Two videos inspired today’s Daily Grind. One is a recent episode of Extra Credits about player-generated content in games – what we’ve always called PGC. The other was a video from another of my hobbies in which the creator said that there’s a huge disconnect between what her most vocal watchers say they want and what people actually click on, which is leading her to change her whole approach to her channel.
These things go together. I like the idea of PGC. I think it’s important. I want it to exist. I want the tools for it to exist. I’m big into mods too! But in reality, I don’t play nearly as much of it in MMOs as I probably should. I suspect a lot of people don’t. When games like City of Heroes added the Architect Entertainment system, for example, I did play quite a bit of it, largely because one of my guildies was a master designer and I wanted to support him, but it’s not something I reach for now in the rogue servers. And then there wasn’t nearly as much outcry as I expected to see when PWE shut down Star Trek Online’s Foundry. I can’t help but wonder whether it’s something people say they want – but don’t actually click on, so to speak.
Do you actually engage with player-generated content in MMOs?
(Bonus: Here’s the Extra Credits episode that inspired this TDG! The video’s more about non-MMOs with level editors and the like, but now you can see part of my brain process.)
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
