Has anyone considered approaching DICE directly?

Oldirti · Post by **Oldirti** » 2007-08-07 16:15

Expendable Grunt wrote:BF2 was a mod. It was called DC.

QFT

and DC was better in some aspects...nay many.

nicoX · Post by **nicoX** » 2007-08-07 16:18

You don't buy EA, EA buys you!

Speaking of them more and more are getting enough of them. Just head on the Sim City 4 forum at Simtropolis.com and you will find out how EA treats a big community by releaseing nr 5 completely opposite how the devoted modding/player community wants it to be.

Post by **Masaq** » 2007-08-07 16:43

Long Bow wrote:The funny thing is, if I remeber this correctly, that Dice were people who worked on the Desert Combat mod for b1942 ( a free mod). EA saw how huge the Desert combat mod got so hired up some of the people to release BF2 which is largely NOT mod friendly. Irony, no? Then what is?

Well duh! If BF2 had been made mod-friendly, some upstart bunch of modders (i.e.: the PR team) might have improved the game beyond the efforts of the DC guys who contributed to BF2, thus risking having the DC guys fired and the new guys taken on to produce whatever the next installment of the franchise is!

Thus by making the game mod-unfriendly they were simply trying to cover their asses in case someone out there could do better. Sadly for us they could and they have- and we're left with the metaphorical equivilant of a Ferrari 430 body on the chasis, running gear and powertrain of a 1960's Skoda.

TheTank · Post by **TheTank** » 2007-08-09 10:06

No, dice made the Battlefield series, also the processor Codename: Eagle.
The team that did DC was hired by Dice to make Bf2 but then most were released again.

I remember an article from one of the teammembers floating around a while ago.

Mods do not harm a game, instead can only help.
EA has not figured that out unlike other comps. They think that if they make it hard for mods it will force people to buy their own add-ons.
That did not work. Not in BF42, not in BF2.
Mods can guarantee that a game is still popular even beyond their intended lifetime.
Examples are naturally Quake, Half-Life(Source) and Neverwinter Nights that sold millions of units and are still selling today.
Heck NWN even had expansions that opened up more modding features with each expansion (besides also giving tons of content).

I firmly believe if comps created highly modifiable engines and only added demo content, but sold the game at a reasonable price, it would attract more players who attract more mods who attract even more players and thus sell them more units.
Not to mention mods work for free and have often outshined their commercial counterparts.

Expendable Grunt · Post by **Expendable Grunt** » 2007-08-09 10:10

Codename: Eagle was stupid...

Anyways, I emailed DICE about lisencing their engine and they've yet to reply.

Long Bow · Post by **Long Bow** » 2007-08-09 13:03

[R-PUB]Masaq wrote:Well duh! If BF2 had been made mod-friendly, some upstart bunch of modders (i.e.: the PR team) might have improved the game beyond the efforts of the DC guys who contributed to BF2, thus risking having the DC guys fired and the new guys taken on to produce whatever the next installment of the franchise is!

.

Or, they release a more mod friendly game with the possibility that a mod group can produce something better, have a very happy community ensuring strong sales over a longer period of time and creating a demand for their next big release. If the booster packs bring new content and maps that are also readily modable then people may be more apt to purchase them as well. The community can only fault BF2 right now because it has flaws with no real way to fix them. If BF2 was more mod friendly then the community could accept that the original had been designed one way but because BF2 could be readily modded, anything requiring a change could be done. In the end people would be happy with BF2 as a basis for a favourite mod that gives them what they want out of BF2. If BF3 is announced and the community has had a really good relationship with BF2 they will be more willing to put down the money on the new release and spread the word, generate more hype. So the Dice team would be responsible for producing the basis for a game widely recieved as great with strong sales. No they would not be the ones who created the mods that spurred on the sales but the mods would be to specialized to be sold to the masses like the original would be. No single mod groupd would be big enough to pull in the majority of players. Dice would be safe and happy.

I for one hope that EA keep publishing the BF series as they have the money to put behind it. If EA can loosen the grip on the code even a little bit more in the next release it should bode well for us. If not then I'm sure sales will be continue to be strong but long time players may not pick it up, perhaps hurting overall sales a bit?

system · Post by **system** » 2007-08-09 13:43

It'd be great if EA cared for its community.

nicoX · Post by **nicoX** » 2007-08-09 18:03

Expendable Grunt wrote:Codename: Eagle was stupid...

Anyways, I emailed DICE about lisencing their engine and they've yet to reply.

I live in Sweden I can call them, but I don't think they will take it seriously nor I get to talk to the person responsible for this.

Post by **Masaq** » 2007-08-09 18:51

Long Bow wrote:Reply to my post

I *was* joking, but valid points lol

Post by **KingofCamelot** » 2007-08-10 00:43

Expendable Grunt wrote:Anyways, I emailed DICE about lisencing their engine and they've yet to reply.

And you likely won't get any kind of interesting response. Problem is it will never get up the chain unless you showed up at their door with cold hard cash. Otherwise they don't pay attention.

JDFryer · Post by **JDFryer** » 2007-08-10 01:57

What everyone seems to forget is that these companies (EA, Dice, etc) are after short term profits.

Moore's law predicts that procesing power doubles every 18 months and so far it is right. What this means is that every 18 months a publisher can release a newer higher spec game with greater system demands.

Why do you think that the price of BF2 has dropped? EA/ DICE are already developing newer versions of the BF franchise. The economics of computer games is aimed towards the new, same as PC components. BF2 is a dying game, like it or not, and EA/DICE don't want to have an upstart mod like PR (which I love tbh) forcing them to re-think thier newer releases. They are there to make money and promoting an old game for its mods is not good business sense. Instead they will look to promote a newer game .

PR is a small community in the grand scale of things when you compare it to the number of people that play/own BF2. I can only hope that this mod either upgrades when EA/DICE do or that it switches to a new engine becasue I love this mod and everything it stands for and I don't want to see it disappear into obscurity, like so many other games (yes I see PR as a different game to BF2. BF2=Arcade PR=reality)

Expendable Grunt · Post by **Expendable Grunt** » 2007-08-10 04:25

WOLF, if a new engine does come out (Say battlefield 3 or whatever), how much of the stuff we currently have can be ported? I'd assume models...

nicoX · Post by **nicoX** » 2007-08-10 10:11

If DICE wanted to sell the license, I think they would be the ones contacting PR.

Long Bow · Post by **Long Bow** » 2007-08-10 14:45

JDFryer wrote:What everyone seems to forget is that these companies (EA, Dice, etc) are after short term profits.

Why do you think that the price of BF2 has dropped? EA/ DICE are already developing newer versions of the BF franchise. The economics of computer games is aimed towards the new, same as PC components. BF2 is a dying game, like it or not, and EA/DICE don't want to have an upstart mod like PR (which I love tbh) forcing them to re-think thier newer releases. They are there to make money and promoting an old game for its mods is not good business sense. Instead they will look to promote a newer game .

)

Very true, good point. My point was that if right out of the box BF2 was mod friendly it could ensure a more prolonged sale of the game. In turn when BF3 comes out the community, being happy with its experience from BF2 and mods, will be happy to purchase the next instalment.

Your right, at this point there is no money to be had in putting time and money towards BF2 as the people demanding changes have already purchased the game. No new money to be had.

Oh and Masdaq, sorry if my post sounded harsh. Your post just got me thinking about a utopis game world, didn't mean to bash your idea. And I didn't realise you were joking

<--- there all better

VipersGhost · Post by **VipersGhost** » 2007-08-10 18:19

It'd be amazing if EA tailored their Mod system SO well that from BF2 to BF3 the models/maps etc could be ported over into BF3 without to much difficulty. Talk about building a community of game buyers...they are stupid for not thinking out of the box with these kinds of things. Fat companies lose their innovation abilities so fast it seems.

LtSoucy · Post by **LtSoucy** » 2007-08-17 00:27

NO and why is this thread still open?