Originality in mods

    Damn, that's outrageous. Reminds me of when players found a way to get an early Hall of Mirrors build out of our FTP and release it by themselves. All you can do is step back and watch assholes ruin your work for their pleasure.

    Quote

    During this period, Zerk consulted with the DICE legal team and learned that, despite having signed a contract, no legal action could be taken against the theft of intellectual property online.

    I find that surprising. I'm not saying they should have, but it's weird that they couldn't. I thought any personal work was more or less copyrighted if you could prove you were the author. Am I leaving in a dream?

    Okay, a post from a guy who is a perfect example of how NOT to run a mod: me.

    Some points I'm about to mention just prove how right they are in this topic.

    I initially started a personal project called Remember September for Call of Duty 2. There was no Operation Market Garden themed modification at the time, so I figured this had to change. Like I said, it was personal. Started out without a real plan, basically just creating levels. But I'm quite the open person, so I quickly showed first screenshots to friends on MSN. Some of them also have experienced with modding, so became interested in the project.

    Soon after I was leading my first project, with 3-4 developers working on the project. 'Production' went fast and the first results started rolling out. Not long after we set up a website and forums, for possible fans to discuss the project. Completely normal responses from the community such as: "When is it released?", "When is the next update?", "Can't wait to play" etc. etc. were posted on the forums and were much appreciated.

    And that is where it went wrong;. we started working to each update to 'please' the community. Instead of being busy with our hobby - something fun - we forced ourselves to release SOME kind of media. Since there was no plan to begin with, overview got lost rapidly. Also more and more developers joined the team, of who I sometimes had the impression that they just joined 'to see backstage progress'.

    More and more developers left. Sometimes because of RL issues, sometimes because they didn't do anything. Progress became worse and worse.

    I turned myself towards the less experienced modders, often being a lot younger than me (Although I'm quite young). They did do some work in the beginning, but a major issue - which I think is the issue for a lot of mods - was school / college. Sure, college is more important than modding. But in our team 75% was often not productive because of it. Since this was such a big amount of inactive devs, the progress almost stopped (I continued working of course, but that is not enough). Also they saw that it was not a succesful project, and soon after left the team.

    After almost a year of 'production', we ended up with 3 devs, including me. I just got in the process of being hired at a game studio in Germany, so I wasn't able to support them either for a while. After a few weeks we officially called it a day. A personal project that grew to a known mod for Call of Duty 2..ended in the trashbin.

    So what have I learned from this? First, I learned that you should plan ahead;

    How much work is required? What is the rough estimation of development time? What positions are vital? What is the mod about?

    If the rest of the team sees what you are talking about, they feel confident in working on the project.

    Second thing, don't forget that modding is a hobby! It's not something 'to please the community' or keep them busy for a while.

    Wait with releasing media until you actually have something. Then you will (also) avoid 'working to an update'.

    Future

    You might think; after these mistakes you would never start a mod again? WRONG.

    I think if you experienced it at hand, that it's easier to learn from it. Everything that I did wrong, I will change for my upcoming project for Call of Duty 4.

    No website, no public forums, a clear plan what is required, and not hiring 'just anyone'.

    And I feel much more confident in starting / leading the project, more than ever.

    Hehe yes Kitty, Some day I will make a mod but it will be maybe 5 or 6 good friends that I can rely on. Rather than make something really big and epic; it will be smaller with a very minimal amount of code needed.

    Also an advice I'd like to give out to the modders; do not always work to the hype.

    Do not switch your project to a new game constantly. Then it's likely it will never be finished.

    Actually a friend / collegue of mine just finished his project for Half Life 1, and now starts a new one; for Half Life 2; a four year old game.

    But he simply does not care if it's the latest technology or not. If you're familiar with the game / engine, why change?

    So ignore community responses such as: "Why such an old game? The next one is almost about to come out."

    If you have created quality work, people will play it anyway, no matter if the game is old or not.

    Quote from KittySparkles

    But he simply does not care if it's the latest technology or not. If you're familiar with the game / engine, why change?

    I'm glad to see someone else here who thinks like I do!

    Quote from D3ads

    Fucking Hell, check this one out:http://www.moddb.com/mods/firearms/news ... -21st-2006

    Firearms team get bullied out of their own project? Something wrong with the community when this happens... words fail me.

    It's a long story I'm too involved in. This thing has effectivly split the FA community leaving most of the old people from FA on FA:S but there is the occasional friction and slander between FA:S and FA2 two years on. Something that becomes quite apparent if you look through the FA2 forums. A bit of more info is that the community itself was a proper cess pool in the end, a lesson learnt about keeping the community in check so bits of it don't do this.

    I'll leave it at that since whatever I say will just fly back in my direction and we try not to stir the mess any more than needed. Anyone more interested I'll answer pm questions but otherwise you can just check the pages.

    http://www.firearms-source.com/

    http://www.firearms2mod.com/

    Times have changed,

    It takes alot of work to make a nice mod.

    As the retail market proves, players want fun, good looking games, the original games usually have a hard time selling, the same goes for mods ...

    Yeah a 5 man team of high expirienced modders is probebly better then a large team, but you have to know 5 expirienced modders and they must be willing to work on your project.

    And that means that you must be expirienced to start with.

    As for insurgency mistakes, I think the gameplay/objectives should have had priorty and do much more early testing, instead of when the maps are pretty much done :P

    If you come up with a completely new refreshing idea people will still be afraid to play it or want to accept it as the next big thing. This happens in retail games as well.

    People stick with what they know, zombies,CTF,DM,CS,TF,etc etc... And if you as a mod build something with those game play mechanics you are labeled as a copycat or not being original enough. So it's very hard to find a balance that works imHo. I think a lot of people have cool idea's and crazy things in their minds as to innovate the way a game works, or can come up with original game play designs, but at the end of the day usually that's what they end up being, idea's. The reason for that is that it takes a lot of time, energy and dedication to undertake something like this, and this is where a lot of mods die. It's good that Valve finally has Steamworks up and running, this will boost mods finally, and looks like they timed it pretty close with the amount of mods releasing the last year (and the coming year). And if you want original mods, there are still mods like that out there, they are just few (sourceforts and insect infestation comes to mind).

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