I recently took part in some forum discussions regarding the development of modifications for various popular PC games, as people complained they don't make them like they used to. I'll quote myself here and while it might appear a bit disjointed since you can't really see what the other people were saying, it conveys my feelings on the subject perfectly.

Let’s not be too quick to blame developers for the lack of quality projects. There are also several well developed HL2 mods, but almost nobody plays them. Why? Cos the community seems to have degraded to whiny ass bitches who expect an AAA game for free. Pritates Vikings and Knights II, Fortress Forever, Empires, Insurgency, The Decimation, The Hidden, are but a few examples of some great talent and dedication.

But again, almost nobody played them or supported them enough to warrant a bright future. Some of them are still ongoing, some seem to have stopped further development thanks to no player interest. Plan of Attack just came to mind, being one of the first total conversions with great production values, released some years ago. Nobody played it, it died ages ago, even though it looks good with some good ideas (though not fully developed) to this day. Shame shame shame shame SHAME!

It all reminds me of the UT2004 mod community. So much talent and work wasted. At least a few good things spawned from it. I loved Metaball, Red Orchestra and Alien Swarm among others and it's been good to see a few worthy developers move on to retail.

Currently, I weep for projects which have not had a release yet, with years and years of dedication and hard work on their backs, who are destined to also die despite the quality of the project… Off Limits comes to mind. Oh well, I’ll still play all of them so long as there are servers available and a few more people to play with.

I'm sad for the community and lack of co players but happy to see many developers keep going and delivering the goods. May the Force be with them all, if the community won't be. I hope they'll find ways for their talent to shine through towards people who matter and help them land the jobs they desire.