I actually forgot about KoToR2's huge overhaul mod that took years of people working on it, out of their own free time, to create. That, by itself, proves how important modding is.Gottesstrafe said:
Poll: Modding is EXTREMELY important in games. Agreed?
- Thread starter Lygus
- Start date
Modding is a nice bit of topping on an already good game but I can't stand it when it's basically required to fix the developers shoddy work. See everything Bethesda has ever made.
Whereas say Half-Life and Jedi Outcast/Academy are good solid base games that got tons of mod support and I can get behind that.
The situation with things like VTM:Bloodlines and KOTOR2 is a little more borderline with the company either getting screwed by the publisher or outright going out of business right after the release.
Also this poll is bad and the OP should feel bad.
Whereas say Half-Life and Jedi Outcast/Academy are good solid base games that got tons of mod support and I can get behind that.
The situation with things like VTM:Bloodlines and KOTOR2 is a little more borderline with the company either getting screwed by the publisher or outright going out of business right after the release.
Also this poll is bad and the OP should feel bad.
Okay, the part about exclusivity is probably true, but modding is so much more than fan fiction. Look at Dawn of War II's Elite Mod. That mod has a huge multiplayer community, possibly bigger than the actual game. Some modding communities are better than others, but it's worth sifting through the garbage when you see a truly good one. Freelancer's Discovery Mod keeps people playing years and years after Microsoft shut down its servers.Darkasassin96 said:
As a primarily PC gamer, I have to agree that modding can add a lot to a game. User created content can vary greatly but mods greatly extended my playtime of some of my favorite games. In shooters, new user created maps can be a lot of fun (or horribly broken) and some of the tweaks provided in other genres make things more interesting long term. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were fun in vanilla, but the shenanigans I got up to with some of the mods was brilliant.
The flaw with your neverwinter response is the game is intended two-fold: First, as the campaign they launched with it, to teach and show you gameplay mechanics and tell a story they wanted to tell. But Neverwinter is also a campaign creator from the get-go, similar to DnD. Most mod-friendly games are trying to harken back to table top, where the base game serves as a guide, while also giving you the room and the tools to craft your own experience.Darkasassin96 said:
Modding is an amazing part of these games. They are not a set in stone book or movie, but rather an open gaming experience. Simply, it is another reason why gaming is superior to most entertainment.
This poll is a ridiculously loaded question, jus' sayin'.
OT: I like mods. Among others, both the Morrowind and Oblivion games I've installed are heavily modded and I've had a go myself with some really simple stuff in some of the Total War games. If we didn't have modding we wouldn't have stuff like the Black Mesa remake or DayZ and I'm really looking forward to checking out Minerva when I get some more free time.
It's a shame console games don't really get any of this, but I guess that's the price you pay for (most) stuff working for everyone out the box.
OT: I like mods. Among others, both the Morrowind and Oblivion games I've installed are heavily modded and I've had a go myself with some really simple stuff in some of the Total War games. If we didn't have modding we wouldn't have stuff like the Black Mesa remake or DayZ and I'm really looking forward to checking out Minerva when I get some more free time.
It's a shame console games don't really get any of this, but I guess that's the price you pay for (most) stuff working for everyone out the box.
Your poll seems rather biased. With options like that it seems more like you want everyone to tell you how right you are than get a range of views.
Anyway, it depends to what degree 'very important' is. I generally don't play other people's mods, though love fiddling with level editors and such. Adding and editting source files in plain-text where the dev allowed it. I barely ever get anything of note accomplished in the process, but enjoyable all the same.
Anyway, it depends to what degree 'very important' is. I generally don't play other people's mods, though love fiddling with level editors and such. Adding and editting source files in plain-text where the dev allowed it. I barely ever get anything of note accomplished in the process, but enjoyable all the same.
i like the freedom of mods being allowed but at the same time, i really don't care. i've played very few GOOD mods, most too buggy or broken to enjoy. most of them add really stupid things anyway. The few "fix" mods also often lead to more crashing in many games, although their benefits can be worth it sometimes.
overall, i wouldn't care if mods were gone. a game should be complete on it's own so it shouldn't ever HAVE to depend on mods to add content or fix itself.
overall, i wouldn't care if mods were gone. a game should be complete on it's own so it shouldn't ever HAVE to depend on mods to add content or fix itself.
Not outright needed in general, but if you look at the top 5 steam games being played right now, 4 of them started out as mods. And in at number 6 is skyrim, which probably wouldn't be there if not for the continued modding scene.
Mod support is unequivocally a good thing, but I wont use them most of the time unless I feel they significantly improve the replayability (Minecraft, Bethesda games and the like).
Hell, sometimes they're integral to my enjoyment of the game, such as in dark souls.
Mod support is unequivocally a good thing, but I wont use them most of the time unless I feel they significantly improve the replayability (Minecraft, Bethesda games and the like).
Hell, sometimes they're integral to my enjoyment of the game, such as in dark souls.
Modding is awesome!ninjaRiv said:
Here is an idea of what it looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0oUXRtoHV8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boRLoXYf1_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2yPfWXPIs0
The second video showcases mas, character, game types and total conversions for Unreal Tournament 3, in the Make Something Unreal Contest 2009. The game also supports mods on PS3, but the mod developers must do a bit of extra work to make it possible.
Some games that we have today originated from total conversion mods: Counter Strike, Team Fortress, Red Orchestra, etc.
Let me put it this way: if an author tried to get someone banned from libraries and bookstores [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119942-Adjusting-Battlefield-3s-Brightness-Could-Get-You-Banned] for writing fanfiction, I'd never buy another one of their books, no matter how great a writer they were.Darkasassin96 said:
I didn't say the remaining 10% wasn't worthwhile, but I don't think it's all that important or necessary.barbzilla said:
Essential No.
Awsome. Yes
look at the alpha launch of ARMA3. an ALPHA. there are already mods for that, and there are custom designed multiplayer games as well.
its a game which is effectively designed to be modified. it even comes with a built in game creator. they build the physics, terain, buildings, etc. and we get to build the actual games we want. and take the game in totally different (War-z) directions from the basic vannila game
it may be a single group of players designing a mod for just them such as unicorn skins.
or it could be a mod built buy the community to prevent hacks or to create a different feel.
its not abusing or denigrating the systems built by a development team. its highlighting just how good the game really is when people choose to spend there own free time building within something they have paid for to distribute freely and enhance the game.
in arma3's case i would actually put cash on them also developing a war-z simulator up till the point somone released it for free. if anything that release took arma2 and moved it away from the frankly brutal milsim hiking program it is and made it easier to game with.
regarding fan fiction.
well there are 3 kinds.
1 the pervy kind.
2 the not very good attempts at FICTION in an established property
3 the not that good attempts at fiction in an established property with permissions n shizzle that you pay for.
now i am starting to create a short book with parallels to a group of books i have read. not following them exactly. but using the inspiration it gave me to actually use the physics to enhance the book not something to be ignored as an inconvenient fact to be explained away with unobtanium or handwavium . (props go to the reelphysics guys as well for that and also making practical physics ammusing and educational)
its a form of fan fiction but in the good way.
Awsome. Yes
look at the alpha launch of ARMA3. an ALPHA. there are already mods for that, and there are custom designed multiplayer games as well.
its a game which is effectively designed to be modified. it even comes with a built in game creator. they build the physics, terain, buildings, etc. and we get to build the actual games we want. and take the game in totally different (War-z) directions from the basic vannila game
it may be a single group of players designing a mod for just them such as unicorn skins.
or it could be a mod built buy the community to prevent hacks or to create a different feel.
its not abusing or denigrating the systems built by a development team. its highlighting just how good the game really is when people choose to spend there own free time building within something they have paid for to distribute freely and enhance the game.
in arma3's case i would actually put cash on them also developing a war-z simulator up till the point somone released it for free. if anything that release took arma2 and moved it away from the frankly brutal milsim hiking program it is and made it easier to game with.
regarding fan fiction.
well there are 3 kinds.
1 the pervy kind.
2 the not very good attempts at FICTION in an established property
3 the not that good attempts at fiction in an established property with permissions n shizzle that you pay for.
now i am starting to create a short book with parallels to a group of books i have read. not following them exactly. but using the inspiration it gave me to actually use the physics to enhance the book not something to be ignored as an inconvenient fact to be explained away with unobtanium or handwavium . (props go to the reelphysics guys as well for that and also making practical physics ammusing and educational)
its a form of fan fiction but in the good way.
Gaming itself isn't necessary, does that mean we shouldn't have games? I'm not saying that modding is necessary to a game's success, but I do think that it would go a long way towards improving the current industry. Modding is a very important part of gaming as it allows the players to continue to breathe life into a dead game.canadamus_prime said:
When I buy a game with a strong modding base, I know that after I finish this game I will have more content ready to play at some point in the future. If I like the game enough to want to write for it, then I can create a whole new campaign based off of my machinations.
If someone likes it and wants to watch it, yes I support it. I'm not going to watch it but why the hell should it be stopped? Don't need to go all fascist on other people's preferences you can just not watch it.Darkasassin96 said:
Bethesda games since Oblivion have made the interface simpler and more controller compatible, for people playing on the xbox it's great for people using a keyboard and mouse it's terrible, the npc scaling on oblivion was terrible with bandits armed with daedric plate and weapons by the end of the game, oscuro's mod and that other one I forgot the name were essential to the enjoyment of a good bunch of us, lots of old CRPG's like Torment and Baldur's Gate were highly improved and had better compatibility with modern OS because of it and so on...
for consoles, modding is practically non-existent.
for PCs, modding is a good thing to have, but not 'very important'. that's not to say that modding isn't important or hasn't had an impact.
as for the impact itself, it largely depends on how much control modders are given, and what type of game.
WC3 and SC/SC2 are games that are designed to be played in short bursts, or many rounds of short bursts (30min-1hr). thus creating whole new games isn't that much of a time investment for modders allowing for loads of creativity. look at shear number of the custom games in those titles.
games like FO3/NV and Elder Scrolls are much larger games with much larger playtimes. and most mods in those games are less about changing the main 'game' than changing specific pieces in the larger whole - and after a few years, pretty much any change you'd like to see, someone has taken the time to mod it. personally, i'm more a fan of aesthetic and quality of life mods than major changes to the game - i want the game to still feel like the game with most of the intended design quirks, just able to take advantage of the newer cards/processors. high rez texture packs for terrain, weapons, enemies, NPCs - awesome. being able to reduce or eliminate weapon decay - awesome. lighting mods - awesome.
but they also lend themselves to lots of crappy/broken mods (i can't stand most of the night vision mods for example), pervy fantasies - either making the females nude, or disproportionate, and/or sex scenarios, and just generally a lot of crap to sift through.
yes, there are examples of really good modding out there, some that have spawned new games or genres entirely or integrated some new ideas, but you have to remember, for every good mod, there are 100 bad ones. its great that others can try out your new mod, but can they even find it in the sea of mods? will they risk it crashing their game?
i will say though, when a group of modders decide to revamp a game, they can really do it justice - like the Wanderer's Edition for FO3. and of course KOTOR 2 and dark souls, but the difference is that the vanilla versions had major issues to begin with and weren't necesarily designed to be modded, while WC/SC and FO3/NV/Elder Scrolls are designed with modding in mind.
for PCs, modding is a good thing to have, but not 'very important'. that's not to say that modding isn't important or hasn't had an impact.
as for the impact itself, it largely depends on how much control modders are given, and what type of game.
WC3 and SC/SC2 are games that are designed to be played in short bursts, or many rounds of short bursts (30min-1hr). thus creating whole new games isn't that much of a time investment for modders allowing for loads of creativity. look at shear number of the custom games in those titles.
games like FO3/NV and Elder Scrolls are much larger games with much larger playtimes. and most mods in those games are less about changing the main 'game' than changing specific pieces in the larger whole - and after a few years, pretty much any change you'd like to see, someone has taken the time to mod it. personally, i'm more a fan of aesthetic and quality of life mods than major changes to the game - i want the game to still feel like the game with most of the intended design quirks, just able to take advantage of the newer cards/processors. high rez texture packs for terrain, weapons, enemies, NPCs - awesome. being able to reduce or eliminate weapon decay - awesome. lighting mods - awesome.
but they also lend themselves to lots of crappy/broken mods (i can't stand most of the night vision mods for example), pervy fantasies - either making the females nude, or disproportionate, and/or sex scenarios, and just generally a lot of crap to sift through.
yes, there are examples of really good modding out there, some that have spawned new games or genres entirely or integrated some new ideas, but you have to remember, for every good mod, there are 100 bad ones. its great that others can try out your new mod, but can they even find it in the sea of mods? will they risk it crashing their game?
i will say though, when a group of modders decide to revamp a game, they can really do it justice - like the Wanderer's Edition for FO3. and of course KOTOR 2 and dark souls, but the difference is that the vanilla versions had major issues to begin with and weren't necesarily designed to be modded, while WC/SC and FO3/NV/Elder Scrolls are designed with modding in mind.
Well you see that's were you and I disagree. As I've browsed through the Skyrim Nexus and seen some of the absolutely ridiculous mods some people have made all I can do is shake my head and wonder what these people are thinking. So no I don't think that, much like fanfiction, is all that necessary for the industry; not that I haven't enjoyed a few mods mind.barbzilla said: