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Jade Raymond Wants More User-Created Content In Triple-A Games
Ubisoft Toronto’s managing director sees a different future for triple-A titles, and it's one that moves away from action-heavy titles currently churned out year after year.
Jade Raymond, who worked as a producer on the Assassin’s Creed series, doesn’t think games need to become bigger and cost more to develop – and that they also need to provide more opportunities for the community to create things.
"No, no. It's got to stop," Raymond told Gamasutra at the Game Developers Conference this year. "To give you an overly-simplified answer, I do think games and franchises need to include more user content. And by user content, I don't mean that all of a sudden, every game is going to have a level builder, because not everyone wants to sit down and build a level. That's too complicated.
"But by user content, you can think of Dark Souls, and how your game is affected by other people who are playing," she added. "In what ways can the user impact the experience? I think that's what's going to drive hits, but also at the extreme end, it's going to enable us to continue to create interesting content without always having such huge costs associated with it. To me, that's the key. What I think people want is their own custom experience, in anything."
The article goes on to explain how Valve has been allowing users to create content and then sell it on Steam.
"I love a lot of the stuff they're doing over at Valve in terms of user-generated content. It seems to be a smart way to go about it," Raymond said. "With virtual hats – who would've thought? It's a smart way to have your community engaged.”
Raymond explained that upcoming games like Splinter Cell: Blacklist will implement user-created content. She hopes that the community can add value, as well as their own vision, to the game.
You can read the whole story at Gamasutra.
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