It came as a surprise to me that many, many gamers — alright, I would say casual gamers — have no idea what is modding. Many people who play computer/video game would boast about the number of games they have played, and some may even consider themselves as "expert gamers". But you may be surprised (like I did) by how many blank stare you will draw from them when you mentioned "MODDING".
Game mods can be found in many different game genres. Here are some examples:
While the commercial games are great to play (if they are asking gamers to buy them, they better have some good contents, don't you think?), they don't always "please" every gamers. Some gamers are unhappy about the way the plots turn out. Others may be unhappy about the attribute of the game characters (avatars), even the way the avatars looked, their voice-overs, etc, etc. In short, many players believe they can make the games "better", if only something can be changed.
Since games are only software, a tech-savvy gamer with the right know-how can always "hack" into the game codes to make whatever changes (i.e. Modifications) necessary to the game. In the Internet era, many of such MODs made it to the Internet, where they were freely shared, and widely distributed to the gamers community.
Regardless if a MOD actually improved the game play as purported, at the very least, they gave the gamers something different from the original released game. (So, it is like everyone who download the MOD get a new, free, game!) Such modifications worked both way for the game developers: Some felt that this is a slap on their face, meaning the game they created wasn't "good enough". But others quickly got over such ill feeling, and looked at it as a way to extend the shelf-life of the game: if there are more mods, this may encourage more gamers to buy the game as there are now more contents to play! One of the best example is "Neverwinter Nights 1": even though the game was debuted in 2002, there are still new mods being made for it today!
Once in a while, a truly ingenious modification was made and distributed. Not only did it receive rave reviews from the gamers community, the modders even made some money out of it and were asked to join the game publishing company as developers!
A prime example being "Counter Strike", which was created/modded using the SOURCE engine — originally of the game "Half-Life". The positive reviews and demand for the new MOD, coupled with the chance to get a "dream job" working for a game development company have proven to be a powerful motivator for many gamers (who mod).
So, a player who ventures to MODify the content of a game he/she is playing, is said to have created a Game MOD. Even though a game module created by the hired developers is technically a ""module"" also, in the world of mod, it typically referred to unofficial player-created contents.
Modding is, thus, the actions engaged by gamers in making these independent self-created contents. Modding may be "sanctioned" (achieved through a legitimately distributed game development kit), or "unsanctioned" (via hacking). Of course, those who engaged in modding activities would probably preferred to be known as "Modders" than "hackers".
The quality of the game mods typically vary greatly in sophistication as it depends on how well a modder uses the tool(set). Often, what a modder can achieve corresponds to the game development kit (GDK) available. Some mods are nothing more than new map (when the GDK is a map editor, e.g. Titan Quest, and WarCraft III) editing to full fledge game making. The player-created contents need not even be completed games (and often, they are work-of love, and work in-progress).
Are there bad mods? Depends on which perspectives you are looking at: there are poor quality mods, and then there are infamous ones — "Hot Coffee" from Grand Theft Auto would be an example for the latter.
Continue to » Gamer, Modder, or Developer?