Global Chat: Player-created content edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat!
As always, we had plenty of interesting chatter among the Massively readers this week, but a few of the most intriguing comments focused on player-created content. In discussions covering topics from exciting new tools of the trade to long-running games, our ever-astute readers made us want to jump in and get involved. Follow along after the jump to see why!
Justin Olivetti spent some time at GenCon recently checking out Storybricks, Namaste Entertainment's MMO design toolset. He got some great information and a great conversation starter all in one, as our readers had plenty to say about the concept and game design in general. One of those readers, Meagan, drew a very apt (and entertaining) little metaphor:
Once upon a time there were two groups of people: those who wanted board games, and those who wanted boxes full of toys to play with. At first, the board games were cheaply made, the rules complicated and obscure, and the pieces generic, so the people who wanted boxes of toys were happy because they could always ignore the game and pretend the pieces were anything they liked.
But then the board games started getting more and more specific and elaborate with big cardboard and plastic setpieces, and the rules were simplified to make it easier for people to actually play the game. The people who wanted boxes of toys felt the new board games were limited compared to the old ones.
But the people who wanted board games were happy, and they bought a whole lot of the new games, which caused each new board game to be more elaborate. The people who wanted boxes full of toys felt betrayed and abandoned because each new board game was less and less like a box full of toys. And then someone decided to try to sell boxes of toys. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.
While we're on the subject of boxes full of toys, let's turn our attention to one of the longest-running toyboxes: Star Wars Galaxies. Eliot chatted about the game's impending demise in his Soapbox, urging players to enjoy the remaining time to the fullest. One reader and SWG fan is doing just that and could use your input:
I'm "coping," if you want to use that term, by making a massive commemoration video. I've posted on the Star Wars: The Old Republic and SWG boards asking folks to send me any screenshots that show the fun we players had rather than focusing on the bad times. So far, I've received a bunch of emails. I'm looking to finish the project sometime before SWG is finally taken down in Decemeber and plan on sharing it with the public. If anyone is interested in helping out, just send any fun SWG screenshots (from any era) to swgscreens@gmail.com. Make sure to include the name of your character and server.
Kudos and best of luck to Aaron with his project. Now it's your turn. Let us know what you think by hitting the comment button below -- let's chat!
Global Chat is the weekly feature that's all about you, our readers. Every Sunday we collect the best, funniest, and most thought-provoking comments from the Massively readers and round them up into Global Chat for discussion. Read over them for yourself, hit the comment button, and add your own thoughts!
