Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Desert Combat.

So what’s the point? 

User created content, that’s what. 

Recent hits like LittleBigPlanet and the intuitive map editor packed with Far Cry 2 have brought user created content front and center for console gaming.  LittleBigPlanet showed that you can create an ultimately fun experience, and still fit in amazing level editors with controls and commands that fit well for a console.  The map editor in Far Cry 2 also greatly simplified the learning curve it would normally take to learn a map editor, opening it up to a larger audience with great results.

But when did gamers first begin to put their own ideas into games?

Nintendo Entertainment System.

Yup, that’s right, there was user created content dating all the way back to NES, with the original Excitebike, where you could edit your own tracks.  User generated content evolved from there, making its way into games like Tony Hawks Pro Skater, RPG Maker, Fighter Maker, the Timesplitters series, and a few other games as they years have gone by.  Most of those games involved level editors, and offered little in the way of really shaping the game content. 

But why is it just now coming to its peak?  Why has it taken so long?

For the most part, technology has been the Achilles heel.  

For quite some time, gamers creating their own content that truly changed the aspects of the game were limited to PC’s, which came with development tools and more processing power.  Games like Half Life have been modded to hell and back, and more often than not with great success.  Warcraft has seen its fair share of mods as well, especially Warcraft III, with all the custom hero’s maps that are available, and the ever popular Defense of the Ancients mod.  The list goes on and on, and you can find mods for almost any popular PC game.

Games like LittleBigPlanet and Far Cry 2 have revitalized user created content for consoles, giving them a well needed shot in the arm.  And why not?  The technical specs for the PS3 and the 360 (sorry Wii) can match some PC’s, and the technical knowledge of most console gamers now is far more advanced than what it was before.  That’s not to say that people who have played consoles in the past have been stupid, it’s just that now we’re surrounded with more advanced technology, so we’ve become accustomed to it and our knowledge base has grown because of it.

  

While it’s true that in Far Cry 2 you are still limited to creating maps and not changing any of the games actual content, the steps that have been made in level editing are tremendous.  As I mentioned before, editing and creating levels was a fairly complicated process, involving a lot of time, know how and dedication.  But with advances in technology and some intuitive thinking, the makers of Far Cry 2 gave gamers a very powerful tool that’s surprisingly easy to use.  It provides options that allow you to make mountains and add textures to them with simple commands, as well as the ability to create a forest with a simple click and drag, and control the density of the trees as you go. 

Oh, and did I mention that it’s all rendered in real time on the fly?  No more looking at odd colored blocks or wire frame shapes and hoping they’re the ones you want.  And on top of that, the game allows you to jump into your level at any time during the creation process to have a look around and see if your ideas are actually panning out.

Couldn’t have done that with Excitebike, now could you?

Want to see for yourself?  Then take a look!

Now for LittleBigPlanet.

Sackboy ah little Sackboy, how you have jumped, grabbed and pulled your way into thousands of gamers hearts.  LittleBigPlanet, the game where nearly anything is possible, is a huge step forward for user created content for console gaming.  The sheer amount of objects, tools and items available in LBP is truly astounding.  Not only that, but the game makes you collect them in different ways, from playing through single player levels, adding a friend to get to bonus stickers and objects, and for completing the different level creation tutorials.  Some might see that as a bit of a drag, but if anything, it serves as an inspiration for what you can do.  Trust me; you’ll get some pretty crazy ideas for what you can do after playing through the levels that are included with the game (which are fantastic, by the way).

LBP also did gamers a huge favor that could really open the door for other user created content to make its way to consoles: it showed developers that you can create an entire game based around user created content, and still have people enjoy it and have it be accessible. 

Another leap in the evolutionary chain of user created content is the fact that all the current gen consoles have the ability to connect to the internet, so you can share you creations with others quite easily.  Before, back in the days of Tony Hawk or Timesplitters, the only way to share your levels with other gamers was to spread them to as many of your friends as possible, or buy extra hardware to load them onto the internet.  Not to mention, to get them from the internet, you had to have the same equipment, so the amount of gamers sharing levels wasn’t nearly as expansive as it could have been.

So what does this all mean for the future of user created content?  Where does it all go from here?  Truly, the final stage for gamers incorporating their own ideas and concepts into games would require gaming studios and companies to include development tools with the games when they get released.  That’s how it’s worked with PC games for years, and is really the only way for gamers to fully and truly meld their creative visions into gaming bliss.  And with downloadable content and digital distribution services like the Playstation Network, Xbox Live, and the Wii Shop channel, all gamers would have to do is download and install the tools.

I’m sure there are difficulties on the development side of things, but modding has been going on for so long on PC’s that I would find it hard to believe that gaming consoles lack the firepower to get the job done, so to speak.

The final key to having full game modifications work on consoles is to have more games support a mouse and keyboard.  While level editing can be done with a controller easily enough, full game mods require much more detail and manipulation, so it would help to have a more robust layout of commands at your disposal.  But that’s another challenge in itself, to create a full game mod tool that would use a controller, and use it well.

So bring it on developers.

We’re waiting.

- Mike Alfus