Mods: the longterm lifeblood of a game

Changing it up since 1992

Mods have been synonymous with PC gaming for the majority of the platform's lifetime, with game modifications stretching back to as far as Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM, with the latter becoming famous for its "WAD"s that allowed for easier editing of the game's files and spawned many custom levels and assets for DOOM. Since then video game modding has become commonplace for games on PC and in some cases has branched off into console gaming too, with games like Skyrim having in-game mod stores on XBOX One and PS4 to bring the fun of modding to every system possible. The only question that remains is, how has this affected the games themselves?

Mr. X from the Resident Evil 2 remake became a hotspot for modding

First and foremost, modding can increase the longevity of a game in numerous ways with the option to change various aspects of it, keeping experiences fresh even after you've completed the game. For example, I've recently been going through the Resident Evil 2 REmake again on PC, doing multiple playthroughs to get the top ranks on the campaigns, and I doubt I would've committed to doing that again if I didn't have the option to turn the terrifying Tyrant into a giant stuffed doll while I'm a goofy, googly-eyed sock puppet.

And that's only aesthetic changes, mods can also be entire game rebalances to provide a harsher challenge, or they can add new content to a game like new levels, areas, or even entire stories based in these worlds. On Nexus Mods, a popular mod hosting site, mods for Skyrim have so far reached 1.8 billion collective downloads and include such story-heavy mods as The Forgotten City, which was the first mod to win a national writer's guild award back in 2016 and has now been made into a standalone game by the developer, a trailer for which can be seen below.

This isn't the only example of a mod being expanded into a full game as that is a story that's more common than you might think, with games like DoTA 2, Counter-Strike, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds starting their lives as mods before being made into the standalone smash hits that they are today with all of them holding the most concurrent players on Steam currently, so they're not doing too badly for themselves.

The fact that these games have received so much love and attention is indicative of the amount of love and attention mods get on the whole, however that in itself shows the dedication from fans over the games that get modded and receive mod support to this day, as games that are now over a decade old are still getting fresh takes on them thanks to the support of passionate gamers who love these games.

Half Life: Counter Strike started out as a mod that got officially released by Valve due to its popularity (image courtesy of Vivendi Universal)

That right there is the true keyword of mods, 'dedication', a level of enjoyment of games that is so strong people want to add more to them or tweak them to enhance their enjoyment more. Sure, games like Minecraft, Half-Life, Warcraft, and any game from the Elder Scrolls series are brilliant standalone games, but would we still be talking about and playing them ten-to-twenty years later if it wasn't for their openness to allow mods and those mods keeping people coming back for more? Somehow, when I look and see that my total playtime for Garry's Mod is more than 33 times that of Half-Life 2, I doubt it.

Mods are what keeps a game alive in the long term and have contributed more to the industry than I think can ever be truly measured, with many game devs also learning their passions for creation through modding other games, and it's no coincidence that some of the most played and fondly remembered games are ones that are either incredibly mod-friendly or were once mods themselves. Whether mods provide fresh content or just an excuse to go through your favourite game again, their place in the industry is indisputible due to the way they build upon already existing creations and often spin off into creations in their own right; mods keep games alive in our heads and in our hearts and I, for one, don't see them going anywhere anytime soon.