Unreal Development Kit Announced!

[Odedge]

It's about the nature of the game and intention of the developer. Thief wasn't moddable, and still has a big cult following, two sequels and a fourth game in the works. All the while the integrity of their universe stays intact. People know and like that game for what it is. Garrett sneaking around being a thief, the story of the Hammerites and Mechanists, etc. I'm among these. Sometimes modding helps a game and sometimes it hurts it.

One cannot argue that modding in Unreal Engine hasn't helped a lot of people, but has it honestly helped the series itself that much?

It's true that some series are probably left best with out the ability to mod. SP based games like Thief and such need to keep the story intact. But for MP games, I think it's more important.

I think modding has helped the UT series. If not, I don't think Epic would have had the MSUC. Imagine playing UT 3 with just stock maps. Granted, I play this game primarily against the bots, but for me, it's makes a big difference.

Add to the discussion that the ability to mod games also helps the industry as it allows people a way to learn before they get hired and allows them to get hired quicker as they can learn faster and show off their talents.

 

[elmuerte]

Only fans care about the life span of a game. Publishers want the gamers to buy a new game asap. Developers want gamers to buy their next game... but most gamers don't care about the developers anyway.

 

[Bersy]

One would think it is the fans whose opinions should count in this matter. They are the ones who buy the games. Of course, there will always be those who stick with the first game, and don't like the sequels, case in point the UT series, but I could easily argue that is at least half because they changed the game so drastically. UT200x was to UT what Thief 3 was to Thiefs 1 & 2.. funnily enough both were done using UE2, seems developers just couldn't resist cartoonifying their games using that engine. So you really can't blame people for looking for longevity in a game, when you can rarely trust developers not to f things up the next time around.

 

[elmuerte]

Only a small percentage of the people that buy the game are fans. I have somewhere around 250 games. And I'm not a fan of most of them.

 

[[SAS]Solid Snake]

For some games, like BF 2, I have enjoyed some custom content, but with the ranked servers, custom content isn't that popular. But DICE's "booster packs" aren't a good idea as the divide the community up at the same time having people to pay for this division.

Granted, this could happen with custom content, it's available for free, so all a person has to do is download it. If you are playing online, good chance (I presume), you won't have issues downloading the custom content.

Well, depending on how you structure the game in terms of business model people may not have actually 'pay' for a singular expansion pack or whatever. Besides, it just depends on what you're doing. If you were to make a free game and continued to release expansion packs ... then that's solved the problem. Besides check out Epic, back for UT they released ... was it four expansion packs? And in UT2004 they released a few too. It depends on the nature of the game ... so it's unfair to lump everything that doesn't have an editor shipped with it as a dead game in the water. A case example I can think of is Little Big Planet. It was all about the User Generated Content, but as far as I can see ... only a small percentage creates maps while a vast majority are just players.

Lastly, while you cannot ship the UDK Editor together with your UDK game, there isn't much stopping you from building a 'lite' Editor within the game anyways (As that is what I plan to do anyways).

 

[Bersy]

Only a small percentage of the people that buy the game are fans. I have somewhere around 250 games. And I'm not a fan of most of them.

I think it's a mistake to assume everyone is like you. I only buy what I like, or know I will get the full value of my dollar from. Seems stupid to waste money on something you aren't a fan of.

People have strange compulsions when it comes to gaming. I know a guy who has owned 4 or 5 xbox 360s, even though he smashed one of them on purpose with rocks because he thought he was too addicted to it.

 

[elmuerte]

I didn't waste (much) money. Just because I buy a game doesn't make me a fan of the game. I buy games I like to play. For example, Batman Arkham Asylum, I bought the game, I liked to play it, I finished it. And that's it. I'm now playing other games.
I'm well aware that others are not like me. But I'm quite sure people buy games even though they are not fan of the game.