StarCraft 2 to Support Priced Maps, Mods

[Crayfish]

"A future StarCraft II Marketplace service was announced today at BlizzCon. The Battle.net store, planned to be added to StarCraft II after the game's launch, will allow map makers to publish both free and "premium" maps.

Premium maps will carry a fee, meaning mod and map makers can sell their content directly on Battle.net."

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60148

[Sindwiller]

*shakes head* Well, this happens in the age of Xbox Live and Live Market. Unevitable in my opinion. :-| Even though I'd really pay for something of really high quality, it really narrows the spectrum of maps and mods I'd be able to acquire and play imho, which is nonsense - destroys quite a big part of the modding spirit.

[sarge mat]

Despite some of the good stuff I have played I can't see myself paying for maps and mods. I don't see a lot of people being happy about this really, PC gamers kick off when official DLC isn't free.

I could see it ending up with a lot of paid stuff no matter what they say. I think it’s cool that really good maps and mods could make money but good mods often end up as full games anyway. I would rather see developers have a program that helps them achieve that goal for mods that are heading that way.

A dark day if this starts to spread. People will see it as a way to make money and we will end up with a load of shit.

[Jetsetlemming]

How are they gonna filter that custom map store content? Because if it's just a free market, map makers deciding on their own what they're gonna charge for what, I can see it totally ruining any custom mapping community as people full of themselves flood it with $10 piles of shit and gimmicks.

[Thrik]

It'll start out ridiculous, but it'll probably stabilise itself after a while like with anything. Kind of like how Xbox LIVE is okay now, rather than like its horse armour days.

[ctswin]

Don't worry, Xbox LIVE is back to those days with the avatar marketplace (lightsaber, 400 MS points?!)

[Jetsetlemming]

It'll start out ridiculous, but it'll probably stabilise itself after a while like with anything. Kind of like how Xbox LIVE is okay now, rather than like its horse armour days.

Xbox live's prices are typically designed by people at least smart enough to be in a business. At least for Starcraft 1's map editor, that required significantly less common sense to run. Everything I've seen on the internet tells me that the average joe is fucking horrible at economics. Ever examine the auction house prices on a typical MMO? Full to the brim of people either determined to undercut the lowest guy, who was undercutting the second lowest guy, who was undercutting the third lowest guy etc etc etc, and people pricing their stuff significantly higher than average trusting that eventually somebody somewhere will end up buying that item at that price for whatever reason.

[Sindwiller]

I won't pay 10$ each for Zone Control, Lurker Defense, Zerg Arena (or whatever it was called) and the like. That's just bullsh**.

[KungFuSquirrel]

I'm guessing the best analogy to this is likely the iPhone app store. Blizzard should probably have some kind of oversight to make sure no one's ripping anyone else off, but I also don't see people getting away with charging $10 for a single map. There's an important quote in that article:

"Think about it like this: something like Defense of the Ancients, I think, would be something like a free map because it doesn't have a lot of original content," he added, while noting that Blizzard made the announcement today in order to give map makers time to start thinking about ideas.

It sounds like the bar of what they expect people to charge for is a bit higher, given the complexity that goes into something like DOTA and its popularity.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. It's not like people can't still put out free maps, and I imagine most will still end up being free. I'm more interested in seeing what kind of in-game interface they'll be creating to go with this for sharing levels, and if it's something as awesome as building a map and plopping it on battle.net for all to see. Getting custom content out there for any game is only getting tougher; that kind of ease of content sharing would be a huge win for everyone involved.

[2d-chris]

I don't care about addition money if it's worth it

[e-freak]

as long as there is an option to publish my map for free, it's ok. there have been some really great wc3 campaigns (like that spider campaign everyone was raving about) i wouldn't mind paying 2$ to 5$. actually it's a great idea because joe average can create a full mod on his own with the SC2 editor and won't have to hazzle with license-stuff but just put it in the store and can make a little fortune (if the mod is good enough - see gmod for hl2 as a reference).

[Taylor]

Colour me sceptical for now, the Warcraft 3 mapping community is practically built on ripping each other off.

[JohnC]

Sounds outright awful from where I'm sitting. What happens when some greedy amateurs slap together some ugly models and textures and put it up as a premium package because it's got so much "custom content?"

[Pampers]

as long as it doesnt turn out like turbosquid where people put out porly unwrapped cubes and sell them for $30 bucks <__

[Sindwiller]

as long as it doesnt turn out like turbosquid where people put out porly unwrapped cubes and sell them for $30 bucks <__<

It will. Truse me