The great and always controversial Sean Malstrom has brought us yet another article that will make us either hate his guts or disagree greatly with him.

The topic he decided to tackle? User" target="_blank" class="link">http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/user-generated-content-games-bombing-left-and-right/]User generated content

For those that are too lazy to read he is basically saying that focusing on user generated content might not be a smart thing since what people want is great content and that user generated content shouldn't be the main focus because its a niche concept only a few will truly get and enjoy.

To an extend, I agree with him. As much as I love Wii Music I find it disheartening that very few people actually got into the remixing process, thus I had no one to share my creations with. Meanwhile, I am excited for Animal Crossing City Folk since I know its a game everyone will get an enjoy without any hurdles to surpass.

He mentioned it along with Spore and Little Big Planet as examples of how games in which the main concept is creating your own content (Wii Music's is remixing songs, Little Big Planet is creating levels and Spore is creating creatures and seeing then evolve).

I personally believe that user generated content shouldn't disappear as there ARE fans for it and it does make the game more enjoyable (for me at least). However, I do agree with Sean that user generated content should be behind an already existing content so that people that can't get into it can still enjoy it and those that are more technical can enjoy messing around with it (kinda like how Guitar Hero World Tour offers a music studio alongside the main game).

The only thing I disagree with his comment that Mario Galaxy didn't expand the Mario universe enough. In my honest opinion, Galaxy might be the best Mario game in the 3D series and one of the best in terms of story and presentation. I found it very fascinating how the Mushroom people see the comet as a very special event and how the comet really is a home for baby stars run by the wonderful Rosalina. Galaxy made is clear that Mario can go anywhere and be a hero and that his universe is vast and infinite. I felt it was one of the more creative Mario games since Mario 3, and the gameplay was extremely tight. Why Sean is using it as an example of things wrong with modern gaming is beyond me...

May I just point out that LittleBigPlanet does have a large main story mode as well as a creator, though in future, the main story could probably be better and longer

Halo 3 was extremely successful in keeping Halo 3 alive and near or on top for this long. There are hundreds of thousands of custom maps you can download. And the things you can create yourself are endless.

User generated content has been keeping PC gaming a live this long. With things like Garys Mod or just mods in general is more than half the fun to PC gamers these days.

Its stupid, He's right. I pay somebody else to be creative, im too mashed after a 40 hr work week

The easier it is to have user-generated content, the more there will be.

Good game + Great/Powerful Toolset = Lots of content

Good game + Poor Toolset = Some content

Poor game + Any Toolset = Little content

I haven't played LBP so I don't know what the main game is like, but whenever I hear about the game, the talk is almost always on the user generated content aspect; and I think that is a mistake. Most people are not going to get anything out of the user generated aspect, they lack the creativity, understanding, talent, and patience to create something that they and others can enjoy later; they're going to buy the disc and get into the included content first, and with little attention paid to the included content, most people will not find it very compelling.

I agree with SlipperyMooseCakes, user generated content, when placed on top of an already excellent game, just makes it more awesome; but it just doesn't work on it's own.

Well, his has a point. But that doesn't mean that customizable, community-based games should die. How long would last projects like Q3 or UT if they weren't higly customizable? Certainly, from 100 gamers there're couple of true creators, which "creations" worth playing, so these kind of games NEEDS huge sales. And LBP with 1M in sales (which I believe are pretty big for new IP) it seems that's not enough. For me even very average Mario game still more fun to play than LBP, 'cos LBP itself is pretty short, and there're not so really great user levels to date. I prefer level design made by PRO.

Just because they do not create themselves does not mean that they cannot play the levels others have created. People don't talk about the main sp game because it is not special when compared to the level creator, and that is the far more exciting addition to this game, which makes it different from so many other games

Of course user generated content is the future. People have always wanted to make their own games

@colonelstubbs

True, they want. BUT that doesn't mean that I WANT to play games they created.