This morning I just didn't feel like turning on the TV to watch the usual droll of morning news people acting bright and cheery, so instead, I pulled up an old copy of PC Gamer to read while I munched on my Capn'n Crunch. After flipping through the rag a bit, I settled on an article written by Desslock about the pros and cons of user-created mods for games. He hit on some really good points, and it inspired me to write a little on my own opinions of user-created content for games.

I inherently like the idea of user-created content, because it promises the world to you. If you don't like the game as it is, you are free to fix it as you want. Once you've spent your time playing through the main game, you are free to try out additions to the game that others have made, sometimes including whole new levels / areas to play, new characters, new items, and more. These mods might also make your game more realistic or difficult, for people who desire an extra challenge that the core game did not offer.

When it comes to what you actually get from the game community however, the story is quite different. Many mod-makers take it upon themselves to bend the rules of the game, to give themselves breaks and advantages in many areas of games that wouldn't normally afford you any. And while these changes are not always made with the intent of breaking the game, they almost inevitably do, because they introduce circumstances into the game that the original designers has not intended, and did not create the game around.

Another thing that I love to hate about user-created mods is the inconsistencies in quality and in scope. Sure, it's fun to go back into some of the older games you own and find patches to upgrade the appearances of the characters within the game to take advantage of the power your computer has gained since the game's original release… but the whole illusion of a consistent, cohesive world is lost when you are running around your newly enhanced world and suddenly find the one character that the modder just happened to miss, either by pure ignorance, or by lack of interest.

This kind of stuff ruins the world of fan-created content for me. Like Desslock wrote in his PCG article, I would rather play through the game as the original designers intended, for the balance in aesthetics and gameplay… the tweaking will come after I've played through the game in it's entirety.

It does depends on the type of game though - a mod for Oblivion could change the entire game, while a mod for Half-Life 2 would just mean a different type of game to try out, that doesn't have any effect on the main game. And I will say - I enjoy working on mods sometimes, even if they only consist of one custom-made level, or something similarly small in scope.

The fact is that for me, fan-made, entire-game-altering mods are a commodity that remains as something I can do without until I have exhausted the fun of the original game.

Don't take this the wrong way though - don't stop making mods! I think I'll always hold a special place in my gaming heart for a Doom 3 shotgun with a flashlight duct-taped onto the end, or some decidedly clearer water in Oblivion.