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For game developers and publishers, there are lots of ways to react to the modding community that so often creates new and interesting aspects to their games. Some companies look to shut these modding communities down completely, some threaten them over supposed copyright violations, and some developers choose to embrace the modding community and let mods extend the life of their games to ridiculous lengths.
But few studios have gone as far to embrace modders as developer 1C, makers of IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover. The flight-sim game, released way back in 2011, burst onto the gaming market with decidedly luke-warm reviews. Most of the critiques and public commentary surrounding the game could be best summarized as: "meh". But a modding community sprung up around the game, calling itself Team Fusion, and developed a litany of mods for IL-2. Rather than looking at these mods as some sort of threat, 1C instead worked with Team Fusion and developed an official re-release of the game incorporating their work.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover BLITZ Edition is the result. Officially sanctioned and released under the banner of original developers 1C, it combines the original game with all the work that the fans at Team Fusion Simulations--now given access to the game's source code--were able to cook up.
This work includes new planes, new graphics options, new damage and weapon [modeling] updated visual effects.
You can buy BLITZ if you're coming into the game fresh, but if you already owned Cliffs of Dover, BLITZ was added to your Steam library for free late last year.
1C has also gone out of its way to highlight that BLITZ is in part the work of the Team Fusion modders and even announced the new release with comments on how much work the mods do to clean up the serious flaws in the original game. Other studios ought to be paying attention, because this is how it's done.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 15 2018, @04:49AM (2 children)
Voksi ‘Pirates’ New Serious Sam Game With Permission From Developers [torrentfreak.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cocaine overdose on Thursday March 15 2018, @05:21AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 15 2018, @05:40AM
Wageless? So seldom it happens to be paid for it that the answer is practically yes.
Thankless? Not always.
Reward-less? No, even if most of the time the reward is solely you own personal satisfaction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday March 15 2018, @05:00AM (3 children)
List their name in credits, keep the control over the technology and the copyright over the assets they create and take the money resulted from the sale of their creation.
What's not to like?
"Hey, bosses, that's the way you do it,
Got the work for nothing and the checks for free"
Say it ain't so, -- OriginalOwner_, say it ain't so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:01AM (2 children)
In my lifetime, I've know bunches of folks who have put lots of time and money into hobbies that never paid them back a cent.
...and they never bitched about that.
The work is getting released.
If it has flaws, I'm guessing those will be attended to.
Compare that to the bozos who send a C&D or sue for an imaginary property infringement.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:35AM (1 child)
While better than those bozos, they are... (what's the term, "earning" imply some effort from their side)... recording an income and the community remain only with the pleasure derived from the hobby.
The contributors don't even have the right to distribute their work to a larger audience, everyone goes through the "owner".
As you threw a comparison tome, let me return you the ball: compare with open-source/creative-commons.
The fair approach would have been: charge those willing to pay for your game environ and let the hobbyists independently distribute the assets they created and do it in such a way the hobbyists' extensions can be loaded by you game environ without a hitch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @07:05AM
Yup.
...but they knew it was closed/proprietary/capitalist from the start.
I'm reminded of the tune [google.com]
"Oh shut up, silly woman", said the reptile with a grin.
"You knew damn[ed] well I was a snake before you took me in."
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by cubancigar11 on Thursday March 15 2018, @06:49AM (2 children)
A better way to do it is by Microsoft, which officially hired the modders of Forgotten Empires [forgottenempires.net] then released it as offical update of Age of Empires II.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @08:17AM (1 child)
Or, you know, Counter Strike [wikipedia.org], one of the most popular games of the 00's.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 15 2018, @09:43PM
Or, you know, Final Doom [wikipedia.org], mods for one of the most popular games of the 90s, released as official mission packs.