There is a reason why modding support is VERY important prior to developing games. Sure, granted some games like the modern Call of Duty titles, Counter-Strike, and Halo managed to stay alive without mod support (I am a little surprised the original Halo PC’s multiplayer is still very popular to this day despite the few modding capabilities compared to Halo Custom Edition), but then what about the games that do NOT have that luxury (and there are actually quite a LOT of them)? That is where user-created content comes in! They can extend the lives of your games, they can boost even more publicity to games and inspire devs to make their own games, they can even save certain games from total obscurity or underrated demise caused by biased critics like IGN, and common haters of the said franchise.
For instance, C&C Renegade was practically neutered by critics complaining primarily about its constant patch releases, lackluster singleplayer, and buggy/glitchy multiplayer. The game itself was already dying out in its own right, but what saved that game from total obscurity and actually made the thing very popular is USER-MOD content support - That and the fact that it is the only official First/Third Person Shooter in the entire Command & Conquer franchise. Numerous maps, skins, and other content has been made for this game and even up to this day, much to my surprise, the game is still actually alive. I thought Gamespy would actually enforced the end of C&C Renegade, but then I found other server provider sources that still had quite a lot of servers, and I was suprised. You also have Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls series (primarily Morrowind, Oblivion, and now Skyrim), Unreal Tournament, Unreal Gold, even the old-a$$ Quake and Doom games which are still VERY alive, backed up with a Sh#t-load of mods and addons made by the community. How did you think Minecraft and Garry’s Mod still survives?
Couldn’t have said it better myself Ambershee.
It’s already troublesome enough if the gamers have to purchase your game, especially if its at a AAA price range (i.e. $60), but I strongly doubt anyone would want to deal with the annoying pay wall of an additional $20 just to make custom maps, custom characters, small mutators, server-side scripts, or addons that are specially designed only for their own game. Mods were designed to be free, if they become inspired enough to want to make their own game from scratch or if they actually do want to sell their content, then let them pay the subscription price on their own accord. Hell, we can suggest or highlight the option to those who want to make their own game entirely via from our own games or official websites and sources. But for those that only just want to make small maps or addons to play with their friends on their beloved game and do not need all of this full-fledged content “cr@p”(or so some of them would probably assume) or do not care about making their own full-fledged indie game titles, they should have the option to make them free of charge.
Look. I am very sorry to say this, but nothing can justify this enormous error. Tim Sweeney and Epic Games really screwed up this time. Aside from the yearly 5% royalty deduction (which I can actually forgive to an extent), I never thought I would feel more inclined to consider switching to Unity over UE4, or even switch to the Source Engine, especially considering I practically fell in love with the Unreal Engine series since I first got my hands on the Unreal game franchise (primarily Unreal, and UT2004). But luckily, its still not too late to resolve this and I sure hope EG is actually trying to resolve this dilemma.