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IGF 2006 Announces Mod Category

Posted by Zonk on from the make-something-lucrative dept.

Gamasutra has details on next year's IGF competetion, which will have several worthwhile prizes for "Visual Arts, Audio, Game Design, Technical Excellence, and Best Web Browser Game". They've also opened up a Best Mod Category, and you can vote on which four games will have their mods considered for the competition.

1 of 12 comments (clear)

  1. Re:let me guess... by DingerX · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hehe... that's what, another +5 Troll?

    BTW, most of everything is garbage. The internet and science fiction writers even managed to cobble together a "law" to that effect.

    Well, CS is still as far as I know the reigning champ of number of users online at any time, and by a great margin.

    Generally, sure, if you want something simple that looks really good and has mass appeal, there's no reason to worry about mods anywhere, and yeah, the console market, with its lack of configuration issues (one vid card, one sound card, one CPU to rule them all, until, of course, they become three or a whole mess of cell processors), DRM'd to hell design, and raving bands who buy the latest game, play it for a few hours, then pass to the next, is much more attractive business-wise than PCs.
    But I wouldn't give mods the short shrift. The major advantage PCs have over game machines is that they are more versatile and PC Gamers should have a streak of the hardcore in them. With a decent game platform, the internet, a vision, proper direction and development, a serious mod group can put out a product that may not be economically viable to the big guys, but that addresses a niche.
    To see this in action, it helps to move beyond the "big titles" to some of the farther corners of the PC gaming world, to the world of Simulation: Flight Sims, Military Sims, Racing Games -- just name a title, and you'll find an active mod community. You want games with a "long tail", you'll find them here: it's not unusual for a group of increasingly insane modmakers to work on a platform 4 or 5 years after release.
    The big titles are taking notice, and are including mod tools in the package: the PC version of BF2 has a map editor, from what I've heard. Will the console version have that?
    I don't think "PC Gaming" will be able to compete with the next generation of consoles, but the PC's greater versatility, the numerous niche groups on the internet, and the crazed fools into PC Simulations all mean that a reasonable market will be there.