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Itagaki Criticizes Dead Or Alive Hackers

Posted by simoniker on from the begone-darth-maul dept.

Thanks to GameSpy for their interview with Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of the Dead Or Alive series and the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden for Xbox. Itagaki is asked about the more creative, non-nude unofficial character model hacking currently being done for Dead Or Alive, and says "First of all I think that those hackers should spend their time on something more productive. I'm not talking about a rights issue or an OS issue or whatever, but if they have time to hack into something that other people have made, why don't they make something of their own?" When it's suggested that many games want to be modded by their fans, he adds: "Of course the creators of DOOM and Half-Life - that was their intention. That's how they want the users to enjoy playing their game, and I have no problem with that."

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Re:lol - stop whining, whiny by bigbigbison · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Doom was made with mods in mind. In the first press release they hyped modability as one of the features. Wolfenstien, however, was not made with mods in mind.

    --
    http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
  2. Not in my backyard by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Developers need to realize that gamers are going to mod their games if they can. Frankly this guy should be honored that they are doing this with his game. Having an attitude of "Yeah, they can do it as long as they don't do it with *my* game" alienates himself from his fanbase.

    Would Half-Life be nearly as popular without Counterstrike? My friend Zoid started CTF in Quake. You can't shake a stick at a FPS game without seeing some version of it already included as a standard feature. There have been plenty of hacks and mods added to videogames that all have either extended the life of the game, enhanced the gameplay or added more entertainment to playing. (Note: I'm not including wallhacks, cheats or aimbots here.) Some mods take a life of their own and even extend over to other games.

    As long as the hackers don't violate any intellectual property, copyright laws or try to sell their mods for profit, developers shouldn't complain. Many times these mods are better than what developers can put out. To suggest that these people go out and make their own game... what? And make more competition for your game in the marketplace. Be happy that these mods are being done to your game and thereby increasing that fat bonus check.