This is the age of user generated content. The vast majority of the internet relies on it to some extent; YouTube, Flickr, Craigslist, Wikipedia, and a little something called Bitmob absolutely depend on it. Similarly -- and increasingly -- a lot of video games wouldn't exist without players toiling away on their behalf.

We've gone from the Doom days, when the inclusion of a level editor sounded unbelievably cool, to Lego Indiana Jones, Braid, and Scribblenauts encouraging players to make and share levels. It's become a must-have mode that is as vital as multiplayer. Crowdsourcing turned enthusiastic fandom into a fully realized business model; crafty players exercise their creative muscles, share the results, and everyone enjoys the value-added benefit of free extra content...all at no cost to the developer.

I don't think he has a license for that thing.

That might change. Back in July, Valve announced the five winners of their Team Fortress 2 item-modifying contest, and then put those item packs up for sale when their peer-to-peer store went online. In late October, Valve cut checks to those winners, each in the $40,000 range.

Not bad for only two weeks' earnings.

It's true games like The Sims and World of Warcraft support thriving mod economies, but Valve's (so far) hands-on method of integrating and promoting community-crafted items exists on a very different plane. We're not talking about purely cosmetic $2 horse armor or a fancy ottoman for your living room. These items add in-game buffs and debuffs, developer-balanced to keep gameplay fair...hence a $50 price tag for the total package. The creators get 25 percent of the take, which still comes out to more money than a WoW or Sims crafter keeping 100% of every sale.

That's especially cool when you consider Valve has no legal obligation to give anyone anything. Indeed, not one of the million-plus user-created levels for LittleBigPlanet earned anyone a dime; although, publisher Sony and developer Media Molecule sold more games because of that content.

You see, when you buy and play a game, you implicitly agree to its end-user license agreement. That includes the publisher and developer's absolute right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, broadcast, license, perform, post, sell, translate, create derivative works from and distribute any user-made content for any purpose whatsoever, without compensation, in perpetuity and throughout the universe (and yes, that's an actual legal term). In short, they own everything you do inside their game world.

Serve me well, my lowly minions.

That's important because something like LittleBigPlanet wouldn't survive long without community-created content. Like Spore, the meat isn't in the campaign; it's in the titanic amount of user-generated mods. LBP shipped with something like 50 or 60 smallish levels, but even if only 1 percent of the fan-made material passes muster, we're talking an additional 10,000 levels -- something no developer could ever afford to make.

Without that kind of muscle, you get something like ModNation Racers -- a decent game with dismal sales and a correspondingly weaker community. It's more like a ModHamlet than a nation.

So when Sony announced the LittleBigPlanet 2 closed beta test, invites went out to heavily involved community members first, and they found an improved level creator waiting for them. I've tooled around the beta for a week and already have found nearly 8000 user-generated levels and cinematics ready to run.

Are publishers cheating those player-developers? Depends how you look at it.

Nobody pays them for the services they render, but nobody charges them for the levels they access, either. Conservatively, all that content's worth thousands of dollars. The truth is that most modders do it mainly because they're fans having fun, and that's fine. The very premise of Minecraft Classic explains its wide appeal: an open sandbox, an endless supply of virtual Legos, and the freedom to craft almost anything. My personal favorite so far: the maniac building a 1:1 scale U.S.S. Enterprise.

Make me one while you're at it.

Unfortunately, creator Markus Persson plans to phase out Classic as the final version of Minecraft nears completion, but he shouldn't. The game won't be complete without it.

The hallmark of user-generated content has long been creativity for its own sake. On the other hand, if people want to earn money for their sweat, that avenue should be open to them. Valve's taken a big step here, and integrating the system into their Steam download service demonstrates a willingness to expand. Licensing and distributing fan-made levels (or even entire campaigns) for Left 4 Dead might be next. It's not unreasonable to wonder when mod payouts might branch to non-Valve games.

This model could catch on fast. Fandom aside, I can picture modders flocking away from developers who don't pay to those willing to share the wealth. Could a price war ensue? One can dream. But either way, user-generated content has already fundamentally changed the game. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here.