Mod of the Year!

Sulkdodds

Sulkdodds

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After nearly 30, 000 votes collected, ModDB has finally concluded the 2005 Mod of the Year contest.
"Source engine mods really cleaned up with the occasional Unreal, Doom and Battlefield mod making the cut. What started out as a slow mod making year quickly gained momentum as mod teams made the switch to the next generation games, and began learning the in-and-outs of these new engines. 2005 has certainly been an exciting year chock-full of mods, games and political controversy with the results reinforcing this. Now it's time to look forward to a fresh year of creative minds formulating engines into masterpieces as we enter the next generation of gaming."
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[br]We won't spoil the surprise by posting the results here, so click on the link above to check out the awards ceremony. And now the old makes way for the new, and we can look forward to the coming year as (hopefully) all those big, hyped-up, not-yet-released mods finally see daylight.
 
Man this is going to be tough for the modders (as in mental anguish) :|

EDIT: Just read all of it. Very good choices indeed, and (with pain in my heart) the MOTY indeed deserves its place.
 
What's up with the huge erect wrench, underscored by the 'PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS'. It almost poked my eye out.

Nice looking mods btw... congrats to them all.
 
Its a shame no RTS game mods fell into any prices.
90% Half Life 2. Although it was funny Tetris won "best story" award :)
 
I was suprised to see quite a few Half-Life mods still there, although its well deserved.
 
Ome_Vince said:
Its a shame no RTS game mods fell into any prices.
90% Half Life 2. Although it was funny Tetris won "best story" award :)
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That's now been amended and awarded to a Doom III mod, Sapphire Scar.

(+Natural Selection -FPS/RTS- got no.10 in the "Top Released Mod" category)
 
You sure that MOTY -logo on the newspost is big enough?

Anyways, I voted for Insurgency.
 
-Crispy- said:
That's now been amended and awarded to a Doom III mod, Sapphire Scar.
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Sapphire scar is still going? I used to be on that team. Go them.
 
where the **** is Hidden : Source? In the top 5 IGF finalists but not even on this freeking list? You can tell its a public vote. Hype > gameplay obviously. The way moddb.com tell us how they have activly pimped dystopia goes along way to tell us how this "scene" works nowadays
 
Gusdor said:
where the **** is Hidden : Source? In the top 5 IGF finalists but not even on this freeking list? You can tell its a public vote. Hype > gameplay obviously. The way moddb.com tell us how they have activly pimped dystopia goes along way to tell us how this "scene" works nowadays
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Hidden: Source won a genre-specific award.
 
I'm surprised Source Forts is on there. Does anyone even play that anymore? :dozey:
 
Wow,

I've gone around to most of the modification websites that were mentioned or won something in the awards show and you would not believe, in the Best Mods more specifically, how many people are complaining how their mod 'didn't do so well'. ModDB is a public vote and the ONLY category that is intertwined so very much with "hype" is Best Upcoming, to which I guessed Insurgency, Fortress Forever and Black Mesa would be (and quite literally in that order is what I guessed).

The Dystopia community is absolutely shocked by how ESF beat them and how "a sandbox mod" beat them out. Every mod I have seen is like this.

The Top Upcoming however, were thrilled about even being mentioned. Fortress Forever was pumped all around and Insurgency was really happy to get in there. Jeremy was on the radio show and there were congrats going all around.

You need to look at these awards very carefully. You need to say "alright, these awards are the mod awards of the year and are decided by the public." So what does that mean? That means you need to TELL the public about your mod and GIVE the public a REASON to play your mod. You cannot simply make it, release it and then give a few mentions. Not every mod out there is something everyone wants to play and I a strong advocate for mod teams making what they want to play. But if you complain about what you made didn't get a good award, you literally boil down to whining and complain how others don't like the things you like.

Take the awards with a grain of salt. I think everyone wants to have a system where you have some more thought and effort put in. The Editor's Choice awards should be where you really see the 'Play Something Different' come out, where as the top mods and such should have a lot of emphasis on public voting, while still having input from the modDB staff.

I've also put in a suggestion to have each community (HL2, Doom, Quake, BattleField) put in their submission for what they consider their 'top mod', so you have a 'best of Half-Life 2, best of BF2, et cetera).
 
Kalashnikov said:
You need to look at these awards very carefully. You need to say "alright, these awards are the mod awards of the year and are decided by the public." So what does that mean? That means you need to TELL the public about your mod and GIVE the public a REASON to play your mod.
Click to expand...

I'll only partly agree with you on this statement. You don't want to drum up hype too early in development, as you'll get a number of "overhype" problems, such as

1. People whining about release
2. Inability to deliver everything you've offered
3. Attempts at leaking what work you've done so far
4. Loss of interest over time

Yes, you need to tell people about your mod for it to become popular - but you want to do it when you're well on the path to getting the product out of the door.

Congrats, Kalash, on the award. Now gawd damn it get some models in game and take some shots. People need proof that you're doing more than mapping ;)

-Angry Lawyer
 
I knew dystopia would make the top 10. Also am not surprised to see esf up there since it’s actually pretty popular as is the show it’s based on. I really didn't expect Gary’s mod to win the whole thing. Well guess that goes to show you, people really do want to play something original and innovative.
 
Yeah, muy congratulaciones! And I have no idea how to speak Spanish!

That's pretty awesome. There were a few mods that I'd never heard of... of course, I'm dl'ing them now.


EDITNESS: Wait up, Dystopia is based on a show? :eek:
 
jheaddon said:
Dystopia didn't win anything though
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It won "Best Action Mod". HL2 kinda swept the boards, though. A good night for Valve.
 
Kalashnikov said:
The Dystopia community is absolutely shocked by how ESF beat them and how "a sandbox mod" beat them out. Every mod I have seen is like this.
Click to expand...

ESF's landing of 2nd did kind of catch people off gaurd (mainly because many people expected that to be eligible for Mod of the Year it'd have to have been released in 2005...).

But I definitely wouldn't say that anyone was really surprised that GMod took out the over all award. It has by far the most players of any mod on the list, and since it's a public vote contest that's what counts. At the end of the day, player numbers _are_ the bottom line.
 
Yeah, the 'shocked' I mentioned didn't extend to the 'sandbox mod' comment. I wasn't too clear there. Also with Angry Lawyer, my comments were direct to the 'Top 15 Mods', which are all released modifications. I didn't specify on that one, so my apologies.

I however greatly agree with you on Hype. It can be both good and bad. Hype is good for publicity, but if you can't deliver on it, regardless of how amazing your mod is, the hype becomes the standard.

Maybe this year HLfallout, HalfLife2.net, PlanetHalflIfe and other big HL2 communities can sit down near the end of 2006 and decide which mod they feel is the best mod of 2006 and which one they're most looking forward to in 2007. Delivering the news, you get to research and look into a lot of great mods, so this would certainly be a good thing for the HL2 community.

Call it "The Crowbars" too. lol. Shit, I think I'll do this.
 
As I've harped on about in the past, and always strived to do with Dystopia's PR; pimp, don't hype.

Certainly show off you're work as it progresses. Everyone realises that making a mod is a process.

But don't hype up a feature that you're "planning on". Get it coded and in game, playtest your prototypes, make sure it's fun (and works as you imagined). Then get the art done for it. Then talk about it.

Pimp what you've got done. Don't hype on what might.

ps: I've learnt this harsh lesson from vechicles. Which we have working in Dys. Just that we don't think it's enjoyable... mostly for the people not in vehicles. Being run over in the middle of a gun fight sucks.

Anyway, mad props to everyone listed on the top15. And madder props to the ones that are mysteriously low or absent.

End of the day, modding rocks :)
 
Wow, I just tried one of the mods they had there, "Afraid of Monsters"...

holy shit. I am not turning off the lights again for a LONG TIME. Crappy graphics, ancient engine, and yet it still scared the living SHIT out of me. I'd be impressed if I weren't too busy being terrified out of my skull...
 
In my opinion Black Mesa fully deserves the first place, I don't say we don't :). But they released some very nice stuff lately... I'm a big fan.
Also we didn't release any media for a while except for that one screenshot in November, which could partly explain why we (only) ended third...
Anyway we're very happy to be on that list and I would like to thank the voters one more time for supporting us and the other mods.
Oh and about the lack of media updates, we were just too busy preparing the beta test, which finally started this weekend :). So expect some more media in the very near future.
 
Insurgency looks good, but it takes a fork load to match up to the ub3r-awesomeness that BM:S looks like it'll be.
 
That was an excellent read.
<3 Moddb.

It's made me wanna reinstall a few games.
Specifically, Postal 2.
That 7 Days mod looks great.
 
I just want to thank www.egln.net #egln and #htgn for sponsoring the event without them it was just going to be a article on moddb.com.

Since so many people were unhappy I went and purchased hl2expo.com for a site dedicated to hl2 mods, maps, models, tools to hold a expo of some sorts.

Just need help getting it off the ground, site, backend and the site coded and with a site like this and I think we can hold a true online expo for mods of hl2 each year.

PS: When I started the moddb.com mod awards long ago I chose who I thought should win based off that year and people were still unhappy on why this mod and that mod wasnt listed. Intense changed it to you needed to vote the mod in and the mod needed 100 votes or more. I like the idea but because I didnt get the movie and the alpha finished in time Brawl only recieved 73 votes. Our team has worked our ass off to get Brawl in the shape it is. I didnt want to promote Brawl to much with nothing to play.

Anyways Gmod won in my opinion for the simple fact it is the only mod (yes it is a mod) that you can do so many things in. http://steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html tells the true story!
 
My goodness. I completely agree that Garry's Mod deserves the award.
 
/hug bluewolf

imo, Garry's Mod isnt really a game. In the grand scheme of things (lets say, if all these mods were released) gmod wouldnt get many sales. sourceforts, dodgeball, eclipse (if longer) and dys probably would. Sandbox is only popular if its free, if you see what i mean.

On the subject of dystopia. You know i dont see eye to eye with your PR philosophy fuzzy. Its like a behomoth of advertising, crushing huge buildings of confidence in its path :p I do wish that philosophy would apply ot getting 100% original art content as well tbh (although, im aware you are working on it) along with more normalized level design (once again, aware of the problems you've had with mappers). Come to IGF so we can have food fights over it! /hug

I didnt notice originally that hidden won editors choice multiplayer. That how it should be tbh as we aimed the game to be 100% psycological. The gameplay only works when you know its reall people.
 
BlueWolf72 said:
I just want to thank www.egln.net #egln and #htgn for sponsoring the event without them it was just going to be a article on moddb.com.

Since so many people were unhappy I went and purchased hl2expo.com for a site dedicated to hl2 mods, maps, models, tools to hold a expo of some sorts.

Just need help getting it off the ground, site, backend and the site coded and with a site like this and I think we can hold a true online expo for mods of hl2 each year.

PS: When I started the moddb.com mod awards long ago I chose who I thought should win based off that year and people were still unhappy on why this mod and that mod wasnt listed. Intense changed it to you needed to vote the mod in and the mod needed 100 votes or more. I like the idea but because I didnt get the movie and the alpha finished in time Brawl only recieved 73 votes. Our team has worked our ass off to get Brawl in the shape it is. I didnt want to promote Brawl to much with nothing to play.

Anyways Gmod won in my opinion for the simple fact it is the only mod (yes it is a mod) that you can do so many things in. http://steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html tells the true story!
Click to expand...

Off-topic - Aren't you the guy working on that Water Wars mod?
Whats' up with it? You guys haven't released any news in quite some time. :(
 
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