By Gregor Wildermann
Heavy boots walk over cold marble-floor. A metal detector screams. The man carries guns. Lots of guns. While shooting onto the security personnel, the black-clad figure glides through the air in slow-motion. The grinding techno-sound has an impact like a submachine-gun's bullets. All this described seems to be straight out of the movie "Matrix", but it's from the trailer of the computergame "The Real World", a so called modification.
This term summarizes programs which augment an existing computer game. In extreme cases the whole game is redesigned. And all the mods have something in common: They aren't created by multi-million dollar companies, but by private persons, by game-fans of the special kind. Sometimes even the consoles get opened and the interior is treated with soldering irons. Because without a mod-chip the new games wouldn't function.
One of those is Jonathan Hallier who lives in Scotland and studies Computer Science and Philosophy at St. Andrews University. Amongst his online friends and on his website, he goes by the pseudonym “Maddieman”. Together with half a dozen friends he has created “The Real World” which is very close to the world of “The Matrix” movies.
Eight years ago, Jonathan began programming two-dimensional games on his computer. But it wasn’t until he discovered the video-game “Max Payne”, a year ago that it became possible for ‘modders’ like him to develop complex three-dimensional games. Jonathan is now even able to integrate “bullet-time”, which is the trademark of the Matrix movies, into his own creations.
Jonathan Hallier’s pastime is not as extraordinary as it initially appears to be. Worldwide more than a thousand hobbyist programmers modify existing games or create own worlds. They profit the fact that games producers, after the launch of the actual game, pass on important development tools such as the so called ‘game engine’ or the level editor. Clearly not out of the goodness of their heart alone, but to keep the sales of the original game up through the provision of more and more levels. On the CD to the new “Unreal Tournament 2003”, Atari even integrated the modified programs. Even the heavily criticised ego-shooter, Counterstrike, was originally only one of the many modifications of “Half-Life”. The popularity of the game went so far that it became available in shops as an official game.
Generally, modifications can be found for free on the web. Hence, the young programmers only need a new games idea and sufficient enthusiasm as motivation for the hundreds of unpaid hours working in front of the computer.
Recognition amongst the scene is not the only thing that they can win in the process. For some programmers, the hobby is a stepping stone for a career with the big publishers. The companies receive a work sample of the young talents by looking at the games they create.
The work for a successful videogame can now involve teams up to 100 people. Yet, even in the mod scene, specialists are required. Apart from programmers, you need level designers, graphic artists, animators, and coders. According to Jonathan, those talented people work quite independently: “We use nearly the same tools, techniques and applications as the professionals; but we need to work out for ourselves how everything actually works. At the same time we are pretty much under the same pressure to succeed and to provide the same quality work”
Jonathan Hallier, too, will ask Warner Bros as the owner of rights to the Matrix for official permission for his game. It would be a shame if after more than a year’s work, that “The Real World couldn’t be played by the public.---
Originally published in the Tagesspiegel on Friday 06/06/2003
Translation by Heike Puchan, with additional translation by Zeph
Edited by Jonathan Hallier