Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2015 10:55:48 GMT -6
I'd first considered tacking something about this onto a thread I also have up right now relating to Space Engineers. It occurred to me though, for those who are not familiar with Steam or who haven't been around gaming for awhile to have heard much about the trend toward open sharing in some game types, this may be a major new change in how we look at games!
Workshop is a service, or class of service really, as it is added to various games within the Steam network to give a major community side to each one it is integrated with. Roughly 109 games currently use it and they are adding more. This is how Steam describes it themselves.....
Source
For my opinion? It makes a significant difference in terms of my choice in buying a game still in development, or which looks like it ...ehhh..may or may not be 'quite' my thing, but close enough to be real curious. Describing it also has limited value, so let me show a couple examples of what is on Workshop.
These are different door types for Space Engineers:
( Source )
I'll bet that cost them some coin to go back on too. It had...gone a bit wild. A bit stupid, might be a better term. Still though, stupid rarely slows a company down, let alone, has them back step in full public view with hat in hand.
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You can browse the Steam Workshop for a game before buying it. It isn't a 'pay it before you see whats in it' deal, with the vast majority of content I've come across or care about being freely shared for bragging rights or satisfaction in doing something well enough to share. Workshop also runs rankings, contests and other things within the mod communities for each game to keep it spicey and active.
To give another idea of the range of content Workshop adds for the experience, here are two examples of very different games with totally different content types....
(Graphics from Steam screenshot)
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As you can see by the one small mod, it takes the idea of inserting non-game content several stages past where Rising World does with custom graphic files being usable in-game as textures.
Got a green thumb? Look here!
Workshop is a service, or class of service really, as it is added to various games within the Steam network to give a major community side to each one it is integrated with. Roughly 109 games currently use it and they are adding more. This is how Steam describes it themselves.....
Each of the 109 titles use the Steam Workshop in different ways, such as for sharing maps, in-game items, custom scenarios, full game conversions, character skins, new game modes, spells, puzzles, quests, characters, language packs, and much, much more. This is all player-driven, where you can create custom game modifications or content for your favorite game and share it with the community.
For my opinion? It makes a significant difference in terms of my choice in buying a game still in development, or which looks like it ...ehhh..may or may not be 'quite' my thing, but close enough to be real curious. Describing it also has limited value, so let me show a couple examples of what is on Workshop.
These are different door types for Space Engineers:
To help you understand why we thought this was a good idea, our main goals were to allow mod makers the opportunity to work on their mods full time if they wanted to, and to encourage developers to provide better support to their mod communities. We thought this would result in better mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it.
But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.
But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.
I'll bet that cost them some coin to go back on too. It had...gone a bit wild. A bit stupid, might be a better term. Still though, stupid rarely slows a company down, let alone, has them back step in full public view with hat in hand.
---
You can browse the Steam Workshop for a game before buying it. It isn't a 'pay it before you see whats in it' deal, with the vast majority of content I've come across or care about being freely shared for bragging rights or satisfaction in doing something well enough to share. Workshop also runs rankings, contests and other things within the mod communities for each game to keep it spicey and active.
To give another idea of the range of content Workshop adds for the experience, here are two examples of very different games with totally different content types....
(Graphics from Steam screenshot)
That probably isn't the type of game a lot of us would be into. Kinda looks like what the back of the arcade still had around, even when arcades were a common thing to find. 
So, how many folks would spend lots of time making content? Hmm.. You'd be surprised!
Movie or Die Workshop Page
Believe it or don't? 17 different mods or new 'maps' for that, including one guy who thought Pac-Man needed a reboot. lol..
We all recall Age of Empires, right? They remade that with an HD version and it has...over 8,000 mods and addons.
Finally, coming back to the game I'm starting into with a serious interest? Space Engineers is a sandbox build game, as much as a traditional game, and allows building anything from space tug boats to the U.S.S. Enterprise (someone did it) or working Stargate networks (I'm watching a quickie guide to making those now..and they look real too!).
Space Engineers is one of the more prolific games for content available, with over 112,000 items or mods available to browse and download. Among those?
Lets say you want your brand new shiny USS Enterprise to have the Star Trek style kiosk displays all over too? No problem and here that one is....
Configurable Automatic LCDs
So, how many folks would spend lots of time making content? Hmm.. You'd be surprised!Movie or Die Workshop Page
Believe it or don't? 17 different mods or new 'maps' for that, including one guy who thought Pac-Man needed a reboot. lol..
We all recall Age of Empires, right? They remade that with an HD version and it has...over 8,000 mods and addons.
Finally, coming back to the game I'm starting into with a serious interest? Space Engineers is a sandbox build game, as much as a traditional game, and allows building anything from space tug boats to the U.S.S. Enterprise (someone did it) or working Stargate networks (I'm watching a quickie guide to making those now..and they look real too!).
Space Engineers is one of the more prolific games for content available, with over 112,000 items or mods available to browse and download. Among those?
Lets say you want your brand new shiny USS Enterprise to have the Star Trek style kiosk displays all over too? No problem and here that one is....
Configurable Automatic LCDs
As you can see by the one small mod, it takes the idea of inserting non-game content several stages past where Rising World does with custom graphic files being usable in-game as textures.
Got a green thumb? Look here!
