"Wired has a lengthy investigation into the state of PC game mods, and the amateurs keeping the scene exciting in the wake of draconian DRM placed on many PC titles by major studios. It highlights a number of creative modders, such as Scott Reismanis, founder and editor of Mod DB, and his community-driven alternative to Valve's Steam — Desura — which is 'a distribution system, and, like Steam, will sell games and champion indie titles. But the way it handles mods makes it even more exciting.'"
(Clickeh) (Clekz)
This is a very good read for those who are programmers and modders. Desura would level the playing field for independent modders/developers/programmers against professional developers. A whole new era of mod distribution in my opinion.
Very cool article.
"Starcraft II's suite of tools will allow modders to sell their creations through an online store"
At first I thought "uhoh," because it makes it sound like everyone's going to be trying to sell all their custom maps. This isn't the case though. The StarCraft II marketplace is for mods that create all of their own content. In other words, custom maps with custom models, textures, attacks, and everything else will make it to the online store, where as a "tower defense" map which uses all the content already in the game (even if it's modified) will not be able to be sold through the online store. That sounds kind of cool to me considering what's possible with StarCraft II's custom map creator (you can make side-scrolling games, third person shooters, third-person racing games, etc. with the new editor).
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