Poll: Modding is EXTREMELY important in games. Agreed?

[ThriKreen]

If people are still playing neverwinter nights because of modding then why are you crediting Bioware. Bioware made the game and the game was good, when people start adding additions to i then it stops being what Bioware intended it to be and went on to make it. Again I dont understand how a developer cant feel insulted when someone mods their game. Bug fixes I can get behind, but it seems like this is the only medium where this kind of behaviour is encouraged.

Considering NWN was all about modding, you can't claim mods ruined their vision when they released both a toolset AND 3D modeling export tools to support the community. A ton of people authored their own adventures, artists used the platform for their portfolio, and many set up their own custom worlds for people to play in a mini-MMO setting.

And the flip side is that some outstanding mods got incorporated into the base game itself, like horses and cloaks, so it was a win-win scenario.

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.

To be fair, BF3 is a competitive multiplayer game, so it tries to maintain a certain level of balance and consistency for how one plays. Allowing for UI mods to make the enemy stand out as bright red on a bland ground of grey, can disrupt that balance, hence why they're resistant to allowing any mods like this.

However, it would be nice if they allowed for map-making tools.

-----

Having come from a mod background, I'm in support of more games that allow modding - look at Portal 2, TF2, L4D, NWN, SimCity4, any Bethesda game. Then compare with games that didn't allow modding, especially single-player ones - you basically play the game and then put it down.

Of course, as with any community authored stuff, you'd have the 90% of average to crap content, 10% good, and 1% great - One really needs a way to filter stuff out.

However, there is a downside to modding, which is why a lot of companies are hesitant to supporting it - especially if the studio stores content on their end. What if someone submitted copyrighted content, who is to blame for it? Sure you'd say the submitter, but the originating creator might target the studio that makes the game instead, as they are the ones providing a service in distributing said content around, and should be more diligent in filtering stuff out (nevermind the obvious lack of manpower required for that).

Thus, sometimes it's better to not allow it in the first place to save having to deal with any legal headaches. It would be nice if the laws were changed to reflect this, as more and more games have online, sharing components, cloud storage and such.

 

[barbzilla]

Since modding is a prime example of Sturgeon's Law, no I don't think it's important. Esp. since I think most modders completely miss the point of what, at least I think, the game was trying to achieve and actively seek to undo it.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed, I'm just saying it's not all that important.

Sturgeon's law or Sturgeon's revelation? I have a feeling you mean Sturgeon's revelation, and if that is so then you have invalidated your own point. Just because 90% of everything is crap, doesn't mean that the 10% isn't worthwhile.

I didn't say the remaining 10% wasn't worthwhile, but I don't think it's all that important or necessary.

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.

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.

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.

You are looking at it in one dimension, you need to open your eyes. Think about all of the games that spawned from mods. You have Chivalry, Natural Selection 2, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and I can keep going for quite a while. These mods have changed the way we play games and breathed life into an old game to the point that the mod makers became popular enough to actually make a stand alone game. This is why modding is so important to the gaming community.

 

[ResonanceSD]

I loled at the ridiculous poll options. "AGREE WITH ME THAT MODDING IS ESSENTIAL OR BE INSULTED".


Anyway, no, mods are not essential in all games.

They're essential in all Bethesda games to make the bugs go away, however.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Since modding is a prime example of Sturgeon's Law, no I don't think it's important. Esp. since I think most modders completely miss the point of what, at least I think, the game was trying to achieve and actively seek to undo it.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed, I'm just saying it's not all that important.

Sturgeon's law or Sturgeon's revelation? I have a feeling you mean Sturgeon's revelation, and if that is so then you have invalidated your own point. Just because 90% of everything is crap, doesn't mean that the 10% isn't worthwhile.

I didn't say the remaining 10% wasn't worthwhile, but I don't think it's all that important or necessary.

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.

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.

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.

You are looking at it in one dimension, you need to open your eyes. Think about all of the games that spawned from mods. You have Chivalry, Natural Selection 2, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and I can keep going for quite a while. These mods have changed the way we play games and breathed life into an old game to the point that the mod makers became popular enough to actually make a stand alone game. This is why modding is so important to the gaming community.

Alright I'll concede the point. A lot of mods are pretty stupid though and leave me wondering just WTF was going through the modders head. Also I didn't know Chivalry and Natural Selection 2 were Mods.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

Take the Battlefield series:

BF:1942 saw the development of excellent mods such as Desert Combat (which directly inspired BF2), Eve of Destruction (which directly inspired Battlefield: Vietnam) and Forgotten Hope.

BF2 modders gave us classics such as Project Reality and Forgotten Hope 2 (both of which I still play regularily)

BF3...no modding allowed. I did not purchase BF3. I would love a WW2 BF which features the Frostbite engine.

These are not amateur projects which only slightly alter the original content. They are highly polished and unique titles in their own right. After enough development time and dedication, mods typically surpass the commercial game which they build upon.


Check out the Forgotten Hope 2 website, there is too much content to summarize and it is all free:

http://forgottenhope.warumdarum.de/

 

[Headsprouter]

The more freedom, the better the mods! That's why it works so well for Bethesda's stuff! And Minecraft!

As for Left 4 Dead and such, mods don't make much difference outside of aesthetics, still, even though my machete only looks like a tomahawk and my AK47 only looks like an M14, having them as something I prefer makes me want to play the game more. I always thought Valve's weapons were kind of stale...like, the Resistance Crossbow was cool, but it didn't even have a scope, more, just a zoom feature, which is just tacky. Killing Floor benefits from mods quite a bit, too, and it's an example of a game with nice weapons.

 

[barbzilla]

Since modding is a prime example of Sturgeon's Law, no I don't think it's important. Esp. since I think most modders completely miss the point of what, at least I think, the game was trying to achieve and actively seek to undo it.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not saying it shouldn't be allowed, I'm just saying it's not all that important.

Sturgeon's law or Sturgeon's revelation? I have a feeling you mean Sturgeon's revelation, and if that is so then you have invalidated your own point. Just because 90% of everything is crap, doesn't mean that the 10% isn't worthwhile.

I didn't say the remaining 10% wasn't worthwhile, but I don't think it's all that important or necessary.

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.

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.

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.

You are looking at it in one dimension, you need to open your eyes. Think about all of the games that spawned from mods. You have Chivalry, Natural Selection 2, Counter Strike, Team Fortress, and I can keep going for quite a while. These mods have changed the way we play games and breathed life into an old game to the point that the mod makers became popular enough to actually make a stand alone game. This is why modding is so important to the gaming community.

Alright I'll concede the point. A lot of mods are pretty stupid though and leave me wondering just WTF was going through the modders head. Also I didn't know Chivalry and Natural Selection 2 were Mods.

Chivalry spawned from Age of Chivalry and Natural Selection 2 spawned from Natural Selection. Those were examples of full blown games that have spawned due to a healthy modding community.

I don't disagree with you though. Much of what is out there, is in fact crap. That doesn't mean we can't gain some amazing diamonds in the rough though.

 

[aguspal]

I never did really give much of a crap about mods.

If people like them, then go ahead, but IMO the work should be done by the devs themselves and if they rely on mods to make their game good because they are a lazy ass then I just wont have a favorable view on the game (Yes, this was writen with YOU on my mind, Minecraft!)


I just cant be bothered to use them... I want to grab the game and play it, thats it. Unless is a game breaking bug fixed, I never did install any kind of mods nor I intent to.

 

[Voulan]

Mods are a nice addition, but they're certainly not essential to any game. So I voted no, even though that options wording makes me sound like a prat.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

As a console gamer, I'm an outsider on this but I like it. I love the idea of it, even though I haven't really seen it in practice. It lets the fans show how much they love the game by giving everyone a reason to play it more. Devs take forever to release new content, if they do at all, so it's good to see that the game never dies for the fans.

I think Bethesda said they fully support mods, right? And the guys who did Rage released some mod tools? So I don't think developers are really against modding for the most part.

Modding is awesome!

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.

WOAH WOAH WOAH. borderlands 2 in third person?

holy shit thank you for posting that, i might have to fire that game up again just to play with that.

 

[I.Muir]

Any Bethesda game ever
There's your answer

also cs rats n whatnot
STALKER complete

 

[Carlston]

For those who played team Gizka's total restoration on Kotor 2. It makes it not only a good game to play, but adding in what was cut makes it a whole other story.

I'm for it. The never ending god mods, can do without...but the creative stuff sure.

 

[New Frontiersman]

I don't really see it as that important at all. I do use mods, but only ever considered them ancillary to the main game, never an essential part of the experience. For the most part, with a few exceptions, I try and use ones that affect my games as minimally and subtly as possible if I use them at all. I've never considered modding essential, and whether or not a game is capable of being modded has never influenced my purchasing decision in any way.

Also, I've never heard anyone corporation, player or otherwise suggest modding is "declining." Do you have a source of someone in the game industry claiming that modding is "declining?"

 

[Aeonknight]

If the game NEEDS mods to be considered good, then it is a shit game by default. I generally try to avoid those.

 

[Zen Bard]

This poll question is more loaded than Lindsey Lohan on a Friday night!

I don't think mods are essential to a game. But the right mods can definitely impact the right game.

For instance, "Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines" was a decent game with a loyal cult following (myself included).

But the patches that game out of the mod community definitely helped take it to another level.

And of course, the mods to the "Elder Scrolls" games (particularly "Oblivion") are damned near legendary.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Allowing a modding community is worth a hell of a lot in my book. It shows an agreement between developer/publisher and customer that when you buy a product, it is yours to do with as you wish. This is huge when a lot of publishers want to consider games either as licenses or as ongoing services. Nope, you paid for this game, it is yours, fuck with it whatever way you want. I'll always give Creative Assembly, Bethesda, CD Project, the dev of Arma(sorry, I know you're a hallmark of what modding can do, but I do not play you), credit in their commitment to treating their customers like how most every other industry has to treat their customers. You don't see car companies try to lock you out of certain features of a car because you bought it used.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

It's pretty important for PC games. It's a lot of extra value, even if it's just enhancing the vanilla game without adding anything. Then of course there's the reliability with which fans of games will fix its issues, from the myriad of bugs in Skyrim to the online in SimCity. And if you're done with the game or don't mind your immersion going down the toilet there's full conversions and any number of hilarious sound/model/texture replacements. Some reasonably large and populat games (Counter Strike, DayZ) are just mods.

Naturally, large, stupid publishers are against this sort of thing and are heading towards trying to disable it or regulate it. All I can say is that I hope people have the fortitude to not buy games that show this approach, or it will become the norm. Promising to support modding later in the game's life is not an excuse either.

 

[Risingblade]

Of course modding is important, however I strongly believe that you shouldn't mod a game till you after you've experienced it in it's vanilla state.

 

[LostCrusader]

I like the idea of modding for PC games, but my experiences with it have generally been that it isn't worth the effort of trying to find decent mods in a massive pile of shit and then hoping it will install correctly.