Nothing in this world can be certain except the following:
Death, taxes, my shit ass upload schedule,
and if possible, your game will be modded by its community.
These mods can vary widely.
Maybe they're a retextured baseball bat.
Maybe they're a brand-new map.
Maybe they're... this...
Sometimes your game will get modded so much,
that it's not even your game anymore.
How the hell does that work?
But what I want to talk about today is the importance of modding
and how developers react to modding:
the good, the bad, the neutral...
the good, the bad, the neutral, the bad...
And listen, you know I can't make a modding video
without mentioning...
Skyrim! (Good morning.)
This game is how I learned modding even existed.
You couldn't name a single thing about this game people haven't already modded.
Normally, kids in Skyrim can't be killed.
But you know what modding lets me do?
It lets me-
Add more variation to the races and clothing to improve my immersion!
ᵏKͥˡİˡLLͫ ͤME
What do you think bethesda does?
Fight modding? Patch it out?
No, they did something only Bethesda could do:
Re-release Skyrim all over again, so they could sell mods for money.
*funky clapping*
Good going Todd,
There's no way you could fuck that one up.
Modding is the entire reason Skyrim remains relevant to this day.
And when your community releases more bug fixes than you do,
It gives you an idea of how much developers rely on it.
I mean seriously we have to do this one for you, too!
The fact that I can turn guard's into chickens...
...Is something older generations must have only dreamed about doing to pong.
Bethesda has made some pretty stupid decisions regarding modding, but they've never tried to stop it.
So say we're working off an alignment chart...
If Bethesda is chaotic good,
Then my pick for true neutral is probably From Software.
The entire modding scene of Dark Souls 3 lives under constant uncertainty of what will actually get you banned.
If you play it offline, then generally you'll be safe and not have to worry but,
Then if you innocently modify control schemes or camera angles,
Then you have to be extra certain you're offline because otherwise your ass is soft banned.
Even if you never interact with another player.
I think this is a fair stance to take given the game's
infamous hacking scene...
"Take down All Might"
But it represents a really flimsy and tricky system of modding within a game that would otherwise really appeal to a thriving scene of modders.
Now, let's refer back to that alignment chart. We've got chaotic good and true neutral,
So let's go for three in a row here.
Lawful evil is an extremely specific alignment that I couldn't see describing Nintendo any better.
There is a thriving scene of Nintendo game modders, from Zelda to Mario to Pokemon.
It's so large that there are literally genres of Nintendo mods.
From bullshit creepypasta, to meme mods, to entire fan games.
And yet it seems like Nintendo is always fighting this every step of the way.
They are nothing if not notoriously anal about emulation.
Which is pretty much the only effective way to mod their games in the first place.
Project M, Pokemon uranium, Pangaea's rom hacks, Full screen Mario...
All of these were shut down either by Nintendo directly,
Or by the creators in fear of Nintendo shutting them down
The counter-argument here is the protection of their IPs.
And yeah, I understand that part,
but when you combine this with a severe lack of accessible virtual consoles,
And an engine with tightly locked modding tools.
It really begins to paint this picture of Nintendo as this overly protective guardian of all customization and accessibility of their games.
For further evidence just look at Super Mario Maker.
Which was released with pretty much full intent to combat all of the modding that old Mario games were going through...
Only to ironically get cracked and further modded to have more options.
Nintendo wants everything that's made to be sanctioned under their own approval,
But then they don't give people what they want.
For example the people wanting Odyssey DLC after a year,
And you know what happens? Someone goes:
"Fuck you I'm making my own kingdoms then,
and I'm making Bob-omb Battlefield too for good measure.
And because Nintendo cracks down so hard on game tampering,
The only way you can really access this kind of stuff is through home brewing and emulation.
Before long, you have these underground communities of diehard Nintendo fans hiding in the shadows from the very company that they love.
And I've never shared this before,
but when I was a teenager, I used to make...
Custom Pokemon roms.
I would sit down drawing sprites and writing custom text trying to make my own Pokemon game.
I'm heartbroken. I never held on to the files,
If I did I'd show you every last detail.
But I am happy I did it because learning how to mod,
Led me to learn how to edit videos and learning how to edit videos led me to my job.
The reason I share that is because I want to really emphasize the importance of letting people mod your games.
Today's modders are tomorrow's developers,
And anybody willing to spend as many hours as you do on your game,
may just become a helping hand to you later on.
So, thank you for watching my video and
you didn't really believe I'd make a modding video without talking about Valve, did you?
Are you kidding me?!
So let's say Nintendo is lawful evil.
Then valve is definitely lawful good.
Dota was a Warcraft 3 mod, Team Fortress was a quake mod,
Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod. Half-life's engine, gold SRC is a mod of the quake engine.
But the reason I list valve is lawful good is because of more than this.
Not only as the company founded on the very act of modding,
But they actually provide ample opportunity for up-and-coming modders to perform contract work and, let's be honest,
literally do their jobs for them!
The Steam Workshop
If you've got the know-how anybody can pick up blender model a hat or a gun,
And pay for their college's textbooks all in less than a month.
I know you can because that's exactly what I did- minus the part about textbooks,
technically, I never got an item added into the game...
But there's a point in my life where all of my time was spent on stuff like this, or this, or this!
Yes, it is real, please vote for it.
There are people who make a living just creating stuff like this without ever stepping a foot into Valve's office.
But even if you excluded the workshop, there'd still be a thriving scene of modders.
Custom HUDs, Maps, sound effects,
You can even make your own portal puzzles without knowing how to mod.
But even if we exclude it both the workshop and game mods there would still be things to thank valve for.
Black Mesa, Portal stories Mel, Fortress Forever, Hunt Down the Freeman (maybe we don't talk about that last one):
all of these are completely standalone Source engine game mods.
Yeah, valve straight up let people just make their own spin-off games and sell it for money,
Holy shit! And even if you excluded that, I'd still have an ace up my sleeve...
Garry's Mod is a game fundamentally made just to modify the Source Engine and let you do what you want with it.
And even if you excluded that, there's still Source Filmmaker; people make a living using Source Filmmaker,
I make a living using source filmmaker.
If developers were family members at Christmas then valve would be my grandpa,
because he gives out the biggest, sickest presents that make the rest of us look like penny pinchers.
And if you know me then, you know,
I'm very frustrated with Valve and it's very hard for me to say nice things about them these days.
"Valve sucks ass at getting anything done."
So if I can rain praise for two entire pages of my script, then guess what? They really are that good.
Modding is an integral part of gaming today,
whether it's a car in Minecraft, or Johnny Joestar in Isaac, or an Armadyl Godsword in GTA5,
or Yoshi's Circuit in Rocket League or even- whatever the fuck this is.
Modding does so much for the industry,
it can elongate a game's lifespan,
it can fix bugs the developers ignored, it can lead to even larger projects and above all else,
it makes me smile :)
I want to see more games embrace this and give players the tools they need to do it.
Earlier this year A Hat In Time hosted a contest completely centered around modding.
And even a prize for the best mappers. This is fucking awesome!
Not this though, this is awful.
Developers, if you're watching, support your modding scene, host contests, release tools, inspire creativity.
Modders, if you're watching,
Finish that big stupid project you shelved last month. Release that Tim Allen weapon texture you never did.
I love them all so much! And for everybody else keep an eye on who's making one.
Because today's motors are tomorrow's developers!
Unless you made this then go die.
I just made a video calling Bethesda good, Nintendo bad, and Valve great.
I'm gonna die.