Modding Communities

I wanted to make a brief foray into the world of modding communities today. I say brief because I’m still half dead from my scheduling problems, so don’t expect this to be too terribly coherent.

Anyways, it just struck me as odd that modding communities tend to be both an incredibly good and horrible thing for games – at least from the companies perspective. If you have any experience with games that have a thriving modding community (Counter-strike, Half-life, Star Craft) you probably won’t be surprised to learn that they’re still running today. As in yes, people are still making maps for Counter-strike. Hell, Trevor’s post was on doing just that. This is where the good comes in, at least for the player base.

Games that can be molded and reworked by the very community that bought them tend to have an uncannily long life, even if the initial game wasn’t all that great. A good example of this would be the Battle for Middle Earth RTS games. I wouldn’t say they were the worst RTS’s ever made, but in terms of actual laddering or popularity of their first builds, they didn’t last too long. But they did survive on with a truly impressive quantity of maps. Between making some of the first scripted encounters and diverse and interesting battle modes the online modders seemed to pick up right where the developers stopped and kept the servers populated for years.

The debatable downside is means there’s a hell of a lot less incentive to buy the next game coming around. On one hand it keeps the fan-base strong, but detracts from their need to invest in a new game at the same time. This leaves developers perhaps wondering if they should bother to open up mapping tools to their customers. A philosophy that’s shown in every FPS that’s released $15 map packs that just look like rehashed ideas of what came out with the game originally. This process does theoretically make the company more money, assuming they don’t alienate too much of their player-base, so it actually ups the likelihood that a sequel will get made, something that tends to cheer up the fans.

So the question is which is better; a game that allows fans to make their own creative takes on it and keeps them loyal for years, possibly at the cost or sales – or games that churn out content more frequently but charge their players for every scrap of it. Things aren’t clear even when looking at it from a purely business attitude. Loyal fans will reliably keep coming back – look at the Half-Life franchise if you’re in need of proof. But it doesn’t rake in as much money in the short term, and possibly not more over-all if the company that just churns out content for cash keeps churning it out. The eagerness with which people buy identical shooters every six months seems to indicate the latter plan isn’t without merit.

Personally of course I’m for modding communities, but I’m a fan. Why wouldn’t I be all behind any idea that gives me more diverse and interesting gaming experiences at little no extra cost? It’s a matter of finding a way to include modding communities yet still support the company that made the game. There lies a tricky problem that I guarantee wont have any solution that doesn’t piss some one off.