Modders and their impact on the video game industry

[h3cch3]

First of all I'm not a modder myself, I do however hold a lot of respect for modders,.

It has come to the point where some studios are launching games with almost no hand-crafted content (Starfield) and expect modders to fill in the gaps. I think that modders having previously fixed these games may have inadvertently conveyed to developers that it's acceptable to release bad products that will get fixed by the community.

The point of this entire post is that I want to encourage modders to reevaluate the games that they are modding to only mod games that they genuinely think are good, because by doing so these studios won't get away with releasing bad products.

To be clear, if you genuinely think Starfield is a good game then you should definitely make a mod for it if you want to. If you, however, after thinking about it come to the conclusion that it's not a good game then I implore you to not mod it.

This might seem obvious and that no one would make a mod for a game that they don't like, but sometimes it seems like this actually isn't the case, perhaps because people want to be loyal to a studio which has previously released great games. One example is the developer of Skyrim Together who was porting the mod to Starfield (completed about 70%) and then realized that the game is not worth modding.

[HeyYou]

If mods can make the game better, why not mod even a 'bad' game? Beth is notorious for taking ideas created by modders, and incorporating them in their next game... They have even hired a few modders..... Starfield has the potential to be a modders paradise..... Give it a year or three after the CK releases, and you will see some amazing content for the game.

[showler]

They vastly improved Fallout 76.  Anything is possible.

[HeyYou]

5 hours ago, showler said:

They vastly improved Fallout 76.  Anything is possible.

I would put forth that mods improved every game they were applied to.

Mods made Oblivion playable for me. I hated the vanilla game, but, once FCOM was installed, oh my. Hundreds of hours. :D

[showler]

Not mods.  Bethesda.

[saif216]

Its depend on the community or the game itself because sometime mod are required to make the game even more excitement.

Edited January 10 by saif216

[YeulEmeralda]

Considering what Capcom is doing and how few games actually get official mod support by the developers themselves I think the industry doesn't really likes modding much.

 

 

 

[showler]

9 minutes ago, YeulEmeralda said:

Considering what Capcom is doing and how few games actually get official mod support by the developers themselves I think the industry doesn't really likes modding much.

 

 

 

Less "doesn't like moddding" and more "doesn't see a value to them in modding" with a few actually seeing it as a negative since it prolongs people playing older games.

[xrayy]

the value of modding from the game studio perspective is not given or desirable. even bethesda shows their will to act independent. if they like to introduce monetizing mods they just do it regardless of other opinions. 

the diversity of console and pc gaming and related tools make it impossible to streamline modding in a way to make everybody happy or to make profit in long term.

modding for gamers (mostly on pc) works only until the the next major update. creative solutions for that problem never comes from the game studio. in best case they involve modders in the planned changes with a tendency not to do it.

game studios will always try to fully control monetization of their games. they even still tend to include drm at all costs.

modders and gamers will always have to deal with this and they are just tolerated as long as profit is generated for a game studio and the gaming industry.

 

so i am thankful to be still able to experience what modding is capable of and the excitement it transports  and i am also aware of the fragility of this "cooperation" just working on sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pagafyr]

On 12/21/2023 at 8:30 AM, h3cch3 said:

First of all I'm not a modder myself, I do however hold a lot of respect for modders,.

It has come to the point where some studios are launching games with almost no hand-crafted content (Starfield) and expect modders to fill in the gaps. I think that modders having previously fixed these games may have inadvertently conveyed to developers that it's acceptable to release bad products that will get fixed by the community.

The point of this entire post is that I want to encourage modders to reevaluate the games that they are modding to only mod games that they genuinely think are good, because by doing so these studios won't get away with releasing bad products.

To be clear, if you genuinely think Starfield is a good game then you should definitely make a mod for it if you want to. If you, however, after thinking about it come to the conclusion that it's not a good game then I implore you to not mod it.

This might seem obvious and that no one would make a mod for a game that they don't like, but sometimes it seems like this actually isn't the case, perhaps because people want to be loyal to a studio which has previously released great games. One example is the developer of Skyrim Together who was porting the mod to Starfield (completed about 70%) and then realized that the game is not worth modding.

 I recall that line from that movie about a guy who builds a baseball diamond on his farm where he was growing corn.  If you build it, they will come!