What makes a mod popular?

[BFG99]

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement! Don't worry, I'm not discouraged about the lack of interest. I'm just trying to understand what the perceived differences are in two mods that (I at least think) are very similar. (I have a Marketing job in real life so I guess I have a natural tendency to want to learn how to make people "buy" what I'm selling!)

 

 

Lonewolfkai:

You said it better than I could. I shouldn't care about the reception the mod is receiving - I created it due to my love of the game and wanting to give back to the community, and it was something that makes the game more enjoyable for me - but I would be lying if I said I don't pay attention.

 

 

ub3rman123:

Good point there. I made the mistake of releasing the mod as an early beta so it didn't get much traction during the time it spent on the "new mods" list.

 

 

lozor: Heh :).

 

 

Megatarius:

You have several good points. First off, I agree that the most popular mod isn't always the best one, and I will also have to consider that the simplest mod often "wins" - I find that to be true for the mods I download too.

To answer your question, the "other mod" I was referring to was Maskar's Unequip Broken Armor, also on TESNexus. It's exceptionally well done and you'll never hear me say anything derogatory about it. But until the most recent version, it basically did the same thing as one of my mod's four scripts...the main difference was that it reequipped ANY clothing in inventory instead of the most valuable clothing like mine does. And it does not cover the other 3 functions of my mod (reequip a broken weapon, scale armor enchantments according to health, scale weapon enchantments according to health). Yet it has ended up with 1500 more views, 30 more comments, and 16 more endorsements.

 

In comparing the two, I do see a few differences:

--"Unequip Broken Armor" was posted two weeks before mine on TESNexus, giving it a head start. It was also posted one day after mine on Planet Elder Scrolls, meaning it was listed directly above mine on the "new mods" list, and in fact is still there just above mine. (To Maskar's credit, this was accidental - he actually submitted his mod to PES before I did.)

--Maskar also has a couple of accessory mods. One adds a cool new warhammer, the other a new spell, so that probably has something to do with it.

--Maskar's intro description looks better - less text and easier to read.

--Maskar's mod is OMOD ready; mine isn't.

--I've been more open about bug fixes, optimizing, and difficulty uninstalling the early versions, than I probably should have been.

--Maybe the extra functions in my mod (reequip broken weapon, enchantment scaling) is making it less popular, even though those can be turned off with the included INI.

--I've had trouble deciding what to call my mod since it does several things. It might be better to split the mod apart, instead of having the one big mod.

[Quirkyblonde]

this is an interesting thread, I'm glad you posted it! Here are the things I personally look for in a mod:

 

To even attract my attention on the list, the posting has to have the following qualities:

 

- Correct spelling and reasonably decent grammar. Poor spelling or grammar (or obnoxious Internet chatroom short cuts) makes a person look far less intelligent than they actually are (to me anyways) and I guess I just don't wanna download a stupid person's Mod. Probably because poor spelling in the posting often indicates poor spelling in a mod, and that drives me crazy, and if it's in a script it can cause some real havoc. After all, is using a spell-checker really that hard?

 

- Pictures pictures pictures! Show me an image of what I'm downloading! If I download your horse or house or armor mod, I'd like to know what it looks like before I get it. I'd have to download it only to find it ugly.

 

- An interesting title. Don't be cliche, don't be boring. Give your mod a name that catches the eye! For example, Kumiko Manor, Shadowcrest Vineyard, The Lost Spires, Malevolent. All WONDERFUL, popular mods, but even more importantly they have eye-catching titles. Good Adjectives are often the key here, don't title your mod "A cool house". That's boring! Call it "A Magnificent House" or "An Awe-inspiring House." Better yet, give your house a name! Look in the thesaurus for words that are synonyms for home.

 

Here's a few I found by looking for 10 seconds on Thesaurus.com:

 

abode, address, apartment, asylum, boarding house, bungalow, cabin, castle, cave*, co-op, commorancy, condo, condominium, cottage, crash pad, diggings, digs, domicile, dormitory, dump*, dwelling, farm, fireside, flat, habitation, hangout, haunt, hearth, hideout, hole in the wall, home plate, homestead, hospital, house, hut, joint*, living quarters, manor, mansion, nest*, orphanage, pad, palace, parking place, place, residence, resort, roof*, rooming house, roost, shanty, shelter, trailer, turf, villa,

 

Of course, make sure your name matches the awe-inspiring qualities of your mod!

 

For me to actually download a mod, I look for the following:

 

- Quality workmanship. I want to be able to see the time and effort put into this mod! I need to know that the creator paid attention to every detail of their mod, right down to perfectly centering a rug in a room or tweaking the pathing 500 times so it is perfect.

 

- Support! I want to know that someone is available to help me out if I do run into a weird bug, or will provide updates to fix odd glitches.

 

- An interesting mod! Don't do what's already been done unless you know for certain you can do it better than everyone else (or in a more interesting or unique manner). Why should I download your mod when I've already seen it done 100 times? (not that I have, I'm just saying.)

 

Since I generally stick to housing mods (I'm an interior decorator at heart), I will actually go through the list of housing mods and see what others have done or what requests people have so I can include them in my own work. And remember, you're never going to please everyone so don't let the negativity of others get you down! :)

[chaospearl]

I have over 300 active mods in my game (thanks to Gecko and Wrye Bash) so at this point it's extremely difficult to find any new mods that aren't going to conflict with something or other. Because of that, I'm wary about downloading mods that don't specifically state what they're compatible with and what they're not.

 

If I see a cool new mod that changes something in or around a city, I immediately read through the description to see if it's compatible with Better Cities. If it doesn't specifically state that it is, then I assume either it is not, or it hasn't been tested with BC. I'm not likely to test it out unless I really, really like the concept.

 

Testing a new mod for me means a long and aggravating process.

 

1. Download mod plus any optional files, updates or patches. Unpack into a temp folder.

2. Read the entire readme (twice).

3. Search BOSS masterlist to see if it's included and if there are any known conflicts.

4. Poke around with Tes4Edit to see if a bashed tag is needed, look for any obvious conflicts.

5. Fit it into my load order, hopefully with BOSS, or using common sense.

6. Rebuild my bashed patch.

7. Run LOD Gen if necessary (depends on the mod).

8. Start up the game and check out the mod as best I can. Travel to the area it edits or adds, acquire and wear the clothing, perform the action, or whatever. Also test any of the places\things that I suspect may conflict with the new mod.

9. If there are any conflicts, come back to the Nexus and search for an existing patch. If there is a patch, repeat this entire process beginning from step 1. If not, decide whether the conflict is patchable at all and whether I like the mod enough to create my own patch.

 

So I guess what I'm saying is that the number one thing I look for in a mod is clear documentation about its compatibility. I think it's important for modders to mention not only what the mod is NOT compatible with, but also what it IS. There are so many people using Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, and overhauls (OOO, FCOM, MMM) and we're much more likely to download a mod and try it out if the description specifically states that yes, it is compatible with such-and-such. You needn't go overboard testing it out with every other mod under the sun... only the ones that are hugely popular and relevant. If your mod adds a set of armor there's no need to state that it's compatible with Unique Landscapes. On the other hand, if it creates new monsters and places them throughout the game, people will be interested to know whether or not it can be used along with MMM.

[78stonewobble]

Uhm from my mod newbie perspective.

 

Ease of use -> OMOD + BOSS

Compatibility -> If it breaks stuff I won't reinstall it.

Simplicity -> Unless youre making a grand game altering allmost total conversion of the game. Then just try to keep it to tiny tiny modular mods in my humble oppinion.

 

Lastly people have very varying tastes around here. Some fans of gameplay overhauls laugh at us that couldn't live without graphical mods and vice versa.

 

At this point with my current quite good computer and quite a long break from oblivion I'm interested in just buffing up the graphical qualities, immersion, tweaking and stability of regular oblivion. After a few play throughs I might get into gameplay altering. :)

[David Brasher]

I download by genre. If it is a dungeon or a quest mod, I am likely to download it. Otherwise it has to have a very intriguing name and short description, because otherwise I will never even get far enough to see the screenshots and long description.

[crippknottick]

Here's your problem: You are making mods for the feedback.

 

Exchange the effort you put towards marketing your mod into development and you might end up with a better product that endorses itself. Word of mouth is your best advertising.

Edited August 14, 2010 by crippknottick

[yeahchris]

Which mod I'm going to download is often a balancing act between effect and simplicity. In other words, I pick which mod looks like it's going to add the most to the game by making the fewest changes (particularly in the scripting department). A heavily scripted mod is probably going to have a few errors, compatibility issues, etc. I'm always going to go towards the mod which gets what I want to get done and is the least likely to add unnecessary weight to the game.

 

Example: Sealth Overhaul vs Stealth Overhaul Redux.

 

Both mods make changes which should absolutely have been in vanilla. One adds other bells and whistles which don't have anything in particular to do with stealth (like the ability to equip gear "kits" with a single hotkey, and several other features I never once used when I was running it). Stealth Redux made the core changes and then stopped. What it did and what it would be compatible with was clearly defined.

[Vindekarr]

Here's your problem: You are making mods for the feedback.

 

Exchange the effort you put towards marketing your mod into development and you might end up with a better product that endorses itself. Word of mouth is your best advertising.

 

Someone get this man a beer! You're exactly dead right. Popular is nothing. Quality is everything

 

Think of it this way, the books that have been remembered through history as good books are the ones that make you think, that really challeneg your beliefs. People even now read books like Nine Eighty Four by George Orwell for example, because even over fifty years since it was published, it is still an extremely hard hitting social comment. And just generaly a good read. (if you havent read this, read it.)

 

Likeweise the popular mods are the humble, well made, reliable mods. MoonShadow Elves Mod by Sulpyun is a perfect example. As I type this it sits at #50 of the nexus' all time top 100 best mods. The reason? Its absolutely 100% reliable, very well made, fun to play, and its of a general extremely high quality. Right down to the way the archive has been sorted so that you can install it manualy in under thirty seconds. This is a popular mod, and that is why. People download this mod for what it looks like, and keep it and endorse it for how it works.

 

But if you want REAL fame you've got to blow people's minds. The #1 all time most popular mod on TES nexus is Midas Magic. Midas adds something like a hundred new spells, a bunch of quests, and those arent any old garen variety spells either. They're all awesome, things like the ability to shapeshift, the ability to summon flying, aquatic, and terrestrial mounts, the ability to summon a treasure chest, and the ability to teleport at will are all good examples.

 

It blows your mind when you first boot it up and see just what magnificent work has gone into it. This is a beautiful mod to play, like all of those in the top one hundred. If you want to know what makes a mod popular, take a slow browse of the top one hundred mods of all time section, and learn from the success of previous mods.

 

Reliability. Compatability. And the mod has to really add something new.

[BFG99]

Here's your problem: You are making mods for the feedback.

 

Exchange the effort you put towards marketing your mod into development and you might end up with a better product that endorses itself. Word of mouth is your best advertising.

Don't think that's the problem in this case. I spent 50 hours developing and testing the mod and less than 1 advertising it. The motivation for the mod certainly wasn't popularity or feedback; it was the novelty of the challenge (this was my first mod), and to address what I felt is a lacking part of vanilla Oblivion.

 

Word of mouth is indeed the best advertising, and a good modder should be more interested in quality and uniqueness than in popularity.

But sometimes word of mouth can fail...when a mod goes completely unnoticed, i.e. few try it or know it exists despite the quality and what it offers, what then? That's what I (in my biased opinion) fear has happened here--or at least I'm trying to find out if it has.

 

(I suppose a good answer to the above rhetorical question would be"keep modding anyway, and don't pay much attention to the lack of interest".) :)

[crippknottick]

"keep modding anyway, and don't pay much attention to the lack of interest".) :)

 

 

That's the spirit!