Official Creation Program [Dev Request]

We always hear about how the devs take too long to make certain things in the game, so why not let talented fans do some of the work?

Fans who understand 3D modeling could do it for them! Think of all the outfits, furniture, and hair styles that could be implemented.

Obviously every item would have to be screened, and approved, but if other online games can do it well I.e. War Frame, then I see no problem with a creation program. Such a system could help take off some of the burden that the devs deal with.

The main issue is that the players who submit their ideas would have to meet the quality of the devs, and their expectations. That's not a bad thing though. We want everything in this game to be well made.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

The main issue is that the players who submit their ideas would have to meet the quality of the devs, and their expectations. That's not a bad thing though. We want everything in this game to be well made.

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Quick, someone post a picture of that dress. ;D I like the idea, but I can also see how it might be a headache to sort through if there's any kind of compensation or even just recognition for submissions and people start submitting others' work as their own. I can also see an absolute flood of new stuff being overwhelming. Even so, I love seeing what the community comes up with. There's been some absolutely awesome submissions to the contests that we've ended up with in game and I am all for more of that!

Cue endless ERP mod clothes for Fetish Fantasy XIV

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Originally Posted by Gula

Cue endless ERP mod clothes for Fetish Fantasy XIV

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Obviously that wouldn't be allowed in an official creation program.

Sigh.

/10char

It is a good idea, but it would cause more issues than it would fix. Some people would expect monetary compensation, others would be ok with just acknowledgement. Those that want monetary compensation, some would want far more than other ... the issues keep going. It would create more of a headache for SE and most likely slow down the already slow content release.

I was on the (now-closed) Insomniac Games official forums for a while, where some of the game devs were quite active - and they basically said they can't accept fan submissions outside of official, targeted competitions ("design a costume", "design a weapon") because it can be a legal issue - I think to do with credit or compensation or something like that.

It would also be difficult for their own original work. Imagine if a fan submits something coincidentally close to what the game team were planning to implement, but haven't publicly shown off yet. The fan might then accuse them of plagiarism or taking their idea and not crediting them for it.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I was on the (now-closed) Insomniac Games official forums for a while, where some of the game devs were quite active - and they basically said they can't accept fan submissions outside of official, targeted competitions ("design a costume", "design a weapon") because it can be a legal issue - I think to do with credit or compensation or something like that.

It would also be difficult for their own original work. Imagine if a fan submits something coincidentally close to what the game team were planning to implement, but haven't publicly shown off yet. The fan might then accuse them of plagiarism or taking their idea and not crediting them for it.

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This is the correct answer. Depending on the country of the person providing said assets laws would differ and sometimes be completely incompatible. If you work for a company (say SE) the IP of everything you make belongs to the company. On the other hand if you don't work with the company your IP is yours and in some countries it is ILLEGAL to forfeit your IP to another entity. The workaround is to "lease" it for a set amount of time but ultimately SE would lose that IP over time. It's a real headache.
The only way it would work is if you were hired contractors for the company and at that point they may as well just hire more devs.

The idea has merit. Many other games employ a similar method of content creation, allowing players to make stuff and then highly rated items get checked over by devs and potentially added to the game.

The issues to work out include:

1) Finding the time and resources to have someone continually checking submissions. (Not to mention, that it would still take some time to then add things to the game)

2) Compensating players for their work (Since, technically, it's their stuff. There's legal action possible if SE are profiting of their work. Many other games get around this by adding them to cash shops and giving the creator a portion of the sales... But how would that work in XIV? Would people want all the fan-made stuff to end up on the mogstation?)

3) Setting up an adequate place for people to show off their creations and for players to approve/disapprove of things to find the highly rated stuff to check using actual dev time (As well as filtering out all the poor creations such as tasteless 18+ content, copyrighted content or things that are just not a good fit for the theme of Eorzea (More so than what already makes it into the game >.>))

4) SE is a business. How much profit will this get them?

I mean, personally, I think it could be a cool idea. If players are capable of making high quality content using the same tools that the devs use and are willing to put in the time to do so, then it would be neat if they could work on additional content while the devs continue to do their own work.

I don't particularly want players heavily influencing the direction of the game's aesthetics.

The occasional design contest for a specific gear set or hairstyle is more than enough as far as I'm concerned.

Cool idea.. But would these players be rewarded?