stathmk wrote: dunkelschwamm wrote:In light of recent threats of violence in the political scene I'm removing all downloads of my Trump Tower 3D mod from the internet. Despite my disclaimers about how the mod does not endorse violence of any kind, I don't want to be associated with the kinds of scum who would actually resort to it if shit ever hits the fan. The video and screenshots will remain online (as they showcase no violence against any living person) to carry the true message of the mod: political satire comparing one candidate to a historical figure.
Just to reiterate: I do not, and never will, condone violent conduct of any kind. Name calling is great, I love that. People like Donald Trump only threaten us with their ability to spread ideas, and the only way to fight ideas is with better ideas and ridicule. Violence is not the answer and will only serve to empower the ideas I wish to contest.
Stay peaceful, stay responsible, and I apologize that the mod must be censored.
Dunkelschwamm, then 4 or 8 years from now would you repost Trump Tower 3D with new maps? I posted on Diehard Wolfers that I want to stick with Wolfenstein 3D until at least February 2020 because that's when the Windows Vista updates will stop coming. People might lose interest then because they will have moved on to 64-bit computers with modern games. What do you think?
Will I rerelease the original mod? Perhaps. I really released Trump Tower as a novelty, an attempt at a more modern version of a political cartoon, since "TRUMP ARE CARTOON HITLER LOL" comics were in hot supply, I thought the world of satire would have a gaping hole waiting to be filled without a mod of Wolfenstein, a game entirely about a cartoon version of Hitler, wasn't coopted as a political cartoon in and of itself for Trump.
Will I add to it? Well, new levels are somewhat unlikely. The main goal was to make the game Wolfenstein, as Wolfenstein, with Trump (and surprise visits from Sarah Palin and Chris Christie) replacing any mention of Nazis or Hitler. It's possible, however, that by the end of Trump's presidency there will be plenty of new material to base a mod around.
It's more likely, however, that I'll end up releasing a censored version of the mod that subtracts the original version's blood and gore. When I originally released the mod I had it in my mind that the people willing to get the mod to work on EWolf would be mature enough to handle satire, but the violent response (both directed toward me and toward Trump) made me reevaluate that. The entire reason why the preview videos didn't show any violence directed toward the Trump Nazis was that I didn't want for the mod to be mistaken as a call-to-action to assassinate the man. That's not what I'm about. I'm about goofy political satire that shouldn't be taken too seriously. The moment I saw posts of people saying how much they wanted to shoot Trump, I started to fear I had made a miscalculation, and the more reactions and messages I got I realized there's no good place for this mod in current politics.
As for sticking with Wolfenstein until 2020, I'm currently working on Windows 10 and still love Wolfenstein mods. The Wolf community has soldiered through the first update to Vista (which was the first real hurdle in making Wolfenstein 3D REALLY difficult to play on many computers), lasted over 25 years, and has survived more advanced games coming out with equally easy-to-use modding tools (like Doom, Half-Life, Skyrim, what-have-you). I think the main way that Wolfenstein will stay relevant is with new great mods coming out all of the time (take a look at the great work of Team RayCast, still pushing the limits and exploring new things never before seen in Wolf), and will continue to bring in new young modders if easy modding tools continue to be developed. When I first started releasing mods I was 12 years old and had been making maps since I was 5. The way I could accomplish this was with the ease of use of tools like FloEdit. I likely never would have started if tools stayed in the same realm of WolfEdit and MapEdit.
Nowadays we have EWolf, ChaosEdit, and WDC, but none of them are quite as quick and snappy for young modders to get into. We also don't have constant and organized updates to a very official-feeling site like The Dome to make releases feel official and appreciated. Right now I'm at a point in my life where I'm just trying to get my career organized, but if I didn't have a whole lot of pressure on my neck I would start focusing really hard on:
- Making an editor that fully supports EWolf, streamlines code changes, adds significantly more ease to the graphic-importing process, and combines the useful qualities of both WDC and ChaosEdit.
- Launching a website where Wolfenstein mods get full coverage, hosts contests, brings the community together in a way it hasn't been since Brian Lowe was active.
- Launching a website full of tutorials, graphics and sound resources, and resource contests like Majik Monkee's Image World site, which did wonders for the community and brought resources to the fray that are still used in mods to this day.
There's no point in the foreseeable future that I can accomplish all of that, but it's how I want to approach revitalizing the Wolfenstein community if I ever get a chance to. The more accessible and exciting the modding community can be, the more content we'll see. Right now we mostly have a smattering of great mods from great developers kind of smeared across message boards and general modding sites, and that's no way to run what used to be the most organized modding community out there.
Sorry for the speech, just ended up having a lot to say about your question haha.
Have a good one
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