Yesterday, SOE dropped a big announcement about their new offering: the Player Studio. It was said to be a fundamental change to the industry and I'd say that that's almost right. What this basically comes down to is user created art assets for the SoE Marketplace.
Game companies using player art assets is nothing new, I remember when Pirates of the Burning Sea let players build ships and they were used in game. This time is a bit different though, as designers will get paid cold hard cash for their efforts.
I'm all for leveraging the talent available through the internet, and compensating them for their effort. I do have to wonder how SoE artists took this news. I don't see the art department downsizing as these items are only for the Marketplace. They will also probably need artists to touch up the submissions and make them workable in game.
It's still taking work away from potential employees though, and if it is wildly successful who knows where it might lead for those employees?
I have a feeling they are going to get a ton of submissions, but only a small amount will probably be offered for sale. You can't just flood the Marketplace with hundreds of items. That'll be a lot of time 'wasted' for some.
Since I have zero artistic talent, I will not be participating but I'm looking forward to seeing how the Player Studio pans out.
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