Hi tom.
I do take your point extremely. I must confess this is why i myself never
have much interest in mods of superliam, pipe or similar because I'd rather
play the game the way the developer intended. As a life long tolkeen fan
(and a pretty major Dr. who fan as well), i also take your point about
cannon (in fact some of the messings up of tolkeen I've seen recently in the
indorcements of the peter Jaxon films, have really got on my whick).
It strikes me however, that the cannon debate is something of a separate
issue. Afterall, suppose you created your own scifi stratogy game, ---- like
galaxy ranger, then (as in lone wolf), the only existing cannon would be
that you, as originator of the game create not a huge amount of extra
information and resources as in startrek, dr. who, etc.
In terms of game creation tools, it strikes me it depends entirely upon the
game it's content, and the creator's choice.
games that are heavily driven by plot, such as Mega man or even Sryth, are
as based on the author's intentions as films or books. They have a distinct
story (allbeit that that can change due to corperate pressure and other
factors).
For those games, mucking about with game content to the point where that
story is removed seems as bad as someone I once knew who wrote a harry
potter fanfic where draco Malfoy got together with hermione granger. when i
asked how these two characters actually got together at all, and what had
changed, she just replied "well it's my fanfic so they just do"
which seemed intrinsically wrong to me.
On the other hand, take psudocu. You have a game with no rules or logic
outside it's own nature. For a developer of a sudocu game to claime that
the sudocu puzles they'd personally set in the game were irrevocable and
should not be changed would be distinctly unreasonable.
Btw, this has actually happened with the boulderdash puzle's action games.
Even though released with a level editer, and entirely based on puzles where
you collect diamonds in a mine with litle or no plot, First star software
did at one time claime that their levels were the only ones possible.
thankfully now, after people have been creating bd levels for years, and
even new bd games with extra elements such as emerald mine and supaplex
that claime has been removed.
It strikes me editable games are betwene these two extremes, absolute
cannon works of art, and symple puzles, and the extent the developer decides
to make them editable should vary accordingly.
It is however true that editers and level creators can greatly expand a
games' replayability and content, and give users distinctly fun things to do
with a game, ---- look at Jim's golf game as an example. Perhaps therefore
we need a balance, where some elements of a game are editable and others
aren't, ---- just like in the rail racer track creator where you can create
new tracks, but not new upgrades for your racer which give you uba speed or
unabalance the game.
Beware the Grue!
dark.
---
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