[Hatch]

To MOD or not to MOD

That is the question before us fellow players, this thread started at the Sonalysts forum, but it was suggested by some contributors to the discussion that it be moved here to continue a spirited debate.

I say Not to MOD, the prevalent reasons I stated for my stance were mainly rooted in the fact that MODS were created by amateurs and tinkerers not fully qualified to mess with the natural order of life, which is to rewrite the developers behavioral code to seemingly fix bugs which they (the Modders) thought ought to be fixed or remade according to their whim.

An opinion that validated To MOD, was offered by a gentleman who described opting for a MOD when a developer ceased to produce patches for a sim to correct bugs present from the original design, in lieu of the developer’s support, a lot of gamers do opt to go for a MOD, never thinking of the consequences that it can bring to the gameplay, and why not, their computers integrity, one can not discard the evil intentioned modder to include a virus or Trojan or whatever into the MOD to disrupt or even damage your rig. I remember one MOD made for Falcon 4.0, where during the mission loading, it displayed pictures of babies in the center of the screen, though it was harmless, it serves to illustrate how easy it is to infiltrate your system by blindly trusting a source not reputably established (A Modder)

Then there are online gaming groups that as a prerequisite to join their ranks one must have a MOD, be it because in most cases it was developed by someone in its ranks, or because its high command decided it that way for their own reasons.

My only suggestion is that there shouldn’t be any MODS, other than an amateur tinkering with its original design for his own learning purposes(This is not an insult to Modders, they are by definition amateurs and tinkerers, not professionals), I don’t see any other reason than maybe to have bragging rights in front of his peers in a chat room or forum In order to gain notoriety from an unsuspecting group of bystanders who get duped into believing that that person has the “Right Stuff” to best the original developer, sort of like saying “In your Face”, I’ll prove it to you, how many online gaming groups use the MODS?

A very small fraction of players, why? Because of their unreliability and because most players are extremely weary (As am I) of changes made by someone who claims to have the know how to do it, yet his/her credentials wouldn’t stand a simple audit by an educated source. Oh there have been improvements designed for online gaming that in no way affect the game’s parameter behavior, such as the Seawolves Enigma communication program, or their tweaking of the crew complement and sub improvements, but they never ever designed or promoted a MOD, they are not to be trusted.

In all honesty, in my time of playing online games, which dates back to its beginnings in 1989, I’ve only seen one MOD (of the games I played) that was widely accepted, and that was the NATO MOD for Rainbow Six, I heard of MODS for Falcon 4.0, Mechwarrior and many others, but they never went past the testing by a very tiny number of players, and usually they were acquaintances of whomever had designed the MOD, who subsequently engaged in interminable discussions as to its applicability and usefulness, until they tired of it when its audience failed to grow and eventually moved on to the next game that came out, and the MOD, inevitably faded into obscurity from whence it came.

To put this in terms you can understand, the success of an application be it a MOD or any program for that matter, is its acceptance and implementation by the general public, other than that, they are just experiments, that plausible they maybe for its designers interest and good will to improve on a game, they generate false expectations to a small audience which sooner rather than later, realize that it will go no further than a futile testing which in the end yielded nothing, excuse me, it killed time which would have been better spent playing the game as their writers intended it to be played.

In conclusion, MODS are a poor excuse to supplant the original developer of a game because “my game was forgotten and further patching ceased” thence “I’m going to force the situation and find someone who can patch it for me, I’ll show them”

So there is my opinion, if you want to contribute to this debate, I urge you to please refrain from flaming anyone, the aim here is to gauge different reactions and opinions regarding this issue, its purpose is to maybe help define a standard of understanding among players so that it creates a plateau in which all players meet using the same version of a game (An unreachable Utopia of course), thus increasing the probabilities of you finding a fellow player to engage with in a game easier. Who knows, maybe someone with a 3 watt light bulb in his head will convene a council which would have as its defined job judge the appropriateness and therefore usefulness of a MOD and make recommendations to the general public To MOD Or Not To MOD…

So lets have it, take your best crack at me…