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.