Mistakes Mod Teams Make

[The Source]

Mistakes Mod Teams Make

 

I thought this would be a good topic, for it has the potential to bring up some interesting thoughts. While I was scoping around online, I found this article about "Mistakes Mod Teams Make". Since some of us have been apart of a modding team, I think that new modders can get some insight by the vaterans. Maybe we can share our thoughts on difficulties in communication, organization, and other aspects.

 

 

Mistake 1: The Premature Announcement

 

Probably the biggest mistake a mod team can make (and one of the most common) is announcing the mod and putting up its web site while still only in early development. It seems as if sometimes a team will come up with an idea—and nothing more than that—and yet the very next day there'll be an entire site slapped together with no real content. Of course, that's an extreme case. More commonly, mods will be in development for years, but every step of the way will be documented for the public to see. While actual game companies do use this strategy (including Valve to a degree) these mods will often be hyped up so much that the masses either get tired of hearing about how great it's going to be or their expectations are raised so high that the game inevitably disappoints them once released. There is also the problem of other mods stealing the concept and churning out something earlier and better. Worse yet, raising the awareness of a mod too high in its early stages can make it a target of opportunity for more malicious "fans" who will commonly hack the site and forums into oblivion.

 

Solution: If you have a mod concept, or one in early development, don't tell anyone. Wait until the first alpha build has been completed, test it out with your team and if you all feel like you want to keep working on it and release a public beta, then you can announce the mod and put up a web site.

 

Mistake 2: The Rotating Team

 

Often times you'll see a large mod—one a lot of fans seem to be waiting for anxiously and the news sites are all hooting over—that's always putting out the call for a new coder, a new map maker, new modeler, etc. One mod could have dozens of names attached, not all of whom have ever actually worked with each other. This is because for some reason mod teams are increasingly being drafted completely out of the on-line community, even branching out internationally. This makes communication between the team difficult depending on their experience, and more often than not one or more of the members will decide it's taking up too much time and they'll just leave. This is directly related to the early announcement problem, in that sometimes the announcement has been made too early simply to recruit a team. This disconnected, unorganized system is yet another reason mods are in development for years as opposed to months.

 

Solution: Don't talk to strangers. Try to draft your mod team out of your friends, and I mean your real life friends that you actually hang out with off-line and you don't only know by their nickname. I'm talking about people you can do concept work with all together in one of your basements. If this is impossible, it's still possible to draft a team without announcing the whole project to the world. Just post a recruitment notice using mod-centric web sites and bulletin board systems without giving away too many details. However, in that case you should do ALL the concept work and writing yourself, finding other people to make these self-created ideas come to life. Only draft people who can do what you absolutely can't do yourself, and don't let their own personal ideas suddenly change the direction of your project. The Valve "we're all one big equality commune" model only works for them because they all work at the same offices.

 

Mistake 3: Lack of Marketing Awareness and Rationale

 

Many a time (especially with Half-Life 2 mods), teams will assume that a ton of people already are aware of their mod during its development. Often, news sites won't help matters any because they build up the mods themselves, inaccurately assuring the development teams that their marketing efforts are just fine. The truth is that this is a complete farce. Think about the numbers: Planet Half-Life—the largest Half-Life and the largest Half-Life 2 website on the internet in terms of visitor traffic and website hits—still only serves approximately 15 to 20% of the total number of Half-Life gamers. Even with all the other Half-Life sites combined, I’d say around 70% of the gamers who could download your mod won’t ever hear about it on a Half-Life fan site (and most certainly not on the mod’s website itself). Of course, that isn’t even taking into account the millions of gamers who don’t even play Half-Life!

 

Just what am I getting at here? Well, first of all, if you think that your modification is going to rake in huge amounts of downloads without considering proper marketing options (large, multi-game websites like Gamespot or IGN) then you are sorely mistaken. You should be doing all you can as a mod developer to try and get coverage from sites like these, gaming magazines and especially download websites themselves (ie: FilePlanet). I can’t tell you the number of folks who visit FilePlanet without the intent of downloading a Half-Life mod, and yet would notice one and click on it if it were advertised on the front page. You may think to yourself “Well if they don’t have Half-Life, then why do I care about them?” Think about the number of people you know who play Counter-Strike and only bought Half-Life for that sole purpose. Case closed.

 

Solution: Obviously, if one of these sites were to actually offer you free advertising opportunities, you should take them without hesitation! While that no-name company’s offering of five or six beta servers looks pretty tempting, those servers will be absolutely useless if there is nobody to fill them. You may also think that the agreement between one of these large websites and your team is asking you to make a lot of concessions. In truth, this is false. The amount of advertising you have the opportunity to receive for free would normally amount to hundreds if not thousands of dollars. So while you may think that going with a single distributor is going to hurt your downloads, you need to think about the fact that the 200 or so people who may be turned off of the download because it’s not on a site they prefer will be more than made up for by the hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise wouldn’t have heard of your mod. Look at EA Games… they made their BattleField 2142 beta exclusive to FilePlanet subscribers (not even free accounts) and still received over 150,000 downloads of their file! Many of you may not like EA Games, but you can’t deny that they know what they are doing in a marketing sense.

 

Mistake 4: “Wannabe CS” Syndrome

 

Some mod teams always seem to think that the day they release they're going to be the biggest hit since Day of Defeat or Counter-Strike, disregarding the fact that those mods were lucky outliers, not the norm. If you look at their website, they treat their mod as if it were a major upcoming commercial release, just waiting to be bought out by Valve. Their entire attitude seems to revolve around the idea of “selling out” rather than modding for the love of modding. What these teams don't realize is that this attitude shows through and turns off a lot of people. Plus, there is some sort of charm attached to mods that are a “labor of love” rather than a resume-filling piecer.

 

Solution: Be humble and realistic about your work. Always think that, at best, a few hundred people will download it and love it, and over the course of a few years it might even become a cult classic like so many of the old, original HL mods. Maybe you will get lucky and your mod will surpass your expectations. If so, then great! But more likely (like, 99% more likely) this won’t be the case, so expecting it will just set you up for disappointment. Also, people don’t like to feel as if they are tools to be used to further your career, so don't make them feel that way, and don’t worry so much about trying to please everyone. By doing so you will be diluting your game so much that it will be no more unique or innovative than any other of the slew of boring mods out there that nobody plays.

 

Mistake 5: The Unnecessary Legal Hassles

 

We've all heard the story of a mod team who wanted to make the awesome modern update of one of the old classics, only to be shut down by legal papers halfway through development. Some even think they can bypass this by actually going so far as to ask for permission from the original publishers, only to be stomped down in reply. It's the equivalent of a film student working on a five minute short that's never going to be shown outside of the classroom and actually trying to clear a commercial soundtrack that they made from their personal MP3 library. It's never going to happen and it's not even worth the effort because the license holders will never know anyway unless you tell them.

 

Solution: You aren't preparing a commercial release, so again, why are you acting like you are? My advice to your team about remaking an old game on another company's engine (or a mod based on a movie) is simple, and no, it's not the official position of "don't even bother." Simply don't announce your mod until it's only weeks away from public release, and even try to keep your beta testing secret. Then quickly announce it on as many sites as you can and release it on as many download hubs as possible. Even if you do receive a cease and desist order, your mod is already all over the web and you can't possibly be expected to stop all the outlets offering the file. On a personal note, I would love to see one of these orders challenged in court, considering the mod isn't making any money at all and couldn't possibly be seen as competition to or a directly pirated copy of the original.

 

"Successful Mod Team Tips"

"Mistakes Mod Teams Make".

[Inyri]

I got to the section where they were hyping their own site in the article and decided it wasn't worth continuing to read. Although I'm sure most of the points were correct.

 

However bad journalism is bad journalism -- I'd rather hear it from a source that wasn't more interested in inflating their own ego.

[The Source]

I got to the section where they were hyping their own site in the article and decided it wasn't worth continuing to read. Although I'm sure most of the points were correct.

 

However bad journalism is bad journalism -- I'd rather hear it from a source that wasn't more interested in inflating their own ego.

Even though we may or may not agree with what the article says, I think we can have a serious topic with tips and such for noobies. These articles are only to get cognitions to flow. At the end of the day, the conversation is all about personal experiences and opinions.

[Inyri]

Tips for noobies...? Don't join a mod team because you probably don't have the experience? Unless you're trying to start an 'anti-mod team' thread I don't really see what you're getting at.

[Q]

I'm going to wield this response as von Helsing would a cross:

 

How's Project Nemesis coming?

 

 

For your own sake, man, let it go.

[Darth333]

I only have very simple guidelines: have fun modding, don't take yourself too seriously and respect other modders. The rest is unimportant IMHO. (And I couldn't care less if my mods get 1 or 100K downloads.)

 

If you have a mod concept, or one in early development, don't tell anyone. Wait until the first alpha build has been completed, test it out with your team and if you all feel like you want to keep working on it and release a public beta, then you can announce the mod and put up a web site.

If the few people who had sufficient knowledge to mod kotor and build the tools by themselves whould have done that, then there would be no Kotor modding community...I rather prefer a friendly and open atmosphere were everyone, from the total noob to the experienced modder, are free to discuss their mods and ideas, even if means enduring some annoyances at times.

 

and point 5 is very bad advice IMHO...

[Inyri]

Agreed on that front. Before I got to the point where I stopped reading I noticed some of the 'advice' was a bit extreme. I think the success/failure has a lot more to do with the quality of the team and less to do with "oh no, we've announced something and doomed ourselves!"

 

Seems to me a lot of mod teams just bite off more than they can chew and also just happen to like flaunting their ideas, not knowing they have absolutely no means of creating them.

[tk102]

Interesting article. I disagree with point #5 on principle. Hopefully future modding teams will make benefit of the advice, especially points #1 and #2.

 

I draw the distinction between a modding team and a modding community -- you pretty much have to have a community to lay the groundwork before a team can form.

[The Source]

I agree with the weirdness of number five. It sounds almost deviant in nature. If I had to make something about the legal issues, I think I would go with: Mistake 5: Copyright or Copyleft...

 

I think there is a moral question in here. If the publisher allows modding, or encourages the practice, I think everything is up for grabs. Except porting and any other serious bounderies, which a publisher may have in place. When it comes to the moral question, I would ask myself, "If this was your work being manipulated, how would you feel if it was manipulated?" Looking at the game's legal 'readme' files would also help, or go to the publisher's website to find an answer.

 

If you are wondering, there is a distinction between 'copyright' and 'copyleft'. From what I have learned in school, 'copyleft' has been debated about for years. I don't know if we will actually have a law about it, but it would be interesting to see what happens.

[HerbieZ]

I disagree with most of that. There are too many factors that depend on the success of a mod. To follow some code of "Where mod teams make mistakes" is pretty much the mod team thinking they are going to make the next Counterstrike anyway. The legal side is party true though, CBS have been keeping tags on our mod for a while.

[Prime]

I think they missed the biggest issue: Trying to do to much.

 

From my experience, almost all of the other issues stem from that. And more often than not, people will gravitate more to a small mod that is done really well than a large mod that is sub par. At this point whenever I see one of these grandiose announcements I just ignore them because they almost never see the light of day.

 

You have to punch your weight.

[Totenkopf]

I'd have to agree. Even modding on a small scale is sometimes pretty complex. But the bigger the project.....the more likely it is to get derailed. All the more so when it's informal in nature and people's "real" lives begin to get in the way.

[RedHawke]

I only have very simple guidelines: have fun modding, don't take yourself too seriously and respect other modders. The rest is unimportant IMHO. (And I couldn't care less if my mods get 1 or 100K downloads.)

 

If you have a mod concept, or one in early development, don't tell anyone. Wait until the first alpha build has been completed, test it out with your team and if you all feel like you want to keep working on it and release a public beta, then you can announce the mod and put up a web site.

If the few people who had sufficient knowledge to mod kotor and build the tools by themselves whould have done that, then there would be no Kotor modding community...I rather prefer a friendly and open atmosphere were everyone, from the total noob to the experienced modder, are free to discuss their mods and ideas, even if means enduring some annoyances at times.

 

and point 5 is very bad advice IMHO...

QFE...

 

I think they missed the biggest issue: Trying to do to much.

 

From my experience, almost all of the other issues stem from that. And more often than not, people will gravitate more to a small mod that is done really well than a large mod that is sub par. At this point whenever I see one of these grandiose announcements I just ignore them because they almost never see the light of day.

 

You have to punch your weight.

Major QFE...

 

Just a personal belief but I am not a fan of WIP threads, I have participated in one when I was making a mod with Maverick187 and it just doesn't feel right to me, and also destracts from making the actual mod itself... hence why I tend to just dump a mod upon an unsuspecting public. The responses are priceless when you do.

[TheProphet]

 

Just a personal belief but I am not a fan of WIP threads, I have participated in one when I was making a mod with Maverick187 and it just doesn't feel right to me, and also destracts from making the actual mod itself... hence why I tend to just dump a mod upon an unsuspecting public. The responses are priceless when you do.

 

I would definitely agree that there are some WIP threads that are unnecessary, but I do think that it is okay, and sometimes important to have WIP threads in some cases, especially with the bigger mods. Community support can be very helpful and motivating for people facing the challenges of bigger mods.

 

It also allows the public to be involved with some of the decisions and suggestions for the mod. I can see where it may be distracting, but if done right, it can be a major bonus.

 

-Gsccc

[Astrotoy7]

lolz... you talented game fiddlers should say 'modder' or 'modding'..... I was thinking this thread was all about how bad site moderators were and was comin in here to whoop some a$$

 

bleh.... now, Ive got my pecs out, Rambo headband on, and nuthin to do.....

 

mtfbwya

[Inyri]

you talented game fiddlers should say 'modder' or 'modding'

People have been calling them 'mods' for years, and just because you overreacted a little doesn't mean that's going to change. Also maybe you shouldn't use the word 'fiddling.' It sounds condescending; we don't fiddle, we modify. That's why it's called a 'mod,' not a 'fid.'

[Rogue Nine]

Besides, everyone knows if they were referring to moderators, it'd be called 'Mistakes Mod Squads" make. Cuz Squad sounds so much cooler. But it would be completely unnecessary as we moderators do not make mistakes and are completely infallible.

[Inyri]

But it would be completely unnecessary as we administrators do not make mistakes and are completely infallible.

Fixed.

[Astrotoy7]

just because you overreacted a little...

 

Also maybe you shouldn't use the word 'fiddling.' It sounds condescending

 

Pot, I introduce thee to Kettle, who art black!!

 

addendum:

I refer you to definition 7 of fiddle

"7. To touch or manipulate something, as to operate or adjust it; tinker (often fol. by with): You may have to fiddle with the antenna to get a clear picture on the TV."

 

Fiddling isn't always bad

 

* * *

 

OT: Number one mistake mod teams/squadz/gaggles make

1. Never finishing the mods they advertise in their sig for 18 months, get all excited about, and then ditch. I think modders should stay quiet about their project until they have something workable for people to at least test... saying "coming soon" when it may possible mean "never coming at all" is misleading.

 

mtfbwya

[Jae Onasi]

All they have to do is take the Team Gizka approach on the timing of release. Instead of saying 'coming soon!' they just said "When will it be done? When it gets done." Any complaints about it not being done in a certain time frame are then just problems with someone's expectation, and not the mod team or their timing of a mod release.

 

Astro, dear, you can show me your puffed out pecs any day.

[Inyri]

Pot, I introduce thee to Kettle, who art black!!

Maybe you should consider how your statements sound in context before you drag out the dictionary and the very overused pot and kettle statement. They're getting tired and would like a nap.

[RedHawke]

I would definitely agree that there are some WIP threads that are unnecessary, but I do think that it is okay, and sometimes important to have WIP threads in some cases, especially with the bigger mods. Community support can be very helpful and motivating for people facing the challenges of bigger mods.

 

It also allows the public to be involved with some of the decisions and suggestions for the mod. I can see where it may be distracting, but if done right, it can be a major bonus.

 

-Gsccc

I would also like to add that if you are going to take a sabatical, or simply move on, and have an open WIP thread that you ask for it to be closed to save the staff many headaches whilst you are away.