons to make a video game:
- Are you making the same game two or more years in a row? (Bonus points for adding the Year onto the end of the name)
- Is your game an clone of another, more successful game, adding no new features and having near identical art assets?
- Do your long-term goals revolve around a microtransaction model that requires people to pay money not to be Kerb-stomped?
Each boil down to "I'm making this game to make some quick cash" whether it be by taking an initially inovative and fun game and reskinning it every year, wholesale lifting of game mechanics from another game you *dont* own the rights to and reskinning it, or creating a potentially fun game, but requiring people to constantly fork out cash just to have fun (I'm mostly looking at World of Tanks in this case, as well as alot of Mobile games).
Games made for those reasons are rarely remembered - they might make a shittone of cash, and that's why they keep getting made - but in the same way that 9 out of 10 Rom Coms won't be remembered in 2 years time, these games will fall by the wayside, meanwhile games that have some love put into them a decade ago are still selling today.
Like one of the GPPs said, people are still playing Freelancer. There's still a community for a bunch of old X games too. The Modding scene for Oblivion has seen it still being bought today, even after Skyrim - which also has a decent modding community now - was released.
Companies like Valve and Acti-Blizzard have seen the way forwards for modding, the Steam Workshop and SC2's map/mod store thing (I don't know what it's called I don't play SC2) allow people to look for mods and maps in-game, download them through a common interface and play them right away.
When it comes to Valve, look at the PeTI for Portal 2 or the community submissions workshop for TF2 (which actually shares revenue with creators who've had their stuff put in-game) - They became the giant they are today because of the loyalty of their fans, which for the most part came from how moddable their games are.
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Game development is a horrible abusive career to go into anyways (unless you work for a startup anyways). Good thing I stayed away from it, I have an uncle who worked like a fiend on some legendarily awesome games, had a nice position at LucasArts, but now he's in at least as shitty of a situation as I am. Lot of good that did him.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
DayZ is responsible for more sales of Arma2 than Arma2.
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DayZ is responsible for more sales of Arma2 than Arma2.
You could say Arma2 is a pre-release beta of DayZ.
This is a point in the argument that is being missed. What if, say, super mario galaxy had a great engine but all the levels sucked.... then nintendo released mod tools and one of the hottest games out there was "super mario zombie galaxy" or something.... So they saved all their money on "art devel" all their money on "testing" and all their money on "PR" (I don't see ads... is Arma2 primarily advertising itself as a bootloader/engine for DayZ?)
I don't und
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DayZ is responsible for more sales of Arma2 than Arma2.
You could say Arma2 is a pre-release beta of DayZ.
Except Arma2 PC game sales are a side business to Bohemia main one - supporting military training facilities.
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Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Interesting)
So why is TF2 the most valuable game to Valve, when it allows modding, and also puts them on sale?
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Because Valve already long ago recouped their money.
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Because Valve already long ago recouped their money.
Valve makes more money on hats than they made selling the game.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Insightful)
The Team Fortress franchise in itself started as a mod for Quake.
Counter-Strike started out as a mod.
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Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Informative)
The Sims, Sims 2, Sims 3...
Elder Scrolls Series
Starcraft
Halflife series
Portal 2 (added a mod tool to stir new sales about a month ago)
Civilization series
Torchlight series
World of Warcraft (heck, almost all MMO's for that matter)
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DotA
Actually, the original map to do it was for Starcraft and called Aeon of Strife. It spawned an entire genre (called AoS) which spans popular titles like Smite, League of Legends, and Heroes of Newerth. And now Blizzard DotA and DotA 2. This may have never come to pass if some people sat down and made the first DotA with no monetary compensation. The entire industry is profiting from the work of a few modders.
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Any examples from this century? Serious question.
All of Bethesda's RPG games are a shining example. I would never buy these for a console, you miss out on entire games worth of free content.
Fallout 3 [nexusmods.com]
Fallout: New Vegas [nexusmods.com]
Oblivion [nexusmods.com]
Skyrim [nexusmods.com]
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Aren't those 4 games huge enough already with their base games (and any DLC). There comes a time when perhaps you want to actually "finish" a game and go on to something else. Yes, there is such a thing as "too much content". It can ruin a game just as much as "too little content" can.
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So why is TF2 the most valuable game to Valve, when it allows modding, and also puts them on sale?
I've heard this argument before, but never bothered to look for any mods, just going by my gut feeling that if I hadn't heard of any, they aren't out there.
So I looked, and unless someone can cough up better examples, the TF2 mod scene is fucking garbage, please excuse my language.
To put this in context, the original Team Fortress was a Quake mod. Team Fortress _itself_ had several well known and popular mods. There were even sizable custom map scenes within these mod scenes.
Mods very substantially change
People who buy the game for the mods (Score:5, Insightful)
How much do I make off mods?
Nothing
I disagree. Would Valve have made as much money from Half-Life if there were no Counter-Strike?
And where are most of my sales?
On consoles.
If you're a sufficiently large developer. Do XNA games released on Xbox Live Indie Games outsell comparable PC games?
Does developing modding tools cost me?
Yes.
Developing level and scenario editing tools in the first place costs you. Why not continue to polish them and release them a few months later so that you can make a few bucks off players who will buy a game for the mods?
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Informative)
How much do I make off mods?
Nothing
Many games make most of their PC sales because of mods. ARMA2 is a good example given by another poster, but each and every Bethesda game is an even bigger one.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:4, Interesting)
How about making the modding tools run on consoles? Today, consoles have:
- Hard Drives
- Internet connectivity
- Keyboard and mouse support
- Good resolution displays
- Powerful enough CPUs for editing tools
- Sufficient memory for editing tools
10 years ago this would not be possible. But today it is entirely feasible. There is a marginal cost to having to Q&A the tools, but it might be worth while because you can then sell the tools as DLC. Or release it later on for free to revitalize sales of the existing game.
Wii has 64 MB of RAM (Score:3)
Keyboard and mouse support
The last time I checked, Microsoft still refused to make a mouse driver for Xbox 360. Or are you calling Kinect a mouse substitute?
Sufficient memory for editing tools
How so? Wii has 64 MB of RAM and 24 MB of VRAM.
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Who do modding tools benefit?
Only the PC gamers.
Presumably, your game designers would benefit from good modding tools as well.
Does developing modding tools cost me?
Yes.
If you've provided your game designers with good tools to design their game, this cost is already sunk.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:4, Insightful)
This exactly what Runic Games (Torchlight/Torchlight II) did, and it got them a lot of good will and a lively and loyal, if small, community around them.
Supposedly, Bethesda claimed to have done the same thing. Having tried to use the Skyrim mod tool, though, I can't imagine that the devs used it day after day and haven't strung someone up by their toenails in the breakroom yet...
Human resources (Score:5, Insightful)
I just realized that you appear to have forgotten a question:
Where do I find artists and programmers to hire for my next game?
From the modding community.
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:5, Informative)
How much do I make off mods?
Nothing
Yeah because Valve hasn't made a dime off of Counter-Strike [steampowered.com], right? I mean they've only shifted 27 million units [wikipedia.org] in the franchise since buying the rights to the mod. I'm sure they really regret opening that can of worms now.
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So, as a consumer:
Why don't you enable community mods with an approval process for console offerings?
Provide a mod toolset for PC use, with a submission system. Use your paid DLC packages as dependencies for core functionality, so that the community ones drive sales of the paid ones.
That solves several of your problems.
Oh, righ, the console operators don't like community dlc. That's right. Sorry. My bad.
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I ask the Developer:
Is your game moddable?
No
Do you think I'll buy it then?
Oh yes, because it...
I'm already walking away.
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Desig
Re:The questions developers ask (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd agree that's what they are thinking. But I think they are wrong. A good example is Neverwinter nights. I bought that game 5 years after release so I could play some of the mods people had made for it. That's money they wouldn't have had. Look at Team Fortress 2... that wouldn't even really be a game without all the player made maps. It would have faded into obscurity a few months after release. The mod community let Valve spend less time making maps and focus more on game play.
I'm not sure I totally agree with that. The maps made by valve are excellent, and you can tell that they spent a lot of time thinking about player routes and wall placement. I have over 800 hours in TF2 and I only play Badwater, Gold rush, and Turbine.
Not to say that there aren't great player-made maps too. Turbine is an excellent map, and I believe it is player-made entirely or in part. I think this map is so good because it emulates a lot of the features that Valve uses in their maps- 3 routes to every flag, enough space and obstructions that 1 sentry doesn't dominate, a way to destroy every sentry given enough skill and thought, etc. One of the reasons I think TF2 is special is because the textures are so simple and cartoonish. You don't need to spend hours and hours painting textures or figuring out stylizing. Everything fits together well aesthetically already. You can concentrate on the things that matter like player pathing and other geographic placement.
But your point that without player-made maps the game would have failed, I can't buy it.
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Re:The questions developers ask (Score:4, Insightful)
How much do I make off mods?
It's hard to say, but it's substantial: Mods are free advertizing. Advertizing costs money. Ergo, Mods are worth free advertizing to me. The Doom & Quake Modding communities are still around, and people are still buying the original games -- Even though the engine is open sourced! Why? To make & play mods. The source-ports and many game mods require the original assets. Total conversions like Freedoom are not compatible with all the mods, so the huge library of mods drive original game sales. The point is that it's far from "Nothing"
Seriously, "nothing" is a very deceptive and/or ignorant answer.
And where are most of my sales?
PC and Mobile, because Consoles have an artificially elevated barrier to entry, and the console market has severe discoverability issues -- Though this really doesn't matter much when it comes to mods, you'll see why two answers below.
And where are most of my pirates?
Piracy isn't a problem, It's more free advertising. "Pirates" are more likely to pay for, and get the word out about, my next game. One example: I bought myself and my nephew several games that he found out about while playing at his friend's house -- his friend pirated the games because he's a teen with no cash. That pirate made up for his piracy 200%
You can't stop piracy -- It's a symptom of an artificial scarcity system -- A BAD economic model. Piracy is only possible because we don't get paid enough up front for making the game & try to recoup costs after the fact. I'm working to change this, but it takes a strong reputation to bootstrap into the new model where I can give games away after they've been built (hey, it's just like working for a Publisher, I only want to get paid for actually doing the work -- works for mechanics and all other labour industries).
Who do modding tools benefit?
Primarily: The Game Developers. Yep, without them I wouldn't be able to make games. In fact, before I can even make a game, I must make "modding tools" to create everything from font rendering & GUIs, to level editors and multi-texture combining visualisers. Some dev studios require much simpler tools, others license engines that come with said tools -- Let me repeat that: THE ENGINE COMES WITH MODDING TOOLS. Considering that we've got to make the modding tools anyway, and that the tools themselves aren't really useful without an engine to go with it, the modding tools are only worth NOT distributing if you plan to increase the artificial scarcity of DLC. Which is dumb. People will just make their own (inf | sup)erior mod tools. Inferior tools produce mods that make your game look like crap to others on Youtube; Superior tools help folks create content that drives sales of the game and showcases what others can do -- Ding Ding Ding! More Engine Licensing Deals!
Does developing modding tools cost me?
Yes, but that's part of the cost of making the damn game! You think we dump 3D graphics and textures in a folder with the engine and it magically becomes a game?! Nope. True, some modding tools are created as plugins for 3DS Max or Maya or Blender, etc, but the point is: We've got to make them anyway. Furthermore, it may cost NOTHING! That's right! NOTHING. Sometimes folks actually reuse software...
And remind me again how much I make off any given mod?
For the high quality official in-house made mods? Well, DLC goes for anywhere between 1% and 10% of the original game sale price, or 50-100% of the original game sales for expansion packs. The sales figures vary wildly depending on how well the game has done. For community made mods, the answer's even more complex (see above), but it's provably infinitely more than "jack shit".
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And where are most of my pirates?
Hmmm purely anecdotal here.... I am a PC gamer, not a single pirated game on my machine (currently). However, I go over to my daughter’s home, my grandson is playing his Wii that is completely loaded with hundreds of games, none of which were purchased. My nephew’s PS2, uses many pirated titles. I've heard the same about Xbox but never seen it. It could be that piracy with consoles is more common that the OP thinks.
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Have you been paying attention to Day Z? It's a mod for Arma II, a 2-year-old game - which became so popular, it's pushed Arma II to the top of the Steam best-seller list for months on end. Mods make money by expanding the sales curve, or even bringing an old game back to the best-seller lists years later.
valve made a bazillion dollars (Score:3)
hl1 would have been forgotten if it weren't for counter strike. because of cs they had the incentive to keep updating and to add licensing servers, online drm and eventually an online distribution platform for selling the thing(steam).
Are modding tools even allowed on consoles? (Score:3)
When game developers start developing modding tools for their games, it seizes to be a PC-only advantage. They can just as well release those tools for other platforms, right?
Since when do companies like Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Apple's iOS division allow developers to release modding tools?
Rebirth (Score:4, Insightful)
What do you mean rebirth?
PC gaming is in full swing..
Re:Rebirth (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you mean rebirth?
PC gaming is in full swing..
Nor was it ever in serious decline if you look at sales data (hint, right now it's the biggest gaming platform and the fastest growing), but the meta-narrative has asserted its decline for years.
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but the meta-narrative has asserted its decline for years.
Also: The demoscene is dead.
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Homework-and-Facebook PCs with Intel GMA (Score:2)
Because people who own consoles NEVER play PC games right?
I wouldn't say never, but PCs owned by people who primarily game on consoles are more likely to have Intel GMA ("Graphics My Ass") because they're bought for homework and Facebook and the like. Only recently did Intel graphics begin to match the graphical complexity of seventh-generation consoles, with Ivy Bridge running Skyrim at a playable frame rate [anandtech.com].
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What is better? (Score:2)
Thought PC gaming was "dying out" 10 years ago (Score:4, Interesting)
At least that's what the /. articles were saying back then. Maybe it's just FUD like the movie-makers in the 1950s who said TV would kill theaters.
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Of course no one knows the exact numbers but it's pretty obvious by practically every industry report I've seen that PC gaming isn't only alive and well but it's growing very fast.
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It was. Well, it sure as hell looked like it was when Xbox 360 and PS3 first came out. Now it doesn't look as much like that.
Hey 20 years ago, Apple was useless and dying right? Space: 1999 was pessimistic predicting there'd be a Moonbase Alpha is as long as 20 years instead of like 5 years. Oops.
Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes when it's clearly obvious X is going to happen, hey! Guess what! X doesn't happen.
Cope.
Dedicated servers (Score:3)
Making mods or custom maps is only viable when you can run your own servers on which to play them. Nowadays most new games have servers that are run by the game publishers themselves, if this is the case how do you persuade the publisher to run the mod on them?
Or shared hosting (Score:2)
if this is the case how do you persuade the publisher to run the mod on them?
The same way I persuaded Go Daddy to run MediaWiki on pineight.com: pay to rent space on a server to hold the scripts associated with the mod.
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What server am I playing my Skyrim mods on?
You have a very, very limited view of what constitutes a "mod".
Endless Space, new 4x game allows modding (Score:2)
Endless Space (go look it up) is a new 4X game with much more in common with MOO2; though it is still amazing how much a sixteen year old game got right than anything since; but with snappy graphics and a lot of polish. They invite people to vote on upcoming changes and features as well. The game is delivered via Steam and is one of the most bug free games I have seen recently, it certainly is the best true 4X Space game I have played in ages (read: no real time silliness)
There is a small community already
Modding has pretty much always improved sales (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking back over 25 years of computer gaming modding has pretty much always improved sales. From the days of the original Civ games to Wolfenstein to Doom to NeverWinter Nights vs NeverWinter Nights 2 examples abound. Those games that support the community readily modding them have pretty much always had better sales than those that didn't.
Simple example would be NeverWinter Nights vs NeverWinter Nights 2 for an example in point. Embrace your user community and you will be rewarded in sales for years to come. Pull a Sony and you'l end up with a (what was the name of their PSP replacement again?)....
There can be a pent-up demand for this... (Score:2)
I'm sure some company could make a good income from mods.
For example, take a game like NWN1 or NWN2 which allows not just for single player modules, but persistant worlds. Develop the backend so that the game company can provide a server backbone and the PW designers upload their areas and global scripts, and/or allow connections to private servers. The key is giving not just the ability to add customizable scripts (such as having an object be able to cross PWs with its own scripts attached like Enserric)
It's not necessarily tools that are needed (Score:4, Informative)
I'm a Rome Total War modder, so my knowledge of modding is mainly restricted to the Total War franchise, and how The Creative Assembly deals with modding.
But I think that it's probably the same thing everywhere.
When people think of mod tools, they often think of an editor which allows to modify textures/models and scripts, for the most part. While that's great because it allows beginner to easily mod a few things, that's only minor modding.
The problem is that while it's fun to change the texture of a horse to a bunny with a hat, it's not those kind of mods that TFA is talking about.
It's the total overhaul mods that make modding so good, like Counter Strike. And with the amount and diversity of modifications needed, no tools is going to be able to do it.
In RTW, most files are text files, which means that basically everything that is not hardcoded in the exe can be changed using Notepad. The only place where a tool is needed is for art ressource, as those are packed. And for RTW, it wasn't CA that released this tool, but a guy who reversed-engineering the packing system. In the subsequent release Medieval II Total War, CA actually released a tool to unpack things, because they had added protections.
The newer TW games however don't have the same major mods, because they changed the way data is structured. Things which used to be rather easy to do are now (almost) impossible, simply because no one can access the data in a useful manner. Because of the thriving modding community created by the previous games, there are a few people that are painfully trying to make sense of things, but HEX editing is a huge pain, and has huge limitations.
All of that to say that modders don't really need tools like editor (though they are quite nice).
What they need is a way to access and modify data easily (which can be through a tool like an unpacker, or a converter), and documentation/information to make sense of it.
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While I was never more than a fiddler, and this was also obviously like a decade ago (can't believe it's really been that long!), all my experience with real modding was in the original Starcraft.
The original Starcraft did actually have a pretty respectable map editor, complete with a scripting engine that, while not the most user-friendly ever, was technically still Turing-complete. But there was still a lot you couldn't do (natively). Well, by the end, there was almost -nothing- you couldn't do. Anyone el
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All of that to say that modders don't really need tools like editor (though they are quite nice).
What they need is a way to access and modify data easily (which can be through a tool like an unpacker, or a converter), and documentation/information to make sense of it.
I agree to a point: ID didn't publicly released their Doom modding toolkit, but The Unofficial Doom Specs spawned many mod tools. However, the data structures in the WAD file were mostly the same that were used in memory, so a hex editor and a debugger could easily work wonders.
That said, I would classify your pack/repack tools as editing tools. Furthermore, I'd go so far as to say that although you may not need a full editing suite, it would sure get you jumpstarted making them mods, eh?
Developers ar
I want "reverse" DLC. (Score:3)
I would think that this could greatly improve the value of console gaming as well.
Think about it: as a publisher, you get paid twice. (Once for the PC version and its deveopment tool suite, and again for the console version for testing.) The number of interesting DLC packages would be enorous. Many may even be free. It will greatly increase the desirability of your games.
"But won't it compete with our paid DLC?!"
Not if the community DLC requires it as a dependency for core functionality. Then the community DLC will actually add additional value to your paid DLC, and people will want it more.
So, why aren't you guys doing it?
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So, why aren't you [console gaming] guys doing it?
Because the console makers charge us a lot to make DLC available. Truth is, your favorite console mfg is keeping you from having awesome stuff. Sorry, I didn't mean to-- I hope you weren't a console fanboi...
Meanwhile on the PC: I'm working a P2P DHT system for modders to distribute their content for my games. The trust store and free CA system is complete, we can push out updates Bittorrent style and the client can verify authenticity. Modders can generate self signed mods, and optionally get their ce
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I kinda figured as much actually. That's the real downside to the walled garden: it's invite only at the party.
This sort of thing really is why I wish there were alternative markets and game match services for consoles. But, that will never happen as long as the status quo remains in effect.
Too bad there isn't a way to end-run the DLC problem without raising the console maker's ire. Something like incorporating a minimalist BT client inside a game update, and using a console-signed local storage container
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No, you are just unimaginative, and need me to spell it out for you.
So, I will.
Let's look at a game from yesteryear that had a good mod community: TES3, Morrowind.
It had 2 official expansions: Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. In addition to new play assets, both expansions added new core functionality to the scripting engine. As such, buying the expansions became a requirement to getting the better community made mod packages. You simply needed them, if you wanted to use X mod, because the mod needed those scripti
Planetary Annihilation will do modding and Linux! (Score:3)
It's good that Planetary Annihlation [planetarya...lation.com] will have support for modding and Linux :)
So give them your voice and some of your cash by funding them on Kickstarter and then next year we'll all happily be destroying planets!
Corporations want to control you. You will conform (Score:2)
There is just no way getting around it. The goal is to consolidate and forced conformity.
Modders will exist as long as these companies decide its worth selling parts to you directly. The entire computer industry is looking at Apple and thinking to themselves "lets copy them"
Apple is not friendly to modders.
The future is windows store, apple store... you will conform because there will be no choice.
no to f2p (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll tell you what's NOT the future of PC gaming: "Free to Play".
I've never seen so much crap. It's a bad idea, executed badly, and if a game developer thinks that free-to-play is the way to go they need to look for a job in a call center somewhere.
I went into it with an open mind, but after a year of not being able to play any F2P game more than about 5 minutes, I'm convinced that it's an idea that needs to die a painful public death.
It's not that it's a good idea being done badly. It's a bad idea that actually encourages bad execution.
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I can't tell you how many hours I dropped into Maple Story or Gunbound. I made a few in game purchases with Gunbound as well way back in the day (HS time). But lets get to something more current - Blacklight: Retribution. This game has way better mechanics play mechanics than most arcade FPS shooters on the market, has some great ideas (Hyper Reality Visor is a complete game changer), AND has a pay system
Minecraft (Score:2)
Cap (Score:2)
Why spend $2k on a pc rig, in order to play a game that I can play for free on onlive?
Because OnLive will cause you to hit your ISP's monthly cap earlier. Or because not all games are on OnLive.
Re:Cap (Score:4, Insightful)
Why spend $2k on a pc rig, in order to play a game that I can play for free on onlive?
Because OnLive will cause you to hit your ISP's monthly cap earlier. Or because not all games are on OnLive.
Or because OnLive under the very best conditions has terrible graphical degradation and noticeable input lag.
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More than one person in a household (Score:2)
If you play video games for more than a full work-week every month, that's another issue!
It has to share the cap with the other uses of your connection, such as web surfing, YouTube, and Netflix. And unless you live alone, it also has to share the cap with other people in your household.
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Or just save the hassle and buy the damn game.
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Because Onlive is temperamental, unreliable and prone to going bust.
PC gaming is strong right now. Very strong. If Valve would just release their Steam sales figures in a format that would let them fit into the industry sales charts, then we'd probably see some fairly scary stuff.
But this isn't new, and there is a reason for it.
"PC gaming is dying" is an over-used cliche, albeit one that sometimes (but not currently) is used with a degree of reasonable evidence behind it. PC gaming suffers early in a consol
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Why spend $2k on a pc rig, in order to play a game that I can play for free on onlive?
Aren't they dead?
OnLive was sold (Score:2)
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pc games will never get back where they used to be. Why spend $2k on a pc rig, in order to play a game that I can play for free on craplive?
Dear *craplive* turfer, you don't need a $2k rig to play PC games. You can today built an excellent PC gaming rig for around $400. Do you know why? Because consoles have been holding back PC's for the last 7 years. Thanks consoles.
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Why spend $2k on a pc rig, in order to play a game that I can play for free on onlive?
A) Why would anyone pay $2k on a gaming rig? My PC has some aging hardware, and could probably be made for around $500 now (less if you got spare parts sitting around, or in your current computer), and it plays pretty much everything on highest settings (AMD Phenom II x4 965 90$ now, ATI 5770 $100+/-, 6Gb DDR2 very very cheap, a decent mobo for that would be around $75 now and pretty much stock HDDs and other bits). Yes, you could pay $2k, but it would be pointless, and you would be a moron.
B) Onlive is
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yeah but instead of spending &700 on your gaming rig you could have tossed in an extra $500 and gotten a macbook... so maybe you should hold off on claims about value.
His point is that A gaming PC for him has been good value because the additional costs costs involved in turning from a basic PC to a gaming PC is relatively little. Its not a particularly good point. The fact that he could have spent twice as much, and got a Apple branded computer for over twice the price...and couldn't do any gaming or upgrade is an even worse one. I think this isn't really the thread for promoting Apple.
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Wow... Onlive is the new timecube? Everything is possible through Onlive. Glory to Onlive. My life for Onlive. Onlive akbar.
I don't want a Mac. I've owned several, they didn't do it for me. I don't like Onlive, it has a crappy selection, it has crappy latency, and I love owning my own games. I especially don't want to depend on a company that might be dead at any time, and that I have no trust in.
To reiterate, why spend more money for a computer that doesn't do what you want it to do, and that will
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a macbook.. that can play windows games?
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hahahah. I just google searched "bf3 fps 9600gt" and found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHkkCO_uPA0 [youtube.com]
In the first 10 secs he shows the video settings.. it's almost all on ULTRA. The FPS looks good too : )
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So, AC... pick one:
1) DLC items with free mod maps
and
2) DLC maps with free mod items
are both possible, but I think option #1 will be more popular with FPS players and option #2 more popular with the "lets play dress up dollies" players?
CIV 5 has DLC and MOD's (Score:2)
CIV 5 has DLC and MOD's
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If that's the case, why do the MBAs of companies like Sony and Microsoft have apoplexy at the very thought of community produced content?
Usually, the answer I hear is 'licensing'-- really, it is that they can't have exclusives, if the community doesn't play that way.
As an MBA, perhaps you could better explain why they have such an insistence on exclusive content, rather than relying on the innate qualities of their platform's offings to provide distinction?
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When you can use the free DLC to drive sales of the paid ones, of course.
But that requires your DLC to add new core functionalities for the mod makers to capitalize on, rather than just puking out spurious garbage, like a few retextured models.
BUT, if you DO offer DLC that adds new functions, the community mods that make use of those functions will drive the sales of your paid dlc. Without fail.
Hairyfeet disagrees with your figures (Score:2)
1400 bucks building a good gaming pc
Hairyfeet disagrees with your figures [slashdot.org]. Buy a PC, a video card, and a Windows license, and you're out about half that.
I can buy what maybe 2 pc games that came out this year that are actually good that I cant get anywhere else vs the dozens of good console games to come out this year?
There are more than two good PC-exclusive games, and you still need to buy the PC if you plan to play them. Or are you trying to say you plan to just skip every game developed by a company that doesn't have a console license?
I can play my games on the nice big tv while sitting in my recliner with a nice sound system or sit in a chair and play on a 23inch monitor?
You know, you can play PC games on an HDTV too. Every PC since about 1988 has a VGA output, and most newer PCs have a DVI-D or HDMI output. Every LCD HDTV has an HDMI in
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