Slashdot Mirror
Mods: "Lifeblood of Gaming Industry"?
Jadsky writes "Salon is is running a story about how modifications to games are now the lifeblood of the industry. It cites "Day of Defeat", an add-on to Half-Life, and proceeds to give an analysis of the history and current work on game mods. It also mentions Castle Smurfenstein and the Doom Construction Kit, which many of us played with before there was z-space."
Or why we all post on Slash dot... Nothing like being modded ;)
Let people play *with* the game as well as *in* the game. And you still make money. If only other software companies would learn this lesson.
A game programmer friend of mine gave me a preview of Natural Selection and I am blown away by the amount of flexability that can be added to the half life engine. Charlie added a particle system for some smoke and dripping water effects. He made it more strategy-oriented by letting one player enter a control room where he can oversee operations and give resources and orders to the other players....
It's a beautiful thing.
-Jim
Celebrate Excellence!
I think a perfect example of how vital mods are to a game is to look at Halo on the Xbox. I've been playing it for months, but it's starting to feel a little long in the tooth. Being accustomed to games like Unreal Tourney and Quake I/II/III, where there are literally thousands of add-on maps, characters, etc. online for the taking, I'm used to adding stuff to my games, keeping them forever fresh.
Since Halo isn't (officially) online yet, there's no way to add mods or functionality. My use of Halo has started to taper off, while I still play Unreal Tourney pretty regularly. Not bad for a game I've had for over 2 years.
But I don't think that that's the same as saying that they are the lifeblood of the industry. They do increase sales of some titles, but mods also mean that you don't have to buy more titles because the one game you purchased turns into more games, magically, and for free! Eventually it starts looking dated, and you start looking around for the next pretty engine with some cool mods, it gains weight (the mass of subscribers, though engines do submit to a bloating process over time) and the cycle begins anew, as one might say if one was feeling wanky that day.
Basically, I bought half-life about when it came out. I played a lot of it. Then I played counterstrike, in the days before it was known as cheaterstrike; Before every asshole had an aimbot and transparent wall drivers - before the transparency drivers even existed. Now that it's been overrun by cheaters, I play Tactical Ops. I lost my HL CD key, and I don't even care.
So now I'll be able to pretty much just play games on UT for a while... If I want an entertaining special forces tactical game, I play TO, and there's a bunch of other mods. Of course, nothing has been modded as imaginatively as Quake1, but who plays that any more? Besides me. But the point is, I won't bother to buy another FPS until the new ver of UT comes out... whatever they decided to call it. Is that healthy lifeblood, or just stagnation?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Unreal Tournament is a three year old game that is still very popular because of mods. Specifically in capture the flag mode (CTF), which was really an after thought for the game.
The player/developer community work together solving CTF problems (spawn killing mods), creating new ways to play the game (CTF relics that enhance your character abilities) and making it more fun (StrangeLove Rockets you can fly around a board).
Check out this site www.planetunreal.com. The bottom left side of the navigation has about 25 different sites dedicated to mods. Many of them CTF related.
Great independant CTF servers like www.unrealmafia.com and www.stealthdp.com contribute to the mod community. They give mods developers feedback and a place to test new ideas. Many of the mod developer s post regularly to the forums of these sites asking for feedback or ideas. Check out the mod forums of both CTF servers.
They treat us MOD developers (like Day of Defeat) VERY well, giving us resources, channels to communicate with each other (and them), tools, plus PR.
:^)
If you've ever read the Clue Train Manifesto, I think you might agree with me that they follow some of the Cluetrain Rules. Open things up, allow players and developers to talk, etc. How many game companies run mail lists where their own coders get involved with discussions with mod developers? If you didn't look at the 900 pound gorilla behind them, you'd swear it's open source or something
This is something that Ambrosia Software figured out a long time ago. They have produced some of the best Mac [the phantom ducks his head to avoid rotton tomatoes] games of all time. Some of the games that they have put out are truely amazing, such as Maelstrom (a really good Asteroids clone), the Escape Velocity Trilogy, and Ferazal's Wand (sp?). However, what has made their games truely wonderful is the ability to midify them. Escape Velocity Override was a great game, but you could only play it through a few times before everything had been done. But, there was the Frozen Heart plug, Femme Fatale, and several other complete replacements that forced me to pay for that little bit of shareware. And Ambrosia has been allowing users to modify their games for a very long time -- it seems to me that Maelstrom was one of the first, in the early 90s.
Rhapsody in Numbers
It would seem to me that other companies should be getting a clue just by watching other companies enjoy success as a direct result of mods. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Is there something intrinsically wrong with the system that other companies are so stuck in the cost/revenue/profit cycle they can't/won't step out for a minute and realize that they would be better off sharing development with players?
I would like to propose a user-driven move for all software to be more like this but my faith in our ability to do such is waning...
Liora
Was accomplished with a hex editor on Jordan Mechner's "Karateka" for the Apple II. We started by changing the starting credits, so "By Jordan Mechner" became "by [insert your name here]". We were 11 at the time, and that was exciting.
Then we discovered ehere in the disks were the sprites, and started to change them by trial and error. Not an ounce of artistic ability, too. So, we ended up with even crappier sprites. But "we made them".
Ah, the memories...
That, IMHO, CounterStrike is STILL selling copies of Half-Life, while the game itself is getting pretty old. This is a proven case where a mod was more popular than the origional game.
The even made a box edition because it was selling so well.
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
Anybody else remember the Doom II Aliens total conversion?
A friend of mine had found it, played it through, and told a bunch of us to set aside our Saturday afternoon for it. He was the computer attendant in one of the school's least popular labs and he told us he'd lock all four of us in while we played this game undisturbed. We were to bring headphones.
With the lights off, and the headphones in our ears (no music), it was very easy to immerse ourselves in the Alien world we saw in the movies. We had precisely one rule: No respawning.
I didn't find it extremely replayable, most of the enjoyment was based on having absolutely no way of knowing what would happen next. I was a decent Doom II player, but I didn't have a good familiarity with the maps -- I was roasted on maps that everyone else knew. This time was different, none of us knew the maps. It was the first time I played a co-operative game and had it actually work. And work it did! Looking like the dorks you see in the movies, we physically jumped back when some of those creatures came at us.
I still tip my hat off to those copyright infringing guys. You are truly talented.
Give the audience the engine for graphics and menus, etc..., and what do they have left to deal with?
Game Design
So you have people that can ignore the months of engine building a tweaking, but, instead, spend those months on plot, balancing, and gameplay.
Like DeusEx? That's nothing more than a heavy UT mod.
But I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. Now the gaming industry can't do what its done for years. They (meaning the publishers, ie - EA) always want a copy of the latest hit, for example, everyone wanted a "Doom" clone. This evolved to using the same system with a twist, like Doom with a plot where the plot isn't to kill things, but to sneak around (Thief).
Now, they can't do that, cause some kids will do that, and release it for free.
So, for the gaming industry to survive, they need to really innovate games, make them mod'able, and hope for the best. This is quite a new turn.
It'll either kill the industry, or we'll see some majorly different games in a year or two....
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I wonder if I'll get a response, but I played MegaTF for 4 years in college (ending 2001).
Know what? It's based on the Quake1 engine. But it's a heck of a mod and the community kept it lively. Gameplay is king over graphics. Even 33.6'ers could join in and still participate in matches without fear of being owned by LPB's.
God I miss that game. Sadly, after 6-7 years of development, someone discovered bunnyhopping and ruined it. Perhaps one day I'll return...
------
Today's Top Deals
Licenses are the lifeblood of the gaming industry.
Mods are bloody cool, but
a) You don't get them on consoles, and console games make up the majority of games sales.
b) They do add value to a game, but for the majority of games with modding ability, the reality is that only a small community of dedicated players actually make/use them.
point b) is a good thing,as it means that the minority who are modding are actually concentrating on a small set of games, rather than being spread around between many games.
The only game I can think of that has resulted in a measureably large increase in sales due to mods is Half-Life, as a result of Counter-Strike and TeamFortress. I suppose you could also say MS Flight Simulator is another example, but really - there aren't many. Quake (I, II, III etc...) have probably been helped by mods, but I don't think their sales have been driven by mods in the same way Half-Life's has.
I must admit I always found unreal tournament a bit boring. However I've been hooked for months already on a modification for it: strikeforce. Without that modification (and many others), unreal tournament wouldn't have survived long on my harddisk. Strikeforce is an absolutely brilliant mod. Great maps, great gameplay.
I had the same with the original unreal. Single player was fun while it lasted. After that I kept the game around to play the mods.
Jilles
I'm surprised no one has mentioned, but Civ2 is easily one of the MOST modded games ever. Six/seven years after the game was released, and after numerous clones/sequels, the game is still going strong (hell, I still play it on weekends).
The reason it was modded so often was that Microprose made all the data files open (hmm, almost Open Source, in a way). While the engine was still closed, players could edit plaintext files to control it's behavior, as well as that of the units. The graphics files, for units, terrain, cities, even leaders, were simple GIF's that could be easily modified. Later, Microprose even added a rudimentary macro language for scenario builders.
I have seen many truly remarkable Civ2 mods. Some people overhauled the ENTIRE game, replacing everything. Forget scenario editors, this goes way beyond.
~Chazzf
No statement is true, not even this one.
First, download the full sdk. Next, get a C++ compiler. Last I knew they promised compatability only with MS Visual C++. Next learn C++. :-) Lastly, go into the code, probably the weapon code first and change a value. Like change the damage values or the spreads. Recompile, play the game. Repeat but change a different value. Once you're comfortable mucking with that stuff, try mucking with the models. There are a couple good sites out there, here's one to start with
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
You know, one of the reasons I've always liked PC games better than console games is the ability to get mods, updated rosters, etc., through the Internet.
I mean, would anyone still be buying Half-life if we didn't want it to play CS and DoD?
I wonder if, once we can have Linux on our PS2's, we'll see mods for GTA3 and the like.
Does anyone know if it's possible to release mods for console games?
On the web, if you go for the few remaining gaming news sites, it is easy think that mods are the center of the universe. But then you look at where the serious action is in gaming:
1. Big console titles like GTA3, MGS2, FFX, Halo.
2. Monster PC titles like The Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon. The Sims has sold over 6.5 million copies.
then you get a different feeling. Are mods interesting and important? Yes. But lets not get carried away. In reality the communities surrounding games like Half-Life and Unreal tend to be self-serving and isolated, with notable exceptions (gotta mention Counterstrike). You just don't find all that much innovation in mods for, say, Unreal. Now, sure, the mod community will argue otherwise, but that's what I meant by "isolated."
Um, not exactly.
Bungie is one of the few great gaming companies out there, despite now being owned by Microsoft. Bungie, much like id and Blizzard, care what people think about their games. They are not in it solely to make money. I've been a big fan of Bungie since I was a beta tester for Myth, and I'm still a fan of them today.
Second, any first year economy major can tell you that repeat customers are worth more than one-shot customers. People that enjoy a game and keep playing it are more likely to come back and purchase its sequel. If you create your product correctly, repeat customers shouldn't be a problem, and those are the ones that cost less (in advertising, promoting, etc.)
Interesting dialect, by the way.
then The Sims would keep coming out with new "upgrades" or "add ons" every few months ...
...
...
then Pokemon would keep having new "versions" every few months so you would keep getting new ones
then AD&D would have kept coming out with new Books and Campaigns every few months since the dawn of gaming time
-
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
You think Blizzard doesn't just care about money? Blizzard is owned by Vivendi Universal and I can guarantee you they only care about money. I run the boycottblizzard.org site.
Navy Seals: Covert Operations is the best Q3 mod out there right now, IMNSHOBIK. It's more realistic than the cartoony Urban Terror (or, god forbid, CS), and also more fun. Not to mention it's the only mod I've seen where teamwork consistantly spontaneously appears.
Once a couple problems get taken care of (speed whores, for example), it will be a masterfull game.
The enemies of Democracy are