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Day of Defeat came out in 2001 as a free mod, pretty much making it the first and not a copycat.

Day of Defeat: Source takes the classic gameplay of the original Day of Defeat and improves the experience with Source, the advanced engine technology Valve created for Half-Life 2. With this technology, DoD: Source offers state of the art graphics (including support for HDR lighting) in optimized versions of popular maps, plus redesigned sound and all new player, weapon, and world models.

From http://www.dayofdefeat.com/

Not that valve hasnt blatantly lied about features before. Like the great dynamic terrain they showed off in the e3 demo..that doesnt even change the bounding box (as in, if you raised the floor up 32 units, you'd just be waste high in floor rather than actually standing 32 units higher.)

I'll keep waiting for Day of Defeat for HL2. I can't stand all that hippie crap in HL2

*Cough* *Cough*

Day of Defeat

More players than some of those big ol' mega buck titles!

IMHO, DoD IS one of the best out there. Just be kind and don't immediatly pick up a sniper rifle and sit in a corner of a map somewhere and hope someone comes by. In my experience, DoD is almost COMPLETLY *team* based...meaning score-whoring doesn't get you all that far...your team still lost...good job : \.

Here's the link...I think

Posting as the hated AC due to Points -
Archangel_Azazel

As one of the recipients of the "buy and then leave alone" method (for Day of Defeat) I'm personally a fan of that method. DoD's creative side is still "owned" by the same team that made it to start with, but that same team doesn't have to worry too much about owning marketing, product release issues, E3 booking, etc. etc. etc. They get to stick to making the game, which is what they do best.

As one of the developers of a fairly popular multiplayer FPS game and a frequenter of the game's online forums this is definitely an interesting topic.

Something I think worth adding to this mix is an option fans actually have now days. Go make their own (damn) game. This is a mod friendly world we live in now. Don't like how a game works, and think you got better ideas how it should be done right? Then make it yourself. Or go find one of the hundreds of active mod projects and join it. Give your ideas to a cause and show your stuff.

I suppose that could come off as sort of arrogant, but it's not meant to be. That's where a number of games came from that are popular. CS, DoD, Desert Crisis to name a few.

As one of the developers of a fairly popular multiplayer FPS game and a frequenter of the game's online forums this is definitely an interesting topic.

Something I think worth adding to this mix is an option fans actually have now days. Go make their own (damn) game. This is a mod friendly world we live in now. Don't like how a game works, and think you got better ideas how it should be done right? Then make it yourself. Or go find one of the hundreds of active mod projects and join it. Give your ideas to a cause and show your stuff.

I suppose that could come off as sort of arrogant, but it's not meant to be. That's where a number of games came from that are popular. CS, DoD, Desert Crisis to name a few.

It's interesting to see the changing styles of game companies as they begin to view their community as a resource for continuing the viability of their games. Can you imagine a company creating a computer language and then making themselves the only source of applications written in this language? Possible, but pretty foolish in this day and age.

Valve Software started it early on with Half-Life, creating and releasing editing tools, an SDK, and more importantly a real community for the development of mods and conversions to their game Half-Life. Valve's been by far the most successfull company at leveraging this to their advantage. I dare say they would not be the same company at all if it were not for the popularity of Half-Life mods such as Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic and Day of Defeat.

It's great to see other companies getting on the ball to continue this trend.

And they laughed at that guy that Anarchy Online guy...

Seriously though, sounds like a lot of fun (and money). Now maybe I need to get a Sherman tank or a King Tiger in my back yard as a Day of Defeat simulator!

I'm one of the developers of the now retail Half-Life MOD called Day of Defeat. We developed a free Half-Life MOD, had it become successfull, and now are regular developers for Valve, and the game is a retail product.

First, don't look for developers, become one. A really common joke in the MOD community is some guy that says something like, "I got a great idea for a MOD! It's gonna have lots of guns, and models and explosions and stuff. I've got it 90% done but just need a coder and a modeler and a skinner and a mapper and a sound guy. As soon as I get them we'll finish the last 10%!" Basically, "idea guys" who can't actually contribute content are worthless for a MOD team. Everyone must contribute real value and content. No dead wood.

Second, the best way to get a MOD on the road to success is to be successful. By that I mean release it to the public (even in a crude beta format) and get the world to check it out. There is a new Half-Life mod called Battle Grounds that's come out recently. It's a US Revolutionary War game. Very crude in some ways, but it's already got some people playing it. 32 servers and 66 players in the last hour. That's not many, but if you look at the stats for a lot of other mods, it's doing pretty well. Anyway, the makers of that game are learning something and evolving their game because it is being played. Not just "conceptualized" on a piece of paper.

Third, don't think you need to be a game developer to develop a game. None of us that made Day of Defeat were. Sure we had some skills but none of us were professionals. But we learned quite a bit and came pretty far in the process of creating and reviving our game.

The summary? Don't talk about it, do it.