2008 Upcoming Mod of the Year Winners feature

Indie Game of the Year Tomorrow
Mod of the Year the day after...

huuuuuuuuuge!

I just wonder why people like so much about zombies. Everytimes half of people criticize new World War 2 mods, and maybe we ww2 mod makers deserve it.
But everytimes a new game engine comes out, there is like 10 of new zombie mods and everybody are like "WOW more blood mesh and chainsaws"

Havent played L4D but it seems to take all the best parts from movies. Like Fear, fear and fear and left poor acting of those movies away.
And it seems to lot of fun. Even that i hate those brain dead creature, which dosent even got anykind sensible begining story, like most of creatures got.

How ever im still little bit surprised that zombie game fans can be so fanatic that they vote zombie mod to no.1 even that it got just bunch of maps.

Gongrats to all the winners! =o)

that is because there a lot of good WW2 games/mods, but when it come to zombies there is a lot of unfinished mod's with low quality.

L4D is nice, but it will need some mod's to be a good zombie game, adding shambler zombies and such.

That wouldn't make it good at all! The rabid human approach is way better
than the 'shambler'.

Romero Shambler Zombies would be too intensive since the Romero zombie is very weak unless it is presented in overwhelming numbers. I mean mobs pretty much, stuff that would stress test in a modern game. The rabid zombie however, while weak is still very dangerous and able to become a bigger threat with smaller numbers. It's more resource friendly and tense since seeing a zombie in the distance isn't going to be 'well worry about him later.'

Maybe it's because people like to kill mindless zombie for gore and yelling ( npc/player ) in-game. Well, at least I love to kill some zombies ... ( excluding Resident Evil series, that for me only RE4 was good )

WW is a rather serious setup for the human nature to always be in a FIGHT of some sort.
"Zombie theme" is bascially the same... except the motives are rather lighter for my brain to swallow.

agreed
(i cant wait 4 the realease)

Congrats to all the mods who made top 5. Especially renX hope this inspires the team to pick it up a notch :P

works for me, email me the error support@moddb.com - anyone else with this problem?

A mod doesn't necessarily need to be a "total conversion".

I never knew a "Map" counted as a mod.

I agree, what's the deal with people calling map packs mods nowadays? the only thing that's different is maps, sure you can do alot with maps but does this Dead Before Dawn attempt to change anything of Left 4 Dead at all? Does it add new characters, new weapons, or even just simply a slightly altered gamemode or even rpg like features?

I've seen tf2 maps that had rpg like features and altered gamemode, sure it was buggy like hell because tf2 doesn't have real modding support but that at least came as close in the direction of a mod as you can probably get in TF2, since there was actually something modded not just map design..

not saying Dead Before Dawn doesn't have this, but as far as I know it doesn't, and if doesn't it's silly it won over something as amazing looking as NeoTokyo:Source, which has been WAY longer in development, don't those guys deserve that first spot.

Welcome to players' choice!

yeah but it's not a MOD, and this best upcoming MODS not upcoming maps or map packs, it's also gotta be annoying for other mappers, cause if Dead before Dawn wasn't falsely listed as a MOD it wouldn't have even had a chance to win. I doubt other mappers that don't pretend to be a mod had even any chance to make it on here, even if their mapping skills outpawned that of dead before dawn mapper(s).
The only reason THEY don't get a chance is for not naming themselves a mod, having a map pack on here isn't just bad for other mods, but for other mappers as well.

If moddb wants to put map packs up here so badly they should make a category for it, not let map packs enter the spotlights of mods.

i Second DuckSauce the Neo-tokyo team has been at if since the release of Half-life 2 nearly 5 years...

let a map pack win kinda saddens me

It is more than 'just a map', if you looked at all the scripting and mechanics of one campaign map on L4D then you'd soon realise why the effort this time is important.

The campaign is a modification of the game itself, try looking into it a bit more instead of just glancing over.

Though the L4D game itself was released late 2008 and the dev team quickly jumped over onto L4D(which they may have probably planned anyway) it...does kinda not seem right.

A campaign, no matter what you do to it, is just a collection of maps strung together.

Open up hammer, look at Valve's campaign maps, they're the same as any other Source map. There's no advanced scripting or magical coding involved.

A campaign in no way is "A modification of the game itself." By your justification they should start uploading CSS surf maps and calling them mods.

That's just mapping, though. You can do that for any mod and it's still a map. It's not like a Sven Co-op map where your weapons get changed and the environment's different and such. Like Megamonsterwhateve (I forgot it's name) in Sven Co-op changes your weapons and enemy models. That could be considered a mod, but it isn't because it follows the Sven Co-op theme of anything goes as long as it's co-op. The Dead Before Dawn maps just add more to the mod. It doesn't change L4D, it just adds to it. A map should be innovative, otherwise, why play it? In HL1, the Crossfire nuke should constitute it as a mod then if it's to follow the same guideline as Dead Before Dawn being a mod.

Gun Game is a mod because it changes CStrike. Complete model packs for weapons are mods because they change everything or a significant amount. If a bunch of maps are to be a mod, then it really needs to distinguish itself from the other maps of the game it's "modding". Otherwise, every map should be a mod because it changes the original game by adding something different with new layouts, etc.. L4D is based on scenarios and that's what Dead Before Dawn does. It could be a good bunch of maps, but that's all it is, a bunch of maps.

However, if it launched outside of L4D, then I'd see it as a mod because it would then be a separate entity.

Do you even know what the definition of mod is? Good job feeding the flame that burns with ignorance.

Also Tiberium wars was "Officially" canceled awhile ago, but really that and both renegade 2 and earth no more were flunked out when EA took over in 2003. The Westwood breakoff formed and made such epics as Empire at war and Universe at war.

Nomoreroominhell apparently has started up again according to a few weeks ago. Darth Brush is just 1 of their many former members and he decided to use his prized map as a L4D map, which is all it is, a very very large map. If you go to their modpage 90% of the posts about voting are pretty much "I'll vote for you even though I don't think you can win haha". It doesn't even seem fair that a spammed map wins a best upcoming mod vote. Also, why was 28 days later music playing for a dawn of the dead map based for L4D?!

Overall, disappointed.

Although it was users like us that voted for it.

I didn't because I didn't think a MAP would be judged in a MODDING contest.

Nothing against L4D or the map, but these mods have had hundreds if not thousands of labour hours put in to be joke voted out by a large map split into 4 sections for a game that doesn't even have the modding tools out yet. It's simply insulting IMO.

Have to agree, I can't believe a map pack won this. Don't get me wrong it looks good, but the others have had sooooo much work put into them, when I watched the video it was like a suckerpunch when I got to the end.

mod·i·fi·ca·tion (md-f-kshn
1. The act of modifying or the condition of being modified.
2. A result of modifying.
3. A small alteration, adjustment, or limitation.

map (mp)
1. A representation, usually on a plane surface, of a region of the earth or heavens.
2. Something that suggests such a representation, as in clarity of representation.

A map is not a mod, and a mod is more than maps. Otherwise you would have a hard time separating categories, even on ModDB. Check it out, do you see any mods in the maps section? Or visa versa? If you do, it is only because the "modification" has some maps in it. But you should not find any maps in the mods section. Not something difficult to understand and if you feel the comment is, "obnoxious and stuck-up" you may want change the English language.

How is this different to something like say Minerva?

Jailbreaksource.com

take a look at the 6th post.
my vision on how singleplayer mods like minerva are different from a simple map.
They change the story and add dialogue, be it by text or by voice. Or at least make it a story about mutes(brothers of gordon? :P)

From what I could tell it's just Left 4 Dead, but in a more well known location... I might be wrong, if Dawn before Dead really adds some sort of story rather then provide a different location for the L4D story, then say so and I would consider it a mod.

If not it's a map calling itself a mod, and like I said on the jb forums and here comes a quote of myself:

also a softenend quote:

so like I said, if this is rly to be considered a mod then prove it.
If not it's a map, and then you should start calling all maps mods, and all mappers should be modders then.
Don't make exceptions!

Also btw, considering all maps wouldn't be such a bad idea, considering that a mod with just a custom weapon is a mod, why could a mapper making his own creations like the modeller/coder that made the weapon not be a modder either?

I'd like to add that if, all maps were considered mods. It would mean that all those people scouring for maps would find the term mod, since maps are usually free content, there's a chance people new to mods would look into the term mods, and therefore increasing the amount of people in the modding community.

*hint hint* for moddb :P
it would be confusing at first, but eventually it just becomes one of those internet things, and the popularity of modding would probably only increase because of it.

Henley, are you retarded? Minerva is a full mod because it uses the SourceSDK base and recompiles thier own DLL's from scratch. Hell, if dead before dawn used the SourceSDK base and recompiled their own DLL's I'd call them a mod too.

This is a terrible choice and dead before dawn should be inelligable for the award. It's NOT a mod. Hell, why don't we start nominating skin and sound packs while we are at it. Please learn how the source engine works.

Yeah, I mean that's a lousy argument, as far as I know there was absolutely no code change whatsoever in Minerva (godlike mapping though).

Apparently were MapDB now so I guess its ok then?

A custom campaign is still not a mod regardless of what you anyone argues.

This whole MOTY awards is turning into a joke.

Sorry, your not the person I would want to correct. Map is just a map. Dead before Dawn has new textures, new scripted sequences, and a completely new campaign. There are so many RTS mods out there that do just that and only that, and still classify themselves as a mod.

A map is a blueprint of everything that makes up a visual representation of an environment. If you go by definition, it has nothing to do with scripted sequences, new textures, new models, etc.

Who says I agree with RTS's that just make custom maps and call themselves a mod? If your going to start nominating custom maps packs then you HAVE to start allowing people to nominate sound and audio packs. Theres no different.

So all of UT2004 assault maps are mods?

Depends on the assault map. Command and Conquer and such are NOT just maps. They made a whole new gamemode out of it. On UT2K4 a map can also include custom content like vehicles, new enemies, new weapons, custom skins, other interact-ables etc. Have you even noticed when you change map you download about 10 different files if not 10X that??? It's a lot more then mapping when it comes to assault and invasion mods for UT2K4. Simply making a map and sticking in a games default gameplay doesn't make it a mod.

Agree. Congrats to all the nominees and winners and it's nice to see a lot of new stuff in the list. Also a map-pack is not a mod at all if it's not bringing new modifications to the game it was made for.