
Mods keep 'Sins of a Solar Empire' PC game vibrant five years on - TwoMysticalOrbs
http://alist.ly/2p5jZ5M
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stupidcar
These guys also successfully fought a multi-year legal battle against
Rebellion Developments (makers of the Sniper Elite series), who claimed that
the use of the word "rebellion" in "Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion" was a
violation of their trademark.

[1]
[https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/455527/page/1/](https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/455527/page/1/)

~~~
BEEdwards
My mind boggles with the idea that it made it to court.

That they where forced to considered settling.

How are those even vaguely connected?

The article mentions the whole Scrolls debacle, which similarly hurts my head.

I just don't even...

~~~
Iv
My favorite part about the Scrolls dispute is that Notch, not wanting to waste
thousands of dollars in a legal procedure (he was likely to win but nothing is
ever 90% sure) proposed, seriously, to its opponent to settle the matter with
a Quake 3 match:

"I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against
three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we
randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team
across both levels wins.

If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of
Scrolls to something you're fine with. Regardless of the outcome, we could
still have a small text somewhere saying our game is not related to your game
series in any way, if you wish.

I am serious, by the way."

[http://www.shacknews.com/article/69777/persson-proposes-
quak...](http://www.shacknews.com/article/69777/persson-proposes-quake-off-to-
settle-scrolls-dispute)

~~~
roywiggins
Trial by combat does have a very long history! So it wouldn't be an entirely
novel method of settling the dispute.

~~~
ekianjo
It's actually a very efficient way to resolve disputes.

~~~
Pica_soO
But then we discovered mercenaries, and the mercenaries discovered that, if
you settle it all in court, its so much cheaper on the blood and so much more
expensive for the customer. And they named themselves from free_lancers to
fee_lawyers. Thus ended the story, and if it offends you, sue me.

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r00fus
> If a product continues to do well, you want to continue to support it.
> That’s just a simple business thing for us. It still makes money, so we
> still put resources into it.

This has got to be the most honest approach to business there is: basic profit
seeking incentive for continuous improvements.

~~~
arkis22
That's literally all business. It's just that some industries are easier to
sympathize.

~~~
r00fus
No, there is a difference between profit-seeking and rent-seeking [1]. Rent-
seeking outfits tend to want monopolies, captive audiences, and other massive
barriers to entry.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-
seeking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking)

~~~
arkis22
If the publisher or developer doesn't share the revenue that comes from mods
with the mod creators they are technically rent seeking

~~~
gshulegaard
Not really. The publisher and/or the developer is not _diverting_ revenue from
the mod creators to themselves. They created a platform that someone decided
to extend...they are a passive beneficiary of someone else's _elective_ work,
but they aren't actively rent seeking.

~~~
arkis22
The wikipedia definition linked above says:

>Rent-seeking implies extraction of uncompensated value from others without
making any contribution to productivity. The classic example of rent-seeking,
according to Robert Shiller, is that of a feudal lord who installs a chain
across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to
charge passing boats a fee (or rent of the section of the river for a few
minutes) to lower the chain.

The company is the feudal lord and the chain is their claim on their IP. They
made a base game for people to buy, they arranged bits in a very precise
order. They sold those bits to consumers. They are not arranging the bits for
mods, and yet they get the revenue for it (charging boats as they pass). It's
easier to sympathize with game companies because people are indeed doing
things free of charge because they like the game.

If you charge money for a mod of a game, you will get a letter from that
company's lawyers.

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gooserock
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind just turned 15 years old. There's _still_ an
active mod community for it.

~~~
aw3c2
Doom's community is wildly active also.

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lanius
Reminds me of Warcraft 3. The last expansion came out in 2003, and the mod
community was still going strong into at least the late 2000s when I was still
playing.

~~~
Zyst
A friend hit me up yesterday asking if I wanted to play a cool new RPG he
found, installed, and the custom game lobby was full within 3 minutes.

Warcraft 3 is alive and well, which makes me incredibly happy.

And I think this ties in with the Mod theme of the title very strongly. I
don't _love_ RTS games, I can play them but it's not my biggest hit. But the
Warcraft III custom games simply blew me away. As a teenager with a fairly
limited game budget I have gotten a ludicrous amount of enjoyment out of the
countless hours I've put into Warcraft III.

I'd be surprised if you told me I've played the RTS/classical mode of the game
over 30 hours over my life. But if you told me I've played over 4000 hours in
custom games I wouldn't even bat an eyelid.

Heck, as I said even nowadays I still reinstall and play a couple of fun maps
every now and then.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that modding support is an extremely
positive thing, and derivations of your creation can truly breed a life of
their own which I can only see as positive for your consumers.

~~~
stale2002
OMG, custom games!

Warcraft 3 custom games is probably the most influential game engine/custome
game system ever created.

War3 has produced multiple genres, including MOBAs (dota, lol, etc), and
freaking TOWER DEFENSE.

I play custom games on starcraft 2 every day.

~~~
nyolfen
i thought tower defense came from starcraft custom maps?

~~~
stale2002
Its basically the same thing, though right?

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wazanator
It will be interesting to see what modding will look like in five years. I
imagine total conversion mods will no longer be a thing for starters given how
easily accessible development tools are now.

With services like patreon becoming really popular the mod authors who are
good I imagine will be able to self sustain to a degree finally.

