Create-Your-Own-Game: The Game
There is a rich legacy of user-submitted content in games -- the most notable examples being Blizzard's breakout hits, StarCraft and WarCraft III. Using the included map editor (which is a variant of the design toolset used by the game creators to make the game), fans create their own game levels and variants. Triggers, as they're called, go into effect when a certain condition is reached, enabling the creation of new levels of complexity that amount to interesting ways of playing that deviate from a normal RTS: RPGs, Tower Defense, Arena, Madness, Puzzles, and, perplexingly, versions of other games on the market (so there is "WarCraft" map in StarCraft, a "World of WarCraft" map in WarCraft III, and a "StarCraft" map in WarCraft III).
One of the most popular variants (by far!) is Defense of the Ancients (DotA for short), in which opposing teams of four heroes gain experience and items in an attempt to destroy the "ancients" under the other team's protection. The time and resources that went into balancing 71 heroes (most of which are completely user-created) and a plethora of new items (including an item creation system) is enormous. This variant has gone through a year and a half of development, up to the most current release, v. 6.19b.
This leads us to believe that passionate groups of users are more than willing to devote their time and energy to create content for mainstream titles. The RTS and RPG have been attempted, but what of the MMORPG? That's what we'll discuss next week.