It was a good read - and from a logic standpoint, gaming companies should encourage modification by making the process as easy as possible. The casual gamer will pick up a game, play it for a few months and then move on to another game. Modifications extend the shelf life of a game by keeping that player's interest.
However, it really depends on whether the base game is good to begin with though. As easy as it is to mod CTP2, I feel that Activision shot themselves in the foot by releasing a series of games that were overly passive (both CTP1 and CTP2). What I find interesting is that even though CTP1 sold well, CTP2 did not. Compare the sales numbers of civ3 to CTP2 and you would be shocked - even though we all know which is the better game now.
I do believe that CTP1 did well because it was able to ride the coattails of the 'Civ' name. CTP2 had to ride the coattails of it's own name - hence the poor sales.
I played only one single-player game of both CTP1 and CTP2, and then moved onto the Mods. I am grateful for the work that the Modders put into the games, because it kept me playing CTP. (At the same time, as much as I would like to have as much access to the CTP coding, Activision is well within their rights to limit aspects of the code.)
I do give credit to Firaxis to releasing a more difficult base game. The early reports from the civ3 community were talking about the difficulty in mastering the AI - these reports hardly ever came from the CTP1-CTP2 community regarding the default game. Couple that with the 'Sid/civ' mystique and you can anticipate great sales. However, the limits that Firaxis placed on the Editor/scripting language is one that will prevent civ3 from maintaining a long-term base of players. If Firaxis does release the Editor though, you can bet that the CTP2 Modding community goes back to being a ghost town.
Another thing to note - the game market is vastly oversaturated with choices - and most game sales are to the casual player, who may not want to go through the trouble of downloading Mods because their interest level shifts so fast. All I have to do is look at my son - he plays most of the games he gets for a few weeks and then moves on to something else. He may stick with one game for the long term, but that is a rarity.
Go back a few years and look at the game competition civ1/civ2 had, and compare it to the competition today. There are a lot more choices now - and a lot more genres to choose from.
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Originally posted by child of Thor
So will you as Modders of CTP2 be in a position to get some proper money for your efforts? Probably not but if there is a movement in the industry in this direction, then at least it will (hopefully) encourage the game companies to think about releasing moddable games. And in the long-term that's good for everyone who mods.
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I never did this for the money,
I just love to be able to get into a game and make it what I want it to be. I spent a lot of time making my own board games in the past, and to be able to take the concepts that I wanted to execute in that format, but couldn't, due to the limitations in that format is a dream come true.
At the same time, it is nice to be able to sit down to a game that you buy and play it without having to modify it. To be honest, I do not see myself investing the time into modifying another game though - if Firaxis releases a comprehensive Editor, I probably would not mod civ3.
I do hope that the attitude 'Release the game, and let the Modders fix it' does not become the industry norm though.
