Why Ask? wrote:I was asking these questions because I'd simply like to see more open source mods. To me it seems graphics conversion mods are quite appropriate as collaborative efforts.
On the one hand, you are correct that graphics mods are appropriate as collaborative efforts. That is why HDTP was a collaborative effort. (As I understand it, it is being finished by one person but that is at least in part because the actual graphics part of it is done. Now all that remains is to get the graphics into the game in non-crap form.)
On the other hand, they don't really seem appropriate to be what you would consider an open source mod. To do what you are talking about they would have to release the unfinished stuff to the public. In all likelihood the first result of that would be someone putting that into the game badly. Maybe, eventually, someone would do all of the work to get it done properly, and maybe they'd even finish it before DDL (though that seems unlikely at this stage), but before that happened someone somewhere would almost certainly use a shortcut to do it in a craptastic way because they couldn't wait for it to be done right.
If that
HDTP: Craptastic Edition sat on one person's computer never shared with the world, that's one thing. My limited experience with game mods say's that is unlikely. People who make lousy things tend to share them. (Actually it goes beyond game mods, if you want an example of a lousy thing that is shared, check out my writing sometime.)
So in all probability what you'll be looking at if the unfinished work is released so the public can have a chance at trying to complete it is that unfinished work, in unfinished form, being unleashed upon the world as a mod. The
HDTP: Craptastic Edition would make the rounds on the internet, and everyone who played it would see the unfinished work and say, "This sucks." Quality control would be killed.
The only way to make sure that the only stuff released is stuff that is of quality worthy of being released is if they only release it when it is finished. Releasing it before it is finished is like begging for lower quality work to be associated with the HDTP name. It is entirely possible that people will download the craptastic version and it will cause them to think HDTP is low quality, or they might download it, bear the bad parts, and never get the final, higher quality, version because they figure that, since they have an HDTP version with everything in the game, they must have the final version.
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Actually, I think you are entirely backwards. Graphics mods are probably the ones that are least appropriate for the kind of open process you describe. (From here on out is talking about graphics mods in general, not HDTP.)
Say that we're talking about making a weapon. A total conversion can probably get away with having outsiders do that. They may not want to, because they may want to control when people first see that weapon, how it looks when they first see it, and so on. But if they were to say, "Here's this weapon we want to do, here's what we've done so far, here's what it's supposed to look like, if anyone thinks they can do it faster than us and meet our quality standards, go for it and submit your results to us," what's the worst that would happen? If someone does take their work, make something crappy with it, and release that into the wilds of the internet what goes wrong?
If people see it and think it's crap, even if they associate it with the total conversion they'd only think one weapon is crap. A total conversion is going to have story and setting, it's going to have level design and gameplay, it's going to have characters and enemies and whatnot. If one weapon looks like crap then it might not be a problem.
Compare that to a graphics mod doing the same thing. All they do are graphics, if they release a partially completed weapon, someone finishes it badly, and that gets out there they have a lot more to lose. Graphics is what they do. If something makes you think the graphics are crap then that something makes you think the mod is crap. You won't be thinking, "Well maybe the level design will be so good it makes up for it," because there is no level design, there is no story, there are no characters, there is no setting, there is nothing else. If a graphics mod is routinely putting their unfinished textures and models up for public work they effectively releasing their entire mod in unfinished form. They have nothing to hold in reserve.
) wrote made perfect sense but what do I know?