When Fans Outdo The Developer

[Yassen]

Basically this means sharing things you've found created by fans that was actually better than what the developer made themselves. This could be fan-fiction that was better written, a mod that was more fun and well designed or even a video that was cooler than any official trailer.

As an example, I found this fan-made trailer for Mass Effect 2 that I believe was better than anything Bioware or EA made.


What are other cases you know of where fans actually did something that improved on, or was just plain better, than what the developer did?

 

[Vakz]

I must say it is indeed really good, but a lot of that is from Shadow Broker, which didn't exist at the time of release (and would have been such massive spoilers, I don't think anyone would have appreciated it).

 

[pendragon177]

Monty Oum and the geniuses at Roosterteeth.

Nuff said.

Spoiler: Haloid

Spoiler: Red vs Blue: Season 8: Episode 10: This One Goes to Eleven

 

[Austin Howe]

Yay! I'm first to mention the infamous Metroid: Redesign, by Drewseph! It's a more flawed game than Super Metroid, but it's larger, harder, and more rewarding because of it. (;D)

 

[pspman45]

Yay! I'm first to mention the infamous Metroid: Redesign, by Drewseph! It's a more flawed game than Super Metroid, but it's larger, harder, and more rewarding because of it. (;D)

ooooh boy is there quite the sexual pun there

 

[Suijen]

Neverwinter Nights had legendary mods that set the standard for mod gaming. NWN sucked, but its mods were great.

I think Counter-Strike and DOTA are even more popular than their host engines.

And of course, fans do a lot of patching and revising for classic games like Bloodlines.

Many games, like HL 2 and Crysis, have fans improving textures and whatnot.

 

[kidd25]

Yay! I'm first to mention the infamous Metroid: Redesign, by Drewseph! It's a more flawed game than Super Metroid, but it's larger, harder, and more rewarding because of it. (;D)

ooooh boy is there quite the sexual pun there

that what she said... sorry you made it too easy.

 

[Fanta Grape]

I don't even like Dead or Alive but this is amazing. Not to mention I can name every magic used by the Fantasy girls

 

[FalloutJack]

Obviously all of the great Fallout mods. You know...

The cameos from other games,
The ridable/fireable Vertibirds,
a living and breathing Argyle,
the sexy ladies...

Huh? Oh, sorry. Friend of mine had used the mods for some characters of hers and she has a bit of a fetish. Anyway, awesome things have been done in the PC version of Fallout games. Pity we can't do that with consoles.

 

[Gindil]

Ok...

If anyone has ever played Streets of Rage, they owe it to themselves to play the Remake. There's all kinds of awesome that was put into the project that I can't begin to tell you about.

Multiple routes, different characters, bonus characters, various endings, multiple gameplay modes...

I could go even further but it would make you salivate.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Trauma Team and their Desert Combat thing, you know... And then EA ate them for their IP to use in Battlefield 2 and then shat them out... That's what happens when fans surpass the developers themselves too much of the time

But if we all take a moment to remember:

Capture the Flag only became a staple in FPS after it was a mod for Quake.

 

[Galaxy Roll]

Freespace Source Code Project is a pretty good example.

 

[volcanblade]

The Europa Barbarorum mod for Rome Total War. They basically rehauled the game to make it more historically accurate, added a bunch of territories, a bunch of new factions, changed every in game unit and most of the events. Not to mention they made it much more tactical based on the units and type rather than army size and stats

 

[Justin Coomes]

i dont have anything but props for a pretty unique thread subject

 

[Kahunaburger]

The Europa Barbarorum mod for Rome Total War. They basically rehauled the game to make it more historically accurate, added a bunch of territories, a bunch of new factions, changed every in game unit and most of the events. Not to mention they made it much more tactical based on the units and type rather than army size and stats

Ninja'd. Rome is a good game, but EB and RTR 7 are ridiculous.

 

[Stall]

Every Bethesda game ever. The fans basically end up fixing their half-assed games for them in the long run, with everything from massive bug fixes to texture updates. They basically totally eclipse the developers in de-bugging and keeping the game pretty. The modding community is the only saving grace of the the newer TES games, and Fallout 3 to a lesser extent.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

The fanfic Tiberium Wars, the nameless mod,

Ha, beat me to 'em.

Anyone who hasn't played The Nameless Mod, go grab a copy of Deus Ex if you don't already have one and get it now. Seriously.

Aside from that there's the occassional and very rare fanfic which surpasses the writing quality of whatever it's based on (though that may not necessarily be all that hard) and all those truly ridiculously awesome mods you don't hear enough about, particularly Oblivion Lost and Complete 2009 for the first Stalker game.

 

[Yassen]

Aside from that there's the occassional and very rare fanfic which surpasses the writing quality of whatever it's based on (though that may not necessarily be all that hard).

Funnily enough I've found the most amazing fan-fics of Bioware games, maybe the rich story gives them plenty of material to work with?

 

[BlackLurker]

Mario + Sonic fighting in DBZ style combat. If only the creator doesn't seem to intend on finishing the series. This is something that Nintendo and Sega should be having Mario and Sonic do, not Olympics. I don't mind Olympics, but this is seriously gold.

 

[ThriKreen]

Neverwinter Nights had legendary mods that set the standard for mod gaming. NWN sucked, but its mods were great.

How about that horse system, eh? Eh?