Postigo: Modding

I have personally always found modding to be a fascinating part of video game culture. I love the fact that it allows you to contribute your own ideas or spin on your favorite game that you have spent hours and hours playing. In the beginning of Postigo’s article when he talks about the motivation of modders I would have to say that I lean on the side of the argument that says it is more about hobby or expression than as a way to get into the industry professionally. (not that some don’t try to do it that way) I personally have done small mods for one of my all time favorite games (Super Mario World) and for me it was just a labor of love. It was a way for me to make new levels and experiences for a game that I have played for years and have tremendous nostalgia for. It was something fun to play around with and show off to my friends.

Now when developers, like Epic, release tools for modding like the Unreal Development Kit, it seems like they are really looking for a way to make a profit on the modding community that has developed from one of their own game properties. They see this big number of modders making new games with their engine and see a way to profit off that if a small number of them make successful games. I don’t see these development kits helping modding because they don’t allow them to use things made in the development kits in their games, like in the case of the UT3 modders mentioned in the article.

I think that modding is definitely an ever-changing culture right now. The point Postigo brings up at the end that right now I am “Web Modding” by writing on this blog or changing my Facebook really stuck out to me that our whole society is beginning to embrace modding and that in the future maybe modding will be the social norm. It is definitely becoming the norm for video game developers as they are making more games that allow us to mod, such as Little Big Planet or Mod Nation Racers. I think that as time goes on modding will become a big part of how we look at and play digital games.