Author: Moakie <[email protected]>     Reply to Message
Date: 9/9/2005 1:49:04 AM
Subject: RE: TCFusion

Zitheral I didn't know you were a co-Developer of TC:F... I think your objections are based on a lot of common misconception and hope you'll be more open to objective information about the 'state of gaming'.

Modern gaming communities are in fact not contracting; overall numbers have grown dramatically, but the demographics of the games and mods that game Fans prefer and that sustain larger audiences has changed, and will continue to change radically.

The "sheer volume of available titles" and the number of mods that ride on them has not grown as fast as game sales, and the number of Fans playing... In fact the ratio of would be Fans to games and mods has grown substantially and favorably to creating and sustaining audiences for mods.

I find the problem is one of perception and recurring frustration where mod Developers become frustrated when their work, in which they've invested hundreds of thousands of man hours doesn't sustain the kind of audience they'd hoped. This is far too often the result of insular game design where what appeals to the Developer is not going to appeal to a substantial and sustainable audience with so many alternatives. This situation is not going to change, it will only become more challenging to the game Developer that has a sense of what 'must work'...

As far as alternatives; we are already well past the critical arcation -- we are past the million mark of games and mods, so if your work is not appealing to and sustaining an audience; you need to reevaluate your approach or you're quite simply SOL... The first three iterations of Quake didn't have much in the way of competition, today id Software engine games not only have a ton of competition -- they aren't chart busters...

As someone who creates mods and games, I personally would much rather my work existed in a sustainable projects -- that attracted and sustained a large audience; welcomed the ideas, work, and contribution others then burned out in under three years or died on the vine...

I find it odd that so many Mod Developers leverage and reap the benefits of Open Source, in operating systems, tools, games, game engines, art assets, and the free contribution of their Co-Developers, but are not themselves open to the the very concept they exploit -- Open Source.

The notion that if you Open source a Mod project that there will be a thousand Mod-On-Mods that will fragment and dilute your audience, is not only in my opinion cynical an self-obviating thinking, but in terms of fact and what has been demonstrated in the marketplace untrue.

If your Mod only attracts a small audience, a fork project is more likely to attract new Fans then it is to divide the Fans you have, and a static number of incoming Fans for any mod or game is not and never will be a sustainable proposition as that number will always contract. Game Developer/Publishers that embrace mod support are growing (Valve, Activision, Atari) Game Developer/Publishers that are following your epistemology of closed game design "products" like Ubisoft are suffering financially (Ubisoft)...

A self-standing, free, Open Source game (like Linux), has none of the limitations of a commercial "product" game as far as how large it's audience can grow, the only limitation is the appeal of the game and it's game-design, and that's expedient because it can be altered, adjusted, and modified until something is ultimately found that does appeal to a really large audience... This IMHO, is the best of all worlds, your core game may not appeal to as large an audience as you'd hoped, but, your work, your game assets live on in larger more popular works that ultimately are more likely to attract the audience you'd hoped for then the more insular approach that is no longer working very well for a lot of disappointed mod Developers...

Infernal, I'm sorry just I assumed you the RSE engine and it's audience; let me explain... Ghost Recon rides on a unusual engine that offers no source code for Mod Development, but does offer enormous flexibility in very simple script -- some of the easiest there is in fact. The RSE Ghost Recon engine however is rather dated, and is no longer particularly flexible relative to what's available elsewhere as far as mod development is concerned. Many Fans of the serious tactical realism genre that have been offered on the RSE engine (R6, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon, SOAF, etc.) have made various attempts to port some of the unique features of the RSE engine and it's games to more modern engines, but have hit the wall as far as finding sustainable Programmer talent, and/or engines that offer enough feature support.



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