Mods are modifications to existing games utilizing the structure, scripting and game world as the basis for the modification. To achieve this modders have to understand the way a game works with files which are utilized by the game engine that coordinates scripting, visualization, objects, characters, the environment and the rest of the game. Mods cannot be classified as any one thing, as they will run the gamut of interests of those who see a game and then ask themselves why the game is showing or doing things in a certain way. As such game mods will most likely date back to the invention of games, themselves, once understood rules for a game are developed and accepted.
Take an ancient game like chess, as an example. The movement of the pieces, size of the board and required one turn per action rule, save for certain circumstances that are codified, create the basis for the game. It is a form of battlefield simulation of equal force distributions with one side have the prerogative of moving first. The form of it is well understood, the rules well known and set, and it is otherwise a game that offers a form of game play that has a plethora of strategems for the early, mid and late game. Yet as a battlefield simulator it lacks the actual mobility of the pieces.
Take the humble pawn which can take an initial move of 2 squares forward and threaten to either of the forward diagonal squares and generally just block a unit ahead of it. They move only forward in their rank rank, which is towards the enemy, and can have a special replacement upon reaching the last row of an enemy. It is a piece for opening up the game during play. Yet well trained troops, in the battlefield, could also move backwards in moves to help cut off enemy incursions or otherwise shift the balance of forces in the battlefield to change them in favor of the commander. The chess piece that is the pawn does not move backwards, nor does it have a backwards taking rule. If, however, players wished to experiment with this on their own, they are free to do so. When done the game can be considered to be running with a modified rule set to address the pawn and will be adhered to by both players. Chess can be modded privately for the greater enjoyment of the players involved. This, at its heart, is an example of a mod and a relatively simple one, at that, in a multiplayer environment.
Other games have developed their own suite of 'house rules' that are not codified but well understood to exist. In the board game 'Monopoly' the square of Free Parking is just that: a place that charges no rent and is free to land on. It is not a place where money that has been accumulated via fines gets that money as it is to go directly to the bank. The latter is a 'House Rule' to enliven game play and extend it.
Game mods can also address drawbacks in game design that make no sense to the player or players involved. In another strategy board game, 'Dune' the Family Atomics card was played only to make the Imperial Basin susceptible to sandstorms, which includes the two major settlements there. By using it on the rock structure protecting the settlements, the storms could get in to harm them. Yet every settlement has such a structure protecting them, so why limit the use of the Family Atomics to just the one place? It is to drive game play to center on those two strategic places, but by canon of the lore for Dune (the book series) it makes no sense to have such a restriction. The use on actual geographic features and not on people directly in settlements or cities is allowed. Troops caught on that geographic feature are, sadly, killed. If the players agree to waive the use for just the one protective piece and open it to all of them, then the path for a variant of game play starts. In many ways a solo win becomes easier, unless someone figures out that person does have the Family Atomics, then they may find themselves the target of alliances against them.
In the modern sense these examples are modding to the core rules of the game: how the game works is modified in an essential, though often minor, way. Modern computer games would require a set of scripts and instructions to be inserted into the game engine to enact these changes, which requires that the game scripting engine be opened up for additional changes via outside code. That is a complex task, and many games are not made with modifications in mind and generally have closed structures that will not function if anything is added to them. Other games have more open structures or have a game system that can be adapted but only after close examination of the game engine and how it works is done outside of the developers of the game.
By and large, with very notable exceptions, in the modern era modders don't make games. Modders seek to make games better, more consistent, address bugs, fix issues the developer never had time or money to fix, and generally start adding in projects of passion to a game. Most mods are simple ones of adding better textures to...at this point...everything a game can encompass. Some mods offer better designs of items as seen in-world, even if they are static, as the maker of the mod doesn't see why something should look so bad when it is relatively easy (with their skillset) to make a better model or texture, or both. Old games can get better and higher definition models, textures and generally given a more modern 'feel' if the game engine can actually support them.
Game mods can add new items, features, systems or even new play areas in to a game that will feature their own stories, quests, trials and tribulations. In the modern era mods to games have added in 'survival' systems to pre-existing games, put in entire new scripting for NPC interactions, fixed up buggy quests that have been game stoppers for many players, and even try to make a game truer to the lore as presented in prior games so as to make it more in line with them. None of that is official, save in certain, and rare circumstances where the game developer will not only acknowledge the mod but even stamp it with official approval. In the game 'Just Cause 2' modders found a method to add in networking script that would allow for multiple players to be in a single game. They worked hard at it and the game even started to develop its own community where you and 2,500 of your closest friends could surf jets in the sky, cause mayhem in races and otherwise go on a tear in a fully destructible game world. When the developers of this were shown it, they embraced it and decided that this should now be available for free to all users of the game: it got their stamp of approval. That is rare.
The actual complexity of achieving anything in a mod takes skill and time to understand file structures, designing compliant code that isn't buggy, testing and retesting the mod, making sure nothing else breaks because of it, and utilizing the Unofficial patch developed by the community for a game post-launch and end of service by the developer. Developers have to move on to new games to keep their companies going, and so old games receive a final end-of-cycle patch and that is that. If a game is popular enough to have a community that enjoys the game and wants to see the bugs still in the game patched, they must get together to do so. There are many games that have just such communities around them, and the modifications done by these mod creators and teams of creators can be awe-inspiring.
A game like 'Stellaris' by Paradox is a 4X galactic strategy game featuring different types of science fiction typical races and situations is a game with an active modding community. It is possible to be an insular imperial empire or an open megacorp seeking to spread a gospel, and thus be a megachurch. And so much more. In two areas a modder saw that Paradox hadn't really covered two entire subsets of SF to show the diversity in them. That started the creation of Unofficial DLCs for Machines and Hive Minds, which would start to reflect the diversity of ideas presented in SF for these species or machine types. A Hive Mind was no longer just a Devouring Swarm (with variants) but could now be a Symbiotic System that allowed parts of the ecology to work for the greater whole. That would mean that outsiders were no longer seen as just a food source, but could actively be encouraged to migrate to suitable worlds so that their particular skills and traits would lead to a better functioning Hive. Individuality wasn't lost and seen as a vital part of contributing to the entire system. Developing that, implementing it, giving good back-stories to it and adjusting game events to reflect the nature of such a Hive are all required to make playing such a Hive consistent to their background and ethos. Similarly Machines went from either Exterminators or Rogue Servitors to encompassing things like trade and understanding it as a system of function for a larger machine run empire.
Bethesda Game Studios was known for a strong modding community once The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind came out. Moving to a new game engine and having an expansive attitude towards encouraging mods, it would start a long-lived community that would then adapt to other titles made on succeeding generations of game engine with the same policy. That would include not just TES titles (Oblivion and Skyrim) but Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. These continue to be extremely strong modding communities, and while few modders make mods for all those games, it is possible to find similar mods made by other makers on other games in those franchises. The Elder Scrolls community even started to work on the first two titles (Arena and Daggerfall), and have even gotten to the point of replacing the game engine with one that is open to mods, while using the rest of the original files. Similarly TES III: Morrowind has gotten the OpenMW project that seeks to replace the old game engine with a brand new one crafted for not just Morrowind but adaptable to the later games in the series. These are labors of love, that have the creators getting little monetary value for their work via fans willing to fund them with small amounts monthly. By having games that are set in stone and not updated, along with an open modding policy towards them, new content has sought to move these games into a modern era of gaming via mods.
Such a community is built by its members and a company that allows this to thrive without any serious intervention means it can garner support and purchasers of future titles. These games in both series have seen efforts to not just regularize content but to add-in new content that fits in the game world and thematically with prior games. Such support cannot be bought at any price. Even when BGS tried to monetize Oblivion with Horse Armor content one had to pay for, it wasn't seen as a big deal and more of a bad joke. The move by the gaming industry for constantly increasing income and to move away from the spike and valley system of game releases with large sales for a short period of time and then much, much lower residual sales over time, means that new content has to be offered more frequently. Such content does not have long development times which leads to problems in presentation of content, types of content and if the content is actually meaningful to gamers. An attempt to monetize mods directly on Steam (a distribution platform for large numbers of games) ran into serious issues of content theft or even offering no content for cash. This was a failure and even opened up problems of liability due to Intellectual Property rights and who actually owned what.
BGS has since tried to monetize the two recent examples of single-player games, Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, which has become problematical to the modding community. To offer new updates the game files must be changed to allow for them to be used. That means that the game, itself, is no longer set in stone at a file level, and every update that comes out has the potential of breaking older mods and requires new working by the script extension group to allow for modding scripts to be inserted into the game engine. To garner revenue the concept of a stable game platform is broken and that is a breaking of faith with the modding community. In search of revenue they now put something that is priceless at risk. A few years ago Bethesda Game Studios was considered near or at the top of the role-playing game heap, something to look up to and a company that got trust from its fans. Even before the release of the buggy and fundamentally broken online Fallout 76, the fan base was starting to sour on BGS with its new monetized mods from its 'Creation Club'. Some modders did move over to make content for the Creation Club, mostly as just a one time supplement to their income as these 'Creations' do not have a long-term revenue sharing stream for the creators. This is industry standard contract work, where the contractor gets paid once and the continuous revenue goes to the company. Fundamentally this is 'gig work': work to do one thing for a set price to spec and then move on. But that is not modding as the community has come to understand it: mods are a labor of love for a project or just wanting to fix something that just isn't right but can be made right with the proper skills at a very base level.
If the game files are being touched, and they are, then there is one further problem with the Creation Club that remains unmentioned. For all the revenue it gets, NONE of it is going back in to fix the game. While checking to make sure that these paid mods aren't breaking the game, no one is working on fixing these games. They are End of Lifecycle for development...but that isn't true, is it? Development continues and yet nothing gets fixed. Buggy physics remains buggy. Bad placement of terrain remains bad. Broken Quests remain broken. And myriads of issues, large and small, are never examined. Fixing problems doesn't take much, just look at 'Just Cause 2' as an example that goes far beyond what the developers had ever imagined could be done with their game. In the case of Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4, a gracious and good thing that could be done is to include the community patch into the free content for the game. Acknowledge the hard work of the community, include it, offer kudos and when a new Community Patch comes out that can then be examined and included if it has done more to fix issues that remain unresolved that the developers can't divert any of their revenue to fixing. This would show an that BGS is open to the modding community, appreciates its efforts and goes so far as to make the 'unofficial' an actual official part of the game. The cost for doing so is so low that it boggles the mind that this hasn't been done. But as there is no money on the table for BGS, it remains undone. Repaying good will and rewarding hard work through simple recognition appears to be impossible.
And for those who think BGS doesn't pay attention to the modding community, it is possible to find modes for Fallout: New Vegas that have a system of establishing new settlements, placing down defenses, getting people to work at them and then Take Back The Wasteland. If that sounds an awful like the stuff included in Fallout 4, then you will have hit on something that does point to a corporate cultural problem: not giving mere credit where it is due. Not including a Community Patch is one thing. Taking ideas, systems and working ideas presented for free, then cleaning them up and incorporating them into another game and never giving credit to those who worked hard on a free mod...that is something else, again.
Modders seek to add in or adjust the game for their own reasons and let everyone know what they are doing and why, plus what bug testing they have done to try and show what is and isn't compatible with what they do. Take the large scale mod for FO4 called 'Horizon', which is a complete and total overhaul of the game mechanics centering on a 'survival' mode ethos that tries to emulate what a 'realistic' survival situation would look like in that universe. It is a mod with other mods attached to it to deactivate or reconfigure older mechanics so that they no longer act as they did for the original game. Skills are earned not just by level up, but by choices of skills, stats, and using such skills actively. In many ways it adds in a sort of continuous experience system seen in The Elder Scrolls series. It changes the magical effects on weapons and items, replacing them with parts that can be used for research or for creating components to craft better equipment. Survival has a complete overhaul and replacement, and that extends to settlements, as well. Item condition returns, though still not as user friendly or thoroughly integrated as many players would like, it at least shows that such a system can be made and utilized within the FO4 game engine (and this was pre-Fallout 76 mind you).
It is a popular mod that has many other modders adding in patches so that their mods work within the new Horizon framework, and there is a community around these mods that also give feedback on what works and doesn't work in the way of other mods with Horizon. An entire weapons pack took individual weapons by other modders, adjusted them to work in the new framework and then was available as a mod that seamlessly worked with Horizon, no further patch needed. There have even been attempts to make Horizon work with another large scale mod that changes the entire settlement concept so that the player isn't left to do everything in settlement building. That mod and its community is built around Sim Settlements, and it has its own systems for how settlements work, what their needs are, how they grow, when they grow and what the problems are based on resources that are available to them. That is its own large scale system added into the game, and getting it to work with Horizon is an effort of love and dedication by those who like both of the systems.
Sim Settlements started out with modest goals in mind, but has since grown to start overhauling not just the way settlements are made and developed but to even add in new methods of game play in which settlements will develop independently in the wasteland so that the player will never know what that settlement is like when they arrive. It may no longer be a couple of farmers on a plot of land but a thriving community that doesn't need the player's help. With the Conqueror expansion to Sim Settlements and the added factions that other modders make for it, the opportunity to work with base game hostile factions and actually become integrated with them is possible. Older factions have returned, new ones have been created and those thought impossible are now possible as actors in the wasteland due to the modding community of Sim Settlements.
All of these are enabled by a scripting extension system developed by a group that has dedicated itself to extending the way scripts can be added in to BGS games. That group must update its scripting extension system every time the base code of the game changes, so that it can work with the new items and features added into the base game. That means with every new release of 'Creations' the script extension group needs to rework their code, and everyone using mods that use that scripting extension system have to wait for it to be updated, and then for other mods to update to the new changes in the scripting extension system. Mind you the actual game of Fallout 4 has seen no real new development, no bug fixes, no changes beyond those for the 'Creations' it now covers. Older games, like all the prior games in the TES series, save for Skyrim SE, are set in stone and almost never see updates. It is only the microtransaction added games that have this problem, along with the frustrating concept of BGS having sent new files for early 'Creations' that take up drive space even though they aren't being used by the player. This was 'fixed' for later 'Creations' but that first wave still sits on drives when not used taking up space because BGS never figured out how to NOT do that even though they DID with later 'Creations'.
If this seems like needless harping on BGS, then to a degree that is correct. Paradox Studios has much the same problem with some of its games, though not on the microtransaction side, but on actually listening to their user communities and updating the game engine, game play and revamping systems, often centered on major DLC releases. Paying for the DLC can be expensive, especially if you aren't keeping up with the game, but in return you get new content, attempts to fix bugs, and a developer that listens to feedback and keeps a game fresh and exciting for years after the initial release. Plus they are open to mods and tell the community around those games what has been changed and why, so that mods can be changed if they have touched on features or game mechanics that involve particular mods. Frequent updates can be frustrating, yes, but as a player you know that they are made to address concerns or add features or make a game more consistent for all the players. That is worth the price of lower cost DLCs coming out once or twice a year for a major update and brand new features added into an old game. Even if you don't purchase all the DLCs, Paradox ensures that their bugfixes will still work for you: they care about the end user experience for all the players and understand why their community is important to future game development.
I enjoy Paradox and BGS games, and use mods for them to get new and interesting ways to play the games. There is a stark difference between the two ways that monetization and player appreciation is handled by the two companies. One keeps games fresh, interesting and uses player feedback to improve the game, while the other just puts out new content and doesn't bother to do bug fixes and when they take in user feedback it is not given any appreciation beyond a few reps saying nice things. One gets meaningful results that add value to purchasing expansions to make the game better based on feedback, the other sells stuff to people who want it and don't bother to ever fix problems or really listen all that well to feedback. One honestly seeks cash and hands back more than you expect, while the other converts money into store credits and then changes pricing on items on a whim to market them and entice people to pay for more credits. One looks at user mods, examines them and then offers to incorporate them as official content with credit, while the other takes in ideas and systems, incorporates them from prior mods, and gives no credit at all. One continues to build a user community by paying attention to it, the other puts out a way to mod its games and then doesn't pay much attention to the users save for when something that might be useful comes up and then just take from the users and never tell what they do. There is a line between these approaches and it is one that users and people paying for games need to pay attention to if you use mods.
Another company, CD Projekt Red, is known for its wonderful games, like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but not well known for its modding tools or support. In fact it doesn't offer much in the way of either and doesn't take a stance pro or con to modding their games. Those who wish to mod their games need to garner what tools are available among the small community that creates mods and then learn the necessary file structures, coding and means to inject new material into the game engine. Part of the reason why this is the case is that CDPR address each game individually and is prepared to scrap most or all of its prior game engine to keep the few parts that will work in the next game they develop and then make a new game engine from the ground up to focus on the game and its content. Thus much of the game engine running TW3 is different from the prior entry in the series and the new game engine for Cyberpunk 2077 was first tried as a simple expansion on TW3's engine and much of that engine was found wanting and reworked or scrapped in favor of a new design. Thus tools used for a prior game may only partially function or not function at all for a new game. Yet CDPR is not hostile to modders to their games, nor are they supportive: they let the fans figure out what to do and leave them to do it.
From that stance and the necessary changes to game engines per game, they do not have a large modding community. This is yet another path a company may take, that of being neutral and letting everyone know that, by and large, their tools for game development are in-house only. Anyone wanting to mod their games will have to wait until the game is available and older tools tested to see if they are still valid or even partially able to help create new material to put into a game. CDPR recognizes that fans may add play value for themselves, and let fans do just that. As they are responsible for the concept of why microtransactions are not a good fit for single player games, they also do not tend to add or adjust older games via updates for microtransactions, meaning that there is a relatively stable code base once a game is completed and the company ends its support for that game. It is the stability in code that allows for tools to be tested for modding and for a community to expand marginally if the game has a wide player base and individuals willing to invest their own time in learning these tools to then mod the games from CDPR.
This approach is, like that of Paradox and Bethesda, oriented towards a business model, and that model for CDPR is to make the best game possible from their creative teams, add in content to expand the stories and world they are showing, and to then call it a day when they are finished and then go on to the next project. The concentration is on the excellence of the game, itself, and is aimed to not just provide an excellent game but one that is highly polished with few bugs, few game crashes and having a highly consistent story and game world design that allows the story to be presented in a compelling manner. As a company they are lauded for those stories, often very personal stories, that drive their games forward. Their settings are compelling on the surface, visually beautiful and yet may only be enough to serve making the story compelling, not making the entire world compelling. Great kudos go forward on making a city full of people, and yet only a handful can actually be interacted with: that seller in the market hawking their wares and calling you over may turn out to be someone you can't interact with. That is fine, as far as it goes, yet leaves the actual NPCs that are available for meaningful interaction at a level of something like TESV Skyrim from Bethesda.
Yet one company gets lauded for its realistic depiction of a world and the other is criticized for how little there is in the way of content in a sparsely populated city. One is lauded for dynamic, colorful and immersive design and the other criticized for places that appear empty. Yet the amount of content presented by the games may be similar in number of quest lines, scope of quests, and the actual number of people to deal with. No modder wants to try and develop a new AI package for CDPR games to make all those individuals at least have something they can do if approached by the player as that is a level of design that is hard to create. Skyrim has mods that put in new NPCs, allow them to use existing NPC AI packages or even tweaks or creates new packages for those being inserted into the game world. What is a very close to impossible concept to do in TW3 can be done in Skyrim via mods. The mod community will even go so far as to create NPC interaction systems to allow for new dialogue to happen between NPCs based on what already exists for them or lines from the same voice actor used for different characters. This allows for brand new NPCs to interact with existing ones or even those from other mods even if they aren't intended for that new interaction AI package. Novograd is lauded and appreciated by players and critics in TW3 for its bustling population, even if it is only window dressing. Highly modded Skyrim is rarely talked about even as mods add in populations, housing, interaction systems between NPCs, new stories to be told and a way to seamlessly allow systems to work together between mods. Skyrim modders will not get the same level of credit as CDPR, and rightfully so, yet there is value to those wishing to learn how to install mods to alter their game to make it more enjoyable to play even when the game engine, itself, is not that polished but is open to modders.
From Paradox a game like Crusader Kings 2 may not seem like a typical RPG that is all about tactics, inventory and a personal story crafted for the player by the developer. Yet, for all of the lack of direct control the player has over the personal affairs of the character they are playing, there are stories that are told via events, changing a character's Ambition and Focus, and just what the player wants to accomplish on a given run of a game. Paradox packs a lot of content into the game that is semi-random and requires certain criteria to be met to get an unfolding story. If a player is unhappy with the religion of their character, then take a Theology focus and perhaps a piety based Ambition, or write a book that covers religious concerns. During the modest chain of events a set of incidents involving the Focus, Ambition and/or project will happen which will lead to a major decision branch for the character. It is possible to become a mystic, a heretic or even switch to a different religion entirely via this path. It does take a decent Learning skill, but as long as it isn't at zero the player will get some major choices to make that will change the path of their character, their dynasty and the world. These are actual RPG elements in the game as the player has to determine just what sort of person their character is based on their Skills, Traits, Stats, and the setting they are in.
Modders see the variable type and number of stories along with triggers and then start to mod the game to change game mechanics, add in stories and events, and otherwise flesh the character the player is currently running. I refer to CKII as a Grand Strategy RPG: a grand strategy game with RPG elements. Modders are now starting to flip this around so that the character they play can actually leave their title behind, leave their liege behind and start to travel the world and emphasize the RPG aspects of the game. By enabling a system of being able to play without the requirements of being landed or even requiring a direct blood lineage link, CKII becomes an RPG first and it is set in a Grand Strategy game. While the mods backing this are still in development, it is a real attempt to make CKII into a game that allows much wider freedom of choice for those that want to do different things with their characters and develop a system that isn't tied to 'winning' or 'losing' at the highest level but leading an individual life and that of one's family without worrying about being landed. It is required to start out as a once landed individual, but after leaving the title behind the family crest and ability to be landed in other countries is available, though that may not be the reason the player wants to travel. It is possible to accept or refuse those major titles just like it is to accept or refuse jobs in a country. Perhaps being a wandering Court Physician is what the player wants to do. Or become a virtual tourist picking up small jobs here and there for enough coin to live on. As the era of CKII is one of great poverty, a little bit of coin can go a long way to sustaining a character and family. There is a lot to be worked on with the mods covering this concept, as CKII becomes an automated system for an RPG game, almost entirely ditching the strategy game entirely as a focus for the player.
Creativity in using an existing game engine and the way it runs is at the heart of modding, and the modding community across many games and companies put their skills to use changing things in ways they desire and the results vary by game engine and original game, plus the support or lack thereof, from the game designers. Finding flaws with games is something every player will run into, be it table top games, games using miniatures to depict individuals or troops in combat, all the way to modern computer based games across many genres. Game designers have little time to devote to 'finished' games, unless their company is structured around evolving an existing game with input from their player and fan community. That impetus to try and make a game 'right' or to do something different with it is one that drives the modding community forward. The results vary from the minor, like changing the color of clothing, to the major which includes developing new world spaces, NPCs and stories done with amateur or not for profit voice acting. What a game starts out with may not be what it ends up looking like when modders get done with it. If you want to replace dragons with flying railroad engines, then that can be found on the ridiculous side of things. The total conversion of a game to a different genre is also something that can be done with time and effort towards a goal, a vision or just thinking 'what can be done with this game to really change it?'
The greatest beneficiary is the player community and the gaming world as a whole. By showing what can be done with a game, modders can take single player games and change them into multiplayer ones and demonstrate what the existing game can and cannot cope with. Change a game's genre via modding means that the flexibility of a game engine is utilized, perhaps in ways the original developer couldn't even conceive of being done with it. That pushes the envelope of what games can do outwards.
Yet, by and large, modders don't make games.
Modders make games better, different, and work on singular visions and ask 'can this be done with this game?' From the basic to the absurd, modders show just what can be done with games across the board. The amount of ingenuity, skill and drive seen in mods and the modding community across all games means that even as companies falter and fail, their games may live on as platforms for new content. This is, perhaps, the best lesson we can learn from the modding community: drive and vision require skill and patience to achieve the end goal of a mod.
