Half life community has that the hardest of all i think but other communities do experience the same last few years. Unreal does anyway. Also its not just about being bought by the creator of the game but a lot of those modders think a 3rd party publisher might buy them or even more common, they try to do as pro as possible because then some company will take notice and hire some of their members..
Modding became a stepping stone to a carreer rather than fun hobby projects......
i come from the modding community, and i know for a fact they did not care about any of that. They hire you for your talents and experience, if you have experience working on a MOD that is fine, even if you get pulled out from a MOD it doesn't matter if the MOD is a prof. team or not (Because it cannot be a Prof. team no matter how hard they try, unless they are budgeting money and deadlines the gap between them and pro is out of sight for them). The experience they look for when hiring you from a MOD is can you work with people or not and can you handle work loads and work in a pipeline with other people, NOT professionalism because there is no professionalism in ANY mod out there. And I want you to post this to any 'mod' leaders out there, especially the NS guys.
And Im not from the community ?
If they dont care about that then how do you explain they still all pretend more pro in the last few years ? And then Im not talking about Half life community only. Only valve buys up that much, in other communties it doesnt happen then how come they start to act more wannabe pro too.
THey think they got to be pro, they think it helps their mod, and helps them look better. And if it looks better companies might hire people of it.
Last week a good looking mod announced they quit because 11 or so members of their team were recently hired by companies. It happens regulary apperantly that companies actually mail the mod team or members of it themself.
Also last week I was emailed by a mod leader wgo wanted to check my avaiability as a contractor because he was neogotiating with a publisher to go commercial with his mod.
They all want to follow that, what they forgot is that the quality is more important than their marketing, and that the fun should stay. When people start a mod nowadays they first frigging design their site and then make their mod. Get real.
Another point I dont get, why they quit their mod. They almost were out of beta, they worked months on it and then they just frigging quit because they got a job. You dont quit your project like that damnit. Finish it.
It really comes across as "we only did this to get a job" and not for fun.
At Sands of War we also once believed in all that shit with a big studio name and such. For a year or so we worked as Defcon Software(http://www.defconsoftware.com/) and was affiliated with them for some time after also.
For the last year or so we have been completely independant and not had any kind of studio name though. We learned it the hard way that having a fine and professional looking compana behind our mod was just not the way to do it.
Quote from KedhrinAnd I want you to post this to any 'mod' leaders out there, especially the NS guys.
Charlie quit his industry job of years and lived off saved money on the gamble that what he was doing might pay off, and used NS as a proof-of-concept. That proof-of-concept succeeded, so he's now built a core team and started securing investor funding (as well as doing contract work for some smaller titles) to go the full retail route, all while still supporting the free community (and stating that NS itself will always be free) as well as sort of overseeing the NS team's Source plans.
Any number of people I know and/or work (or worked) with have said that they would do exactly the same thing if they were to aspire to their own studio. Mods offer the perfect testbed for that purpose - no cost to develop, all your tools already exist, etc. - so they have definitely become dual-role. There's still plenty of just-for-fun stuff, but they are a viable platform to use as a stepping stone as well.
So yeah, you bring up a number of valid points, but I think you're singling out the wrong guy here.
Just to clarify I got nothing against those few really serious mods as long as they stay reasonable but I do against all those "first time" noob mods who think its the way to go to give out NDA's, contracts, job postings, etc....
They ruin the atmosphere imo
And also the people who are only in it to get a job and who then abandon their product and disappear when they're hired..you cant say they did it (partially) for fun in such case..
Quote from HourencesAnd also the people who are only in it to get a job and who then abandon their product and disappear when they're hired..you cant say they did it (partially) for fun in such case..
Well, when you get that type of opportunity, you can't just pass it up. I certainly didn't do so lightly when I got hired, but under the circumstances leaving my amateur work behind was what I had to do. We lost a lot of people to jobs, but every one of them looked for ways to contribute after the fact, even in small capacity, but it was always their company's policies that ended up interfering, not their own doing.
I would venture that most everyone here with a job started out for fun, but then was presented with the opportunity to take their work to the next level, and then took it. I still love what I do and take every effort to do stuff in my spare time, finding whatever loophole I can in the no outside work clauses of my employment 
err, maybe reading again that's not the type of situation you're pointing to anyway... so I might be typing this in completely the wrong context, but oh well! I don't feel like wasting the text, so here yo go
heh, Im aware of the fact there are a number of people that have exclusivity contracts but not all of them..If I personally were given such contract I would really have to think about it and try to discuss it but I can understand that a lot of people cant do that and are happy they can get hired at that company. So thats cool.
Its just those other people...
Spend years in the community doing stuff for it, they learned you alot and without them you might not have had the job and then they just forget them..Kinda awkward to me.
And its not just about not making levels or mods anymore but they could just as well stick around, like youre doing. And discuss stuff or help some people with questions out but pretty much all of them often completely disappear, ignoring the community that helped them got so far.
For me its a hobby, when I get home from work I already mapped the whole day but I still go on, or do other community stuff or whatever. But gotto do something. I enjoy arranging and adminning things and making my own maps and projects where not 40 people command me what to do or where I dont have to follow some design document..funner.
I don't see whats wrong with not doing any mod-work or community/spare time work afterhours..... how is that abandoning the community ? I don't get it. Some people here have lives... Personally I'm not gonna break my back to texture somebody's map for free if I could be out having fun doing other stuff instead.
I'm not even in the industry, but I agree. I doubt I could hack doing that much more work after hours in the same field as I've spent the day. Maybe a bit here and there to work with some theme you don't get the opportunity to at work, but I don't think I'd be jumping at the chance to crack open another editor once I've got through my front door. There's more to life than what people do for a living, no matter how much they love that thing.
Going out and do stuff is fun too, but not everything there is. Making your own stuff is fun too altho that might be different for you since youre a tex artist. But its much funner to make stuff if youre not bound to some design document or specific style. Artistic freedom..
And most of the time its the community where you learned a lot, where you met the right people, where you gained experience and skill, etc..leaving doesnt help the community, could give something back like help or advice or whatever you want.
And I got a bussy real life too, so ? I just got to make stuff sometimes, else I get frustrated and nuts.
And it helps myself too anyway, the more work I got and the more publicity it brings the more chance I have on meeting some of the right people or work contracts. Its not useless.
there is more to game development than drawing textures klein
OH REALLY? I didn't know that!!!!
My point was, when I'm off work I wanna do other non-game dev related things....because there's more to life than making games. I don't see how that would somehow make me a bad person who abandons the community.
he graduated the community, got hired, and now works 9-5 every day on textures, why should he have to come home and work more? He may lvoe it, but loook at me. I'm working 20 hours a day trying to learn things for school and I'm desperately seeking a life. Enough ranting, i make no sense.
lol what mod ever got picked up by a publisher?
As far as I know the developers of the game picked it up and sold it after some tweaking.
So modders should be warned if they are in it for the money/fame 
Personally I do everything to fun and pretty mutch said yes to every mod that askes if I tought I would have the time and if I liked their setting enough. Some don't even reply back anymore, others never get really started.
I will never work in the games industry unless I win enough money with the lottery to start my own studio (must be able to pay the workers with my interests or no deal! :-P)
Making a map is for me not mutch different as making a city in sim city.
Hmm lisence agreements heh? I think I read the one for my first mmo
Several mods got picked up...Tactical Ops is one of the mods I think of then, Infiltration or that other similar mod, forgot name is another one.
Valve is the only company that picks up mods and buys them over, its not the regular way of happening, look outside your community
Lots of money can be made by contests and selling but if it becomes someones main focus...
Yes but is any of them picked up by a publisher without help of the developer who's engine they used to mod on?
didn't the bf2 guys come out of desert combat? i'm not clear on the history there.
it's ironic, what started as a pastime consumes most of our time now.
Quote from BluestrikeYes but is any of them picked up by a publisher without help of the developer who's engine they used to mod on?
Red Orchestra is running on the unreal engine and is going to be distributed by Valve via Steam
only because of Make Something Unreal.
Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!
