Joining a Modding Team

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Article link: Joining a Modding Team

 

Joining a Modding team can be great for people who want to learn how to mod for WM but are to afraid to ask for help. a modding team can help a person develop their skills and find out what they are best at. They also can create a sense of unity and pride in the mods they develop; since most likely every member of the team helped out in some little way. They also give a chance for people to meet and get to know other modders from around the globe with a little more depth than if they had just met in a chat room or on some forum. Modding teams are a great asset to any community and can benefit both the community and the modders.

 

If you wish to be a part of a modding team, go to the local MW forum, see if anything there interests you and ask the author(s) if they would like some help with their projects. Who knows, maybe they will say yes and allow you to be a part of the project.

[LHammonds]

If people are afraid to ask for help, I doubt they would ask to be part of a team.

 

I'd just suggest to get over being afraid and simply ask for the help they need.

 

You'd be surprised at how willing people are to help out if you show effort in trying to learn.

 

I also believe in surrounding yourself with people more talented than yourself which forces you to continually improve. I've also found that "teaching" others also helps to increase depth in the knowledge by forcing you to be correct in what you say. I believe there is a quote in some neat little book somewhere that says something about how iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

 

LHammonds

[Lady Li]

As a leader of a marvelous modding team since October 2006 with an output of various Plugins I'm still a beginner, course it's not possible to learn out this greatly interesting ambit.

 

And most of the modders I got to know are wonderful people as far as I can see.

 

But also I experienced to loose contact totally, just because I wasn't perfect enough and completely free of any mistakes. This is the reason I never asked again to join a group...

 

What I miss is more cooperation between both, english and german TES-Communities and modders, even if it might be a little demanding to get to know and understand/dig each other. But can I imagine it as an enthralling interchange of knowledge and fantasy :)

 

And in fact I like to learn and to share and many others do, wether they are english ore german natives ;)

 

Well, I hope, this is not to much off Topic.

[LHammonds]

Yes, language can definitely hamper communications. I cannot speak anything other than English (tried Spanish but failed miserably). I wouldn't mind working with German or anyone from other modding communities but like I said, English is my only language so me and another non-English modder wouldn't be able to communicate very well which would severely hamper working together as a team.

 

In the Lost Paladins team, Jerros and I was lucky enough to gain a very talented modeler/artist (EuGENIUS) who is based in Russia and speaks English very well. We recently welcomed another modeler/artist (ThreeDees) who is based in Australia.

 

Timezones can also be a barrier against communication (well, chatting). Jerros and I are a few timezones apart and the other two members are basically on the other side of the world. My home time is their work time and visa versa.

 

LHammonds

[Vagrant0]

Before signing up for a team, you should considder where the project is going. Many large projects are begun without any clear intention, or knowledge of how to get there. While these projects can still be fun to work on, they often seem lost, and rarely go the distance. I point this out since everyone who is willing to work as part of a project is extremely important to any project which has such direction, but is struggling to stay alive due to lack of people. This is really alot of power for people to have, by deciding to help out a team you can determine if a good project fails or succeeds, or if a poorly run one just goes on reinventing itself every few months.

 

But to that, you should ask yourself what you want to get from working on a team. Are you looking to just have fun with modding, are you looking to help give something back to the community, are you looking to improve your skills, are you looking to just help out someone around here with their projects, or are you just looking for a way to test out something new before everyone else... You should considder what you hope to accomplish, and then find a project that can accomplish those things. Don't be afraid to take time considdering the benefits of joining before volunteering yourself. And don't be discouraged if the project you were working on doesn't pan out, or if the team just doesn't work together. There are other projects out there, and other teams which would welcome you.

 

And if a modding team is experiencing a brief pause in activity due to work, school, life, don't abandon them. Nothing is more discouraging for a person than seeing their team drop dead because there hasn't been any significant progress in a few weeks. All projects go through these periods of activity and inactivity. The trick is to make use of those lulls in order to flush out ideas about the mod, to plan future parts, or to improve your skills with modding. This doesn't mean that you can't work on your own projects, or sign up with another team while things are slow, but atleast have the decency to check in every week or so to see how things are going, and maybe post some crazy idea you happened to have involving the mod.

 

Finally don't be disuaded from joining a team because there are people more skilled than you. Help is help, as skilled as some people are, they can't do everything themselves. That is why they are part of a team. Even if you don't currently have much ability, if you're willing to learn, and start small, team members will be willing to help you learn. That is why it is a team... People helping eachother. If you have questions, or want to learn something, ask. On the otherhand, you should probably be wary of any team where most of the people on it aren't familiar with the aspects they plan to be modding. While this too can prove to be a great learning experience, it is often filled with periods of extreme frustration and dead-end ideas which have to be changed. But hey, some people like challenges.