EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part 2 of a two-part article.
Modding – The peephole to understand the relation between players and the game industry
Mods are digital artifacts that avid gamers design by tinkering with their favorite games. The creators of those mods are called “modders” and often resemble small development teams.[1] While a regular consumer is unlikely to be engaged in productive activities like modding, the practices of modders are close to the work of media professionals. Modders are the perfect target group for the gaming industry, since they form the contemporary overlap between media consumption and production.
Mods express their identification with games but from a more professional point of view than other normal players. The actual modder perceives the game in a productive sense and is able to consider game conditions even the developer may not be able to implement.
Developers in the West very much support mod making, which has been crucial in the rise of this modding phenomenon. However, the gaming industry is also supporting it for self-protection, since mods and modders can be significant factors for the commercial success of a particular game. Particular popular mods can become objects of fan enthusiasm where players actively offer their ideas and even demand new features. This can even result in stand-alone games as the example of the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients shows.[2]
Mods can take different forms of contribution, e.g. game mods that facilitate new forms of play, fix bugs and produce completely new audiovisual environments. All of these types of mods can serve both instrumental and expressive purposes for both the game’s community and the game’s actual design.
Video games are “co-creative media” in the way that they require both developer and player input. Modders often start with a simple game idea to enhance game play or to increase the quality of their beloved title. After years of ambitious modding, the work can significantly influence the perception and the image players attach to the game. Some of these modders will actually take it up as a profession and sometimes move on to be full-fledged independent developers.
The biggest benefit for companies such as Blizzard or Bioware is that most modding is non-profit oriented. And as long as the game industry is able to preserve a situation where modders are happy to work for free, developers and publishers can clearly benefit from selling retail titles that include some sort of modding functionality.
Modding – A way out of the crisis in Japan?
With an eye on the Japanese market, I have to admit that most mods I have been talking about so far relate to PC gaming, and that in a country like Japan where console gaming still dominates, the creation of user created content for console games in a semi-professional way is a bit of a hassle. However, with regards to the trend in social gaming, modding in a sense of content adjustment and customization for console games is not far from becoming a standard in game development. The challenge for developers in Japan lies in providing tools for modders to build their UGC and add a distribution channel to share the content.
But if a publisher or console manufacturer would be open to do so, not only the community feedback but also the financial return could be incredible. I am just throwing the idea out there, but imagine a Second Life similar market place inside your favorite title, where modders can share their user generated content either for free or a small price, and where the developer gets a small share…
So to summarize, what would be the advantage for publishers and developers in Japan? I have tried to put together some of the pros of mods and user generated content:
Mods and UGC can…
- Extend the life and drive sales numbers of existing games.
Example: The Sims, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, Counterstrike - Boost creativity leading to completely new games and game styles.
Example: Defense of the Ancients, Tringo - Create new forms of virtual profitable businesses, for both developers and players.
Example: Second Life, The Sims - Reduce the cost in-game content creation, and broaden the variety of dynamic and interesting content.
Example: Dragon Age, Spore - Leverage social networking and combine game and non-game content where the lines between the real and virtual world blur
Example: Second Life, Swords & Sworcery, SpaceChem - Help the gaming industry to recruit creative and talented personal.
- Lead to cross media design and user generated merchandise.
Example: Quake movies (Machinima) - Tap social forces and user-creativity to enrich play, encourage gamers to purchase the game and as a result reduce piracy.
- Start free viral marketing of the game and for real-world businesses / products.
Example: The Sims - Create communities based around completely new gameplay types.
Example: Toribash - Help to fix bugs or update game engines (in the case of legacy titles)
Example: Borderlands, X-COM, GTAIV, Stalker 2009 mod - Create something radically different from the base game to show the versatility of the game engine
Example: Half Life 2: Dear Esther, Half Life 2: Radiator - Fans can continue to keep game communities alive even after the developer abandons the title.
Example: Phantasy Star Online
Of course, there are always cons as well. Many voices in Japan argue that modding and UGC is mainly questionable in terms of copyright issues, guarantees and customer support, especially in the case that UGC can corrupt play data. This is indeed true and Western players commonly face problems where incompatible mods fail to install and just create frustration. It is even possible that their previous game data could be lost. However, the prospect of enjoying another interesting story inside their favorite game drives many players in the West to take that risk.
Other industry professionals in Japan also state that modding systems in games would only appeal to a small group of consumers since programming skills would be required.
This also is a reasonable argument but there is no difference in the West. Of course, not every video gamer is a programmer, but most modders consist of teams with different skills. Moreover, every gamer has a certain idea how their game should look like, and the modding community very much proves that even if only a small group is involved into the actual design process, every player can bring in ideas and feedback.
It is not always this difficult, however, and recently there has been a wealth of titles released which include easy to use modding tools built into the game engine. Examples of such titles include Little Big Planet, SpaceChem, and StarCraft 2.
So the biggest problem I see is the level of involvement for both players and the gaming industry. It is about how the gaming industry and the players in Japan would accept moddable games and what kind of tools developers would support so that even newbies can create some sort of user generated content.
However, like I stated earlier, I feel that most gamers in Japan are not ready yet. It seems most of them simply play games for entertainment; they are ‘visitors’ rather than ‘architects’. So the real breakthrough may still take some time.[3]
Last but not least, I’d like to list some games that I personally find very refreshing in terms of modding concepts and UGC. So if this article has piqued your interest, feel free to check out these games:
– Mega Man Powered Up
– Steel Storm: Burning Retribution
[1] Modders can be called the elite of user-content creators, while there is a division between mission makers, add-on makers and mod makers.
[3] This may be a false impression, but after attending another year at TGS and seeing the sort of games that are popular with most Japanese gamers, I can’t stop believing so.
