Fan-made Content and Incorporation

[Tagaziel]

Since Project Eternity is at the present the most successful Kickstarter project, I was wondering, if it couldn't be used as an icebreaker, to create a new stepping stone for modders and writers on their way to a more... professional career.

 

What does that mean? Project Eternity is going to include a modkit and people will, inevitably, modify it. And, inevitably, their creations will always be non-canon, as fan-made. What if Obsidian opted for a more open approach and, after consideration, incorporated mods of exceptional quality into Project Eternity canon, further fleshing out the setting?

 

The current approach to settings and canonicity pretty much across the industry strikes me as, well, almost completely closed-source (for the lack of a better term). Fan creations, no matter how good, are extremely rarely accepted as parts of the franchise, if at all. Obsidian can effectively pioneer a new approach, working more tightly with the community.

 

Compensation can be an issue, as would be the problem of IP rights. However, the benefits, such as stimulating mod development (everyone wants to be 'official', after all), chance for more ambitious project to actually complete development etc. outweigh, in my opinion, the problems.

[Osvir]

In before moving the thread to Widgets & Bytes (though I personally think this is a General topic, but everything that got something to do with modding seems to end up in "Widgets & Bytes"). I think most people hang out in General+Gameplay (and announcements once a week).

 

That's kind of what the Legend of Grimrock Modding community is going for, they want to expand the world's lore and the world's locations (one guy is in the midst of creating outdoors, he has created house, trees, stars and sky models/textures as well). I think this is a post-release topic mostly though. Or further down development (6-7 months from now?). Difficult to say anything when there are no tools in hand.

 

Modding for a game, regardless (if it is good) and you release it, is good ground for a professional career. I would theorize that everyone that worked on Black Mesa (Half Life 1 remake in Half Life 2 engine) probably has a job by now in development. Likewise, some people who've done great mods for New Vegas and more importantly Baldur's Gate, possibly has a job in development (if they don't, they at least have a good portfolio).

 

If there is a modkit included, even more so munchkins will want to modify it with petty mods that doesn't really impact much except equipment, skins, inventory, a quest or two revolving around romances. If P:E will be overwhelmed with such mods (with a modkit) it'll be difficult to distinguish the "content" mods against the "metagame" mods. So in that way I kind of feel that it shouldn't be too easy to mod.

 

Legends of Grimrock's editor is great because it challenges the actual creation of dungeons, locations, of expanding the world rather than expanding your inventory. It'd be cool if there was some "easy to import" .JPEG's into P:E and be able to put on "Path masks", "Lighting/Shadow masks", "Obstruction masks" and similar in a toolkit like you do with the "Lasso"-tool in photoshop~ being able to add in areas onto the world map and expanding the world map.

[Domigorgon]

The problem with modding communities is that modders do these things in their free time and are not paid for it. Big projects usually fail (i.e. stay unfinished), because they are rarely organized well, and everyone contributes only when they feel like it. Most people give up and move on as real life kicks in.

But smaller projects (i.e. one-man jobs) are usually more successful (simple weapon/armor mods etc.).

Baldur's Gate modding community basically did many small mods that were then brought together in "The Big Picture" and "BG Trilogy".

 

I, too, prefer mods that do small changes (and give you a chance to easilly remove them if you don't like them, resetting things back to normal). Big mods (with lots of new content, possibly whole new campaigns) never seem that good to me, no matter the effort involved. It may be a good starting point in a career, sure, but it's still shoddy. Not saying this is always the case, but usually it is. People start modding games with big (unrealistic) plans, and then it all gets lost in modding limbo. I'm still hoping for Rogue Dao Studios to finish their NWN 2 Planescape mods, but hope is all they've given me in the past couple of years.