Regardless of whether itâs to be done through Steam workshop or some other format, this isnât exactly a bad idea but there are currently several problems that IMC would have to deal with.
1. Quality control
The developers and/or management team for these matters would have to personally go through all of these, discuss it with the other teams and then give an adequate response to the artist. If the response is dumbed down to âyes or noâ, then people might just keep sending these, even if itâs limited, to show off their work.
Between copyright laws, content approval, price planning and other large factors, this is just a lot of additional work.
Keeping the design of such items internal would leave it much easier to manage and oversee.
There is no guarantee of consistent items since there MUST be a filter for quality and IMC may not be able to handle it.
(and in fact it will most likely require a LOT more work to maintain this given that it must be a persistent system)
2. This is bad for business.
They could just as easily take ideas, give it to their development team and do it without the artist being a third party.
They could easily recreate any idea and have it properly handled within the team, minimal stress involved.
(and yes, they would just make more, period)
It would be faster without the need to go through as a second batch of content to be overseen.
3. Unfortunately, DotA is backed by VALVE of all people.
Valve doesnât just publish it, they -develop- it.
(also the developers of Steam and are able to easily manage the workshop)
I doubt IMC has the same kind of manpower Valve possesses to deal with this efficiently.
Not the best example, even if there are some.
DotA2 is basically VALVE PRESENTS Steam:TheMOBA.
Developed, published, managed and curated by Valve.
Valve is a giant and DotA2 is a high-demand E-sports title with deep history.
IMC is developing a niche title for an older genre.
4. Complaints
Artists who maintain any rights to the intellectual property being sold can abuse it.
While this is easily handled with the proper documents, I donât believe this to be a real issue.
It is still worth mentioning that this is a known and historically common problem with having random people supply content. Sort of like a guild that is managed too heavily by its members rather than its management.
5. The reason to have pay to win things in the game shop doesnât disappear.
The reason has always been because it SELLS.
Iâm not quite sure how steam workshop will stop that, exactly.
The choice to not have P2W content is not immediately/directly affected by allowing people to create their own content for the game. (regardless of whether it is well maintained or not)
6. Price control
If players are allowed to determine prices without intervention, a higher-popularity workshop item than the in-game items with a lower price may damage IMCâs gains. (other possible ways to abuse this exist)
(moderation/intervention will likely occur regardless given the number of ways to, as we say, âfuck this overâ.)
Alternatives.
Artist contribution.
I do think this is great, but letâs leave it at them giving suggestions and letting the team pick from it, rather than having to deal with sent requests and petitions.
Given how much work is involved in adapting what an artist wants to what the developer/publishers intend, it might be better to simply provide the idea and allow IMC to use it how they will.
Less P2W
Believe it or not, the best thing we can do to encourage this is simply to maintain the stance that we wonât accept P2W as a standard in the game. (the methods vary on the situation at hand, but in the end, it isnât we who decide this)
The most we can do is ensure that there is a proper community agreement against P2W and that we would stand for it.
In conclusion, I have to say⌠I disagree.
This is not at all a smart decision community and/or business-wise.
Between the arguments over price, quality, profits, moderation and the like, I imagine this has even more problems than those Iâve brought up.
Using DotA2 is a terrible comparison, really.
Theyâre run by a huge developer that also happens to be a huge publisher that also happens to be one of the most⌠ideal sellers. They live through MASSIVE sales as opposed to large profits from any single item.
They give to players and take small amounts. (by comparison)
The way they profit off this is through the frequency of sales. (this is Valve weâre talking about)
TL;DR. Canât compare dota2. Too many problems. Must be better ways.
I personally want to participate in workshop activities. Itâll be a good practice for me to modify and create my own ToS models/skins/assets. I have a lot of crazy ideas in my mind right now and those ideas are waiting to be put in action.