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Escape from the Dungeon
As we have mentioned, game systems are like open source "operating systems." Player-designers interact with data and write their own software, creating programs (rulesets) that manipulate or transform the organization of game system data. New games result, which can then be manipulated and transformed again. The operating system of the Icehouse Set is nothing more than the collection of 60 colored pyramids and the mathematical and physical rules structuring their space of possibility. A simple and elegant OS kernel, the Icehouse Set is nonetheless capable of a huge variety of expression.
Perhaps not surprisingly, game systems find a natural home when we turn our attention to digital games. Starcraft, Pac-Man, EverQuest, Pong: each is a game, and each is a piece of software (literally). Digital games have always had a naturally affinity with an open source software model: the very first computer game, Spacewar!, was an open source game whose code underwent modification and distribution by players from the moment of its conception. Without open source thinking, Spacewar! might never have come into being. Digital games have always been ready candidates for an open source paradigm; it is within digital games, in fact, that the model of player-as-producer has found the most significant and transformative voices to date.
One such voice is Elemental, a player-produced mod for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeon Siege, created by Gas Powered Games. Elemental is what is known as a "total conversion" mod: rather than simply inventing a new character skin, game level, or in-game object, the mod transforms Dungeon Siege into a completely different game. The result is a game that utilizes elements of Dungeon Siege's core game system within a radically altered context of expression. As Zendo to Icehouse, Elemental recasts Dungeon Siege within an altogether different space of play.
The possibility for a mod such as Elemental only exists because of software developers that work from an open source model. Gas Powered Games recognized open source as an ideology that could effectively enhance and extend the life of their games. As a result, they released Dungeon Siege with a robust suite of editing and game development tools that players could use to modify the game in an infinite variety of ways. The proprietary Siege Editor, for example, gives players the freedom to rework nearly every aspect of the game, making Dungeon Siege not only a game, but also a role-playing platform for those who want to create their own characters, spells, and dun-geons—or even entire worlds. Players can publish these user-created files to the web, making them available for anyone to download and explore or play as a multiplayer game.[7]
Team Elemental, the development team of (mostly amateur) programmers, artists, game designers, level designers, GUI and concept artists living and working in various countries across the globe, took these tools and began to mod. Impressed by the robust Dungeon Siege engine, they quickly realized that the limits of what could be done with the game lay only in their imaginations. They decided to depart from the Tolkienesque world of the original game to invent something with a radically different setting, storyline, and game play mechanic. The resulting experience of play would be very different than what the original game offered. Affectionately described as "biblepunk" (players are former slaves seeking retribution in the ancient city of Jericho), it remains to be seen if the Dungeon Siege community will embrace the new world by modding it in turn.
Dungeon Seige editor
One of the unique features of Elemental's creation was the collaborative environment nurtured by Dungeon Siege's developers. Although many open source games make their code available for modification by players, and often provide toolsets to help them do so, Gas Powered Games assumed an active role in assisting Team Elemental. Programmers coding the mod worked in direct contact with engineers from the original game, who offered hints and advice for working with the intricacies of the code. Clearly, Gas Powered Games embraced the player-as-producer paradigm in constructing and nurturing an active player community. As Chris Taylor, president and game designer of Gas Powered Games, noted in an interview, the drive to support the mod community came out of their experience with a previous game:
Most of this drive comes from our experience working on Total Annihilation. We learned that a great community could propel a game to new levels of fun and turn it into more than anyone thought it could be. We found this idea to be very exciting, and in many ways, feel it is the way of the future. Imagine, people all over the world working together on teams to create fantastic new adventures, stories, characters.The possibilities are endless, and this is just the beginning![8]
Taylor's investment in supporting player community and creativity has clearly paid off. Elemental is just one example how far players will go when a game's design invests in them a desire to extend and reinvent play by playing with the rules of the game. The culturally transformative play that emerges from player production feeds back into the open source model out of which the game developed, growing the possibilities of the community's space of play exponentially.
Both Icehouse and Dungeon Siege exhibit three essential qualities of open source games: the games are open systems that can be modified by a community of players, rather than a single developer; the games are freely shared among players and developers; and the source code is made available. In the case of Dungeon Siege, not just the source code, but also development tools were made available to players, increasing the ease and depth of possible modifications.
[7]<http://dungeonseige.com>
[8]Tricia "Kazi Wren" Harris,"Mod World: Part 12." Gamespy.com. August 22, 2002 <www.gamespy.com/modworld/august02/modworld12/ >.
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