Longevity

Funny I should name this post Longevity since I hadn't posted in awhile but I've been very busy. Going forward I plan to add a new post every Friday and will begin documenting my experiences created new content in the Unreal 3 Engine and my continuing search for employment in this wonderful industry.

On to the point of todays post. Lately I have given up World of Warcraft (read: crack) temporarily to go back through my old library of games and finish some of them. After my fiance got back into Stronghold 2 I decided to pick it up again as well and was suprised to find that every evening there are several games of it being played all over the world. Now this game was published back in 2005 by Take Two and has enjoyed continuing success ( I saw at least two boxes on the shelf at my local Best Buy) due to, in my mind, 3 factors. The first is continued support from the developer Firefly. They have kept patching the game since day one and have reached version 1.4.1. They had also patched in more modern graphic effects such as bloom lighting since release. The second is a strong community for the game. In my search for more maps I found at least 2 great fan sites but the best was Stronghold 2 Heaven. This site has an active forum community of fans and mappers as well directions for the mapping tools that shipped with the game. The last thing that has extended the life of this great game is the fact that it did indeed ship with robust mapping tools. The documentation that comes with the editor is a bit lacking but the internet is full of great tutorials. I've been spending many hours working with the editor to create new multiplayer maps for myself and my fiance to play on but the tools don't stop there. The editor also allows the creation of free play sandbox maps, Economic scenario missions, and War-based scenario missions.

Being able to create new content for my games has always been an important part of my entertainment experience over the years. Great games like Stronghold 2 and Starcraft have continued to thrive because of great support from the developers and an active community of fans that continue to create content. These are factors that I feel are important in future titles and hope to continue to see going forward.