Valve has made an emasculatingly large amount of money this way. Following in the footsteps of Id Software, Valve has been very open with their development tools. I don't know about the very earliest copies but the ZOMG GOTY edition of the original Half Life included its SDK on the disc. Counter Strike and Team Fortress started out as mods that Valve just...hired.

Releasing the tools to their customer base and then hiring the cream that rises to the top is a strategy I struggle to get mad at.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 20 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Thinking back, HL had a ridiculous quantity of high quality mods and TCs back in the day. Hell, Valve have even allowed HL to be remade and sold on steam.

[–] RageAgainstTheRich@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I miss The Specialists and Vampire Slayer mods so so much...

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Science and industry.

There are some discords where people play HL1 mods once a week.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 18 points 14 hours ago

"We'd prefer you didn't use the word "Source" in the game title. You wanna sell Black Mesa on Steam?"