4 ms·

Videogames largely moving away from mapping/modding in general has been such a disappointing thing to me for many years now. I'm still playing Doom and Quake mo

by paczki 4y ago

Videogames largely moving away from mapping/modding in general has been such a disappointing thing to me for many years now. I'm still playing Doom and Quake mods to this day and some of the content people put out is incredible. Recently an episode 2 for the Quake mod DWELL released and is of unbelievable quality that we couldn't have even imagined playing back in the 90s. Community servers on the other hand.. those have almost all but vanished completely. It's pretty much just Valve games as far as AAA goes, and even they do their best to hide their server browsers now. Unfortunately, it just seems like you can't aggressively monetize free content so the industry in general has moved away from allowing it.

smrtinsert 4y ago
The absolute best gaming I've ever done has been on custom servers with highly invested well run admin culture. It is sad to see that gone. This generation has much better single player experiences though, in a insane variety of aesthetics, so maybe that trade off is acceptable.
- taskforcegemini 4y ago
  > This generation has much better single player experiences though, in a insane variety of aesthetics, so maybe that trade off is acceptable. I wouldn't generalize it like that
somenameforme 4y ago
I think the world you're describing (and GP as well) is largely relegated to consoles. PC gaming has never been more moddable on average. In many cases, this even includes the exact same titles! For instance Bethesda titles on console range from zero to minimal modding, while on PC those exact same games allow complete and unlimited modding, alongside first party tooling support, to the point that you have entire overhauls of the game that scarcely resemble the original available, for free. Some, like Enderal, even get their own big releases. [1] Basically gaming splintered, hard. So you end up with people, both living and playing games during the exact same time period, having radically different perspectives on the state of gaming. It's really interesting if you draw parallels between this and the state of bubbles within society in general. [1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_...
- hobs 4y ago
  It's true that gaming is split, but its not something that happened recently. Mapping and modding was never generally available to console gamers, and they've traditionally made up the vast majority of game consumers because high end PCs were much more expensive since PC gaming was a thing. The only stuff you could genuinely expect a home gamer to do is something like cracking your system protection in the ps2+ era or going ham on the GAMESHARK.
- usrusr 4y ago
  Has it ever been "un-splintered" though? PC and consoles have always been wildly different. The difference is that these days more IP is launched at both markets.
darreninthenet 4y ago
A mate and I played for hours on a DukeNukem 3D arena map we found somewhere... I still remember the ballache of getting our modems to dial each other and become connected so the games would see each other
jroes 4y ago
Not sure the industry is moving away from mods universally. You or your kids ever play Roblox?
jack_pp 4y ago
Well let's go by https://steamcharts.com/ https://steamcharts.com/ CS:GO : allows both custom maps and community servers Dota : allows custom maps, some of which have created and radically changed existing popular games like auto chess did to Hearthstone. These two games which are in the top 2 have more hours played than the next 8 games in that ranking.
- paczki 4y ago
  Yeah and it's fantastic that those games still exist and allow things like modding and mapping, however both of those games are a decade old. It does feel somewhat like the trend has died down significantly for newer games, no? I certainly love them though! I'm still holding out hope for Source 2 SDK and Hammer 2 to actually become a usable tool outside of VR or Dota 2. Facepunch [0] (Makers of Garry's Mod) are utilizing Source 2 with Valves permission and everything they're working on looks pretty promising, with great potential for a new era of modding. [0] https://sbox.facepunch.com/news https://sbox.facepunch.com/news
- grogenaut 4y ago
  Heck both of those games ARE mods of other games originally... They also both spawned off massive mods and copies themelves. Anyone remember the autochess craze of '18?
axlee 4y ago
It still exists, for example Trackmania lives and breathes by its editor and user-made maps. I believe Minecraft (probably the most popular video game in the world) also has a thriving modding culture, but I have never interacted with it.
jackmott42 4y ago
Video games have also moved away from AAA, the bulk of interesting stuff in indie games, where modding is still normal.

by paczki 4y ago

smrtinsert 4y ago

The absolute best gaming I've ever done has been on custom servers with highly invested well run admin culture. It is sad to see that gone. This generation has much better single player experiences though, in a insane variety of aesthetics, so maybe that trade off is acceptable.

taskforcegemini 4y ago
> This generation has much better single player experiences though, in a insane variety of aesthetics, so maybe that trade off is acceptable. I wouldn't generalize it like that

somenameforme 4y ago

I think the world you're describing (and GP as well) is largely relegated to consoles. PC gaming has never been more moddable on average. In many cases, this even includes the exact same titles! For instance Bethesda titles on console range from zero to minimal modding, while on PC those exact same games allow complete and unlimited modding, alongside first party tooling support, to the point that you have entire overhauls of the game that scarcely resemble the original available, for free. Some, like Enderal, even get their own big releases. [1] Basically gaming splintered, hard. So you end up with people, both living and playing games during the exact same time period, having radically different perspectives on the state of gaming. It's really interesting if you draw parallels between this and the state of bubbles within society in general. [1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_Stories/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/933480/Enderal_Forgotten_...

hobs 4y ago
It's true that gaming is split, but its not something that happened recently. Mapping and modding was never generally available to console gamers, and they've traditionally made up the vast majority of game consumers because high end PCs were much more expensive since PC gaming was a thing. The only stuff you could genuinely expect a home gamer to do is something like cracking your system protection in the ps2+ era or going ham on the GAMESHARK.
usrusr 4y ago
Has it ever been "un-splintered" though? PC and consoles have always been wildly different. The difference is that these days more IP is launched at both markets.

darreninthenet 4y ago

A mate and I played for hours on a DukeNukem 3D arena map we found somewhere... I still remember the ballache of getting our modems to dial each other and become connected so the games would see each other

jroes 4y ago

Not sure the industry is moving away from mods universally. You or your kids ever play Roblox?

jack_pp 4y ago

Well let's go by https://steamcharts.com/ https://steamcharts.com/ CS:GO : allows both custom maps and community servers Dota : allows custom maps, some of which have created and radically changed existing popular games like auto chess did to Hearthstone. These two games which are in the top 2 have more hours played than the next 8 games in that ranking.

paczki 4y ago
Yeah and it's fantastic that those games still exist and allow things like modding and mapping, however both of those games are a decade old. It does feel somewhat like the trend has died down significantly for newer games, no? I certainly love them though! I'm still holding out hope for Source 2 SDK and Hammer 2 to actually become a usable tool outside of VR or Dota 2. Facepunch [0] (Makers of Garry's Mod) are utilizing Source 2 with Valves permission and everything they're working on looks pretty promising, with great potential for a new era of modding. [0] https://sbox.facepunch.com/news https://sbox.facepunch.com/news
grogenaut 4y ago
Heck both of those games ARE mods of other games originally... They also both spawned off massive mods and copies themelves. Anyone remember the autochess craze of '18?

axlee 4y ago

It still exists, for example Trackmania lives and breathes by its editor and user-made maps. I believe Minecraft (probably the most popular video game in the world) also has a thriving modding culture, but I have never interacted with it.

jackmott42 4y ago

Video games have also moved away from AAA, the bulk of interesting stuff in indie games, where modding is still normal.