TUESDAY TIDBIT: User Generated Content

One of my favorite books recently was 'Masters of Doom' by David Kushner, which is essentially a biography of Id Software from its formation all the way through the early 2000's. There's a story in there about something that occurred shortly after the release of Wolfenstein 3d. Mods or alterations to the game began to circulate around the internet. Some of the guys at Id were worried that people would stop buying their games and instead just play all these modifications. After all, why pay money for what you can play for free?

The reason I write about this is that seems to have been the mindset behind many game companies both in the past and now. Especially in today's world of downloadable content and microtransactions, the idea of modifications must be abhorrent to companies who would rather be able to charge for any additions to their product.

This mindset is not restricted to large corporations, either. Companies like EA and Ubisoft take a lot of well deserved flak for their money-grubbing policies, but independent developers have been occasionally guilty of heavy handed censoring and monitoring of their content usage. Its a widespread practice and not necessarily bad. Companies and small devs alike rely on their products to make money, so while it might be nice that people appreciate their work, it stands to reason that they might be upset about not getting paid for it.

Still, while it is an understandable concern for the developers, it is in my opinion a flawed one. Multiple instances have shown that opening the door for user created content is in fact beneficial for developers in the long run. Allowing players to modify and add to the game after its release extends the lifetime of the game, generates goodwill toward the developer and makes players even more excited for future releases.

For example, I'll start with Id software. Against the fears of some of the other members of the then-small company, John Carmack and John Romero were in favor of user-created mods. Carmack from an almost moral stance derived from the “hacker ethic” and Romero because he knew how much hype could be generated based on user content. As a result, John Carmack designed their next game to be geared towards modifications, making it easier rather than harder for players to edit the game's content.

Of course, Id's next game was Doom, one of the greatest video games of all time. One of these days I'll do a review (Spoiler alert, it's going to get a very high score), but in the meantime, suffice to say that Doom was an absolute sensation. More than that, though, the amounts of mods that began to surface helped extend the game's shelf life. The levels, monsters, sounds and music could all be edited and changed, opening the door for “Total Conversions” or games that were almost entirely different from the source material and free to play for anyone who owned the full game. The primitive internet message boards of 1994 were more excited about the release of the Aliens Total Conversion for Doom than they were about the upcoming release of Doom II!

Yet, did any of this hurt Doom's sales? Not in the slightest. Doom II went on to sell millions of copies in spite of being just 32 more levels with one new weapon and a few new enemies. Not only that, but now its levels could be edited and creators were given a whole new set of textures, enemies and options to make levels with. If anything, the promise of endless free content after the campaign might have served as a reason for people to buy the game.

A shot from one of my creations for Doom II

Of course Doom has something else going for it as well. Not only did Id make the game easy to modify, but John Carmack made certain that each new game engine release saw the old engine sent to open source. This means that programmers are able to use the engine for their own games, although these must also be open source. It also opened the door for the numerous source ports that Doom now has, allowing people to play on modern systems with a few slightly more modern upgrades. Freelook, the standard WASD control scheme for shooters and higher resolutions are just some of the benefits that retro gamers can reap from Carmack's generosity.

As a result, Doom has a legacy unmatched by any game its age save perhaps the Mario and Zelda franchises. New content is still being produced at a steady rate, some of it remarkably high quality. Programs like Doom Builder have allowed even those with limited programming knowledge like me to design and play new levels.

Another prime (and more recent) example of the benefits of user created content is the Elder Scrolls series. Starting with Morrowind, Bethesda began releasing the Elder Scrolls Construction Kit with it. That is, they gave the players the exact same design tools that they themselves used to create the game. Given the size and scope of Elder Scrolls games, that is rather impressive. Especially as Oblivion essentially took the gaming world by storm with its popularity. The sheer number of Oblivion mods is remarkable, some of them nearly as big or bigger than the original game. Anyone who has ever played Oblivion will certainly appreciate just how impressive that is.

And yet, in spite of enough free content to keep gamers pleased for a dozen lifetimes over, what happened when the Elder Scrolls V was released? It became perhaps the largest gaming sensation of the decade, and that's saying a lot. Call of Duty might have sold more copies initially, but Skyrim remains far more relevant. As with Oblivion, Bethesda released the construction kit for Skyrim and the amount of new content just continues to grow. There can be little doubt that their next release will be followed by an equal amount of enthusiasm and sales in spite of all the free content available for previous titles.

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 has a robust scenario editor

I could go on and on about this. There are plenty of other games out there that provide scenario editors or other such utilities. All of them are good, and I believe that they all allow the games to have a greater and more lasting legacy than they otherwise would have had. I wish more games would be like this. To me a game mod is like fanfiction. Its an amateur or semi professional trying to show appreciation for a story or experience that they enjoyed. J.K. Rowling hasn't (to my knowledge) attempted to stop or censor any of the fans who want to add their person contribution to her universe to be enjoyed by other fans for free. I don't believe it hurts the developer or the game at all and instead allows those of us who love the games to enjoy them even more.

RETRO GAME REVIEW: CAESAR II

The Sierra city-building games have always had a special place on the shelf for me. They aren't my favorites by any measure, and in fact aren't even close to my favorite genre. However, there's something very unique about these games, and when I'm in the mood for playing a city-builder, there's nothing else that can serve as a substitute. As an avid fan of ancient and especially Roman history, these games capture a certain grandeur that other real-time strategy games can't match.

While I am willing to bet that most fans of the series would argue that Caesar III is the best of the series, the second installment is the one with which I am the most familiar. Its also my personal favorite for a variety of reasons. I'll admit that nostalgia is certainly a factor. The visual design and overall complexity of the game might not appeal to me as much as it does had I played some of its more recent incarnations first. However, there's more to it than just nostalgia as Caesar II has some features that have not been seen in any city-builder that I'm aware of since.

OVERVIEW: Caesar II is one of those older games that almost feels less like a computer game and more like a really complicated board game that you just play on a computer. The array of tables and graphs that are at your disposal when it comes to looking at your city are presented in an almost businesslike manner. Not that this is a bad thing. The fact that so much information is so well streamlined makes it so that these things aren't overwhelming, and I'll be getting into the specifics of some of them a little later on.

As you might expect, the goal of Caesar II is to build a prosperous and populous city from the ground up. This involves constructing neighborhoods and making sure that they have access to all the sorts of amenities that Roman cities would have. The more amenities that a house or neighborhood has, the more quickly the houses will upgrade to hold more people and pay higher taxes. However, this can require some pretty careful planning. Bathhouses and fountains also have to be placed near enough to a reservoir to remain filled, which means that any neighborhoods far away from the river that runs through each map must have a reservoir nearby that is connected by costly aqueducts.

The process of building up your city is both the heart and soul of Caesar II and one of its greatest joys. Watching neighborhoods rise from simple huts into the larger and more impressive dwellings is both challenging and at the same time rewarding. Simply right-clicking on a house will let you see what things the place has or doesn't have, and this will give you an insight into what you need to do to improve it. However, this is not always an easy task. Certain buildings like markets and prefectures are essential to a thriving neighborhood. Put them too close to a dwelling, though, and the residents will not like it and will not advance past a certain stage. This can be frustrating at times, but watching an area rise from almost nothing into a vibrant and wealthy community is certainly rewarding. As in many city-builders, you can right click on the citizens wandering around the streets to see what they have to say. There are no voices to accompany the text and the responses are fairly limited, but it can be a fun way to pass some time while waiting for the next month to arrive.

In addition to the city mode, Caesar II has a couple of unique features that I found to be noticeable absent in the later games that I've played. The first one of these is the province mode. In province mode, you have the option of building roads to connect the various other settlements in your area. Additionally, resources can be found in province mode, and it is here that you build mines, workcamps and warehouses in order to harvest these resources and in turn sell them to your citizens to provide a healthy profit to the treasury. Finally, barbarian towns are scattered throughout some of the provinces. You'll usually have to conquer these in order to get a high enough peace rating to achieve a promotion. Invading armies are also seen on the campaign map, although these will be covered later on.

The other unique feature that I haven't seen replicated in any other game is the forum. This is a simple screen that gives you access to all of your advisers and allows you to manage the various aspects of your empire. For example, there's a plebian adviser who allows you to allocate your laborers to different aspects of the city. If you don't have enough workers, you'll have to decide what you can afford to allow to fall into disrepair. The forum screen also can show you the scenario objectives and how close you've come to achieving them as well as things like taxes, trade, favor with the emperor and your legion.

The combat system in Caesar II is also an incredibly strong point. Although it doesn't play a very large role in the game itself, the combat is both simplistic but at the same time excellent. Battles will occur in one of two ways. The first and most common is when you are attacking a barbarian town. The second is when a barbarian army invades and you fight it on open ground. This does not happen very often, and usually is not encountered until the far later stages of the campaign. Either way, once your army has engaged the enemy, you'll be transported to a separate battle screen. Here you have the option of organizing your troops in whatever formations you wish before beginning. The battle itself takes place in real time and is sort of a massively scaled down version of the battles in the Total War games. There's no terrain and your formation options are somewhat limited, but where you place your troops and how you commit them to the battle can have a drastic effect on the outcome.

Though I could sing the praises of this game for hours on end, it is not without a few flaws. Chief among these is that it is a surprisingly difficult game. Once a neighborhood begins to wither away, there's almost nothing that can be done to stop it, and while old-school purists might say that this just increases the challenge, I find it frustrating. There are few things more obnoxious than having every possible amenity surrounding a neighborhood and watching it sink into the lowest level of housing before disappearing. This is, in fact, a fairly well known problem called 'population dip', and even online manuals list no solutions to it other than to avoid it at all costs.

VISUALS: As I mentioned above, Caesar II in some respects feels more like a computerized board game than a true computer game, and it visuals are a testament to that. The almost grid-like structure of the city and province modes would lend themselves nicely to physical media. However, I honestly don't have a problem with it at all. The art style is consistent throughout, and I prefer the understated style of these cities to the more beautiful artwork in later games. Though of course the game looks as old as it is, at no time during gameplay do I find myself wishing that it looked better

OTHER THOUGHTS: There were two releases of the game, one on dos and the other a Windows 95 release. I have found the dos version online for free and that's the one that I use for playing the game now. It runs just fine on dosbox. The windows version adds a pretty nice soundtrack as well as some different layout options, but you'll probably have to buy a used cd. Also, with the old cd version, I've had some trouble getting it to work on more modern versions of windows, so dos is the one that I'd recommend.

FINAL VERDICT: 8/10 This is a great game, and certainly one of the finest of its kind ever made. When compared to games like Zeus, this one might come up a little short, but underneath its fairly modest exterior is one of the most fun and rewarding experiences that this type of game can offer.