[imaginaryNumb3r]

The problem is that content-creation has become prohibitively laborious and expensive. Don't even think about creating a Battlefield level (or similar levels) without having a team of people working on it.

3D models aren't much better. You can easily re-texturing and create new content this way, but adding new models, animations and AI requires huge amount of polish to be somewhere near AAA quality.

Of course I completely agree on the community aspect. Forums have been dying for a long time and left a vast graveyard of former communities. But this is mostly due to social media and how newer generations are using the internet. We have a continuing trend of centralization which has affected the gaming sector big time.

[the_only_law]

> but adding new models, animations and AI requires huge amount of polish to be somewhere near AAA qualities

On too, I remember wanting to get into the modding scene for an game I loved to play.

I did some research on the format used for 3D models and at the time the format was completely proprietary and supported only by software that costs tens of thousands of dollars most kidders probably don’t have sitting around.

The situation may be better nowadays, as I faintly recall the format being reverse engineered and supported on blender through plugins, but I may be created a hopeful fantasy.

[Arrath]

Half-Life 1/Goldsrc was the golden age of modding, and I miss it dearly.

Don't get me wrong, plenty of modern games have vibrant modding scenes (Minecraft, Starsector, Rimworld, Elder Scrolls, Fallout) but we don't see massive total conversions like we used to.