Video Game Mods- Potential unleashed or Code of Gamers broken?

Personally, I've found myself drawn to computers for my all time favorite feature for games: Mods.

What are mods? Mod is short for modifications, and it's anything that someone does to enhance or break gameplay. Some developers condone mods and even release editors for their engines (Bethesda comes to mind most) but some condemn the act and go out of their way to release patches to stop mods.

To this I ask why? If I have a mug, people would say it's for drinking, but if I have it holding spare change in my house no one comes up and starts yelling at me because I'm not using it to drink.

What are your opinions on mods? Are they just unleashing the potential of the engine and all it was meant to be, or is some unwritten code broken when we skew with the original intentions of the game?

Also, what are you favorite games to mod? Should console games endorse mods like computer games do?

 

In the World of videogame emulation there are also mods, but they are referred to as what they should be, Game Hacks.

Some of them are pretty useful, like fixing a gamplay bug the original developers overlooked, to translations of Japanese games that were never released outside Japan. And there's this guy who really went all out & made actual modifications, the kind you were focusing on on this thread, to Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy, bot for the NES. Those games were mind blowing but rather difficult, but they did prove something, if you have the skills & the resources you could make your own games. So I think modding games could be a good thing, unless the modder's intentions were not.

 

I don't think game hacks should be condemned and that they, also, should be a part of this debate. As long as you're not affecting online gameplay, or other players in general, I think my mods for whatever game shouldn't be frowned upon, but then again if you spent 2959138759 hours trying to get to level 100 on all your characters, and I simply hack it and have them all at level 100, is that fair or does it matter because I'm playing a one player game?

 

Hacking to improve a character's abilities isn't modding, it's crack cheating. And yeah on a console style RPG that could be forgiveable, but for things like MMORPGs, though I would also want to, is not.

 

It's still modding. Modifications of any sort, even trainers are, yes, mods (or should be considered for the purpose of this debate)

MMORPG modding should be allowed in Pservers. Pservers are my idol because I love using mods in everything, including MMORPG's

 

Im fine with the modification of games on the map or gameplay side, such as creating new maps, variations of maps, new characters or variations and perhaps variations of skill or moves.

Also on the cheat side if people really cant get past a level then yeah sure, but make sure you go back to it later and try again. Ive never really seen the point of cheating, saying "I clocked doom,all eps on nightmare mode" is awesome, however if you say "I clocked doom, all eps on nightmare mode using god mode" then you just look like a noob.

As far as online mods of hacks then maps are fine, but cheats not so much. Theres nothing quite as gay as knowing that you are the best on a server, yet being owned every spawn by some 13 year old noob using an aimbot.

If people continue to use cheats to pass games then it may get to a stage where people expect there to be cheats for a game, and if theres not wont even bother to play or give up.

Game actually teach you certian life skills that can help you along the way. It takes serious dedication to sit down and try and catch all 100million pokemons, but once youve done it you feel great, just like in life if you work hard at something then you're likely to succeed. However the guy who punches in a hex code and instantly has all 100million pokemons will get the same effect, though is likely to take shortcuts elsewhere as well.

A person who can pass a game without cheating is a gamer, a person who cheats to pass a game is not a gamer in my eyes.

"Say for example a mountain, with a perfect view, it has a hiking path and also a road. A hiker climbs the mountain and gets to the top, and the motorist drives up the mountain. When they get to the top, although the view is the same, the vision of the hiker is different to that of the motorist" - Anon.

 

Yep, custom maps etc. for PC games etc. are good. It just gives you that option. Most of them though do support custom mods for their games whether it be from a hobbyist, pretty much shows the community behind it and increases the customization.

Yeah. Not good.

 

My stand point in cheats are as follows:

1. Use an unlock everything, just so you see what the hidden stuff are.
2. Use maximum cash, just so you can buy the best crap there is, and
3. Only use infinite life points when the final boss is really, really that annoying to kill.

 

back then in PS, i always cheat whenever i "done" with a game...... you know its fun to bash around with rapid fire shortgun back in Dino Crisis XD

anyway i dont mind modding a game (skin hacks, map editor and so on), too bad console game cant be mod as much PC game.

 

They can be Cal, with alot of know how. Here are two examples:

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1/
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/143/

 

only emulator can run those right?

 

Probably, but who has access to a working good condition NES or FamiCom (wait.. I know there might be others who might have them) & access to an FDS game loader these days to check?

 

If a mod gives you an unfair advantage to other players (a multiplayer online type of game) then it's bad and unfair. If it's a game that won't give an unfair advantage or it's not hurtung anybody then fine...

 

Mods are great ways for people to get some work for a portfolio. They should be allowed as they are great experience. With MMO's, there should be maintenance, and moderating. I should not still be typing this late at night

 

I don't see any problems with mods that either have original thought or expand upon an existing engine in a new way. What's Counter Strike? A mod of the Half-Life engine.

I'd like to say that mods that give an unfair advantage within an existing game (trainers, bots etc) are bad. But unfairness is subjective. Say I wanted to mod my own interface for Game "X" in such a way that all enemies (whether human or AI) glow bright red due to a texture change. Some will say it's an unfair mod. Some will say I'm entitled to it. Having said that, stuff like bots, memory injections, etc. are pretty much across the fuzzy line in terms of unfairness, and rightly so. A real game modification works within the bounds of the engine of the game it is modifying, and should (for the most part) have been built using said engine. Third-party hacks and memory injectors make me angry.

In regards to MMOs, I'm of the opinion that you're allowed to mod your interface client-side as much as you want. When you start screwing with data exchanged between the client and the server, that's cheating. That leaves a lot of leeway, but I tend to take it on a case-by-case basis.

 

I live by two rules concerning this topic:

1:
Beat the game clean, no mods cheats or anything, just me and my game.

2:
After beating said game use all recsources to beat game 100%. That means mods, cheats, guide books anything. And after that...well, I play the game just for the memories after that.

That's my opinion on mods. Their fine as long as you beat the game within the game makers preset limits sometime. Mods just make the game to easy, that's why I beat it with nothing the first time around.

Anytime I play Halo using cheats, I always tell everyone the cheats I'm using. I don't wanna be a dirty player. And they know em' so...

 

As far as I go in hacking involves simple client side graphics changes, example, I have a mod/hack to get a black yoshi in Brawl, I even use it online, but everyone else simply sees the blue Yoshi I replaced, thus I find it simply makes the game more fun for me.

And with SADX, My sonic is B&W and tails is inverted, I like it more that way and it doesn't effect anyone else.

As for actual gameplay hack, that generally comes after beating it or at least playing it to boredom, again just things for fun like downloading a SM64 ROM and hex-editing it after finishing my 64 version (119 stars >.<).

as for multiplayer I also let the others know, even ask sometimes (Playing MKDS multiplayer with AR codes is glitchy as hell, I used a simple "play as shyguy" code and we had 3/4 people win it on their games XD)

As for "proper mods" I like them too but often I prefer implementing my own smaller changes.


in conclusion: Hacks and mods are good, unless you're a filthy cheater and are only using them to be better at the game.

 

I enjoy mods of games, sometimes even more so than the original itself. DotA is technically just a map but its made to play Warcraft 3 in a totally different way than normal, killing floor, natural selection, and PVK. All of those are from Halflife besides DotA, there are several good Diablo 2 mods as well. I'm not even going to mention Garry's Mod. All of these mods added lots of hours to games I would have been bored of otherwise.

 

/thread

 

Personally, now that I've experienced roms and pc games (before I was a pure all nintendo freak who went out of his way to stop piracy if possible...unless on another console I didn't have XD) some mods are okay...

Ones that enhanced the experience (game play levels, new guns that don't make things too easy, etc) are great, or ones that assist in minimal stance (translations, changing a cumbersume lvl up/menu system) are cool, and even the ones that change the game (batman doom anyone XD) are awsome...

And so are gameplay mods, as long as

-you do it after you beat the game, otherwise you become cheat dependant and can't be bothered to do it correclty, case in point little brother and all legend cheats...

-you don't do it online AGAISNT other players/teams (god mode in a fps and win all the time)

-you minimise the damage you may cause (I only download games that have already been released, or haven't and never come out in my region...or outdated classics even though certain roms are still copy right protected even as I also own the original...)


If a game/company doesn't want you do do certain things to a game (like make your own levels) consider all the hard work they put into the game, and consider if your mod is gonna hurt anyone...

Then consider if your warranty is covered with the mods XD


All consoles are chip free here, ds has acekard, and laptop has playstation emulators, and so far only english game patches (mother 3 and jump ulimate stars for obvious reasons...) and while my collection has doubled since I started emulating/self modding/patching, I made sure the full respect the game companies deserve...


Look at GTA CW-poor starting sales-soo many of us got tempted ay?

Most of my newer roms are games I once had but sold due to lack of interest (yet brother liked them) or simply because it's a game with THQ or EA on it and got curious...and glad I didn't pay them!

I still support the game industry in otherwords, without them, none of these mods would have even come about!


That is my rather long view on mods...and why I joined this awsome site