[Mark]

What is the essence of any game? That is so central and important to it that without it it will not even exist. The basic building blocks that make up anything and everything in the PC (not the hardware), and the OS itself, and others related to that area like programs. Is Software. You create software by code. So my suggestion is instead of community managers or those responsible for that game franchise hold contests like make a song, draw a picture or what not instead let it be write a code to be implemented. If you really love ESO if you really love any game if you really have that passion towards that game, and you want the best for it then start writing code appropiate to the thing, and send it to the developers for them to look at. I myself is just beginning to learn C++, HTML, Javascript, CSS in my high school programming course exept the first one.

We as a community can accelerate or any other community can accelerate the work load needed to create a software, or anything that is based on code by a lot, or even offer different perspectives to the way things are implemented. I haven't seen a option yet in ESO that allows you to do what I'm talking about, but perhaps one day there might be one. I don't know if playerbases, or communities are already doing this, but it is great if they are.

Maybe you want to change the gravity, or "bullet drop" of arrows either to faster or slower? (if ESO is using a physics engine) Instead of making a post about it go learn C++ or if you already know it even better, and write a code that implements this change. And then perhaps send the code for those in charge of implementing the game to look at.

It doesn't have to be about competition it doesn't have to be about getting paid for this look at it like the code version of fan art.

My thought is gonna revolutionize the gaming/software industry!

[Misty lt]

I don't know...I think you are a bit hyped about starting your new learning of some programming, wich is great, but I don't see the point of this. You can't just write a piece of whatever you want and send it to the developers to see if they can use it...I mean...??

[Mackenzie]

You haven't seen it yet, and probably never will.

No one has the time or the funding to check random code tossed at them that may or may not be malicious.

You can change the UI. You aren't going to be able to change a multiplayer game. How much would random changes cause major game breaking problems because someone has a personal preference that doesn't fit in the game?

[elliot mudd]

There is something called anti-virus my friend. There is always someone or few others that can check those codes in the world. Even better let the community themselves check each others code what I said here in this sentence might be problematic a good system should be implemented if this was decided to be given the green light. I don't know the time required to read a code, but I would connect it to like reading a papper with text on it. This is why I say let those in charge of the said franchise take a look at it be it the developers, software engineers, programmers basically anyone that can read, and understand code and then later based on their anolysis choose to go with it, or not. Also isn't it C++ that is the most used programming language in the gaming industry, so that narrows it down a lot!

[Amanda Leis]

Your thought is completely unconnected to how programming and the programming industry actually works. Sorry, but just from a technical perspective, this is non-viable. From a security and feasibility perspective, it is even worse.

Yes, and it checks for known viruses against an assembled database. That doesn't help against thousands of users throwing random ...stuff... against the walls.

This... isn't viable. In any way at all. They aren't going to show off their source code so people can fit their own snippets in (major security risk), they aren't going to implement random bits of code that are sent their way, and any real change to the game is going to take large chunks of code, not little snippets.

[yermom]

You, "my friend", clearly have a lot to learn about your industry. Antivirus software, as mentioned, can only defend against known threats. Not new creations. In addition, I don't think you appreciate how many thousands of lines of code it takes to make even minor features. I have a relative who has been programming games for a couple decades now, and he has often said that when taking over a colleague's code, it was quicker to chuck it out and start from scratch than to try and figure out someone else's work.

Another old work colleague of mine told me how an unscrupulous programmer in his old job wrote self-destructive code into the company's systems, that required a password to negate. Hence, when they saw fit to fire him, he informed them of the fact as he left, knowing full well they would never find where in the millions of lines of code he'd put it.

[Auguste Bartholdi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rav9ijyyZk

Sorry, i can't take the thread/OP seriously at all. Anyone who think is in anyway a good, or even possible idea has no idea what they are talking about or is trying to just stir up trouble

Thanks for the laugh OP.

[Damian Parsons]

It is unlikely the developer will allow it because they have exclusive rights to all game content. They even own all the characters created by the players, that's why they can ban you from the game for any reason in fact they don't even need a reason they can ban you just cause they feel like it and there is nothing you or anyone can do about it. However as soon as they start to let people who are not employees add things like you are suggesting to the game that might stand up in court if someone decided they had enough cash to take it there. So I just can not see this, but who knows maybe some day.

For instance in PWE/Cryptic's MMO's Star Trek Online and Neverwinter, both of those games have a Foundry. The Foundry is a set of tools that players can use to make their own missions and even submit them and then the developer "publishes" them for other players to play. Some of these missions in STO actually have way better storylines then what the developer brings to the game but anything created from the Foundry is still property of the developer. Also they are careful not to let Foundry authors create things like new ships, ship interiors, and anything else Cryptic makes money selling in their in game store.

[Naomi Lastname]

Oh dear,

I can't even begin to imagine how bad this would work out.

As someones mentioned, different players have different preferences, so you'd just end up with a game that becomes horrifically unbalanced as everyone makes changes that benefits their character or class.

And virus scan wouldn't prevent me making a change that makes all opposing player abilities usefless when I'm fighting them. I think the OP may need to go read up on what a virus scan actually is for.

[Janette Segura]

Perhaps I wasn't clear when I said they needed the approval of the employees at the specific franchise in this case ESO. And if your so worried about it corrupting the lines of code of the said franchise then perhaps put it in another cloud? I'm just saying that a possible thought for the system supporting fans/players being able to send their code for a person or two that have a code background to look at the sent code(s) could be initiaton=take a look at it. action=decide wether to implement or not. Termination= delete it.

You guys are making it sound that the code players they send in, or give away have the right by some kind of mandate to be implemented in the game that is not what I'm implying, and at the end of the day its up to the company to decide what's better for them in terms of their course for the future.

A probable solution to this would be that they would have to agree to terms of service, or some sort of idea similar to a contract/covenant that would tell them thoroughly that the material you will be sending to x company is going to belong to them... Like I said see it as a code version of fan art. I'm not sure if your second paragraph involves code or not, but if it doesn't then it is not relative because my point is not like a mod program someone uses to adjust some things for example in fallout 3 rather it is going one step back, and be that person who creates the mod program. Basically don't be the guy that makes 100 giants vs 100 dragons in Skyrim rather be the guy that is responsible for allowing this to happen because of his code. I'm trying my best to explain what I think. I'm not implying the creation of addons solely my point is more the game itself, but addons/mods could also be its own spectrum like we see in WoW.

Lastly, to be honest I wasn't expecting someone to agree with me, or support me this place feels like a hivemind no disrespect.

[Chris Guerin]

ummm. considering the amount of arguments that start up here , I cannot see how you think if it as a hivemind.

Also, if you did not think anyone would agree with you, then why did you post it in the first place?

[Tamika Jett]

Because the world doesn't revolve around you. I don't care what you think or any mod here thinks hell I might not even care what a Bethesda/ZOS person thinks, but what I care about is the well being of the game, and I feel that we all who are on this forum feel the same or at least some of us anyways the point is this is common ground for us. And I try to my best to give suggestions for improvement on things which I think in my opinion can be better off, or any kind of "imaginative" suggestion for that matter. Priority.

[Charlotte Henderson]

I don't say this often, but that sounds like a terrible idea that should should be shot and killed, then cremated and have the ashes scattered in space.
Sorry, but, that proposal will not only create general mayhem, it will destroy a lot of people's gaming experience and games themselves. It has nothing to do with being selfish..sticking to the proposal is far more selfish than not

[Chloe Lou]

I have never heard of an anti-virus that can prevent malicious code in mods.

Once there were two pita "modders" who decided to make "fun" mods. Fun for them, anyway. The mod installed and started working, seemingly doing what it was supposed to do. Then npcs started spawning clones, hundreds of them. The "modders" made it difficult to shut down, so in very short order the mod locked up your pc and crashed your game. Often corrupting saves as well.

The code worked correctly. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. Please explain how anti-virus is going to catch code that isn't a virus, but is malicious?

Again, who is going to pay for the devs, software engineers, and programmers to go through everything line by line to make sure no one inserted malicious code in a mod? I don't care if it is in plain text; they don't have the time or resources to devote to random code that isn't going to fit into the game they made.

As for the hivemind thing; not a chance in the world. However you keep coming up with things that are so far out of bounds/off-center/out of the Elder Scrolls world that even people who can't agree on ideas and concepts *in the game world* can agree that your ideas are not going to fit in the Elder Scrolls world.

[Marie Maillos]

Please elaborate I can't compute what you said on the last sentence. And can you say why for your reasons?

[Keeley Stevens]

Common ground is working within the game world constraints. Coming up with random ideas for changes that won't benefit the game world or for that matter, make sense in the game world, isn't contributing to the well-being of the game.

Imagination is fine. They've never shown a senche before. Imagination helped create it. It fits in the game world; there is an explanation of the different types of khajiit, but no official pictures. So they created one.

Bringing back the long dead and gone dwemer as a playable race doesn't fit in the game world. Allowing people to change the gravity or the physics in a multiplayer game isn't imaginative. It is not only impossible, it would ruin the game.

I would never want to play a game you fixed or "adjusted".

You want the changes you want, and that would be fine for a mod for a single player game. What you want and what hundreds of other players want are not going to mesh. Your changes would ruin other player's games. If you are playing a mmo, you play the game the devs made. If you want to change things to suit yourself as far as coding the game goes, with physics and gravity and bullet drop or whatever, you need a single player game where your changes affect no one but yourself.

[Jamie Lee]

To the OP:

Not an entirely bad idea. Damn it I'll be the first to say it.

Something similar goes with Everquest Next, where the community develops some material blah blah I don't know the specifics.

That makes sense for a game, gets what the community wants, and saves developers time.

however...

This is not just any MMO but an Elder Scrolls game. The MMO part cant diverge from the Elder Scrolls part, and Elder Scrolls is known for its rich content, and full integrated worlds.

I don't have faith in most of the fan base creating unique content that matches the lore/ feel of the Elder Scrolls series. I think that their development process is fairly unique, and they have a method of developing these honest, massive record-setting games.

I find it a testament to the dedication to continue releasing content for a wonderful IP, and it stands as their legacy. No matter how many Brinks the publisher releases, there will always be the shining diamond of the TES series.

Bottom line, I want the publisher/ developer to tell me their unique tale. I love seeing it unfold, and it would honestly lose its magic if I felt like individual players are working on it. I don't feel the same way about other games.

I guess the problem is that MODS have been a prevalent part of the game (for several) and this will be the first without it. While I wish for the PC players who play TES for the mods to get a game they are happy with, it just isn't realistic. I don't want to see player's vision of the game, I wanna see Beth/ ZOS story.

So Mr. OP I support the theory of your idea, but I am with the hivemind and think that is an idea best left out of the Canon Tes series...

[Harry Leon]

Well, if you can program, and maybe 10% can program, it's just not fair to everyone else. In essence, you have a skill that would give you the advantage, and people unlike yourself or maybe even you, will use that against everyone else..any system that can be abused WILL be abused. People that write code for games now that aren't official are called hackers..and they sure aren't doing to community any favors...you can send it to the developers anyways..there's nothing stopping you from doing that at any time. Maybe you should look into something that doesn't have mistakeable code someone might miss ( because really, coding is personal. A lot of people won't understand your code even if they are coders) like content building with a prebuilt editor

[Tyrel]

The world does not revolve around you either, and you seem to think it does, the fact no one is agreeing with you does not mean we are some sort of hive mind (thank god, i would not want to be connected to anyone else and be spreading my insanity), it just means your ideas are so far out there, no one wants what you seem to want. And also, you seem to be basically saying you just wanted to start an argument.

[April D. F]

It doesn't have to be random code the vision of what I have for the forum supporting my theory is that they would be divided upon several different topics like: Quests, PVP, PVE etc...

I'm only going to touch upon the "who is going to pay for the devs part" and "don't have the time or resources" because I believe that the other things you said can be answered in some form by my previous posts, and some of the things you have said are just not my points (making it sound like I'm talking solely about mods which is not even the reason for the creation of the thread, but rather to have the option for the people, code made by the people to possibly implement their [but signing the contract would mean that the code written would belong to ZOS/bethesda I still left the "their" there for some reason] approved code lines in the game itself) and the thing about gravity was just a example of the possibilities...

Repeating for the 100th time it is the ZOS/bethesda people that create the game through their written code that also can approve the codes being sent in by the community people, so the game is still created by the devs because like stated earlier the code senders will have to sign a covenant where all code material will belong to Bethesda, and people can learn from each other that's what I'm saying we all were at one point rookies on different subjects it doesn't hurt to learn.

Remember I said they could use another cloud to deflect this malicious code from corrupting the code lines written by Bethesda/ZOS programmers, developers, software engineers etc... for the game.

So I don't have a college major in economics, or business management or whatever, but I will give it a shot to try to answer this question. I'm thinking that it could be some kind of entry fee involved I mean you need to prove that you are really sincere about this as well as it just being a waste of money for that person if he can't code appropiately to match the games format/concept or general code approach my knowledge here is not really great don't know what computer science terminology to use, but what I mean is that he has to conform to how the code is written by the ZOS/bethesda people.

[Gracie Dugdale]

No thanks, keep this in single player games, not MMOs

[Shae Munro]

didnt NWN embrace mods that people made and included them in official updates? So ZenBeth cant do the same because?

I agree that the OP proposal is a little out there, but lets be serious here, the first major MMO that figures out how to inject user made content into their game in a quick, efficient and safe way wont just unseat WoW as the king, it will change the industry.

[Jenna Fields]

There are different ways of going about to learn programming one could if that person was really motivated would be able to learn programming if he wanted to. Its about personal preference, and learning programming is not some kind of nuclear secrets held by the government.

[Amy Smith]

Neverwinter was not an MMO, it also had user controlled servers and was not usually a permanent world. BTW WOW will NEVER be unseated for so many reasons that it will not even bother explaining it, just saying it is an Enigma of MMO's that will never happen again.

[patricia kris]

Please understand that when I say I don't want to play whatever zany trash the average person cobbles together, I truly mean I don't [censored] want to play amateur hour game code.

I don't care if the game is free. Most people's ideas of awesome are far from my own. I don't want this crap in games. Leave it to professionals and the rare (VERY RARE) visionary indie developer. Thanks.