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The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

arstechnica.com

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Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#11

Post by clarionbell »

Modding is one of the better ways to get into coding. I myself have fond memories restoring cut content to Fallout: New Vegas.

It's unfortunate that modding support is relatively rare among game developers. Blizzard used to do quite well in this regard, in their W3 era. And tools they packaged with SC2 weren't bad either. But nothing since then.

Obviously there is Valve, that goes without saying.

Recently, CD Project did make some moves in that direction, but nothing close to what Valve is offering.

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#12

Post by bethekidyouwant »

snowram wrote: post #7
Insanity wrote: post #2

That’s an amazing project. It’s kinda sad that nowadays most AAA games are so locked down that the player will never get into modding. For myself it started with Jedi Knight, and then eventually mods on the Source engine (CS:S / HL2). To me it’s a good way to get people excited about the possibilities of programming at a fairly young age.

Roblox commercialized that excitement. Kids now work directly for them and pretty much for free.

If your Roblox game makes money for the company they pay you.

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#13

Post by thadt »

Insanity wrote: post #2

That’s an amazing project. It’s kinda sad that nowadays most AAA games are so locked down that the player will never get into modding. For myself it started with Jedi Knight, and then eventually mods on the Source engine (CS:S / HL2). To me it’s a good way to get people excited about the possibilities of programming at a fairly young age.

As someone who spent hours playing Jedi Knight with friends and lots of mods, allow me to say - thank you :)

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#14

Post by post-it »

snowram wrote: post #7
Insanity wrote: post #2

That’s an amazing project. It’s kinda sad that nowadays most AAA games are so locked down that the player will never get into modding. For myself it started with Jedi Knight, and then eventually mods on the Source engine (CS:S / HL2). To me it’s a good way to get people excited about the possibilities of programming at a fairly young age.

Roblox commercialized that excitement. Kids now work directly for them and pretty much for free.

Playing Roblox at age 10 shortly after it launched is what inspired me to learn to code.

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#16

Post by nxobject »

tsimionescu wrote: post #9
snowram wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox commercialized that excitement. Kids now work directly for them and pretty much for free.

Modding has always worked like that. Mods have always been unpayed work for the benefit of the game community, which ultimately also works to the benefit of the game publisher.

In the past, Valve has hired some of their most longest-tenured employees from modding, although not necessarily on GoldSrc - Counter-Strike and QuakeWorld Team Fortress come to mind. (But of course never Richochet.) The Narbacular Drop team came straight out of DigiPen with a noncommercial thesis project as well.

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#17

Post by sdsd »

I wondered if this would be about PokeMMO, which I've recently started playing. Basically, they made a commercial Pokemon game by gluing the first five ROMS together, and they get around intellectual property by making players supply their own ROMs (which they assume you've acquired legally) for copyrighted assets.

It's incredibly fun. I'm pricklypears2 if anyone wants to play together. And if the devs read this, please add Mimikyu somehow I beg you <3

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#18

Post by Forgeties79 »

tsimionescu wrote: post #9
snowram wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox commercialized that excitement. Kids now work directly for them and pretty much for free.

Modding has always worked like that. Mods have always been unpayed work for the benefit of the game community, which ultimately also works to the benefit of the game publisher.

Yes but it’s typically a subset of players making/using them and not the cornerstone of the entire product. They also dangle the promise of making money in front of people, but when you dig into the specifics it’s actually very hard to get paid. You have to cross a certain threshold to even eligible for a payout even if you have accrued a little cash.

The relationship of kids making stuff (the vast majority with little to no compensation) for a private, for-profit company is incredibly direct. That’s why it leaves a sour taste for many of us.

Re: The quixotic team trying to build a world in a 20-year-old game

#19

Post by recursive »

bethekidyouwant wrote: post #12
snowram wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox commercialized that excitement. Kids now work directly for them and pretty much for free.

If your Roblox game makes money for the company they pay you.

That's what the marketing materials say, and that's what they want you to think. In practice it's very difficult to break even on it, even if you have a "successful" game.
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