Fileball.net has launched. The service is a new free online gaming archive for gamers who create their own add-ons and gamers who want to download and play those files. Fileball.net’s founders have experience in this area — they’re the same people who created the popular archive called “The Mill.” The Mill is a repository of add-on files for Bungie’s “Myth: The Fallen Lords” and “Myth II: Soulblighter” real-time strategy games.
Fileball.net features a distinctive Web site for each game represented, but each game area uses a common database, membership roster and central organization hub. Already on the site is The Mill, along with an area for add-ons suited for The Sims, the popular sim-life game from Aspyr Media. Lh’owon Ar’kives features maps, utilities and other goodies dedicated to another Bungie favorite — the Marathon series. And Liandri Depot serves as a repository for Unreal Tournament-related add-ons. Fileball’s makers indicate that new game areas for Quake, Warcraft and Starcraft, and Halo are in the works now — but it’ll be Fileball’s members and users that ultimate decide what game mods are hosted.
“This is not just another stinking Internet burial pit for your original game maps, plug-ins and add-ons. This is a fully interactive and customizable online database community where you can present your own hard work to the world or download the work of others,” said Fileball’s founders. “… We are mod makers ourselves, we built Fileball as a mod makers dream machine and we want to share it with you.”
Add-ons, or “Mods,” are a popular diversion for many gamers. Individual gamers and entire teams of gamers looking to extend the scope and range of their favorite titles will often create mods to supplement the experience of playing their favorite titles. Many game developers provide editing tools or the core technology necessary to create these mods, and some gamers take full advantage — often completely recreating the basic experience to suit their tastes.
Users that upload their own add-on files have full control over how they’re distributed. You can submit them, remove them and replace them, as you like. There’s no charge for membership, and Fileball.net said that the registration process is easy. You don’t need to register to use the service for downloading, either — you can download any of the files that members have shared and you can even rate them to help others decide if they’re worth the time.
In addition to the file archives themselves, Fileball.net also features discussion forums, opinion polls, news and other info relevant to gamers.