mod video gaming this article is about modifying video games for general modification of hardware and software see modding part of a series on thevideo game industry activitiesjobs video game design game design game art design game development game developer game modification game producer game programming game programmer game publisher game studies game testing game journalism level design development game ai game design interaction design game programming level design video game art video game design video game graphics video game music types adult game casual game indie game nongame interactive art interactive movie nonviolent video game serious game advergame art game edugame exergame topics digital rights management drm outsourcing software license enduser license agreement eula video game preservation related video game history of video games lists list of indie game developers list of video game developers list of video game industry people list of video game publishers list of video game websites vte a mod short for modification is an alteration by players or fans of a video game that changes some aspects or one aspect of a video game such as how it looks or behaves mods may range from small changes and tweaks to complete overhauls and can extend the replay value and interest of the game modding a game can also be understood as the act of seeking and installing mods to the players game mods have arguably become an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games as they add a depth to the original work people can become fans of specific mods in addition to fans of the game they are for such as requesting features and alterations for these mods in cases where mods are very popular players might have to clarify that they are referring to the unmodified game when talking about playing a game the term vanilla is often used to make this distinction vanilla battlefield 1942 for example refers to the original unmodified game as early as the 1980s video game mods have also been used for the sole purpose of creating art as opposed to an actual game this can include recording ingame actions as a film as well as attempting to reproduce reallife areas inside a game with no regard for game play value this has led to the rise of artistic video game modification as well as machinima and the demoscene popular websites dedicated to modding include nexus mods gamebanana mod db and steam workshop types total conversion list of video games derived from mods a total conversion is a mod of an existing game that replaces virtually all of the artistic assets in the original game and sometimes core aspects of gameplay total conversions can result in a completely different genre from the original examples of famous total conversions include counterstrike 1999 whose developers were hired by valve software to turn it into a commercial product many popular total conversions are later turned into standalone games replacing any remaining original assets to allow for commercial sale without copyright infringement some of these mods are even approved for sale despite using the ip of the original game such as black mesa overhaul an overhaul mod significantly changes an entire games graphics and gameplay usually with the intent to improve on the original but not going as far as a complete remake this can also include adding revised dialog and music examples of overhaul mods include deus ex revision which was given permission from publisher square enix to release on steam alongside the original game addon an addon or addon is a typically small mod which adds to the original content of a specific game in most cases an addon will add one particular element to a game such as a new weapon in a shooting game a new unit or map in a strategy game a new vehicle or track in a racing game items in a game like minecraft or additional contents in simulation games such as new pilotable airplanes eg the airbus a330 or boeing 787 dreamliner and scenery packs for microsoft flight simulator x this can be accomplished without changing any of the original games existing content many games are flexible and allow this however that is not always the case some addons occasionally have to replace ingame content due to the nature of a peculiar game engine it may be the case for example that in a game which does not give a player the option to choose their character modders wishing to add another player model will simply have to overwrite the old one a famous example of this type of mod can be found for the grand theft auto series wherein modders may use downloadable tools to replace content such as models in the games directory the left 4 dead series can also be modded with individual addons which are stored in a vpk format so that a player may choose to activate a given mod or not unofficial patch an unofficial patch can be a mod of an existing game that fixes bugs not fixed by an official patch or that unlocks content present in the released games files but is inaccessible in official gameplay such patches are usually created by members of the games fan base when the original developer is unwilling or unable to supply the functionality officially jazz jackrabbit 2 has an unofficial patch which adds and fixes many of its features art mod an art mod is a mod that is created for artistic effect art mods are most frequently associated with video game art however modified games that retain their playability and are subject to more extensive mods ie closer to total conversions may also be classified as art games support continuation by mod after ea lost the license and ended the support for the mvp baseball 2005 the games modding community continues the support and releases updated roster lists every year as also alternative leagues eg mvp caribe a total conversion released 2011 il2 sturmovik cliffs of dover received mixed reviews due to bugs and other issues modders fixed the game over time got source code access granted which lead to an official rerelease under the name il2 sturmovik cliffs of dover blitz edition official status of mods due to the increasing popularity and quality of modding some developers such as firaxis have included fanmade mods in official releases of expansion packs a similar case is that of valve corporation when they hired defense of the ancients lead designer icefrog in developing dota 2 for example in the civilization iv expansion beyond the sword two existing mods rhyes and fall of civilization a number of fanmade maps scenarios and mods such as double your pleasure were also included in the civilization iii expansion play the world development many mods are not publicly released to the gaming community by their creators some are very limited and just include some gameplay changes or even a different loading screen while others are total conversions and can modify content and gameplay extensively a few mods become very popular and convert themselves into distinct games with the rights getting bought and turning into an official modification technical and social skills are needed to create a mod a group of mod developers may join together to form a mod team mods are made for many firstperson shooters and realtime strategies such as the series based on quake 1996 doom 1993 chaos total annihilation rise of nations and command and conquer doom 1993 was the first game to have a large modding community mods for quake 1996 such as capture the flag and team fortress became standard features in later games in the shooter genre one of the more wellknown mods is the halflife multiplayer mod counterstrike which was released shortly after the original game approximately one million games are hosted on dedicated servers per day counterstrike was later released as a retail game another wellknown mod is team fortress which was based on the quake engine it was followed by the retail games team fortress classic and team fortress 2 tools modmaking tools are a variety of construction sets for creating mods for a game early commercial modmaking tools were the boulder dash construction kit 1986 and the bards tale construction set 1991 which allowed users to create game designs in those series much more successful among early modmaking tools was the 1992 forgotten realms unlimited adventures from strategic simulations inc which allowed users to construct games based on the game world that was launched with the pool of radiance game by the mid 1990s modding tools were commonly offered with pc games later modmaking tools include the elder scrolls construction set which shipped with morrowind the world editor for warcraft iii reign of chaos the aurora toolset which was included with neverwinter nights fred and fred2 the mission editors for freespace and freespace 2 respectively the obsidian tool set for neverwinter nights 2 the garden of eden creation kit sdk for fallout 3 and the valve hammer editor which is used to create maps for halflife 2 and other games that use the source engine developers such as id software valve corporation mojang ab bethesda softworks firaxis crytek creative assembly and epic games provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like counterstrike there are also free content delivery tools available that make playing mods easier they help manage downloads updates and mod installation in order to allow people who are less technically literate to play steam for halflife 2 mods is an example game support for modifications the potential for enduser change in game varies greatly though it can have little correlation on the number and quality of mods made for a game in general the most modificationfriendly games will define gameplay variables in text or other non proprietary format files for instance in the civilization series one could alter the movement rate along roads and many other factors and have graphics of a standard format such as bitmaps publishers can also determine modfriendliness in the way important source files are available some programs collect their source material into large proprietary archives but others make the files available in folders games have varying support from their publishers for modifications but often require expensive professional software to make one such example is homeworld 2 which requires the program maya to build new ingame objects however there are free versions of maya and other advanced modeling software available there are also free and even opensource modeling programs such as blender that can be used as well for advanced mods such as desert combat that are total conversions complicated modeling and texturing software is required to make original content advanced mods can rival the complexity and work of making the original game content short of the engine itself rendering the differences in ease of modding small in comparison to the total amount of work required having an engine that is for example easy to import models to is of little help when doing research modeling and making a photorealistic texture for a game item as a result other game characteristics such as its popularity and capabilities have a dominating effect on the number of mods created for the game by users a game that allows modding is said to be moddable the elder scrolls v skyrim as well as its predecessors the elder scrolls iii morrowind and the elder scrolls iv oblivion are examples of highly moddable games with an official editor available for download from the developer daggerfall was much less moddable but some people released their own modifications nevertheless some modifications such as gunslingers academy have deliberately made the game more moddable by adding in scripting support or externalizing underlying code supreme commander set out to be the most customisable game ever and as such included a mod manager which allowed for modular modding having several mods on at once the games industry is currently facing the question of how much it should embrace the players contribution in creating new material for the game or modcommunities as part of their structure within the game some software companies openly accept and even encourage such communities others though have chosen to enclose their games in heavily policed copyright or intellectual property regimesipr and close down sites that they see as infringing their ownership of a game portability issues for crossplatform games mods written for the windows version have not always been compatible with the mac os x andor linux ports of the game in large part this is due to the publishers concern with prioritizing the porting of the primary game itself when allocating resources for fixing the porting of modspecific functions may not be costeffective for the smaller market share of alternate platforms for example battlefield 1942 ported by aspyr for mac os x had file access issues specific to mods until the 161d patch unreal tournament 2004 does not have a working community mods menu for the mac os x version and until the 3369 patch had graphics incompatibilities with several mods such as red orchestra and metaball also mods compiled into platformspecific libraries such as those of doom 3 are often only built for the windows platform leading to a lack of crossplatform compatibility even when the underlying game is highly portable in the same line of reasoning mod development tools are often available only on the windows platform id softwares doom 3 radiant tool and epic games unrealed are examples of this mod teams that lack either the resources or knowhow to develop their mods for alternate platforms sometimes outsource their code and art assets to individuals or groups who are able to port the mod the mod specialist site for macs macologist has created gui launchers and installers for many ut2004 mods as well as solving crossplatform conversion issues for mods for other games unforeseen consequences or benefits of modding in january 2005 it was reported that in the sims 2 modifications that changed item and game behavior were unexpectedly being transferred to other players through the official websites exchange feature leading to changed game behavior without advance warning after the hot coffee mod incident there were calls from the industry to better control modders in early 2012 the dayz modification for arma 2 was released and caused a massive increase in sales for the threeyearold game putting it in the top spot for online game sales for a number of months and selling over 300000 units for the game in 2015 members from the grand theft auto fan site gtaforums reported instances of malware being circulated through modifications written using the net framework for grand theft auto v the modifications in question have since been taken out of circulation with affected players being advised to change their social media account passwords and disinfect their computers motivations of modders the internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute user created content like mods an aspect commonly known as web 20 video game modding was described as remixing of games and can be therefore seen as part of the remix culture as described by lawrence lessig mods can be both useful to players and a means of selfexpression mod packs mod packs are groups of mods put into one package for download often with an autoinstaller a mod packs purpose is to make an easy download for downloading multiple mods often with the goal of resolving crossmod interactions that can happen or to make the original game easier or more difficult legal status of mod packs copyright law as it relates to video games and mod packs is an evolving and largely unsettled legal issue the legal uncertainty revolves around which party is legally the copyright owner of the mods within the pack the company that produced the game the enduser that created the compilation or the creators of the individual mods some regard the fan use of copyrighted material in mods to be part of a moral economy and develop norms about the reuse of this material controversy surrounding paid mods in april 2015 valve corporation implemented a paid mod feature onto steam the first game to implement this feature was the elder scrolls v skyrim adventure construction set one of the earliest games for which usercreated content was widely made and distributed cartridge tilting which modifies a game with often unpredictable effects creative consumer fan labor fork software development house rule level editor modding modding in grand theft auto for more information on the gta modding scene nexusmods rom hacking steam workshop texture artist brief overview of the differences and similarities between open source software development and cocreation in digital games jedrzej czarnota gamasutra 7 august 2013 sihvonen tania 2011 players unleashed modding the sims and the 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