For the Moders...

[Lawndart]

I can't tell you how many times I thought of starting a company employing primarily moders...

I'd like to tip my hat to other groups as there is a good chance there is cross over;

The Falcon 4 modding community!!! Holy cow wow!!! Talk about a game that at its core was ahead of its time, still can't top that dynamic campaign and heck, it could still come true! The modding guys turned that into something no company or government for that matter can affort to make again... maybe that’s why most of the original dev team is now working for the government! And if any of you are here? Yeah, I was at the Sim conference with the US government in Minneapolis back in 99...

Total war, lovely work. Stainless steel and the darthmod stuff made with many many supporting moders is the stuff that keeps us old guys going... I have my own category of "grown up" games, certain Sim and a few select others fit into. the modded total war games supersede "game" and assent to experience... They make experiences, experiences that making you really feel like you’re in charge of something great and powerful... and sometimes the opposite...

SH/Subsim, I have a special place in my heart for you guys, I had immediate family fighting on both sides of the war, on all fronts, very famous leaders also. And Military is still very prevalent in my family, most recently my uncle retired a Master Diver, his son, my cousin, a boat captain serving in the middle east. So when I play SH I feel that I'm getting a window into a past my family knew, it’s like living vicariously in the past and in some way keeps the memory of my grandparents alive and the sense of pride very much in the present. The more real my SH exp gets, looks, feels, smells, the closer I feel to my Grand dad, Richard Kimmel, who was injured in the pacific. He died 10 years ago from a long battle with the injuries he sustained there that didn’t really bother him until he was much older... Over radiation and medication, how we have lost a lot of our WW II vets...

I don't post much but I've been here for years... And I can’t express enough gratification for what you guys do… You don’t just make games better, you keep history alive!!!

Thank you

Oh, and Neil Stevens, thank you for making sure we all have a port to come to… It’s got to be very hard to hold something so niche going, but you have, and you didn’t have to. As I get older I have those places I go that I always feel comfortable, a place that feels more like home then home sometimes… Subsim is one of those places to me.

Thank you too

[TheBeast]

You should read this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=171290). Maybe you can start a company.:salute:

[raymond6751]

I agree 100% that modders have made a huge contribution to many games. Isn't it amazing what can be done for love and not money?

I think forming a company of former modders would change things but not better them. Companies tend to want to make money and so on. Why do you think companies like Ubisoft haven't hired all the find modders?

They would then have to pay for what was free before. Modders are paid in love and respect, by us gamers. :yeah:

[Lawndart]

Well, when a company gets as big as Ubi then a lot of people need to get paid so there is a trade off and the want and need of cash gets a bit blurred... There are huge real world influences here that as a whole make sense but when weighed to each product don’t…

That being said, the company if kept small wouldn't need much capital but like any company it needs to make money. Preferably enough to be comfortable... I admire the "Combat Mission" guys.

And if you have a strong IP and lots of potential you can always sell and start again to keep it small...

The real issue is that building something from scratch and modifying it is a fundamental difference. I once was involved in an Epic games competition that awarded a modding group 1 million $$$ and a retail version of their mod... All the issues that came out of that were quite interesting. The intention was to give them this money so they could start their own company... well putting money into good wholesome things can be very poisonous without a very clear forward thinking goal...

Also, moders also aren't a consolidated butch and are more hobbyist... I think the "Falcon 4: Alliance"?, don’t remember the name stemmed from this very concept. It would be comparable to taking your local softball team pro… think of the considerations of not just the team but the individuals that make up that team… its great opportunity but as each person thinks about their own life the opportunity might be more like pain…

It could be like herding cats and the very nature of trying to focus could delude the very thing that needs to be captured to make something awesome, the essence...

But, if 5-10 guys approached me and had more than part time to invest for a good duration to establish a foundation, I would really have to think about that… Maybe we could make a DLC outsourcing outfit… Fun to think about…