Modders and their impact on the video game industry

[Kregano]

Honestly, mod support seems to be a thing for only a few genres and studios. Strategy games and RPGs seem to be the ones where there's the most likelihood of the studios being open to official/semi-official mod support, although that tends to depend on a lot of factors. Those genres tend to benefit from mods extending the lifespan of the game.

I think mod support has gone down lately because it's just plain harder to get tools, like Unreal 4 modding requiring EGS to get UE4 or using open source tools that don't support most games.

That said, some times modders get hired because of their work, but that's pretty rare.

[HeyYou]

19 hours ago, xrayy said:

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.

Bethesda FREQUENTLY takes ideas that modders have come up with, and incorporates them as 'features' in their next game. That's where crafting came from, and why plants change when you 'harvest' them. They have even gone so far as to HIRE a few modders.....

[Pagafyr]

4 hours ago, HeyYou said:

Bethesda FREQUENTLY takes ideas that modders have come up with, and incorporates them as 'features' in their next game. That's where crafting came from, and why plants change when you 'harvest' them. They have even gone so far as to HIRE a few modders.....

And to this day, no one's poor mans copyrights were ever acknowledged because Bethesda owned the SDK also known as the Construction Set, which everyone used to make all the mods anyone created for any of the games that are the property of Bethesda Softworks, Inc. no matter whose soul made a mod for the game.  They didn't pay a dime to anyone who wasn't special enough that Bethesda Softworks, Inc. hired them to work for Bethesda Softworks, Inc..  And still don't pay a dime unless at Nexusmods you get 1000 points for your mods.  That is Worth one dime

[HeyYou]

7 hours ago, Pagafyr said:

And to this day, no one's poor mans copyrights were ever acknowledged because Bethesda owned the SDK also known as the Construction Set, which everyone used to make all the mods anyone created for any of the games that are the property of Bethesda Softworks, Inc. no matter whose soul made a mod for the game.  They didn't pay a dime to anyone who wasn't special enough that Bethesda Softworks, Inc. hired them to work for Bethesda Softworks, Inc..  And still don't pay a dime unless at Nexusmods you get 1000 points for your mods.  That is Worth one dime

Technically, the authors still 'own' their work, and all the rights thereto, however, the EULA also states that beth essentially has a license to do whatever they want with your mod, without so much as a by your leave.....

[Pagafyr]

12 hours ago, HeyYou said:

Technically, the authors still 'own' their work, and all the rights thereto, however, the EULA also states that beth essentially has a license to do whatever they want with your mod, without so much as a by your leave.....

Also you got the 1000 points to earn a dime by how many individuals downloaded your mod.   

Ten friends downloading it ten times each only count as once so ten is all the download counter was supposed to have. 

So you couldn't get 1000 downloads from one person who just kept messing up while they downloaded it, stopped it just before it was finished so it counted as one, then downloaded again and again trying to make the server think it was another different persons download, because they had made it so they had to download it again.

The count of actual downloads by a number of different individuals from different computers was the only way you knew your mod earned you FAME and a dime.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how many people downloaded mods for Cyborpunk 2077 in less then one week after the game started sliding off the side of the mountain they built under it.   

Modders from out of the blue saved the company from taking a dip into Davey Jones Locker just shortly before it started gaining attention by any modders on the world wide web.  Mod enthusiasts!  You gotta love em!

No surprise though.  As Oregon had thousands of people who owned a computer with nothing on their agenda to do but play games.

People with only 36 work hours a week easily played 112 hours on weekends.  Being disabled my self I knew many other disabled people who also put in more hours during the whole week.  I don't know if anyone counted how many hours we disabled people; forced to go through the old hurry up and wait until you die line; played.

With breaks for meals, drinks and the bathroom to shower clean and freshen up as though Morrowind was REAL LIFE,  and people who invested time making mods for Morrowind also had friends all over the WORLD playing that game... so a mod or two appeared really soon after it got TESNexus.com to give it a thumbs up and a big Hello World Trophy.

Back then, there was no way to earn anything but FAME at TESNexus even if one of them had a Dot Com selling stuff sharing a mod from their links on the WWW may have attracted business so their family survived because of a mod for Morrowind becoming a STAR and some people with family, an entire family spread all over the WORLD modded for it too.

[uncannyd]

I don't particularly have a lot to add, but it does feel like studios are relying on modders to do the heavy lifting. I'm old enough to remember Morrowind not having the option to block on command, which lead to modders to the rescue. All of that got rolled up into Oblivion and Skyrim going forward.

It may be a matter of knowing that it needs to be happening, but not knowing the best way to do it. In a way, modders really provide a level of focus testing that AAA studios could only dream of.