There has been debate on here on the value of user-generated content's value. People have argued that it alone is enough to get sales. Others say that it is relatively useless. My belief has been that you need to provide enough quality in the box, plus get sufficient enough sales, along with the means for the community to take "ownership" over the game, and make it feel it is their own. At this point, I believe the community will get behind the game, and you end up getting good user-generated content. I believe LittleBigPlanet did this to some extent, but believe it didn't end up being all it can be. I am a fan of the game, but I didn't see that it ended up doing as much as it could.
However, watch this video here:
It looks like there is a strong effort to push ModNation as something players can take ownership over, even if they don't produce the tracks, and also a strong effort into creating a good single-player experience. I believe, putting these together, ModNation has a chance to go beyond even what LittleBigPlanet had done, as far as sales and popularity goes. I don't think it will hit the Mario Kart level, but it should carve out its own notable niche. I do hope that the game does give the ability for players to create their own modes also, so we get the ModNation version of Griffball (aka, something that wasn't even intended originally when it was released).
