A question for modders

[NocturneNight]

Hello everyone, first I'd like to say that I'm not fully sure if this post belongs in this forum as it doesn't really concern any specific mod(s), but rather is a question aimed at the modders in general. I hope I'm not in the wrong area, but if so, I kindly ask a moderator to move the topic to somewhere more appropriate. :)

 

Anyway I have been wondering about this for quite some time now. I recently got accepted and started at a Technology Institute here in Sweden where I'm studying to (eventually) become a videogame developer. And from what I've seen so far, making a videogame is tough work. That's why I'm wondering... how do you modders... dunno how to say this exacly but, "make a living"? I mean we have many talented modders here; many of whom are constantly working on new mods and I think that making a qualitative mod would take time, right? Is modding something you do in your spare time or do you get paid for it? Do you guys work in the industry? I mean if you have a fulltime job and mod in your spare time, that doesn't leave a lot of room to actually play any games, does it? :P

 

I'm wondering this because I'd like to become a modder too and make mods, but I have a hard time trying to fit everything into my schedule. And I would want to play the games I was modding for... I hope this isn't something too intrusive to ask, as I am, really just curios. :)

 

Thanks, NocturneNight

[TodaY]

I mod in my spare time

But then again, im 16 so I have a lot of it :P

[SavageArtistry]

Hobby. It has to be since people aren't allowed to earn money from making mods. The only exceptions to this that I know of is Second Life (where it is approved by the company) and the Sims (where it's technically not allowed, but EA doesn't move a muscle to stop it).

[QQuix]

Hobby.

I always wanted to create a game, but, by the time I had time for it, the game industry was already a million-dollar business.

I like programming and I've found Oblivion scripting the perfect environment for my hobby.

I started playing Oblivion Feb/2008. Started modding Apr/2008 and have never gone back to playing the game again (my last 'real' save is date 13/apr/2008).

 

Welcome to the community.

[Pronam]

Almost everyone works out of a hobby around here. Most of the things are a relief for people to work on and they'd rather not see it as work as they already do that 5 (or more) days a week during most of the day. There are very few that work in the industry itself, some that work on games built on open source engines or from scratch, but the general public just leans back after school/work to figure out...hm. what shall I do next for a mod! You know what the fun is, the less time people have the more work they seem to get done. It's like a reverse effect of work-pressure where modding does succeed in less time but without the bounds. A lot of which I know are very busy in their normal lives, they seem to do a more things than most than those that have 10x more free time. Most like to think about a game-career, but honestly but a very few that say eventually do...life and priorities take their turns.

 

An important thing of modding however is to face the fact things take time. At first it's the time to learn how to do things and then the fact that it'll always take some time to solve 'the next problem' or to finalize the next idea. The trick is that with the many aspects of modding the games we mod is that you can put things aside for a bit and work on something else and return to a problem later. Things don't HAVE to be solved immediately, like in the days of the weeks you don't have time to mod. However, with that fact most seem to be able to solve problems much more quickly..especially with a big community like here. It's a collaborative act to help others to speed up fixing their problems as others have faced the same before, you'd be surprised how jealous some companies are at the rate people are able to learn things at places like here :biggrin:.

[documn]

Hobby. I work in a lab. If I am active in the game at all, I typically spend at least a couple weeks doing one thing (either modding or playing) and then switch over to the other thing for a while, and then switch back, etc.

[ub3rman123]

You won't make any money modding in itself, unless you learn some modeling skills. Then you can make models and sell them. At any rate, there's hardly any programs out there needed for modding that aren't free or have a free equivalent.

[Vindekarr]

One of my weekend hobbies.

 

I work full time, mod on weekends and holidays, though I mostly mod StarCraft II and that's a lot less time consuming than Oblivion. Nonetheless you can get a LOT done with just an hour a day, over a week that's over 7 hours not inluding full weekend time, I make a living "normaly" but that doesnt mean I cant have a life of leisure either! :)

[NocturneNight]

Hello everyone, alot of interesting replies, thanks all! :)

 

A lot of which I know are very busy in their normal lives, they seem to do a more things than most than those that have 10x more free time. Most like to think about a game-career, but honestly but a very few that say eventually do...life and priorities take their turns.

 

It's sort of what I've been thinking for the past years. "I'm going to make games!" But now that I'm actually studying video game design, it all comes off as too massive. This is why I was wondering how you modders do it, since I don't want to have to stop playing video games in order to make them. I'm in the process of learning what it's all about; I'll give it a couple of months and then see how I feel about it. I guess it's the same for modding for most people; either play or mod, you don't have time for both, which is kinda sad.

[ub3rman123]

Oh, video games got boring for me when I started modding. Although I never was any good at them anyways, so it's nice how the CS has no health meters or enemies.

 

The major long-term benefit I've seen in modding is the skills you learn. I'm aiming to get a job at Bethesda, so hopefully I 'm not wasting my time learning all the tools.

 

You can always just take turns between playing and modding, though. It's good to get a perspective of new things to try by playing through games. Modding has no deadlines (Usually), so you can take as long as you want.