51 replies to this topic

[SolCrusher]

This would be awesome!

[Victor Morson]

Rebas Kradd, on 06 January 2014 - 04:26 PM, said:

Having done mapmaking in Counter-Strike, I can tell you that mapmaking is nowhere as easy as it sounds.

I do mapping as well, and I can tell you that there's a huge, huge, huge difference between making tight indoor maps, and open outdoor ones.

Outdoor maps can be created very rapidly with some Satellite Data, some nice assets to scatter about, and some textures. These are also, fortunately, the primary type of map used by MechWarrior online.

A simple 5 minute linear hallway shooter map is likely three times more time consuming than a map like Alpine, to be entirely honest.

[Geeks On Hugs]

I have never understood why game companies don't use their rabid fans talents for everyone's benefit.

Quote

PGI has a problem: They need more manpower, they don't have the money to hire that manpower. And to that I say: BRING IN THE COMMUNITY. Stop shutting us out. There's a ton of people here that are professional mappers, modelers, you name it. That are willing to donate their time to improving this game.

I find it questionable that they don't have the money. Is their financial situation public information and confirmable? I know anecdotally that I've spent more on this game in two months than any other game in history in any time frame and further that there are plenty more like me on this.

Irregardless if they don't have the money or just don't want to spend the money or anything in between it is definitely a great idea for PGI to tap this resource. I think we would have more content of a higher quality this way simply because of talented manpower that becomes available. So I question the assumption about money but that's perhaps irrelevant -I fully support this idea!

[Opus]

Oh they have the money; Reportedly they are a 25 to 50m company: > linky thingy

Talent? Scheduling issues? .,.,., etc etc etc yada yada yada

but they have greatly ignored a vast talent pool within the players

Edited by Opus, 13 May 2014 - 01:09 PM.

[L Y N X]

Egomane, on 03 January 2014 - 03:31 AM, said:

If they don't have the money why are there open job offerings?
http://piranhagames.com/#CAREERS

And while I support the idea of fan content, you forgot to mention that even fan content is not free for the company, that wants to implement it. There are quality and production standards that need to be met. So there needs to be someone who checks every entry for those. The more entries you get, the more personal you need to control them. That guy (probably more then one) needs to be paid as well. You can just as well hire a map designer for the money. Those quality checks can't be done by the community.

As part of my personal philosophy, I do not subscribe to the word "Can't" it is self-limiting. Just because something has not been done before, does not mean it cannot be done. Beside quality checks have been done for years for Linux and Wikipedia are often done by the community. Go poke a stick in someone else's bicycle wheel.

[L Y N X]

I voted for explain. I am in favor strongly of community generated content. But it has been disputed that PGI does not have the money, they have job openings, which do suggest that they do not have the manpower. However, PGI has enough on their plate that they have not been able to effectively manage, I think this is more historical fact than opinion by 2014, but it may just be my opinion still. If PGI is having difficulty managing their own internal development, then think about how terribly overwhelmed they would be with trying to project manage a community driven content generation effort. I mean it can and has been done, Linux and Wikipedia are two famous examples, and MW:LL on the Crysis engine is another, and let's not forget MekTek. But I have concerns that lead me to believe that PGI is unable, at this time, to pull this off. I think it is a fantastic idea and as a computer scientist, I'd be more than happy to help, I love this genre, but there are control issues that I do not believe PGI is ready to let go of.

Edited by 7ynx, 13 May 2014 - 06:50 PM.

[Livewyr]

Once the game is built, and Cwars is in place.. if they ever get "spare" time to look over community content.. I'm all for it.

[GreyGriffin]

I am going to get crapped on for this, but I think this is a terrible idea. Users generating content for the game is not only a road to a legal quagmire, it's a road to a mess of a game vision.

I know we all think we could do it better, but how many of us agree on how to do it better? What if none of the user generated content is appropriate?

There's definitely a time to consider user feedback, and I definitely think MWO needs to consider more input from its community in general about its vision for the game, at least to react and comment on it. But it also needs to steer its own wheelhouse and know when to guide the ship towards a unified vision and aesthetic. If it utilizes community content, it creates the expectation that community content will be utilized, which will eventually lead to something completely halfassed being plugged in to satisfy the community.

So, no. These guys are already up to their ears in judgement calls they are apparently unable to adjudicate internally. I don't trust them to sift through the opening of the diarrheal floodgates any more than I trust them to balance jump jets. But at least we don't have to deal with the feedback loop of rapidly implementing yet more ill-thought-out crap.

[Bigbacon]

they'd have to hire more people to weed through the 99.9% crap that would get submitted and then play test everything they thought was worth it which would just open up everything for more and more bitching which you all do too much of already.

quality user content is hard to come by and if you have the ability to make high quality content, you might as well just go out and get a job with them.

I for one, for the most part, HATE user content.

I just recall BF2152 where they took some user maps and threw them into a patch for the game and they were terrible maps.

Edited by Bigbacon, 14 May 2014 - 09:27 AM.

[Moromillas]

Victor Morson, on 02 January 2014 - 10:44 PM, said:

This is a long shot. But here's the situation as described by PGI right now: They lack the manpower to do everything they are trying to do and it's cost them greatly.

Also they are suffering from a huge PR backlash due to their misunderstandings with the community. It's fostered a bad atmosphere.

This is a great change to put everything that's happened under the bridge....

I can't find anything that supports this. Where are you getting this from?

Well, that PR backlash (you're talking about 3rd person?) as you say, was from people who are actually quite monstrous, which is not exactly something I would want to have around.

That already happened, Russ wrote a sincere apology for the misunderstanding, despite never making a promise.

[Burktross]

Roland, on 03 January 2014 - 09:47 AM, said:

They absolutely CAN be done by the community, and ARE done by the community in a ton of games.

Take a game like Neverwinter Nights Online, with its content creation system.. or GTA Online with its new mission editor. Anyone can contribute content to the game and have it availible pretty much immediately.

For things like offensive content, you provide users with the ability to flag it as such, and then it gets reviewed... although this really isn't an issue in MWO, unless you're afraid people will make giant ***** maps.

For quality control, you give users the ability to rate content, and use that to decide what kind of stuff percolates to the top where its most commonly used.

For things like MWO maps, you could effectively do such a thing with a separate playlist for user created maps. Essentially, by playing in that playlist, you're saying, "I accept the fact that some of these maps will be garbage, and my mech will get stuck, and all kinds of {Scrap} may happen."

Then after matches are complete, folks rate the map... Then, PGI only has to check out the highest rated maps, and say, "Yep, everyone likes this map, and it's good." and then they consume those and put them into the regular playlists.

Of course, things can't be autonomous, but much like Valve's CSGO workshop, top-tier votes get looked over by officials and everyone wins!

[990Dreams]

You really think the community is reliable/smart enough to do anything good?

Hint: No.

I've heard some good ideas. And then I've heard ideas about "flat maps to encourage brawling and penalize boats and snipers."

Sounds like a good idea right? Sure, until you realize that while it allows for brawling, it also means the snipers can take pot shots all day and you'll be out of range.

If that is how smart people who would be designing things are, I don't trust anyone here to do a good enough job.

Edited by DavidHurricane, 09 October 2014 - 12:23 PM.