Thoughts about voting guidelines

[hrahn]

Good Afternoon everyone,

First things first: I have modded in the past for several games (starting with Doom, most work done with Unreal1), mostly for friends only though. Only released very few things, some new cars for NFS3 early in its lifetime p.ex. :D

 

Now, about my suggestion: I just read through the friendly reminder-thread of the admins of this site concerning lore / non-lore votings. I agree with their stance concening this, if I want to have little witches with hats running around my character in circles and then decide to share the mod with others, I would also be taken aback if the majority of comments would concentrate on the fact that the mod is the most non-canonical thing since captain Kirk being sucked out of the Enterprise B, hopping on a surfboard and cruising into the athmosphere of a nearby planet :whistling:

 

However, if the hats are mis-aligned on the heads of the witches, if they regularly get stuck inside the surrounding countryside and start making annoying noises, those are things that should be brought to my attention. Maybe, they result from conflicts with other (popular) mods, so many people experience those. Maybe these problems only arise with certain hardware combinations.

But if I as a modder never know about them, I can not fix them.

 

In these cases, a lower score seems to be justified in my opinion, but only coupled with a decent report on what went wrong. It is NOT justified if the mod doesn´t run at all and you didn´t ask for help, even if the readme telling you how to install it was at fault (because a readme is the fastest thing to fix and can be corrected in no-time by the modder).

 

The ideal voting curve of a mod would start very high and stay high throughout its lifetime. But a "natural" curve would have a lower start, because there are almost always some bugs which might even be big plotstoppers. Then, the votes rise as the quality of the mod rises. After a long time, they start to fall again, because there might be other mods out there now that do the same thing better or prettier and the original mod-maker has lost interest in revamping his mod because he moved on to different things.

 

In my opinion, a good mod should have an average rating of 7 or 8. A very good one should have a rating of 9.

A 10 would be reserved for a mod you would never play without, that does exactly everything you want from it and that doesn´t interfere with any other mod you use (though the last part can be a tricky one. If you bring a compatibility issue to a modders attention, he should explain why it can or cannot be fixed and if he´s willing to do so. If it´s a slight fix (say a renaming or repositioning of one or two objects) and he doesn´t want to do it although the conflict affects lots of people, a slight downrating would be acceptable imo (a 8 instead of a 9 p.ex.). If it´s a huge hassle though (say, he replaced a whole town with his own creation, breaking a questline from another mod) then I wouldn´t downrate based on that.)

 

Now some people would say that it is unwarranted criticism to downrate a mod for things that the person giving the vote couldn´t do any better on his own. I do not think so, because what the voters can do is compare a mod to other mods out there doing the same or similar things. This is easier with games like Oblivion or Morrowind atm, because there are already tons of mods out for them, some of which are true gems. I can compare the quality of a texture. I can compare the overall speed of the game on my machine if a mod advertises to improve performance. If I get CTDs afert installing a mod, I can try running that mod alone, and if I still get CTDs, I can also comment on them. For all of this, I do not have to be able to code, draw or use the toolset.

But it´s the way I raise my concern that´s important. I could say "OMG, those GRFX are FUGLY, LOL!" or "Those textures look a little low-res, have you tried taking photos of real wood and applying a few filters to get a beter quality?"

Same goes for the modder, the wrong answer would be "hey, I´m only 11, those textures are the best I can do so shove off" - you should rather say "I have no digital camera or scanner at my disposal, do you know any free texture resources and editing tools? I still go to school and cannot afford to buy stuff just for modding".

 

 

Regardless of all I have written here: If you have a problem with a mod: Ask the author fist, WAIT FOR HIS ANSWER, then vote.

If you think his textures are utter crap, ask him what he used to make them and point out alternatives.

If you think his sound effects are too loud or too long, ask if it was intentional.

If you think his meshes are not up to current "standards", offer help or direct him towards other, freely usable resources (there are a lot of modders who made assets that are free to use in your creations, providing that you explicitely state where you got that stuff from).

 

But:

If you don´t agree with the "style" of the mod - tough luck, personal taste is still personal taste.

If you think it doesn´t fit "canon" - ignore it. Nobody forces you to use it

If you feel offended by the mod - move on, chances are quite good that if you made a mod somebody might be offended by it too without you ever intending that stuff or even noticing it (the arrangement of some items can make somebody see some "evil sign" or "hidden message" where you originally just though it would look good).

 

 

So please: Don´t overhype and don´t diss without any reason. Both things will not help modders make better mods, if that it their goal.

(yikes, I wrote a whole novel again)

Please do also remember that the whole text just represents my own opinion, I expect yours to differ. Please refrain from flaming, abusive language, but please point out mistakes in spelling and grammar as english is not my first language. Thank you.

 

P.S.: I read somewhere on these boards that somebody was astounded that a simple mod without any high quality textures or modeling he made raked in extremely high scores just because people thought it was funny.

Isn´t that what gaming is all about? Having fun? And isn´t that the biggest goal of any modder, making a fun game even better?

[Dark0ne]

Some good points. The rating system is going to be overhauled very soon to be similar (but not exactly the same) to the Image Share rating system. Recent high profile incidents and the release of Fallout 3 Nexus have moved me towards this direction and there will be further information and changes soon :)

[AzirAphale001]

So please: Don´t overhype and don´t diss without any reason. Both things will not help modders make better mods, if that it their goal.

 

I don't mean to be a pest I'm incredibly pedantic about these kind of things adn you did say to point out any grammar mistakes but it should be "if that IS their goal" (only without the capitals).

 

 

 

I must say I agree. In the past I have seen several thing along the line of "hey, I´m only 11, those textures are the best I can do so shove off" in mod descriptions adn I have refused on principal to download them (unless they look really good).

 

And as for writing a novel. I've seen worse...

 

And a quick question. What's p.ex? Or is it a typo?

[jaysus]

well collected...

problem is that those that should read it never wont unless you tattoo it on their %&$! heads and they see it each time they start to take a piss in the comments... oh mhh i could have written that differently... but it sounds so damn well... i just say thx to those that offer constructive critizism and ALWAYS take their critique serious (even tho its not implemented right away everytime)... if on the other hand its just a rant or pointless bickerish i use the mighty "report" button... a problem are people who like your mod but dont get it to run and start to blame it... you cant report em, you cant dizz em you can only try to explain... difficult sometimes... customer support always sucks in the end :P ah the good ol times of internet 1.0 and no comments lol if people would have commented on counter strike 0.1 it would never have become a stand alone game thats for sure...