Paper on modding

[enzi]

Hello Nexus,

 

Currently I'm working on a paper for school where I do a Master in game studies. With the topic being Modding I would really like to hear the opinions and suggestions by the biggest mod community out there.

 

The paper is about the question who is the author of a game if modders can change virtually anything about the game to the point where there is more user created content then "vanilla" content. My topics of discussion are:

 

1. What is “modding”
2. Where did it start
3. Who are doing it
4. Why do it
5. How does this affect the authorship
6. Pros and cons of a mod community
7. Conclusion

(obviously there is some history and explanation on what modding is for the people that have no idea what it is you guys are doing)

 

Please if you have input on the subject let me know, I think it would be very nice to have some input from actual modders.

 

Just discuss in this thread I'll be monitoring it very closely to see what you have to say.

 

Thank you guys,

 

Enzi

[Vagrant0]

Modding has been around for almost as long as PC gaming has been around. Early modding, atleast from my own experiences mostly started off with many of the early fps games like Wolfenstein and Doom (original). Much of this was due to the fact that these sorts of games usually utilized external files for art or level assets rather than being all enclosed inside a single batch file. This made them easier for curious types to pick at them, pull them apart, and figure out how things worked without breaking the game outright or digging through code. Before the advent of the internet however, most of these mods were either shared directly by knowing someone who knew how to mod, from one of the few bbs services that were around, or in later years were distributed with some gaming publications at the time, like PC Gamer. At this time though, most of those doing the modding were either those who had some background in the game industry, were computer science students, or who had access to some sort of level editor, with relatively little of it actually being sanctioned by the publishers of those games.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Duke Nukem 3d was the first game released with its own functioning mod tool (and documentation) packaged with the main game... But it certainly was one of the first. Along with some of the early matchmaking services of the time (name escapes me), this allowed people to play user-created maps online and share those maps. Just around this time, Quake was being released, and while Quake didn't have any official modding tools, it was where Team Fortress began to redefine the scope of modding.

 

Around this time other sorts of modding started becoming more common as RPGs and simulation games became more and more detailed, requiring use of external resources, which in a similar fashion made it easier for people to work out what those exact elements related to and alter them. And things only grew from there as the beginnings of the internet started coming into existence to facilitate the sharing of game files, methods, or editing tools.

 

History aside, Why mod? Same reason as ever.. Because among those with the time, patience, or curiousity, there is always some way to alter a game to make it more personal, make it more fun, add new content, or just cheat until the hearts content. For all this effort, the modder can extend the life of a game by many hours, or make the very act of modding a challenge or activity on its own. It is no different than someone wanting to customize their car, or make changes to their house. They do it because they have an interest to do so and nothing stops them from seeing it through.

 

The benefit of a modding community is that it helps make modding that game more accessible since people don't need to be a computer science student or know coding in order to get into it. It also establishes a sort of social aspect to those things that are changed or created so that what is created doesn't need to have a personal meaning, but can simply be something that was made for others to enjoy.