Tripwire VP: Why would you stop (article)

[Nylle]

Seeing that Project Reality Vietnam mod makes me so happy, I'v had so much fun in BF:Vietnam and I still play it on LAn parties with my friends.
Then I realized, theres a Vietnam mod in development for Red Orchestra! Its so great, things are really looking great for Red Orchestra 2's future.

Hmmm, I wonder what the world would have been without mods.

[Rabid Penguin]

Originally Posted by Nylle

Hmmm, I wonder what the world would have been without mods.

Well, there'd be no Red Orchestra, period.

[pipi long stocking]

Originally Posted by Holy.Death

It's all about the money - they don't release the modding tools so they can indirectly force their community to buy even the most basic additions like maps, factions, units, weapons, etc. They hurt their playerbase that way (it's simply amazing what wonders can modders do for free) but they have more profit and don't need to produce game after game.

Exactly, they basically release incomplete games with tiny selections of maps and then release map packs and trivial stupid stuff as "DLC".

Honestly, I come from the modding/mapping community, and just recently bought my first "DLC" ever from EA (BF3 dlc). I had abandoned games without mod/map tools , as soon as they became stale and started releasing the $15 DLC. And it looks like I'm heading back into my cave lol.

I started the thread in praise of TWI. they pretty much nailed it on the head. but those 2 juggernaut companies EA/Activision seem to think(and act accordingly) that consumers don't deserve any free content from them OR ANYONE ELSE for that matter. BF3 is basically my last EA first person shooter, and cod W@W was my last cod.

[Sensemann]

EA and Activision are dead to me. For a long time already. However, the most hated company in my eyes is Ubisoft.

Ubisoft is one step ahead of EA and Activision when it comes to exploiting DLCs and even worse, their Ubisoft gamelauncher.

I have Silent Hunter III, enjoyed it for 42 hours. Upon release, the game was bugged and it took the community a YEAR to get the game into playable conditions. The game was great by then. However, Ubisoft then decided to update sth in their launcher and I don't know what and why but ever since (it's 10 months now), I am fighting with their incapable customer services to get the game running again. I am at the stage where Ubisoft is telling me that it's not their responsibility to care anymore because of a shut down in support to get the game running.

They blamed me for daring (lol) to connect my PC to a 50' HDTV. They blamed me to switch my OS from Windows XP to Win 7 32 bit and then Win 7 64 bit. All of course without asking them prior to doing so while they were still figuring out what could be my problem. hahaha, 3 months without replies on eMails and I am not supposed to update my system?

Ubisoft told me to check with their community if they could help. No joke and god what a suggestion. I would've never imagined doing so before as I am not a wise guy like their cs... Well, the community doesn't know what's wrong either and there are other cases that have problems with getting Ubisoft games running with different hardwares. The problem is, UBI doesn't give a sh*t. So do I. They will not see money from me anymore.

But then again, gaming in general is dying. Quality of games is way down and there are maybe another 5 games on my scope: DayZ standalone, Rome TW II, Festung Europa and probably Rising Storm. Maybe some surprises that I don't yet know about but the good times of gaming are over. Sadly.

[[Mad_Murdock]]

I really cannot remember many games that I play without mods. I think Ro2 and Saints Row are the only ones. From what I run:

Rome TW: Rome Total Realism 1.6
BF2: FH2, latest hotfix, PR, latest hotfix.
Men Of War: AS: Dynamic Campaign.
Medieval TW: Stainless Steel.
Empire TW, Napoleon TW, Shogun TW: DarthMod.

I even built my own Vietcong Sound/Skin mod, and did some personal mapping for RO:OST, though never good enough to submit to the public.

The truth is, modding is what makes most of the games I play worthwhile. I have not played any Battlefield or CoD game beyond BF2 and WaW. Not that modding was the only reason for this (transitioning from school to full time work, getting engaged, etc have all had their effects), but it is a major part of why I keep playing games over a year after they are released. I own more modern games, but for the most part if they do not have mods, I do not play them after finishing vanilla once.

I do not think that EA/Activision/Ubisoft are EVIL for doing what they do, it is simple Economics, I just think that so much is lost due to the selfish actions of the sales department. There are a lot of mods out there that I DO NOT play, but they are still there, and I support that. There are people who enjoy them immensely.

With the recent trend in shutting down any and all modding, however, these mods would not exist, and I think that is a loss for the gaming community as a whole. These artists would not have a way to express themselves and these players would move on. It is sort of like commissioning Raphael or Da Vinci for an artwork, and then denying them access to the source material, yes one group makes more money, but we all kinda lose as a collective.

[utek]

Originally Posted by Buzzles

It does boggle my mind at times that companies like DICE, well EA, put their foot down and say "No mods! Ever!", when history has shown some of the biggest games, and even franchises, have spawned from mods.

you want to hear something [beep] up?!?

Don't try to bypass the swear filter on purpose next time. There is a reason for it being here and cheating the system is actually more serious offense than swearing itself. - Holy.Death.

On September 1, 2004, Digital Illusions CE (DICE) bought Trauma Studios, the developers of the Desert Combat Battlefield 1942 Modification to help work on Battlefield 2.
Shortly before the release of Battlefield 2, DICE announced that the company has "decided to discontinue the New York office, Trauma Studios." DICE will no longer pay $200,000 in outstanding funds from the original deal.

[Siechtum]

@Sensemann: I used to play Silent Hunter 3 for hours with some friends online. You are right. Without the mods the game has some serious bugs. But was ticked me off more was their ****** DRM which forced you to insert the DVD every time you wanted to play. Some months after the release UBI admitted some problems with the game DVDs (cracking after several hours of use due to heating up). I had this problem with the dvd.

So Silent Hunter 3 was the last game from Ubisoft I bought.

[Sensemann]

Originally Posted by Siechtum

@Sensemann: I used to play Silent Hunter 3 for hours with some friends online. You are right. Without the mods the game has some serious bugs. But was ticked me off more was their ****** DRM which forced you to insert the DVD every time you wanted to play. Some months after the release UBI admitted some problems with the game DVDs (cracking after several hours of use due to heating up). I had this problem with the dvd.

So Silent Hunter 3 was the last game from Ubisoft I bought.

Oh, I am sorry, I actually meant Silent Hunter V. That is the game I had the trouble with. I played Silent Hunter III only for a short time, after my cousin set it up completely for me. It worked smoothly. Well, until I reinstalled it once because of a switch to WIN 7 32 bit. Then Silent Hunter III didn't work anymore. My cousin said that it could be possible because of the OS. I didn't care because I thought that WIN 7 is the problem as the game wasn't designed for it and I played that one a lot.

My former post was completely regarding SH 5. Sorry for the confusion....

[Fafnir_6]

Originally Posted by Sensemann

But then again, gaming in general is dying. Quality of games is way down and there are maybe another 5 games on my scope: DayZ standalone, Rome TW II, Festung Europa and probably Rising Storm. Maybe some surprises that I don't yet know about but the good times of gaming are over. Sadly.

That is a good list you have there. I all the same titles except DayZ on mine .

http://starcitizen.robertsspaceindustries.com/

PC gaming ain't completely dead. Check this umm...NOT-Wing Commander VI (screw you EA). Epicness should ensue.
Cheers,

Fafnir_6

[migmadmarine]

I seriously don't think "gaming in general" is dying, there is certainly plenty being made and coming out, unless you have some standard of what is worth counting, but that is a discussion for another time.

[Siechtum]

@Sensemann: Ah I see. Well, I've never played SH V myself, just saw some trailers and I saw what they wanted to do. After I read some reviews I decided not to buy it because they pretty much did the same things wrong as in SH 3. And the DRM in SH5 was actually worse (always online even in single player).

To be honest, I had more fun with indie titles this year (RO2, Humble indie Bundle, Open Source games like 0AD and Unknown Horizons and the upcoming Natural Selection 2 which is the sequel to NS1 which is a Half-life mod) than AAA titles. The last AAA title I played was Max Payne 3, which is not a bad game per se but Rockstar made some design desicions I don't like.

[NoxNoctum]

Well all I know is the only reason I bought BF2 was for PR. Bought it twice actually (wanted a backup) I've played the vanilla game for all of 2 minutes.

[Siechtum]

2 Minutes? So you just watched the intro I guess? ;-)

[Flogger23m]

Originally Posted by Krimdor

Then again:

"RO2 owners will be able to play Rising Storm even if they haven't purchased the add-on, likely with some limitations on weapon/class selection. So to summarize, RO2 owners will get a discount on Rising Storm, and everybody will be able to play together on the same servers!"

Source

That is somewhat decent. I had hoped if we pre-ordered it we could get it for free, but if this is enough to let me try the game to see if it is worth the price than that is a nice gesture.

[migmadmarine]

I wonder what the classes available for free will be... I would assume rifleman, but anything else I wonder...

[Verluste]

Originally Posted by migmadmarine

I wonder what the classes available for free will be... I would assume rifleman, but anything else I wonder...

And what about picking up weapons as riflemen? Would that be allowed?

[Zennousha]

Originally Posted by billydakid

Same could be said for Rising storm..

Oh come on, give me a smegging break.

When TWI released that article back when they were considering working with the Rising Storm group to make it a bought product and give a slice of the pie to the mod team, everyone was agreeing this was a great step for modding communities and a great developer attitude.

Now you're spouting this kind of garbage?

[teemu92]

Originally Posted by Buzzles

It does boggle my mind at times that companies like DICE, well EA, put their foot down and say "No mods! Ever!", when history has shown some of the biggest games, and even franchises, have spawned from mods.

Obviously Counterstrike and Team Fortess are big examples, but so is RO and a whole slew of others.

Then you get games like the mentioned Arma II (and Day Z), or games like Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, which spent aggeeesss in the sale charts, mostly thanks to mods. All that's required from the developers is a bit of TLC every now and again for bug squashing, the game pretty much promotes and sells itself.

I'm not saying it should be a driving design goal of development, but releasing mod tools after the game has launched when the company is between titles, does seem like a fairly sensible way of improving the product's lifespan and making a chance for something big to come along.

So true