BLOG PIECE: Kickstarter and the mini-revolution

[imperium999]

I backed Xenonauts FTW.

[ilDuderoni]

My planes of interest intertwine. Criken goes toe to toe in the Battle Royale with TB, and TB gets mentioned on the Nexus. Is this the beginning of the internet joining forces that's not under the flag of Anonymous? (But in the context of gaming in this case)

 

Somebody should make TB aware of the Nexus' existance.

I've been following him for some time now, and for some reason he either fails to notice or seems hesitant to ever mentioning the Nexus sites, slightly avoiding the subject of modding whenever it would rub elbows with the topic of "the Nexus".

For example, I don't think I ever heard him praising the strength of the Skyrim modding community , something he normally would point out with any other game at a certain point. (opting instead to simply faulting the game for its vanilla errors and bugs, some of which long circumvented or fixed by 'us')

Or the fact that both Fallout games (whereof there is a Nexus site) are seeing active modding development, still to this day?

 

On first thought, his audible support for the Nexus would mean a popularity boost for the sites, but could there be other repercussions to it then? For him or the Nexus?

 

I don't know, just putting that out there. I think too much.

Edited November 28, 2012 by RJ the Shadow

[Zaldir]

And just a quick thing to those uncertain about donating a bit of money because you don't know if they will reach their campaign goal: you won't be charged for your pledges if they don't!

[darthmingi92]

there should be a nexus page for chivalry: medieval warfare once they release modding tools. that game has so much potential to be great!!

[Nadimos]

Yeah, crowdfunding is gonna change the landscape. Personally im gonna look forward to my rsi constellation and p52 snubfighter with lifetime insurance. That is because i am a nutter for everything space sim related and the last game, that did really hook me, has been released over ten years ago.

 

So this is great article and i appreciate, that it is bringing this possibly into even more peoples consciousness. Be it games or whatever else is out there.

 

:)

Edited November 27, 2012 by Nadimos

[wiseman1zulu]

My one and only question is this... Will Nexas also host the game Star Citizen for modding? if so i plan to give a serious pledge to it. Edited November 27, 2012 by wiseman1zulu

[brokenergy]

I think people are forgetting that larger companies have a lot more to deal with than simple modding tools, as they need to deal with thrid party software and licencing issues, along with setting time for programmers to make them. While I would like companies such as EA and Activision to release tool kits for more games, the simple reason is that developers need to focus on their base content and creating a tool kit isn't going to happen over night as we have seen with Skyrim and The Witcher 2. It has nothing to do with selling more DLCs as some might have noted, and some developers actually would like to give out a tool set but they can't because they don't have the man power or the money. They also have no obligation to release tool kits just because you demand them, they are giving it out of a goodwill jesture to the community.

 

With the Kickstarter thing, again wait and see. We already seen one fail in development, people need to remember that you are investing in a project, not buying. There is a chance that a game can fail due to the lack of funds. Also the tool sets might not be user friendly, so we shouldn't be cheering as of yet.

[Zaldir]

But are you really telling us that Bioware doesn't have enough money to release toolsets? :P

[Dark0ne]

Similarly all that talk revolves around releasing a toolset for the game. So you're not going to release a toolset? You suck. But why can't you plan and code for a simple override folder for textures, meshes and so on? Why can't you make your config files open and easy to edit? This is stuff that doesn't have licensing issues attached to it and really shouldn't be big time sinks either if it's planned for at an early stage. So when they come to you and say "we can't do it because of time/money/license constraints", you ask them why they couldn't make the simple things moddable, which is (a) better than nothing and (b) shows they at least care a little.

 

I've spoken to a few developers about this recently. Half have taken the right approach: they plan for modding from the start. They work out the file structure and architecture they're going to use that will make modding as simple as possible and work to that goal. The other half try and hatchet modding in to an already closed and completed system, which is then nigh-on impossible to do. That's what BioWare are doing. "Finish the game, then we'll think about modding". No no no no no no no. By then it's far too late. I know that, you know that, they know that. They're just saying that because it's easier and better for them to say "hey, maybe" than it is to say "no, it won't happen", even though you can be pretty sure it's not going to happen.

 

I will be pleasantly surprised if it did happen for DA3, don't get me wrong, but I'm practically certain it won't. Don't be suckered in to thinking it will, or if it doesn't that BioWare couldn't have done something about it. They could, they just put their priorities elsewhere.

[slainia]

I have a question, somewhat related to this - what about people modding skyrim and posting said mods on kickstarter? l saw someone from here do that, with a goal of 40k. Seemed kind of...extreme to me.