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The thing that differentiates gaming from any other form of entertainment is interaction. A good game is like a negotiation between player and programmer:
"Can I do this?"
"Yes!"
"Can I do this?"
"No!"
"What about this?"
"Well, I hadn't though about that, but why not..."
However much you might shout at the television screen, or fume at the pages of a book, you will still be a passive consumer of someone else's work. Not so with games. Programmes exist solely to react to you; and you are constantly pushing at the boundaries of the game to outwit the AI, or reach the end of a level in an unexpected way. The player is just as much a part of the game as the designer.
But a fairly recent phenomenon is the interaction between player and programmer being extended to the game's design itself. Now the committed gamer can choose not only HOW he plays the game, but what that game IS. This is possible due to game customisation, or at the most extreme levels, the drastic rebuilds of the modding community. The internet is awash with homebrewed Civ 3 scenarios, Unreal Tournament maps, Championship Manager data updates, even wholesale refits of the Quake III engine. This will be a big part of gaming's future, I believe, and is perhaps a sign that the open source revolution may at last make an impact on gaming.
[Bitterness alert: Yesterday I posted a topic on customising all of GTA3's radio stations, which was greeted with derision. The criticism it received seemed to suggest that I had no idea about GTA3's mp3 player feature. On the contrary I DID know about it, but I was disappointed by the level of control it gave me. This post is a general defence of customisation, my response to the people who said "What's the point of that, stupid?"]
I loved the PS2 version of GTA3, but I had a couple of things on my wishlist: multiplayer and the ability to choose my own tunes as cruising music. The PC version promised at least this second feature, but when I got my copy I was disappointed: mp3s played on their own station, and at a different volume to the normal radio channels. It was all very ordinary. What I missed most was the thrill of boosting a car and (a) not knowing what song would be playing, and (b) not even knowing which playlist that song would be from. I still had all the old channels, of course, but having played the PS2 version to death they were getting stale. The solution: I replaced the radio station files with ones of my own, giving me total control.
This is only basic customisation, but it is an example of what I think makes the PC unique as a gaming platform: the ability for the dedicated player to modify their gaming experience. Customisation can just mean exploiting the basic options a developer gives you: GTA3's mp3 player for example, or something as simple as downloading a bonus map from the company's website. But perhaps more satisfying are those alterations you make yourself: a skin designed to look like your beautiful face, or a level designed around your school or office.
I have neither the artistic or programming skills to put together something of this sort: but others do. And one of the nicest features of customisable games is the communities that form around them. One person figures out one thing, somebody figures out another: and everyone is prepared to share their knowledge. It is this sort of collective effort that makes games like Freedom Force so successful: there are thousands of home-made characters to download and, as a result, the game is almost infinitely extendable.
There will always be a place for out-of-the-box gaming but customisable titles are likely to become the norm in the PC world. And if anyone has any doubts, the success of Counter Strike should quickly dispel them: it seems that in the gaming world, there ain't no power like the power of the people.
"Can I do this?"
"Yes!"
"Can I do this?"
"No!"
"What about this?"
"Well, I hadn't though about that, but why not..."
However much you might shout at the television screen, or fume at the pages of a book, you will still be a passive consumer of someone else's work. Not so with games. Programmes exist solely to react to you; and you are constantly pushing at the boundaries of the game to outwit the AI, or reach the end of a level in an unexpected way. The player is just as much a part of the game as the designer.
But a fairly recent phenomenon is the interaction between player and programmer being extended to the game's design itself. Now the committed gamer can choose not only HOW he plays the game, but what that game IS. This is possible due to game customisation, or at the most extreme levels, the drastic rebuilds of the modding community. The internet is awash with homebrewed Civ 3 scenarios, Unreal Tournament maps, Championship Manager data updates, even wholesale refits of the Quake III engine. This will be a big part of gaming's future, I believe, and is perhaps a sign that the open source revolution may at last make an impact on gaming.
[Bitterness alert: Yesterday I posted a topic on customising all of GTA3's radio stations, which was greeted with derision. The criticism it received seemed to suggest that I had no idea about GTA3's mp3 player feature. On the contrary I DID know about it, but I was disappointed by the level of control it gave me. This post is a general defence of customisation, my response to the people who said "What's the point of that, stupid?"]
I loved the PS2 version of GTA3, but I had a couple of things on my wishlist: multiplayer and the ability to choose my own tunes as cruising music. The PC version promised at least this second feature, but when I got my copy I was disappointed: mp3s played on their own station, and at a different volume to the normal radio channels. It was all very ordinary. What I missed most was the thrill of boosting a car and (a) not knowing what song would be playing, and (b) not even knowing which playlist that song would be from. I still had all the old channels, of course, but having played the PS2 version to death they were getting stale. The solution: I replaced the radio station files with ones of my own, giving me total control.
This is only basic customisation, but it is an example of what I think makes the PC unique as a gaming platform: the ability for the dedicated player to modify their gaming experience. Customisation can just mean exploiting the basic options a developer gives you: GTA3's mp3 player for example, or something as simple as downloading a bonus map from the company's website. But perhaps more satisfying are those alterations you make yourself: a skin designed to look like your beautiful face, or a level designed around your school or office.
I have neither the artistic or programming skills to put together something of this sort: but others do. And one of the nicest features of customisable games is the communities that form around them. One person figures out one thing, somebody figures out another: and everyone is prepared to share their knowledge. It is this sort of collective effort that makes games like Freedom Force so successful: there are thousands of home-made characters to download and, as a result, the game is almost infinitely extendable.
There will always be a place for out-of-the-box gaming but customisable titles are likely to become the norm in the PC world. And if anyone has any doubts, the success of Counter Strike should quickly dispel them: it seems that in the gaming world, there ain't no power like the power of the people.
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The thing that differentiates gaming from any other form of entertainment is interaction. A good game is like a negotiation between player and programmer:
"Can I do this?"
"Yes!"
"Can I do this?"
"No!"
"What about this?"
"Well, I hadn't though about that, but why not..."
However much you might shout at the television screen, or fume at the pages of a book, you will still be a passive consumer of someone else's work. Not so with games. Programmes exist solely to react to you; and you are constantly pushing at the boundaries of the game to outwit the AI, or reach the end of a level in an unexpected way. The player is just as much a part of the game as the designer.
But a fairly recent phenomenon is the interaction between player and programmer being extended to the game's design itself. Now the committed gamer can choose not only HOW he plays the game, but what that game IS. This is possible due to game customisation, or at the most extreme levels, the drastic rebuilds of the modding community. The internet is awash with homebrewed Civ 3 scenarios, Unreal Tournament maps, Championship Manager data updates, even wholesale refits of the Quake III engine. This will be a big part of gaming's future, I believe, and is perhaps a sign that the open source revolution may at last make an impact on gaming.
[Bitterness alert: Yesterday I posted a topic on customising all of GTA3's radio stations, which was greeted with derision. The criticism it received seemed to suggest that I had no idea about GTA3's mp3 player feature. On the contrary I DID know about it, but I was disappointed by the level of control it gave me. This post is a general defence of customisation, my response to the people who said "What's the point of that, stupid?"]
I loved the PS2 version of GTA3, but I had a couple of things on my wishlist: multiplayer and the ability to choose my own tunes as cruising music. The PC version promised at least this second feature, but when I got my copy I was disappointed: mp3s played on their own station, and at a different volume to the normal radio channels. It was all very ordinary. What I missed most was the thrill of boosting a car and (a) not knowing what song would be playing, and (b) not even knowing which playlist that song would be from. I still had all the old channels, of course, but having played the PS2 version to death they were getting stale. The solution: I replaced the radio station files with ones of my own, giving me total control.
This is only basic customisation, but it is an example of what I think makes the PC unique as a gaming platform: the ability for the dedicated player to modify their gaming experience. Customisation can just mean exploiting the basic options a developer gives you: GTA3's mp3 player for example, or something as simple as downloading a bonus map from the company's website. But perhaps more satisfying are those alterations you make yourself: a skin designed to look like your beautiful face, or a level designed around your school or office.
I have neither the artistic or programming skills to put together something of this sort: but others do. And one of the nicest features of customisable games is the communities that form around them. One person figures out one thing, somebody figures out another: and everyone is prepared to share their knowledge. It is this sort of collective effort that makes games like Freedom Force so successful: there are thousands of home-made characters to download and, as a result, the game is almost infinitely extendable.
There will always be a place for out-of-the-box gaming but customisable titles are likely to become the norm in the PC world. And if anyone has any doubts, the success of Counter Strike should quickly dispel them: it seems that in the gaming world, there ain't no power like the power of the people.
"Can I do this?"
"Yes!"
"Can I do this?"
"No!"
"What about this?"
"Well, I hadn't though about that, but why not..."
However much you might shout at the television screen, or fume at the pages of a book, you will still be a passive consumer of someone else's work. Not so with games. Programmes exist solely to react to you; and you are constantly pushing at the boundaries of the game to outwit the AI, or reach the end of a level in an unexpected way. The player is just as much a part of the game as the designer.
But a fairly recent phenomenon is the interaction between player and programmer being extended to the game's design itself. Now the committed gamer can choose not only HOW he plays the game, but what that game IS. This is possible due to game customisation, or at the most extreme levels, the drastic rebuilds of the modding community. The internet is awash with homebrewed Civ 3 scenarios, Unreal Tournament maps, Championship Manager data updates, even wholesale refits of the Quake III engine. This will be a big part of gaming's future, I believe, and is perhaps a sign that the open source revolution may at last make an impact on gaming.
[Bitterness alert: Yesterday I posted a topic on customising all of GTA3's radio stations, which was greeted with derision. The criticism it received seemed to suggest that I had no idea about GTA3's mp3 player feature. On the contrary I DID know about it, but I was disappointed by the level of control it gave me. This post is a general defence of customisation, my response to the people who said "What's the point of that, stupid?"]
I loved the PS2 version of GTA3, but I had a couple of things on my wishlist: multiplayer and the ability to choose my own tunes as cruising music. The PC version promised at least this second feature, but when I got my copy I was disappointed: mp3s played on their own station, and at a different volume to the normal radio channels. It was all very ordinary. What I missed most was the thrill of boosting a car and (a) not knowing what song would be playing, and (b) not even knowing which playlist that song would be from. I still had all the old channels, of course, but having played the PS2 version to death they were getting stale. The solution: I replaced the radio station files with ones of my own, giving me total control.
This is only basic customisation, but it is an example of what I think makes the PC unique as a gaming platform: the ability for the dedicated player to modify their gaming experience. Customisation can just mean exploiting the basic options a developer gives you: GTA3's mp3 player for example, or something as simple as downloading a bonus map from the company's website. But perhaps more satisfying are those alterations you make yourself: a skin designed to look like your beautiful face, or a level designed around your school or office.
I have neither the artistic or programming skills to put together something of this sort: but others do. And one of the nicest features of customisable games is the communities that form around them. One person figures out one thing, somebody figures out another: and everyone is prepared to share their knowledge. It is this sort of collective effort that makes games like Freedom Force so successful: there are thousands of home-made characters to download and, as a result, the game is almost infinitely extendable.
There will always be a place for out-of-the-box gaming but customisable titles are likely to become the norm in the PC world. And if anyone has any doubts, the success of Counter Strike should quickly dispel them: it seems that in the gaming world, there ain't no power like the power of the people.