I'd love to put up a module that just changes the United Planets in GalCiv II. Or a module that adds new types of planets or new super abilities or new random events or whatever. But I'm not doing that for free. We'd have to be paid for it. I'd probably ask for $9.95 or something per module. But would we get massively flamed? Probably.
Ahh, but there's a question here:
Should you be "massively flamed" for it? That is, would the people flaming you be wrong for doing so?
The reason I wouldn't agree with this is that it lacks holistic game design. It rests on the idea that games are made of Lego, where you can just slap on individual parts and bits, and a game with more parts and bits is better than one with fewer. And I do not hold to that.
Great games are like a well-tuned clock. The pieces fit together and interlock, they work correctly by design. And simply changing/adding more things does not a priori make the clock
better. A clock with 3 hands isn't better than one with 2.
The Half-Life 2 episodes, for example, didn't add new weapons for a very specific reason: the old ones covered the bases. Shotgun, sniper rifle, pistol, rapid-fire, and explosives. Adding more guns would just be adding more guns, not making the game better.
I wouldn't say you should be massively flamed for selling incremental tweaks for your game. But I would also suggest that there are perfectly reasonable arguments
against that kind of game building that have nothing to do with money.
the fact you were willing to treat potential customers as such (ie total lack of respect) did take me aback.
Well, maybe it's about time. This whole "The customer is always right" nonsense has gone on long enough. Sometimes, the customer needs to be smacked in the face to see that maybe it's not such a bad idea.
And the only customers that Brad has a lack of respect for are those that are clearly disrespecting him and what he wants to make. It's one thing to dislike the idea on principle (as I did); it's another to say that, "Yes, I think this addition is good, but I don't want to pay for it just because I don't feel like I should have to."
