Quote Originally Posted by Puzz3D
As I recall, there have been posts made by CA which said the game would be highly modable. Apparently, making the game modable is not seen by the market managers as hurting sales or you can be sure the programmers would be prohibited from doing it. Sending suggestions to CA on how to improve the game is pointless because the manager is going to throw the suggestions in the wastebasket.
Which publisher or developer in the post-Counterstrike era has been adverse to modding? Now, more than ever before, modding fulfills a crucial role within the gaming community.

I have been thinking about this extensively over the past couple of weeks, and I have arrived at the conclusion that the product is no longer the game, but the engine itself. Why else are today's games - almost without exception - released in an unfinished state? Because they are little more than a skin within which to sell the engine to the 10-15 year old "fan boyz" demographic. W00t!!

Today's game is now little more than a means to an end. The engine, and the distribution thereof, is that end.

To support this thesis, I would point to the sheer number of games suffering from intolerable imbalance issues in their "from the box" state, a notable case in point being the hideously biased Command and Conquer: Generals. I can not think of a better example of an atrociously imbalanced game built upon a breathtaking graphics engine.

I would also draw attention to the widespread release of modding tools to the general public by the developers. Bethesda Softworks provides perhaps the best example of this practice in packaging their Elder Scrolls Construction Set with Morrowind.

Developers and publishers survive, of course, upon the revenue from their games as they come "from the box," but I am now utterly convinced that they regard their games as secondary to their engines. These engines are their gifts and tributes to their core fan bases, and I believe that the Rome: Total War engine is Creative Assembly's magnificent gesture of gratitude to us for our continued support and patronage.

I look forward to modding it into oblivion and back!

A.