MODs

Suraj Kaku
MS 391
Professor L. Nakamura

Some argue that the practice of modding has a detrimental effect on the game. I would like to counter that argument by bringing up examples such as Counter-Strike (CS) and Defeat of the Ancients (DOTA). Counter-Strike is a Half-Life modification created around 10 or so years back. It started out as a free mod for players to download and enjoy. With its rising popularity over a short amount of time, Valve then hires the two creators: Minh Le and Jess Cliffe. Eventually, Half-Life started charging players to play CS. The game was such a success that Valve kept on improving it and creating subsequent major updates. CS1.6 and CS Source came out and surprised the market with it's simple concept but addictive gameplay. Valve made a fortune out of what was nothing but a basement project by two friends.

DOTA is the next successful one on my list though Blizzard did not grasp their chance to start another successful franchise, which is League of Legends (LOL). DOTA was a user created map in Warcraft3; DOTA was heavily edited that I consider it a mod. DOTA was so popular that people bought Warcraft3 just to play DOTA. Eventually, Riot Games came out with LOL, which is a better version of DOTA and it has it's own interface and engine.

Though these are only two of the very successful ones in the market. People arguing against modding will bring up all the disaster mods in the past but do keep in mind that without these failures, none of these money making and entertaining mods will exist.