Flags, graves, speechbanks, maps and schemes

[Vader]

For me Worms has always been about customisability. One of the things which I'm sure most people would agree has kept W:A alive, for example, is the level of customisability. Custom flags, graves, speechbanks, maps and schemes (or user-generated content as it's known these days) used to make worming a very personal experience.

These days the Worms games seem to exclude all of this. Worms: Open Warfare 2 had flags and on the DS it even had a terrain editor. As a proud owner of Worms PSN I expected some of the same, especially given the technical prowess of the PS3. In fact, I'm surprised you can't even assign your team a flag from a default list in Worms PSN.

I understand that the XBLA/PSN games are cut-down versions of what we're used to these days and more closely resemble Worms on the Amiga, for example, but the restrictions set don't closely resemble the spirit of Worms.

Naming my team and selecting a speechbank from the provided selection doesn't cut it when it comes to customising your experience. We should be able to use little image files for flags, maybe even graves, and how about custom speechbanks, maps and schemes we can share? You know, like a community instead of just thousands of people trying to get to the top spot in the rankings...

I'm not complaniing about rankings, so don't take that the wrong way. This is an attempt at constructive criticism, though I'll confess my rant is slightly clouded with a heady combination of confusion and disappointment. :P

I think it's a good game (could do with Sheep Heaven and sheep jumping out of crates, but that's another story) but it feels a little too stripped back.

[Plasma]

Asking that a PSN game should be able to import external images and soundbacks... seems to me like asking a bit much.

I mean, I know where you're coming from, but these things are a lot harder to do on a console.

[Vader]

Are you saying the hurdle is that it's a PSN game or a console game? I believe there are plenty of games into which you can import your own images and such.

I'd have thought an import function from within the game which takes data from a memory stick and dumps it into a specific folder on the PS3 drive would be perfectly possible, though perhaps not compliant with Sony's TRC.

[robowurmz]

I think the question of mature content arises once again here. Worms is intended for all ages, and people will put mature content up. It is possible to say that game experience may change while online, User-Generated-Content is still a funny issue.

[Vader]

Would mature content be such an issue even if it were restricted to single-player/local/friends or a combination thereof set by the user in the settings?

[Muzer]

It would also be nice if this were possible from a hacker's perspective; include poor support for TIFF images and we have a TIFF exploit!


...although I doubt Sony would appreciate T17 after that :p

[Guyren]

Would mature content be such an issue even if it were restricted to single-player/local/friends or a combination thereof set by the user in the settings?

It's more like minimizing the amount/risk of mature content than it is getting rid of it altogether. What I mean is that for a game like Worms, they would probably get rid of voice chat before letting you import images/soundbanks (they would remove all potentially harmful content before introducing the potential for more).

And though it's done well by people like Media Molecule, bonuses like that are rare in games and hard to introduce and monitor.

Though as a 25 yr old gamer, I totally hope your wishes come true:)

[robowurmz]

Custom Content is what makes PC games thrive; in nearly every mainstream game, people have found out how to modify it or have had the ability to do so already - this makes the medium very popular.

On console games, you can't bring up a command console to change the way the game behaves, or set up your own missions. You can't make maps, add models, or overwrite textures.

In my opinion, consoles should have more flexibility in their games - for one thing, in this day and age it's possible to install things onto the console's hard drive; you could make it a minimalised set of custom graphics and so on that the user can edit for themselves, or provide tools for it in-game.

[Vader]

Custom Content is what makes PC games thrive; in nearly every mainstream game, people have found out how to modify it or have had the ability to do so already - this makes the medium very popular.

On console games, you can't bring up a command console to change the way the game behaves, or set up your own missions. You can't make maps, add models, or overwrite textures.

In my opinion, consoles should have more flexibility in their games - for one thing, in this day and age it's possible to install things onto the console's hard drive; you could make it a minimalised set of custom graphics and so on that the user can edit for themselves, or provide tools for it in-game.

Oh, I don't mean to suggest that players should be given the ability to mod their game, per sé, just to use custom flags, speechbanks, and so on.

I know you can make your own schemes in Worms PSN but it's limited and schemes can't be shared with friends.

It's more like minimizing the amount/risk of mature content than it is getting rid of it altogether. What I mean is that for a game like Worms, they would probably get rid of voice chat before letting you import images/soundbanks (they would remove all potentially harmful content before introducing the potential for more).

And though it's done well by people like Media Molecule, bonuses like that are rare in games and hard to introduce and monitor.

Though as a 25 yr old gamer, I totally hope your wishes come true:)

I'm not sure I follow what you mean. There's no risk if you prevent potentially harmful material from being distributed to random people, For example, if I can only share my UGC with friends, it would mean I know the people I'm sharing my adult themed maps with are suitably aged.

Still, I hope so, too! ;)

[robowurmz]

It's certainly a suggestion - perhaps they could weave it into the EULA too; "User Generated Content may not be suitable for persons of a young age; we are in no way responsible for any content online or elsewhere. If you find something offensive or harmful, we are not legally obliged to take any action. If you wish to take the risk, accept the terms."

By accepting the EULA, nobody can complain if mature content appears online: it was in the Terms of Agreement, they read and understood it and pressed accept.

[AndrewTaylor]

By accepting the EULA, nobody can complain if mature content appears online: it was in the Terms of Agreement, they read and understood it and pressed accept.

Yeah, except that nobody reads them and no reasonable person would imagine anyone would read them. You can't allow random people to download pornographic UGC in a game marketed partly to children and just disclaim responsibility as if that makes it somehow not your problem. It doesn't work that way and nor should it.

If you control it somehow, I think that's okay, but putting it in the EULA won't help in the slightest.

[Vader]

Besides which, unless I'm very much mistaken, even W:A has a proportionally nanoscopic amount of adult-themed UGC. People aren't really interested in releasing adult-themed UGC for the sake of it being adult-themed, are they?

You could also get a couple of UGC mods. You'd probably only need one full-timer on minimum wage. Heck, I'd do it!

[vhero]

Asking that a PSN game should be able to import external images and soundbacks... seems to me like asking a bit much.

I mean, I know where you're coming from, but these things are a lot harder to do on a console.

Actually its not as hard as you may think and people worrying about online games dont need to you could restrict to offline only rather easily by making you team offline only if they use custom stuff. The reason they dont allow custom content in the game of your own is so they can sell you some later on down the line. I do think though they should make it so you can maybe turn a photo into a map. It's easy enough to do and was possible on older worms. You could copy a map photo to your hard drive and import it to play on.

[Vader]

WOW2 on DS had a similar feature, if I recall correctly. You couldn't use custom team names online unless it was with friends. Or something...