Why are there so many war simulation mods?

K

Koldfire

Guest
Didn't b1942 and counterstrike suck enough? Perhaps there are just too many talented modders blinded by there own lack of perspicacity and hopes to become the next big thing by imitating other popular games and mods. I feel this incursion of half-assed military sims and boring war mods into the mod scene is a colossal waste of talent and the result will be a "been there, done that" feeling. Of course, this is just my and I’m sure some of you might enjoy this kind of thing, your thoughts? :sleep:
 
Because war is a basic part of our lives. People want to make mods of their own, that fit the way they view war as. Plus, with all this terrorism stuff, people want to experience the military without actually joining it.
 
War is realistic in today's world, and although it may be one of the worst things ever, most people want to know what it would be like to actually live it. With first person shooters, they are the most realistic to our lives and they are some of the most action packed and strategic of mods because of objectives, balance, and squad based teams...

War mods will never die...
 
I agree with you Koldfire. Too much talent wasted on WW2/cs-clones which could been used to create something new and original (thats what mods are for!)... what a shame.
 
The thing is there isn't actually many "simulations" of war. Most are just run and gun FPS style (DoD). There are some mods coming out that are trying to be tactical/slower (Insurgency) which should be more interesting.

Remember that there are always going to be loads of war mods in development, but only a few will even get finished, so don't worry too much.
 
Humans craze chaos. War is the most readibly available form of chaos.
 
why? Because it is easily the most popular thing out there.
You'll point to NS and say "oh, that's real popular and it's not a realistic war mod", but then I'll point to CS, Dod, Hostile Intent, and Firearms. All war/counter-terror mods, all on the same engine, and they are all popular.
 
Because they are fun and is something they can relate to, as it is a common occurance in modern international society.
 
I agree with the "popular" statement, but that's just their problem. They have no interest in making a fun game with original ideas. A lot of mod teams out there, while very talented, are only concerned about being the top mod. Sadly, war mods are the majority of top mods. Even after all the countless war mods, people are satisfied with the same old weapons with the same old soldiers, with the same old story. I'm more of a futuristic/violence comdedy mod guy. However, I'll still probably give a few war mods that actually look good out there a chance to play them. I will definitely play Insurgency, though, with a few others. Even if it is a war mod, it'll be one of the few good ones. The fact is that wasted talent is going into too many war mods. Why not make a war mod 10 years or so into the future? That would be very interesting to see, IMO.
 
I don't think that we have a lack of people working on original ideas. If you look at a majority of the mods ATTEMPTED, they are single-player/death-match mods with wholey original concepts. (Specialists, Action Half-Life, Spirit Half-Life (for mod makers), Sven Co-Op, etc) It's just that few of them ever finish production (the above examples being the exceptions.) There have been I-don't-know-how-many Resident Evil, and RE-Clone mods made for Half-Life (mainly because the Zombie AI is already there, and the AI needed for other creatures can be built fairly easily from existing AI strings), there have been a couple of tacticle-police shooters (based on things like S.W.A.T. and Rainbow Six), but I don't think any of them ever finished production. (One was called "Officer On Duty", if I remember right. It was based on the NYPD and looked promising. But interest was lost in the project.) I think one reason war mods excel is because they usually support the online multiplayer group. If you have online modes, you're mod is just more popular. All the examples mentioned in this post, and on this topic in general, have all had online play, or solely online play. I, personally, would like to see more single player mods get reconition. I like my games based around scripted events and cut-scenes, with (obviously) plenty of action scenes. I prefer to have the option to run from cover to cover, or go gun-a-blazing. Not to be forced to do one or the other. If I want to snipe the enemy from a hundred yards, or if I want to beat him with a crowbar (or whatever), I should have that option. Technically, every game you do have that option, but try knifing someone in CS/CSS. It's POSSIBLE, but highly unlikely (and besides- who'd waste their time trying it?) And that's my point. You CAN do it, but it isn't practicle. I guess I'm from the GTA-era: I like everything open ended. (That does NOT mean without direction- as I stated above, I like my games to run like the best action movies that are out there.) Well, this has been my opinion. Please dismantle it, comment on it, or do whatever you want to it, and at your leasure. Catch you guys later, I'm outta here for now. :)
 
I think it more has to do with the fact that the game engine is for a first person shooter. That makes it pretty simple to translate the first person shooting into another setting and just run with it.

I agree that it should be used to make much much more, but that's harder, and therefore we won't see it as much.
 
Hmm... Not to be picky, but maybe instead of complaining about the lack of originality we should try MAKING something when the full SDK gets released. lol. :D (I know I'm going to TRY.)

--Best to lead by example, right? :cool:
 
There will be PLENTY of origional mods. I think that the lack of support for variety also hurt the community... the possibilities are wild now - ESPECIALLY with vehicle support. Just about any mod can be made with vehicle/physics :)
 
Why are you complaining? Don't like them...? Don't play them. As Faulk_Wulf said: "instead of complaining about the lack of originality we should try MAKING something."

"Didn't b1942 and counterstrike suck enough?"

Yes. Along with many other war themed games/mods. That's why I started Insurgency so that I wouldn't have to play a mod that sucked.

There is more to combat than just killing the enemy. You need to use various tactics, to out-maneuver, out-gun, and out-smart the enemy in order to achieve victory. Most war games are about who has the bigger gun... tactics don't really come into play. Insurgency wants to support the use of tactics more than the average game.

Some people view war games as all the same... that's because you're not a fan of them. I am a fan of them and can tell a difference between them -- they are not all the same.

You may also think that there are 'tons' of war mods in the works. That's because the vast majority of them won't even see the light of day. There will only be a handful that will at least have an alpha release... even then, that doesn't guarantee a public release... even a good one at that.

Complaining about it won't really help. Sure, other people may feel the same way... but how about going off and creating your own mod with them? One that you like.
 
Why is there so many war games?

war sells, its fun, its cool, its escapist.

BF1942 in its day was original (as well as the best mp game ever IMO), the market wasnt full of ww2 shooters that had vehicles in them, CS was original in that hardly any other game touched the whole terorist thing.

Thing is that developers just see something that sells, make a carbon copy of something and churn it out.

you cant blame a genre for being crap.
you can only blame a lazy dev team for making a crap game.

"Perhaps there are just too many talented modders blinded by there own lack of perspicacity and hopes to become the next big thing by imitating other popular games and mods"

People mod what they enjoy, i garuantee you, that nothing good was ever created entertainment wise by somebody who didnt love the genre, take all the ww2 mods and none of them would create a great scifi mod etc...

you need passion, just so happens that most people enjoy ww2 cos its simply epic, the whole world at war, every landscape on earth was thought on... grass, mountains, ice, sand, water, air, cities.

Its like music, you dont get teenybopping kids who have just hit 12 singing rock ballads, or jazz artists kicking about like some kids programme presenter on a stage covering some song from the 80's in a dinosuar costume.
 
Its not so much that it is "war" as it is what war games are essentialy. War games combine the fundemenatl principles of gaming. A good game has Conflict or Challenge, war is the epitemy of Conflict, choas, and challenge.

and considering that almost all of the code allready exists, and only a small amount (depending on the size of the mod) only needs to be adjusted to fit the new needs.

However I would like to see a group of guys take on a project that doesn't appear to have been done before, or not nearly one so numerous.
 
First, my last comment was SUPPOSED to be in reply to "There will be PLENTY of origional mods. I think that the lack of support for variety also hurt the community... the possibilities are wild now - ESPECIALLY with vehicle support. Just about any mod can be made with vehicle/physics :)" ... Because that was the most recent post that showed on the computer at that time. Judging by my time stamp, I was a -little- off. *cough* Don't know wtf happened there. I would also like to clarify that in my orignal post, I was not trying to put down war and ct based games. It's obvious that some of these games (Counter-Strike) have had tons of time and effort put in them to make them the best game possible. It's just, I'm not a fan of ONLY war games. It may not be that war games outnumber the single-player mods, but overshadow them. I would simply like to see originality. (I mean this in general. Resident Evil mods are great, and Half-Life screams for them, but its been done quite a few times (or attempted)) Single player mods are screaming for fresh ideas just as badly as the war/ct online counter parts. As far as "wtf to do with all those other guns"-- 'Time Splitters', 'Killzone' (yes, "war", but also future-scifi), 'Aliens Vs Predator', 'Natural Selection', 'Unreal Tournament', 'Dues Ex', (sorry have to say it-- 'Halo'), and there's a game in the works called 'Dark Watch'. Western-Scifi Vampire FPS for the PS2. Unless that got canned recently. And there are many many others. There are plenty out there. And think back to the N64 days: 'Golden Eye' and 'Perfect Dark', which I still think are very good games.
 
Tech West could make a great game. Deadlands esq, six shooters and zombies.

I'd dig it like a grave.
 
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