Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Each month, we pose a question to our developer friends, and each month they impress us with their candor and the diversity of their responses. This month is no exception. We asked Ten Ton Hammer's premium members to provide questions for the developers, and we chose one for them to answer. This month's question deals with the future of user-generated content, from mods to complete quest packs, in MMOGs. Big name developers from Trion's Scott Hartsman to 38 Studios' Curt Schilling weighed in with responses both thought-provoking and passionate.

This month's question comes from premium community member Anacche...

"Is there a future for user-created content (mods, or even total quest packs, etc.) in MMOGs? Why haven't we seen it realized yet?" -Anacche

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Scott Hartsman

Trion Redwood City Studio Lead, Creative Director | Rift: Planes of Telara

Modding and creating content are two separate endeavors, driven by different desires. Modding is taking an entertaining experience and making it more convenient, attractive, or desirable, and sharing those improvements with others. It's social improvement. It's alive and well on dozens of mod sites. Creation of interactive experiences is a

"The market has spoken in a voice both loud and clear-- It wants to be entertained." - Scott Hartsman

different beast entirely. It's orders of magnitude more difficult to succeed in. It's been proven many times over the last decade to be a niche desire at best. Even professionals fail at it regularly.
 
Look at the last few attempts at full-on user created content. They're niche endeavors at best, compared to all other kinds of entertainment. When an honestly good attempt was made in MMOs, it wasn't popular because of user expression -- it was a popular way to cheese to the best rewards. A validation of the exact opposite point.
 
The market has spoken in a voice both loud and clear--it wants to be entertained.  
 
On the consumption side, a customer pays a subscription fee (or, these days, plays a free game) and for that payment, they expect to be entertained by professionals who are on the hook to create entertaining experiences, and not create crap. People don't pay for the YouTube model, where you have 99.5% garbage, and the 0.5% that's worth experiencing gets sorted to the top. People don't pay for MMO experiences that have no cohesion. Some very smart people took some hard knocks proving that.
 
On the creation side, the average gamer doesn't come home after a long day of work or school, or sneak some time

Trion appears to be gearing up to "give customers what they really want" with Rift: Planes of Telara.

after their kids go to bed, to come online and...do surprisingly hard work to entertain other people. Not that there's such a thing as an average gamers, but it's been proven that customers have no interest in creating quality content in large enough numbers to support an industry.
 
This is why it's on developers to create compelling experiences, in a cohesive package.
 
This is also why televisions outsell video cameras and editing software.
 
People want to be entertained.
 
Games don't fail because they're not "user-created enough." Games fail because they fall down on quality.
 
We approach game creation with these thoughts firmly in mind. Give people fun ways to customize their experiences. Give them ways to entertain each other socially, but always remember to provide them with interesting, solid experiences that you've thought out.
 
Innovate in content creation and delivery. Focus on quality. Give customers things they actually want.