Slight Title Edit.

Built in modding/creation tool software.  It's one of those innovations of this generation that has not been given half the attention it deserves. 

First off, let me specify that I am not talking about the Creation Kits that are released for games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  I’m talking about the games where User Generated Content is a built in and integral part of the game’s experience.  Games like Spore and the Little Big Planet series for instance.

While built in user generated content tools are not entirely new, Spore and Little Big Planet really brought this idea to the mainstream, Little Big Planet (2) in particular.

For those who are somehow not familiar with the series, Little Big Planet allows players to Play, Create and Share original content with extreme ease (as the games motto suggests). 

These creations are built with the easy to use tools the game innately provides every player; and players have used those tools to create some truly breathtaking pieces of art in the form of Games, Movies, and whatever else you could possibly think of. 

With nearly 7 MILLION levels created in Little Big Planet, it has become abundantly clear that gamers love creating their own content.   Let’s put those 7 million levels into perspective.

To be fair we’ll take off about a million of those levels because of the abundance “<3 me, I <3 you!” levels that LBP sports. 

We’re still left with 6,000,000 levels to play.  Now let’s say the average length of the remaining levels is about 15 minutes.  That’s 90,000,000 minutes in total.  Now if you break that down to a more comprehendible number, it would take you over 171 YEARS to play absolutely everything. 

If you take into account how long it took to actually create all 6 million levels, you will find that the total played time of the LBP series completely dwarves the living hell out of the total played times of both the Call of Duty and Halo franchises combined.

The point is, built-in and intuitive User Generation Tools provide longevity and a sense of legitimacy to games.

There are many benefits to be gained outside of a more active community if this innovation is indeed widely adopted in the coming generation.

For instance, I believe players would be much less driven towards hacking and illegally modding games if they are given the tools to create content legally.  (Ever hear of someone hacking LBP in order to get an advantage in online “Versus” games?  No?  Cause no one ever has.)

The coming generation of Consoles is quickly approaching, and if the spec rumors of the PS4 and NextBox are indeed in the right ballpark than me = excited!  Because if user generated content does become the norm, we are going to be seeing some seriously unbelievable stuff coming from the community.  Can’t wait!

(Keep in mind that developers can get about three times more out of a Console than a PC with completely equal specs.  This makes developing games such as LBP on PC’s far more difficult)

Written by Ssliasil

Well...I tried. :P

I totally agree.
Many games would profit from a creation tool.
I'd love to see a level creator in the next 2D Mario games. Then people could remake SMB1 in the new games. :P

Well, I wouldn't exactly call the build-it-yourself sandbox features found in LBP and other games "modding"... modding is altering the game itself in a way that the developers never intended, i.e. the original Counter Strike or Portal for instance.

But I agree that more games featuring built-in creation tools for user generated content is a win for everybody, and can greatly extend the life of the game. Just look at Trials for example... if those games didn't have the ability to create and share your own crazy tracks, they wouldn't have sold nearly as many copies as they did, and would have probably been forgotten after a few months.

One of my all time favorite games allowing for user generated content was Timesplitters 2... a FPS allowing you to built completely original multiplayer maps from scratch and even setting parameters and objectives, and on a console no less? Hellz yeah!

Good point about it not actually being considered Modding, also TIMESPLITTERS 2! :D

Agreed, however these games need a much improved, personalized rating system based on your preferences.

I gave up on LBP because really 98-99% of the levels are not good to an utter waste of time. That still leaves over a hundred thousand great levels but how to find the ones that suit your taste.
In LBP 1 I had a list of favorite creators and found levels through them which worked pretty well.
Most of them didn't carry over to LBP2 so I had to start over. Only finding 1 level out of 20 tries that was sorta half enjoyable got me disinterested soon.

Still I would not have wanted to miss all the great creations I played in LBP. I found about a 100 to 150 awesome levels. There were plenty really innovative ideas that I never thought would have been possible with the LBP engine. Working for over a month on my own level was great too. (Also quite sobering with it being dissed immediately for difficulty and not enough sign posting)

GT5 is on the right track with the track creator but it's still far too limited. Give people the tools and some will build amazing stuff. (I never tried mod nation racers, load times scared me away)
And if people can design their own side quests and dungeons for a game like Skyrim, that would be the perfect way to prevent your game from going to the 2nd hand shelf.

The question is, is a publisher willing to put up with maintaining a database like that and basically undercutting their own DLC. LBP manages fine though. I would be much more willing to buy DLC that also opened up tons of new user created content (like lbp dlc) instead of a simple 2 hour extension of the game.

LBP is one of the most profitable games of this generation because of its DLC that adds to the user generated content. And I agree, DLC like that is sooooo much better than "Look a new island!"

Changed the title to better fit the content of the OP.

I really don't care about build a level games like LBP. Everyone who makes a level just ends up with a LBP level and the game itself isn't that strong. If you want to make a game get YoYo Game's Game Maker for PC/Mac. That's what I use.

As for creation tools, Halo Reach has the best. I built a reproduction of Goldeneye 007's Facility level and although the colors and textures don't match it feels just right. I'm hoping Halo 4 adds even more to Forge.

Difference between LBP and that game maker software, is LBP levels are 345897342583264x easier to share and have charm to them.  That and you dont need excessive programing logic to be good at it.  LBP is far more open.  Hense its popularity.