Summary of an article - Essay Example

of the English of the Concerned 21 October Article Summary StarCraft happens to be a real time strategy game that has indeed turned out to be an immense success. Though StarCraft was published and released in 1998, yet this relatively old game stills continues to be very popular, as far as the sales are concerned. This game turned out to be a great success in South Korea. One also needs to mention that StarCraft also accrued favorable and positive critical acclaims from prestigious sources like Edge Magazine, Game Pro and GameSpot.

When it comes to StarCraft, in an industry driven by an innate obsolescence, the game still continues to be financially and culturally relevant. It goes without saying that what has managed to sustain the timeless freshness and utility of StarCraft is a deluge of user generated content. The game software has the provision for a Campaign Editor, which allows the players to contrive varied possibilities, scenarios and modes. The game also has the scope for ambitious ‘total conversions’, thereby leading to a prolific, fan generated content pool, which has indeed played an important role in assuring the longevity of StarCraft.

This contributory aspect raises many issues. Though these fan modes extended the relevance and scope of the game, many of these modes were unsuccessful as the tapered down and remained incomplete in the current times. This also turned out to be true in case of many other digital ventures. One big reason behind this drying up of user generated contribution tend to be the issues related to ownership and the tussle between contributions supportive of an open culture and the constraints imposed by proprietary claims over cultural contributions.

Article SummarizedJohnson, Derek. (2009). StarCraft Fan Craft: Game Mods, Ownership and totally Incomplete Conversions. The Velvet Light Trap, 64(Fall), 50-63.