Power to the People Comments by Rob Fahey

No mention of Halo 3's forge mode?

Sure, its a very limited set of tools, but there have been some very original things come out of it which have even made it into general playlists such as Rocket Race, Grifball etc.

The Bungie Favourites & File share apps make distribution pretty easy so a beefed up set of mod tools with the same distribution would be the enxt step.

Although I still play PC games, I can't really be arsed with mods any more. At one point I would download any new Unreal Tournament or Half Life total conversion going, but these days I don't really feel like it. Perhaps I just don't have the time, or perhaps there's plenty enough professionally-generated content available for me these days.

That's probably why I'm not looking forward to Little Big Planet as much as some folk are.

Nadeo (Trackmania devs) is another good example of people who 'get it'

The tools available to create your own content are just at the right level of difficulty, enough there to accomplish something worthwhile but not daunting to the casual user...

I'm not particularly interested in user created content either. Most of it is shite, it's just amateurs toying around. Some are worthwhile but that's usually just a showreel for entry to the industry. Most user created content regardless of medium (Games, Film, Literature) is rubbish. I'm happy to leave it to the professionals.

This represents the conflicts between the different cultures that exist in the games industry.

Some are very pro user-interaction - indeed much of PC gaming is built around the gaming community building new maps, mods, machinima and other things that not only serve to promote and evangelise the game in question, but solidify the gaming community.

Others are more reluctant to let players become creators. Console platform holders come from a culture of total control, where they dictate precisely what is to be played on "their" platform. Certainly this has many benefits for the player, from a quality control perspective, but it can be drastically limiting in a world where user-created content is becoming increasingly important.

Obviously it's a matter of balance. and I think that Satchell is saying some very correct things here: you need to be very careful that you don't give your users enough rope to hang the rest of the user-base (sorry for the mutilated metaphor!).

Had endless fun with the level and storyline designer in Timesplitters 2 - and that sort of dev environment would be welcome, as would 'Forge mode', like afghan_jones says, but with better customisation tools for things branching into weapons / vehicles and whatnot, and being able to share it around within a moderated environment without endless mods generated by people who think tits for wallpaper is funny.

Even buying team-developed stuff is like wading through muck to find the roses, so don't really have a problem with the percentage of dross likely to appear, and it will be interesting to see if 'the industry' is serious about taking user created content in this direction.

Do I need a XBL Gold account to get Forge content?

Another rather good example of user created content is the decal editor within Forza 2. Once your creation is complete you can even sell it for in game money. Very good idea which gets very little coverage.

Yes, it really is strange that this article doesn't mention Forza 2 and Halo 3, which have exactly the limited easy-to-use in-game creativity tools that the article talks about.

Awesome article. You (by which I mean Eurogamer) have far better writers than any videogame-related website I know.

Yes, it really is strange that this article doesn't mention Forza 2 and Halo 3, which have exactly the limited easy-to-use in-game creativity tools that the article talks about.

I wouldn't call the Forge "easy to use" it's a total pain in the arse, as mentioned above the Timesplitters system is so much better.

Bunny

"I'm not particularly interested in user created content either. Most of it is shite, it's just amateurs toying around. " the tools allow it to be shite

Want customization? Garry's Mod for HL2. It opens up the entire engine to be toyed with, and it's fairly easy to make entirely new gamemodes and vehicles. It's not entirely accessible if you don't know the engine but even the basic stuff is fun.

Forget my plug, though, this is a good read. Mod teams are a great source for companies to find fresh talent. Look at the guys who made CS. They're now some of the top developers at Valve, making as much as any PC developer.

I don't know how Nintendo would react to a big Phallus ripping about Mario Circuit.