I couldn't find anywhere to put this at first, but I think it does deserve its own thread since we are a modding community and I'm sure many of us here have commercial aspirations in gaming (even if our mods aren't necessarily meant to be Valve's next on-the-spot hire opportunity).

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09 ... 1-the-wad/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09 ... 2-the-mod/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09 ... e-postmod/

These are the urls to RPS articles about experimental 'non-manshooter' fps' and their birth primarily out of mods (like Portal, Dear Esther, etc). I feel like this is only the introduction and the first chapter of something that could be a lot longer, but despite its abrupt end, Its still worth being read.

Of interest is the author's mention of a 'Silver Age' of modding, now past. His description of making mods up to and exacting with AAA standards (what so many source modders call 'Valve Quality') kind of hit home; that is exactly what so many people do and did, especially when modding with Source. I agree with him in calling this tendency to sync with whatever the larger portion of the industry was doing either dead or dying: with the advent and popularization of the indie title, modding an existing game is no longer the best, most efficient, or most practical way to break into the commercial industry; it leaves people like (as the article uses for example) the Black Mesa team, which consists of professionals and veterans of the game industry making a mod for the fun of it (its worth mentioning that the BM team also tried to mirror AAA quality and paradigms).

Because I basically got my start at the tail end of and tried pretty desperately to hold on to this 'Silver Age' of modding, I was kind of biased against the thesis presented, but it makes sense.

So where are we now? Our very existence is really a representation of what the author calls the 'postmod' (heh) community: our maps, mods, addons, and even a few total conversions I could mention aren't being built to the standards we hold them to as portfolio liners*, but instead as (even in the case of the total conversions) extensions and rule changes to an existing game we just want to keep playing.

*(and if we are, its a quest doomed to fail since the current indie success trend suggests that making a mod super-popular isn't as likely to get you noticed as simply making something yourself)

I haven't read the article(s) yet, but I don't think that's necessarily the case here. Portal modding is phasing out, that's true, but Valve created a platform for it to continue in a slightly modified form with the workshop. It's no longer as "cool" or as close to what the actual game developers are doing, but sites like this one aren't completely deprecated, as portal 2 maps are still being made and played and discussed.

EDIT: Okay, read the article and I guess the author does mention the workshop.

I think I'm with van in that I came in on the tail end of that modding and I want to hold on to it. I mean, we're sort of all there. That's why this site exists, we're a little bubble of people who are screaming "WE STILL WANNA MOD" at the top of our lungs while not realizing there's not really anyone consuming these things any more, besides us. Well, there is, but not from places like here. I guess that's why I put in workshop integration as one of the first things after I had the backbones of the database, that's where the modding community is and if we can get "in" on that then we're still relevant. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic.

I would read the article then; the author's description of the 'postmod' is basically a mod that fits inside of the game (think the workshop; we can upload maps and mods and then install them all together: for portal maps its not a big deal because we always did that, but consider for example Skyrim and how you can combine about nine thousand and two mods together and get an essentially new mod out of the combination).

vanSulli wrote:
I would read the article then; the author's description of the 'postmod' is basically a mod that fits inside of the game (think the workshop; we can upload maps and mods and then install them all together: for portal maps its not a big deal because we always did that, but consider for example Skyrim and how you can combine about nine thousand and two mods together and get an essentially new mod out of the combination).

Yeah I updated my post

I think that's part of the reason consoles are lagging behind, is that game developers have embraced the mod (Well, some of them have. cough EA cough). Modding has traditionally been a PC enterprise and it's not really as easy to handle on consoles, at least under the current framework. Which I guess is why the steam box will catch on, is it builds a new framework for the living room, which involves modding.

p0rtalplayer wrote:
Which I guess is why the steam box will catch on, is it builds a new framework for the living room, which in my wildest dreams involves modding built right in as a tool like for PC.