I’ve always been interested in the stories behind how popular mods made it into the scene and how they were created. My favorite origin story is that of the game Counter Strike, a massively popular online shooter that came from such humble beginnings.
It was originally created as a mod for the game Half Life by two friends while at college. Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe were the original creators and were working together out of their dorm rooms. No huge team or expansive offices, just two friends and with a common idea spawned one of the most popular shooters of all time.
The first release version was beta 1.0, containing four maps, nine weapons and only one game mode. It wasn’t till beta 4.0 that the classic bomb defusal mode was added in. After seeing this mod’s success while still only being in beta, Valve snapped up the ip and hired Gooseman and Cliffe to work on the retail version. The first retail version was released in 2000.
The games industry is riddled with shady practises regarding intellectual property, companies such a Zynga have no problem blatantly copying games made by smaller companies and releasing them with no compensation.
The reason I mention this is that the Intellectual Property rights surrounding mods is not entirely clear and Valve could have easily gotten away with giving no compensation to the original creators of Counterstrike whatsoever. However they did not, and I think that is one of the things that sets valve apart, they chose to value the creators of the promising IP rather than casting them aside. It is a business model that has worked well for Valve with many other games, and it makes sense to utilise the creative minds that came up with the brilliant ideas in the first place.
Most of the mods I have previously mentioned in this series of blog posts have had their 15 minutes of fame as their original concept and live on in the form of new versions and other games taking inspiration from them. So to be all inclusive I feel like I should include a modern success story of modding. If just to show that although gaming is evolving to new often unmoddable platforms the PC modding community is still very much alive.
A perfect example of modern successful mod is DayZ. DayZ is a wilderness survival with aspects of horror mod for Arma II, released in 2012. The concept was created by Dean Hall, who like in the previous success story of Counterstrike was later Hired by Bohemia Interactive to develop a full standalone retail version. The retail version had an early access release in 2013 and is still under development. It could also be considered a success story because of how influential the mod was, just like Dota was responsible for the rise of the MOBA, after the success of the DayZ mod there was a slew of survival games hitting the PC download market, most are of questionable quality but it still shows how influential DayZ was.
These success stories have a common theme of the mod being influential to other games and the developers getting hired for a retail version. Not to detract from my initial point but I do believe that mods can be successful without meeting those criteria. When I was creating and using mods for various games, the main goal was fun, the fun of creating and the fun of playing and I’m sure that many other modders out there will feel the same, fame and glory aren't everything when you just enjoy creating.
References
jolie's junk., (2012). A Comprehensive Timeline of Counter-Strike's Evolution. [online] Available at: http://joliesjunk.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/the-history-of-counter-strike/#bv7 http://www.gamesradar.com/the-history-of-counter-strike/?page=4 http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/22/day-z-arma-3-interview-on-left-4-dead-skyrim-player-emotion-and-in-game-disease/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2014].
PC Gamer, (2012). Day Z + Arma 3 interview -- on Left 4 Dead, Skyrim, player emotion, and in-game disease. [online] Available at: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/06/22/day-z-arma-3-interview-on-left-4-dead-skyrim-player-emotion-and-in-game-disease/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2014].
US, G. (2014). The History of Counter-Strike | GamesRadar. [online] Gamesradar.com. Available at: http://www.gamesradar.com/the-history-of-counter-strike/?page=4 [Accessed 27 Apr. 2014].
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