"Next-Gen Xbox May Allow users to Sell Custom Content&q

Sounds like a really stupid idea to me.

 

Yeah, having millions of people selling items to other people online will never work.

You can quote me on that.

 

I am not sure how many people play mods here on the boards, but if X2 will allow people to do mods (even if only content mods, like adding new maps and such) that would be great. This really appeals to a certain segment of gamers and gives games legs of their own. e.g. The BF1942 mods Forgotten Hope and Desert Combat are extremely popular--3 years after the games release. Same goes with CounterStrike.

I think MS is trying to hit a balance of a system that is cool to mainstream gamers (which ultimately will be large 3rd party support, some AAA games, and system cost) while offering perks to hardcore gamers (those to bye a lot of games, want a lot out of their games, and are trend setters). And since early console sales are to the hard core gamers letting hard core gamers know what they have in store for them is a good thing.

Anyhow, we will know more at E3. Microtransactions, Live, HD, blah blah blah are just all parts of a console. It plays games and from what we know it will be powerful. Once we know what is under the hood, cost, and release date we can be a little more judgemental. IF X2 is only about microtransactions at that point, then you can scream But a few PPC cores and the R500 make me think that the core of the system (i.e. killer HW) is still there for the price--and that is what most casual gamers will be interested in. Quality system, good support, killer apps. Lets see if MS can provide that.

 

Allard talked about exposing Xenon to the PC mod community, basically (he used a Project Gotham type game as an example). Games could have companion editiing tools for PC, allowing you to create there, and bring it on to Xenon and play/sell/whatever. The scope for content creation on the console would be somewhat limited, unless they bring out a keyboard/mouse, so I guess it makes sense. It's also tying their platform more intimately with home territory.

Unfortunately, the concept of selling user created content is a little...meh to me. I know - "amateur" content can be very high quality - but the PC set the precedent for that content to be, by and large, totally free. No doubt MS will be taking a slice of all transactions...so I'm sure their shareholders are happy, but I'm not so sure how customers will take to it. On PC, the primary motivation for people to create content is their love of the game, community, recognition - I think it you put money into the equation you're replacing the community dynamic with more of a marketplace dynamic, which would be different, and perhaps not welcome, for those beyond the content creators.

I think allowing for content creation and online distribution for console games is definitely a good idea - it really fosters community, elevates certain people to a degree of fame within the community etc. That's all good. I'm just not sure if commercialising it is such a good idea. I hope the best content creators release their stuff for free (presumably MS will allow for that!!) to take the bottom out of the market..but knowing human nature, that's probably not likely

 

Not at all. Ina traditoanl marketplace you have advertising, costs, etc. In an online distro model, this is all gone. You can create content for fun, then release it and see what people think. Unlike say the current games model, where publishers are unwilling to fit the bill for new untried ideas, there is no 'bill' for such content. The mods will be varied, and elevated toa higher calibre when modders make a little money out of it. I've tried NWN and Morrowind mods. Though interesting, most are pretty poor, even the highly rated ones. I thought of writing my own, but the effort required to obtain the quality I'd expect is substantial. Against all the other claims on my time it's not worth it.

But at 10,000 downloads, a dollar a piece, that's a decent bit of money. If that was the case, it would be worth my while.

I'd say it's like the Photoshop plugins market. There are free plugins, cheap plugins, and expensive plugins. No-one forces you to buy any, but if you see an effect you like and you think it's worth the asking price, you have a new effect to play with. As long as no-one forces mods to be priced, it'll open up home-brewed professional content creators, not tied to publisher's perceptions of what's markettable. There was a mod for NWN, Witch something or other. Played very different to conventional NWN. I thought it brilliant, looked forward to the rest of the story, but it got stopped at part 2. In a priced mod envirnonment I could pay $4-5 for the series, well worth the money, or spend the time write my own knowing I'd get a return.

It all depends on the financial model, fees and so forth I guess. But I can see it being a very good thing. Only not the REALLY lame example Allard gave. Who the hell want s purple Eiffel Tower? Or a route laid out in Paris which otherwise is totally free to roam around?

 

Opening up a venue for end users to sell new stuff for games online will also open up a can of worms for microsoft, because some people will think it'll be an awesome idea to steal someone else's hard work and sell it as their own. Much less work, and much higher quality than they could have accomplished themselves.

It WILL happen, and who will ultimately be held responsible - can MS successfully dodge that bullet?

 

Will they should allow free content, this way we could have big games.

 

I don't see any problems with user made content becoming succesfull, on the condition it's free...

 

The idea of providing PC based content development tools does remove one of the major hurdles I saw in the plan, as I can't see much impressive content coming from people designing stuff with gamepads. However, there are still some serious issues I see with the idea though, such as the lack of marketing ability for end users making it hard to get the word out on even the most high quality content if people have to pay just to see what they are getting. Futhermore, not only is MS going to want a chunk of the profits but so are the publishers; you can't just go and sell a mod for a PC game without aranging a deal with the publishers of the game and the same will hold true to consoles. On top of that is the problem of quality control; with out strict testing procedures we will wind up with content modifying games in unexpected and unwanted ways, and MS and the publishers will be accountable for such issues assuming they are taking a chunk of the profits.

Regardless, all that pales in comparison to the main threat of such a system, malicious content. Give individuals the opportunity to put what they want into a download, and how long do you think it will be before someone finds a way to hack in a trojan which allows them to steal account info and access? Sure, plenty of safeguards can be put in place but the PC world has shown that people always find new ways around such safeguards and that is something I doubt many people would care to see slip into the world of consoles.

 

Reminds me of second life.

 

Making people pay for user-created maps, mods, etc.. not a good thing.

I mean, I can see paying for them in mass quantities. Maybe a one-time "subscription fee" to a popular mod would be worth it, for example. I would not balk at a fee of $10 for a mod I'd be playing for 25,000 minutes. Single maps.. though.. ugh.

 

Blade : The price of content will be governed by existing market forces. That is, if you and everyone else won't buy a map for $10, they won't sell at that price. But if people DO spend that much, you'll have to decided whether a map is worth that much t you or not. Without any physical media, printing/duplication costs, and so forth, content should retail for similar prices to MP3s - $0.80-$1.00 (or twice as much in Europe ) which is paying for record companies and the download service.

Kyleb : Downloadable content has been available for YEARS on PC. Has there ever been malicious use? Are there any NWN mods that scan for passwords? I wouldn't have thought game data could ever be damaging in that way. ie. A collection of scripted models isn't going to be reading the registry. The worst abuses of content I know of are cheats in games, dupping money and items or using faked uber-characters.

 

Well on a PC there is a lot more possablities as to where or how such vitial information is stored, so people tend to stick to things like cd-key stealers built into keygens and the like, or just packing a trojan into an installer. However, there have been ways to pack viruses into .jpg files one can't rightly say it is safe just becuase it is "a collection of scripted models."

 

So you'd have to pay MS for the XBL subscription and then you get to pay for the downloads, which MS gets a cut of?

Yes they're doing it for the gamers.