Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: aldo_14 on April 18, 2006, 06:22:59 am

Title: Steam: buy mods
Post by: aldo_14 on April 18, 2006, 06:22:59 am
http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63921

[q]The Half-Life 2 modification Garry's Mod is to be sold through Steam for $10, author Garry Newman's confirmed - with money split 50-50 between the mod team and distributor Valve.[/q]
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: BlackDove on April 18, 2006, 06:27:09 am
People actually bought Half-Life 2?
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: IPAndrews on April 18, 2006, 06:31:05 am
It will be interesting to see how many people buy Half Life 2: Episode One. Once bitten...
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Fury on April 18, 2006, 06:57:47 am
Don't care about mods but in a reply to IP's comment, I might buy the upcoming HL2 expansion(s). HL2 was bundled with my video card since buying the expansion(s) does not involve me actually going to a shop, searching the shelves and buying an expensive frisbee. I'd like to avoid more CD's and DVD's collecting dust in my shelves, having the games on hard drive with possibility to re-download is what I prefer. At least as long as re-downloading is fast and trouble-free.

As for those who still own a dial-up or very slow broadband, cry me a river and get over it. Publishers can screw it too if it means more income to the developers themselves.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Grug on April 18, 2006, 07:16:42 am
Don't care about mods but in a reply to IP's comment, I might buy the upcoming HL2 expansion(s). HL2 was bundled with my video card since buying the expansion(s) does not involve me actually going to a shop, searching the shelves and buying an expensive frisbee. I'd like to avoid more CD's and DVD's collecting dust in my shelves, having the games on hard drive with possibility to re-download is what I prefer. At least as long as re-downloading is fast and trouble-free.

As for those who still own a dial-up or very slow broadband, cry me a river and get over it. Publishers can screw it too if it means more income to the developers themselves.

You seem to live up to your name. But yeah. :yes:

Isn't gary's mod currently free?
Infact I think I have it. Seemed pretty crappy though. Don't know what the fuss is all about. =/
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Unknown Target on April 18, 2006, 07:21:27 am
It's free but the next version will have some new features and be pay-ware.
Personally I think paying for a sandbox editor mod for a crappy game is bullocks.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Turambar on April 18, 2006, 07:25:10 am
dammit, you'd think from the reaction that selling Oblivion mods got from its fanbase (mostly: "i paid $2 for ****ing horse armor that doesnt even -do- anything!!11one"), they'd realize that selling mods is NOT A GOOD IDEA


of course, i torrented the horse armor mod



and oblivion
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Fury on April 18, 2006, 07:27:42 am
You seem to live up to your name. But yeah. :yes:
:nervous:

Anyways, I guess this is still on-topic but not about Steam itself. Hollywood seems to be finally realizing the possibilities of internet.

Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM are offering movies in http://movielink.com/ And at least Sony and Lionsgate are offering movies in http://www.cinemanow.com/

I have to admit, both services seems to be a bit overpriced not to mention the fact that these are only available in USA at the moment. But it can be easily forgiven as this only testing new waters. Now we have the new concept to become more mature and more widely adopted and I am sure it will bring us much good.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Turnsky on April 18, 2006, 08:50:03 am
i dunno, user mods for sale, i'm not terribly sure about, at least they're not asking 2 bucks for some ****ty horse armor/bling like bethseda are.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: aldo_14 on April 18, 2006, 09:12:28 am
i dunno, user mods for sale, i'm not terribly sure about, at least they're not asking 2 bucks for some ****ty horse armor/bling like bethseda are.

Well, there's  2 ways to look at it.

Firstly, he's getting money for hard work.  That's ok, albiet I don't do this (modding) for money and i'd hate to think modding - one of the advantages of Pc gaming - could become all commercialized.

Secondly, Valve are taking half that money - $5 - for allowing him to sell it.  Whilst I appreciate the pseudo-licensing issue (albeit they're not providing anything beyond permission, as there'd already be distribution setup), I don't think it's in any way fair for them to take half the money.  Yeah, they have free will to set the price, but it's still pretty grossly unbalanced.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Unknown Target on April 18, 2006, 11:05:01 am
I love how Valve has always claimed to be God's gift to gamers and modders, when in reality they've only made two games, made it incredibly hard to mod because of half-assed tools, and basically just gobbles up good mods and sells them for themselves.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Grug on April 18, 2006, 11:24:45 am
I love how Valve has always claimed to be God's gift to gamers and modders, when in reality they've only made two games, made it incredibly hard to mod because of half-assed tools, and basically just gobbles up good mods and sells them for themselves.
Heh, quote of the day.
Someone should join a Valve fan boi forum with that in a sig and record the fun.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: ZylonBane on April 18, 2006, 12:57:54 pm
...made it incredibly hard to mod...
Huh... guess I must have just imagined all the dozens of mods that came out over the years.

Sure it doesn't have a mutator system like Unreal, but the SDK gave people a hell of a lot more power to modify the game than, say, Freespace did.

So are you calling Freespace half-assed?
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Unknown Target on April 18, 2006, 01:05:48 pm
If you've used the SDK, you'd see how hard it is to use. And I'm not calling Freespace half-assed; it has a fully featured, easy to use mission editor. Hammer is notoriously difficult to even comprehend.
And of all those "mods" - that's for Half Life 1. Go check for Half Life 2, and see how many good major mods have been released...like....two.

And Freespace (I'm coming back to it because I couldn't fit it in up there), has a perfectly fine system. You can do virtually everything the devs did, without code editing, it's easier to edit, and like I said above; there is a complete and TOTALLY operational mission builder that is very intuitive. :v: obviously spent time coding it and making it user-friendly.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: NGTM-1R on April 18, 2006, 01:47:33 pm
So are you calling Freespace half-assed?

Actually, based on this observation alone, and the fact you were supposedly once a FRED guru, I'm going to say you're half-assed.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Turambar on April 18, 2006, 01:54:40 pm
So are you calling Freespace half-assed?

Actually, based on this observation alone, and the fact you were supposedly once a FRED guru, I'm going to say you're half-assed.

actually, i'd have to say that this guy:
EDITED

is half-assed

Edited by IceFire: Little insensitive there...lets try and a be a little more respectful ok?
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: vyper on April 18, 2006, 01:58:27 pm
... I'm hoping someone more vicious than me takes this opportunity to flame you to a crisp for that.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: aldo_14 on April 18, 2006, 02:19:00 pm

actually, i'd have to say that this guy:
[]http://bottleofblog.typepad.com/bottleofblog/leg.jpg[/

is half-assed

Better than a complete ass though, eh?


That acceptable Rictor?
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: ZylonBane on April 18, 2006, 11:05:30 pm
So are you calling Freespace half-assed?

Actually, based on this observation alone, and the fact you were supposedly once a FRED guru, I'm going to say you're half-assed.
Then I'm going to have to call you dumb-assed.

FRED lets you do a lot, but it doesn't let you mod the game. In fact, until the source code was released, the only modding that could be done was changing assets (graphics, sounds, models, etc). Half-Life, on the other hand, provided an SDK that let you actually hook custom code into the game.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: BlackDove on April 18, 2006, 11:11:50 pm

Then I'm going to have to call you dumb-assed.

:yes:
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: FireCrack on April 19, 2006, 01:02:57 am
I dunno, when i first looked at the half life SDK it seemed preety ****e, requiring seprate compilers and such to get working. Nowhere near even attempting to be as good as say, the Unreal mod development setup.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Unknown Target on April 19, 2006, 11:05:32 am
Exactly; you have to jump through lots of hoops to even begin modding Half Life 2, while on the other hand, the Unreal Tournament series has a complete all inclusive SDK that's much easier to use. But you don't see them selling mods and claiming that OMG OMG OMG we're the BEST EVER (well, maybe they do, but not as bad as Valve :p)
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: redmenace on April 19, 2006, 11:35:57 am
I think I am going to buy it at EB Games in may. I am looking forward to seeing how the Gman is developed. On a side note, I want to know what happened to Col. Sheppard.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: Dark Knight on April 19, 2006, 12:25:56 pm
Personally, I'm more looking forward to Sin Episodes at the moment.

Edit: Sheppard became the General in the first Commander & Conquer :D
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: NGTM-1R on April 19, 2006, 01:27:45 pm
Then I'm going to have to call you dumb-assed.

FRED lets you do a lot, but it doesn't let you mod the game. In fact, until the source code was released, the only modding that could be done was changing assets (graphics, sounds, models, etc). Half-Life, on the other hand, provided an SDK that let you actually hook custom code into the game.

Which is, frankly, pointless, since almost no one can figure out how to use the thing. And more to the point, which is better: custom code capablity without a functional, easy-to-use "map" editor or a functional easy-to-use map editor without custom code capablity? One of them lets you actually do so something. The other just lets you make funny screenshots of the main campaign.
Title: Re: Steam: buy mods
Post by: StratComm on April 19, 2006, 03:15:44 pm
Moreover, expecting users to actually add code to the game seems like an easy out to me.  What would be more appropriate to a modding community is an engine that is robust enough to take the content that they throw at it and run, rather than being tailored to a specific functionality.  I sure wouldn't be modding FS2 (and you wouldn't see more than one or two completed campaigns either) without the ability to change it without actually touching the codebase.