New Unreal Tournament Confirmed

Eh, what's wrong with optional payment? Some donation system? I see a lot of people, who would donate if the content was good. That would mean that the game itself would have to be payed for and have a proper editor though. But I see it a better way then it's set to be.

By having this there would still be a ton of content, but also the good modders would get some money for their work. And the chance of "getting payed" would surely motivate others to get better and actually release a good content.

Btw, hi there

This is a bad move in my opinion; Epic is trying to monetize user-created content at a time when an ever-increasing number of people are already sick of DLC and the nickle-and-dime tactics being used by the majority of the industry. Making modders/mappers pay for the toolkit and allowing them to sell their content on a store may create a situation where tons of people are making paid content but almost nobody is buying any of it. This could mean that the majority of servers will only be running stock content and the game will get very stale very quickly. I will be amazed if this does not turn out to be a disaster.

Even if this move ends up being a massive success I think I'll just go ahead and cash out now. I have already lost what little interest I still had in the Unreal franchise.

evilmrfrank said:

The CBP team doesn't cost any money, everyone on the team has always fully volunteered, we have never been paid to do it we spend our free time making stuff for other people to enjoy. That's a lot of mean things to say to a group that for the last 10 or so years has been dedicated to giving the Unreal community free maps.

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Sorry you think I'm being mean, I'm not trying to be mean. But someone said I suck and I'm cheap because I don't want to pay $10 for map packs. IMO that's why were still talking about UT and that's why we still have UT forums and a community. Because we have an editor in game and you can create free content that anyone can create with a few basic tutorials. That's what keeps UT alive nothing else. The CBP team has supplied the community with stunning work for free and that is great it is much appreciated but I don't want to pay for it. And if other people do that's up to them. I want to keep UT in tact the way it was originally developed. There was a reason Epic did that in the first place they new it would be a great addition to the game and everyone would be creating content for the masses. IMO UT needs a graphics update, and engine update and some movement updates. It doesn't need many improvements. Otherwise you have a great looking turd like UT3. We will see how it works out for the UT franchise. Well my opinions have been made and that's all I have to say about this issue. Good Luck UT!

DarkED said:

This is a bad move in my opinion; Epic is trying to monetize user-created content at a time when an ever-increasing number of people are already sick of DLC and the nickle-and-dime tactics being used by the majority of the industry. Making modders/mappers pay for the toolkit and allowing them to sell their content on a store may create a situation where tons of people are making paid content but almost nobody is buying any of it. This could mean that the majority of servers will only be running stock content and the game will get very stale very quickly. I will be amazed if this does not turn out to be a disaster.

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This is definitely what I would imagine happening. I've avoided buying map-DLC for other games, and I don't see why it would be any different for this new UT game. I would be willing to buy maps from the community, but they would have to be really good - otherwise, I would probably just stick with the base game. I get the feeling that making people pay for user-made content would just split the community into servers that have all the DLC and the ones that don't. A bit of an example: UT2k4's demo servers are some of the most popular ones left, arguably because they're completely free to play on and don't require you to actually buy the game. I'm guessing that when push comes to shove, most people are going to stick with the free servers.

My biggest concern about monetizing user-made content is that it would cost hundreds of dollars for the average user to maintain. Let's ignore the above scenario and say there are ten community map packs - they're all great, and most of the servers run them. Each community map pack costs $10 - that's $100, $40 more than your average PC game. How many people would really be willing to pay that much money for a game that's free when they could spend that money elsewhere? You could probably buy over ten games from Steam sales alone with that kind of money.

I'm a nervous wreck after missing that UT bundle. Somebody please console me.

What UT bundle?

SkaarjMaster said:

What UT bundle?

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IIRC All Unreal games on Steam were cheaper till last Wednesday.

UBerserker said:

IIRC All Unreal games on Steam were cheaper till last Wednesday.

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Damn you berserker. Damn you for reopening closed wounds and rubbing salt into them. Now I must wait until the summer sale. Oh woe is me!

Teridax said:

This is definitely what I would imagine happening. I've avoided buying map-DLC for other games, and I don't see why it would be any different for this new UT game. I would be willing to buy maps from the community, but they would have to be really good - otherwise, I would probably just stick with the base game. I get the feeling that making people pay for user-made content would just split the community into servers that have all the DLC and the ones that don't. A bit of an example: UT2k4's demo servers are some of the most popular ones left, arguably because they're completely free to play on and don't require you to actually buy the game. I'm guessing that when push comes to shove, most people are going to stick with the free servers.

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Agreed.

Teridax said:

My biggest concern about monetizing user-made content is that it would cost hundreds of dollars for the average user to maintain. Let's ignore the above scenario and say there are ten community map packs - they're all great, and most of the servers run them. Each community map pack costs $10 - that's $100, $40 more than your average PC game. How many people would really be willing to pay that much money for a game that's free when they could spend that money elsewhere? You could probably buy over ten games from Steam sales alone with that kind of money.

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Yeah, I can already see it happening.

There is also the social aspect of this to consider; the 'haves' that can afford to throw lots of money at user-made content, and how they will treat (and be treated by) the 'have-nots.'

The disparity in accessible content is only going to fracture the community more, not pull it together.

DarkED said:

There is also the social aspect of this to consider; the 'haves' that can afford to throw lots of money at user-made content, and how they will treat (and be treated by) the 'have-nots.'

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I imagine it would turn out to be something like in TF2 where free to play players are treated like the scum of the earth. Even when I was last on a few months ago, it was rare to not see anyone making cracks about F2P.

The game hasn't even come out yet, and there's a bit of that sort of thing on these forums already ("You suck," "ITT: Cheapskates").

I haven't checked out this thread for a few days. Now I log in, and all I see is a bunch of QQ. Not even going to waste my time reading. Ain't got time for a bunch of bed-wetting.

glhf

You know what, you're right about the server thing.. that is a problem.

But I still think there'd be nothing wrong with having a marketplace, if they can sort out that issue.

I used to be one of those "have nots". Couldn't even afford the internet, UT was played at a friends place and I decided it was awesome so I worked at a chicken farm getting up in the middle of the night so I could earn enough money to buy a PC. After half a year, I did earn that PC, made a lot of maps and scored a real job. I can say I am a "have" now. But I'm a "have" that still has to work and spend time with family - if I was going to make a map, I'd want it to be worthy of this generation and unfortunately that literally takes weeks of full-time work. I can't afford to take leave from real work (don't want to be a "have not" again), but if I could get some $ back from making a quality level, I might be able to.

Maybe I'm just getting older and feeling the desperation to make a buck (and maybe you're like "fine your maps suck anyway"), but the reason I try to explain it is because a lot of other guys will be in the same situation. You might get a couple of guys that can afford some time to knock out something decent (students perhaps), but I think you'll get UT3 quality maps at most (maybe that's all you want?). I wonder how many quality maps would've come out for UT3 if the MSUC wasn't there as an inscentive (personally I was only able to make maps for it because I made enough money to eat from the MSUC!).

...and UT3 still never really took off with all that free content. Maybe the game wasn't so great. Maybe UT4 won't be so great... wouldn't you rather get it for free? (and then have the *choice* of spending money on quality post-release content, or just downloading free stuff). I still think you'd end up spending less than buying the game outright. You can wait for those nasty "haves" to try it out before you decide to get it

I'm not a fan of real F2P because the game is generally designed to make you spend just to get the rest of the game. This isn't that - its a whole game for free and if you do *decide* to spend anything at all then you're helping out someone who's taken a lot of time to make you something good.

On the server thing - perhaps a wishlist system could help. It'd let Epic know what maps people want the most? They could give the author some $ and make it free?

Meh it's all speculation at this point anyway - maybe Epic will throw the marketplace in the too-hard-basket and just do another MSUC. Surely sponsors would be lining up for an MSUC on UE4.

Please let me know when this comes out. Thanks

Great news, this could be awesome.

Any idea how long it might take from this "idea phase", to final release?

Probably a couple of years. That's how long games take.