Censored
Michael Khripin
Writer, LiveOps Expert at Balancy, Co-Founder at New Perk Ltd, Owner of "Game Dev Uncovered" blog
Speaking of the freedom for players to express themselves. While cheat codes allowed doing so in single-player games back then, online multiplayer games provide the same freedom in different forms - by having sandbox mechanics, mod tools, and other types of in-game editors. But while single-player games hardly made harm to anyone else except for the player, online multiplayer games are nothing else than public tribunes. And the public tends to be much less tolerant. So, every time you plan to have features for UGC, don't forget about having powerful moderation systems.
The simplest case of UGC is allowing players to enter their names. Even if you have only this one feature, expect to have an explosion of names like D1CK or B1gas5, which you obviously don't want to circulate. So there come automatic filters, dictionaries, manual checks, and so on.
The next step in making your life harder is having an in-game chat. You will probably be surprised by how many ways of spelling our favorite words there are. Be sure your players will know them all and will invent new ones every day.
The next grade of pain is letting players change object positions on the maps. I'm sure there were huge dildos drawn on player bases in Clash of Clans even before the game release. I bet the developers were enjoying this firsthand. Imagine the complexity of the task to moderate base layouts after going public! How many things can be drawn with a good enough amount of fence tiles…
Well, allowing players to express their creativity is good in its nature, but quite soon the developer might want to take it back. Allowing to move objects is basically welcoming people to participate in a challenge for the quickest drawing of swastikas.
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Consider this as a warning: freedom of speech, creativity, relying on UGC for your game’s success — always comes with a price. Be ready to pay for it.
Censored a bit,
PixelWraith
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