Mod (computer gaming)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to computer games, especially first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public, and can be entirely new games in themselves. They can include new items, weapons, characters, enemies, models, modes, textures, levels, story lines and game modes. They also usually take place in unique locations. They can be single-player or multiplayer. Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions.
Games running on a PC are often designed with change in mind, and this consequently allows modern computer games to be modified by gamers without much difficulty. These mods can add extra replay value and interest. The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they have become an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games. Developers such as id Software, Valve Software, Bethesda Softworks, Relic Entertainment and Epic Games provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers, leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like Counter-Strike.
Mods can significantly outshine or continue the success of the original game. Playing a mod might even become more common than playing the unmodified original. In those cases, players might have to clarify that they are referring to the unmodified game when talking about playing a game. In some cases the term vanilla is used make this distinction, "vanilla Battlefield 1942", for example, refers to the original, unmodified game. For vanilla games, prefix "v" or "V" is commonly used together with acronymed game title, eg. VQ3 stands for "vanilla Quake 3".
It should also be noted that while games such as Doom and Quake are not often thought of when concerning game modification they have nonetheless been the pioneering and pinnacle reason for the modern day mod scene. One particular mod, Counter-Strike, originated from a Quake mod called Navy Seals featuring real-world weapons and headshots, also from the same developer.
Recently, computer games have also been used as a digital-art medium. See artistic computer game modification.
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[edit] Partial conversion
The term partial conversion is used to describe a type of modification that changes only part of the underlying game. Many computer games allow their players to edit how certain functions of the game works, such as weapons, sounds, enemy behaviour and levels. Editing some of these elements while leaving the better part of the original game intact is usually referred to as a partial conversion.
An example would be changing a conventional deathmatch game to behave like a capture the flag game. This could include new levels (maps) containing two bases, new 3D models for the flag and editing of game code to understand how the flag is supposed to work. But the rest of the game world remains the same as the original game. Team Fortress, one of the most popular mods, is a partial conversion of Quake.
One thing that many gamers/developers become confused on is whether a partial conversion still counts as a mod. Well in the literal sense, any change to a game which changes it from its off the shelf condition is a mod. So even a new map, create by a general user, is still a mod. The confusion seems to come from maps actually being called new maps, and not counted as a mod, which is often the name given to edits such as new GUIs.
[edit] Total conversion
A total conversion is a mod of an existing game that (usually) replaces almost all of the artistic assets in the original game, and sometimes core aspects of gameplay, such as a First Person Shooter interface. Many games provide players with the ability to edit the game's many elements, for example levels, sounds, enemies or weapons. Most modifications are limited in scope, resulting in a partial conversion. Total conversions are much less common, mainly due to the large amount of development and man-time needed to bring a whole project together. Often the goal of a group that sets out to create a total conversion is to sell their end product, which necessitates the need to replace the original content to avoid copyright infringement.
In contrast, partial conversions may add new maps, or models, skins, and weapons. Some changes may be even smaller, such as changing the variables for physics, movement, or weapon qualities. In the Unreal engine, these smaller changes are sometimes implemented as mutators which can be selected in the administrator menu. Other mutators not considered mods include those that provide anti-cheater, map voting, and lag-free (client-side hit computation) functions.
Some total conversions can end up in an unexpected place, such as changing Dungeons and Dragons into a game where the player meets Japanese businessmen.
An example of a well-known total conversion is Counter-Strike, which is based on the Half-Life engine. Half-Life is a linear, single-player and multiplayer first-person shooter with some puzzle solving, where you take the place of a character named Gordon Freeman. A scientific complex developing experimental teleportation technology is under attack by aliens, and the weapons used to destroy them vary between real-world and experimental. In contrast, Counter-Strike is a round-based, multiplayer-only game, based on realistic settings between Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. Gameplay is centralised around goals of disarming bombs or rescuing hostages, and all weaponry is modeled on existing arms —including design, use, and sound effects. One of the only visible similarities that Counter-Strike has in common with Half-Life, besides their shared genre, is that Counter-Strike uses the Half-Life engine.
A few total conversions have managed to become stand-alone games. Since most total conversions only share the engine in common with the original game, if the engine becomes Free Software, the total conversion can be playable without having to own the original game. A few examples of these include the Tremulous mod for Quake III Arena, or the D-Day: Normandy mod for Quake II.
[edit] Development
A great many mods do not progress very far and are abandoned without ever having a public release. One of the most famous vaporware mods was Star Wars Quake, which was never released despite six years of development. 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.
A group of mod developers may join together to form a mod team. An example is Team Reaction, one of the most prolific mod teams to date, most notably known for QPong and Jailbreak.
Mods are made for many first person shooters, most notably the series based on Quake, Doom, Tribes, Unreal Tournament, and Half-Life. Real time strategy games such as Warcraft III, Total Annihilation, Rise of Nations and the Command & Conquer series also have many mods.
Among popular mods, none is more well known than the Half-Life multiplayer mod Counter-Strike, which was released shortly after the original game, and upwards of 1 million games per day are hosted on dedicated servers. Counter-Strike is probably the best example of a modification that turns into a retail game.
Mods in general are required to be non-commercial (free) when they include any parts from another mod, or the main game, which by their nature they always do. Some mods become open source as well.
[edit] Tools
Mod making tools are a variety of construction sets for creating mods for a game. An early mod making tool was the Bard's Tale Construction Set, released in 1991, which allowed users to create game designs in that series. Much more successful among early mod making 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.
Later mod making tools include The Elder Scrolls Construction Set which shipped with Morrowind, the Aurora toolset which was included with Neverwinter Nights, and the Valve Hammer Editor which is used to create maps for Half-Life and its sequel, Half-Life 2.
[edit] Mod-Friendliness of Games
The potential for end-user change in game varies greatly, though it can have little correlation on the number and quality of mods made for a game. For instance the Creatures 2 computer game executable was essentially an interpreter for the in-game scripting language, and could potentially have allowed almost any 2D game to be built upon its basis. Other games, such as The Sims, will allow modification to certain aspects, such as adding new items and clothes, but not others, such as altering a character's skills or occupation.
In general the most modification-friendly 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. Civilization 4 is the most open of all, letting the user make entire scenarios and whole new sets of rules through Python. Publishers can also determine mod-friendliness in the way important source files are available (some programs collect their source material into large proprietary archives, while 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 industrial-strength program Maya to build new in-game objects. However, there is a free version available of Maya and other advanced modeling software. There are also free and even open source modeling programs 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 photo-realistic texture for a game item. As a result, other game characteristics such as its popularity and capabilities have a dominating effect on if mods are created for the game by users.
A game that allows 'modding' can also be called 'moddable'. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as well as its predecessor The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind are highly moddable, because the editor is available to download off the internet. Daggerfall was much less moddable, but some people released their own modifications nevertheless.
[edit] Portability Issues
For cross-platform games, mods written for the Windows version have not always been compatible with the Mac OS X and/or Linux ports of the game. In large part, this is due to the publisher's concern with prioritizing the porting of the primary game itself, when allocating resources for fixing the porting of mod-specific functions may not be cost-effective for the relatively 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 1.61D 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. In addition, mods which are compiled into platform-specific libraries, such as those of Doom 3, are often only built for the Windows platform, leading to a lack of cross-platform 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 Software's Doom 3 Radiant tool and Epic Games' UnrealEd being the most notable examples.
Mod teams which lack either the resources or know-how 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. Some mod teams such as the ones for Forgotten Hope and Red Orchestra have hired Mac-specific coders and have even purchased Mac hardware for testing purposes. The mod team which developed Last Man Standing Coop performed an in-house port of their mod, but encouraged someone else to create a Mac installation/launching utility.
The mod specialist site for Macs, Macologist, has created GUI launchers and installers for many UT2004 mods, as well as solving cross-platform conversion issues for mods for other games.
[edit] Unexpected consequences of modding
In January 2005, it was reported that in The Sims 2 modifications that changed item and game behaviour were unexpectedly being transferred to other players through the official website's exchange feature, leading to changed game behaviour without advance warning. [1]
[edit] Example modifiable games
[edit] Games with official modification tools
[edit] The Elder Scrolls
For the PC versions of both The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda Softworks included a tool (or provided it online, in Oblivion's case) called The Elder Scrolls Construction Set, which allows users to freely modify game content in game. Some of the more notable mods are:
- GIANTS - A very popular modification that adds over 200 new monsters to Morrowind.
- Better Bodies - A modification that improves the model quality of Morrowind's NPCs.
- Emma's Children - A modification that adds children NPCs to Morrowind.
- Tamriel Rebuilt - A large modification aimed at rebuilding the entire continent of Tamriel according to lore.
- Silgrad Tower - A modification that adds a large portion of Morrowind's mainland province west of Vvardenfell.
- Cyrodiil: Dawn of Oblivion - A large modification being developed for Morrowind, set in the province of Cyrodiil it is the unofficial prequel to Oblivion.
- Nehrim - One of the few Total Conversions for Oblivion, developed by a German mod team. It takes part in a complete new world with no relation to the lore of The Elder Scrolls.
- Skyrim for Oblivion - A large mod, that adds the province of Skyrim to Oblivion.
- Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul - A large mod that adds several creatures, dungeons, factions, items, and generally enhances Oblivion.
- Project Serpent: Reign of Venom - A Total Conversion for Oblivion that takes place in a new world based on the Hexen/Heretic games.
[edit] SimCity 4
Despite the fact that SimCity 4 was released in 2003, there is still a very active community making various mods for this city simulation. A lot of users have experimented with the game's data files, and have come up with various methods of improving the behaviour of commuters in the game.[1] The release of the Building Architect Tool by Maxis[2] allows users to create their own buildings in a free 3D modelling program, and export them to the game with the Lot Editor.
[edit] The Sims 2
The Sims 2 allows users to import custom content, and third-party programs such as SimPE enable modification of game behaviour. There are hundreds of registered fan websites offering custom content such as re-coloured or re-meshed objects.
[edit] Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) modding began at the Holowan Laboratories forums, which are part of the StarWarsKnights.com site, by the end of the year 2003 when some users started releasing small mods using tools made primarily for Neverwinter Nights. On January 19, 2004, Fred Tetra, a professional software engineer and member of the StarWarsKnights.com forums, released a first version of KotOR tool, a utility which made access, extraction and editing of KOTOR's textures, models, scripts, etc more accessible to the general public. Since then, the modding community got more organized, Kotor Tool has developed into a nearly complete toolset and others such as tk102 and cchargin have also created several utilities to add more possibilities to KotOR modding and making it appealing to KotOR fans of all ages and backgrounds.
KotOR's override folder allows easy activation of these edited files because when those files are put into the override folder the folder (as the name suggests) overrides the games original files and uses the edited files if the file is the same name and type that the original is.
Some sample KotOR mods taken from different areas of modding:
- Darth Revan Reincarnate by Lil'Jawa. While fairly basic, this was the first mod publicly released for the game. The mod allows the player to begin the game as a Jedi and select his alignment. Several more developed mods released afterwards were based on this mod.
- Talchia's hardcore mod tweaks the AI to make the game more difficult.
- Holowan Plug-In by T7Nowhere: this mod is a compilation of many early Kotor mods made by different modders to ensure compatibility. It includes reskins, an arena for battles, recruitable characters, a few additions to the storyline and tons of new items.
- Darth333's All-In-One force powers mod for KotOR 1 is also a compilation of mods made by several modders but this time it includes new force powers and items.
- Redhawke's Planet ORD Mandell adds a new planet and sidequest to the game.
- Prime and bneezy's Imperial Stormtrooper Conversion mod transforms the Sith Soldiers into Stormtroopers.
- The Ultimate Saber Mod for KotOR 2 is a series of new lightsaber models and includes some mini quests.
- Allronix's "Dialogue Pack" Mod restores a large portion of Juhani's dialogue cut from the game, and adds new dialogue options for the player to choose.
- JdNoa restored a cut ending for Darkside Female players, allowing the PC to turn on her Sith apprentice and die with Carth aboard the Star Forge.
A nearly exhaustive list of KotOR mods sites, including modders personal websites can be found here. Several tutorials and most modding tools can be found at the Editing Forums at StarWarsKnights.com.
[edit] Half-Life and Half-Life 2
- See also: List of Half-Life 2 mods
Mods for the Half-Life games range from simple changes to total conversions that feature extensive game engine modifications, due in part to the remarkable flexibility of the games engines. Many mods have significantly different gameplay and features beyond thematic changes. Perhaps the most well-known commercial modification of all time was built on the GoldSRC engine of Half-Life - Counter-Strike, picked up and published by Valve Software. Half-Life 2, unlike its predecessor, uses the Source Engine, which has also been used to make a large number of modifications.
[edit] Relic Developers Network
The Relic Developers Network is a free resource created by Relic Entertainment for developers modding their games. Supported games include Homeworld 2. Official modding toolsets can be downloaded by registering and logging into the site.
[edit] Jedi Knight Series
The Jedi Knight series has also been highly modded; the modding for this game started with the release of the second official installment, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast which sparked a number of multiplayer mods which enabled players to do a number of different things and increase player's enjoyment of the game.
For example, skinning was a very easy way to mod the game and players could use different skins and models which they would either make by using tools such as modview, photoshop and milkshape or they would download and then use them in multiplayer games, mods were also introduced that changed the online version of the game dramatically with other 300 multiplayer mods released for Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy.
[edit] Games using Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine used by many commercially released games. It also allows users to modify such games with relative ease. Examples include the following:
[edit] Unreal Tournament 2004
Many total conversions exist for Unreal Tournament 2004; Alien Swarm and Red Orchestra for example.
[edit] Deus Ex
Main article: Deus Ex mods
Deus Ex is a unique game in terms of the development of its modding community, as the majority of the game's popular mods were released roughly 18 months after the initial release of the game. A further surge in modding activity occurred in 2004, following the release of the sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War. A number of large-scale mods are still in production stages, including at least one total conversion, numerous partial conversions, asset modifiers, and an attempt to recreate the game in its entirety as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004.
[edit] Games with third-party modification tools
[edit] Battlefield series
Since its release in 2002, Battlefield 1942 has spawned a large number of modifications, especially total conversions. Battlefield mods tend to focus on changing the theme and balance (such as more realistic) rather than changing the game mission (conquest game mode). The highlight of most mods are unique vehicles and their use. Only a few mod teams started to port their creations to the Vietnam game, which may be one of the reasons the game sold relatively poorly in comparison to Battlefield 1942. A large number of mod's have been released for Battlefield 2 and more are still in production. Many of the mod teams from Battlefield 1942 that were reluctant to move to the Battlefield Vietnam engine have decided to move to Battlefield 2 instead. (See List of Battlefield 1942 mods and List of Battlefield Vietnam mods for a longer listing.). EA's Special Forces, Euro Force and Armored Fury expansions are seen by many gamers as commercial partial mod's. A large amount of mods are expected for the latest game in the series Battlefield 2142.
- Desert Combat
- Surreal
- Point of Existence
- Galactic Conquest
- Eve of Destruction
- Project Reality
[edit] Command & Conquer: Generals
The Generals game engine, known as SAGE, is known for its ease of modding for beginners. As a result, there are many projects based around modding with this engine (which is also used for both Battle for Middle Earth games, and C&C 3). Mods for Generals are made using the Renegade modding tool called RenX, created by Westwood Studios before it merged with EALA. Both the original game and its expansion, Zero Hour, shipped with a level editing tool called World Builder. While it is mainly used to create of maps and missions, for modders it is more useful because it allows editing the ingame AI. EA also recently released a Battle for Middle Earth II SDK which is compatible with the Generals/Zero Hour engine. EA has been heavily criticized by many modders for the inefficiency of the SAGE engine. But even despite this, Zero Hour is seen as a strong platform for modders.
Some of the popular mods for this game range from total conversions such as Cold War Crisis to add-on mods like ShockWave. There was a huge outcry from modders and fans alike when Microsoft, through its subsidiary Bungie, forced the closing down of Halogen, a mod based on the Halo Universe. It was one of the most widely anticipated mod and its closing angered many fans of both the Halo and Command & Conquer franchise.
[edit] Doom and Doom II
Main article: Doom WAD
Mods for Doom and Doom II that add or modify game content are often referred to as WADs due to using the WAD file format. The idgames archive contains over 10,000 WADs created from 1994 to present.
There also exist several Doom source ports which significantly modify the Doom engine to add support for new modes of gameplay.
[edit] Doom 3
Although Doom 3's capabilities as a mod platform were somewhat overlooked as a result of the release of Half-Life 2 and its associated development tools, there are a few mods for the game worth noting. Classic Doom 3 is a mod which overhauled the original episode of Doom, Knee Deep in the Dead, for use in the Doom 3 engine. Last Man Standing Coop is a mod which adds cooperative multiplayer to the Doom 3 and Resurrection of Evil campaign maps, in addition to a custom game-type which re-creates the gameplay of Doom and Doom II.
[edit] Grand Theft Auto Series
PC version GTA III based game engines, including Vice City and San Andreas, are flexible enough that the modders can put highly detailed cars, detailed characters and larger maps (depending on PC computer and video cards). The mods range from replacing vehicles, character and buildings to a total conversion. Most of these mods are created independently and often made as a hobby so the quality may vary depending on author's experiences and skills.
Some of the examples are:
- GTA: Myriad Islands - Claims to be the largest GTA mod ever created, coming with new maps and cars[2] [3]. In production since 2003.
- San Andreas Multiplayer - Otherwise known as SA:MP. [4]
- GTA: Long Night Zombie - Came earlier before Capcom's Dead Rising. It converts Vice City with an original storyline, turning pedestrians and gangs into zombies and eliminating daytime.[5]
- GTA: Liberty City - (Not to be confused with Liberty City Stories) It converts Liberty City from GTA III to the newer Vice City engine; resulting in expanded playability including better graphics and faster gameplay, as well as the inclusion of helicopters, motorbikes, and other improvements Vice City had over its predecessor. The conversion replaces the lead character and maps while retaining the pedestrians and gangs. [6]
- Hot Coffee - The infamous mod that allowed players to play a mini-game in which they had sex with the main character's girlfriend. [7]
[edit] Thief series
In Thief, mods come in the form of 'fan missions'. There are over 500 fan missions currently available. Most fan missions are original in design in regards to layout of a town, the landscape, buildings, interiors, the placement of characters and items and storyline. Many include objects, characters, music and special effects that are original with the fan mission authors. A typical fan mission will take up to four hours to play to fulfil the mission objectives, and they are usually replayable at higher difficulty settings.
Thief: The Dark Project (1998) has about 100 fan missions available. Thief Gold (an updated version of the first) has about 40 fan missions available.
Thief II: The Metal Age (2000) has over 380 fan missions available.
After the release of the third game - Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004), an editor was released and already a number of fan missions have been created for that game as well.
[edit] Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and for a short time, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 had a significant amount of mods and modding tools available. The mods included texture mods for skaters, boards, and levels, as well as trick and level hacks. Popular modding tools included a Hoverboard hack, soundtrack editors, and RePKR for the all.pkr file that held texture, level, sound, and trick data for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
Some of these mods and modding tools can still be found at Planet Tony Hawk.
[edit] Total Annihilation
Total Annihilation (TA) is one of the most moddable games there is, with already over 2,400 custom units, one hundred mods, and a dozen custom races available for download. Some well-known TA mods and total conversions:
- Absolute Annihilation - Compilation of elements from Uberhack, XTA, GMTA, TAUIP, UTASP, Evolva and others.
- Uberhack - First and most popular mod.
- TA Evolva Project - Replace original TA's 3D models with more detailed ones.
- Axis and Allies TA - Replacing TA units with extremely accurate World War II units and structures.
- Star Wars TA - Massive Star Wars total conversion.
- TA: Final Frontier - Space total conversion featuring the Arm Space Navy and Corespace.
- TA: Independence War - Space total conversion featuring The Federation, The Corporation, The Raiders, and The Aliens.
- The Lost Legacy - Massive race with over 100 units
- The Rumad Race
- Emergency Pack - A pack of smart units.
- [8] - Not only is TA highly modable, but the Swedish Yankspankers(SYs) created an entirely new game engine to run the same content, called TA Spring.
[edit] WarCraft III
WarCraft III stores it's main game data in two files: war3.mpq and war3x.mpq. An mpq file is a Blizzard compression format which can be accessed by WarCraft and various internet programs.
Most 'mods' in WarCraft III are heavily modified maps. This is so that the rest of the game doesn't become corrupted. The map are files are also MPQ archives so if a resource file is included in the map it will use that instead. Modding in the expansion is easier because of the more powerful editor which includes the abilities to edit data files and import files into the map.
[edit] World of Warcraft
The biggest and most well known MMORPG on the market has an extremely huge mod community to go along with its enormous user base. There are many types of World of Warcraft mods that have been created to help enchance the game like raid mods, combat mods and auction mods. All of them benefits the player in some way, either by giving them addition info or making a mundane task easier through macros. Two of the most popular mods include Atlas Mod which is an in-game instance map browser and Titan Panel, which creates a horizontal bar and can be customized with useful game data. Most mods need to be updated when World of Warcraft puts out a new patch, so popular mods see changes at least every couple of months. Sites such as WoW Interface and Warcraft mods carry frequently updated mods for user downloads. World of Warcraft mods usually have to be manually installed. Blizzard Entertainment who created World of Warcraft, does not create any first-party mods for their game, but they give support and tools to third-party mod makers.
[edit] Midtown Madness Series
The PC versions of the Midtown Madness series are famous for their modability[citation needed], and several different kinds of add-ons have been made for them. Some examples are:
- Cities - Add-ons cities the player can drive in, ranging from simple test tracks, to full-blown cities
- Cars - Add-on vehicles that the player and/or AI can drive
- Texture MODs - Add-ons that change the game's textures to make the default cities look different.
Midtown Madness 3, the last version of the Midtown Madness series, was released for the Xbox, but shows signs of moddability, but 3rd party modifications are impossible, as the game uses encryption.
Due to Microsoft not supporting the series anymore, interest levels in the series is dying, and the modding community is dying as well.
[edit] Nude patches
One of the most common mods is a nude patch, also known as a nude skin. This is a software patch designed to modify software, usually a game to allow the user or gamer to see the character in the nude. The first such patch was designed for Duke Nukem 3D. Lara Croft, the voluptuous heroine of the Tomb Raider series, was the one to popularize, or promote, the nude patch.
Such patches are almost never authorized by the software's maker and are usually created as mods by players and distributed over the internet. There is at least one website that specializes in this area, as well as the sites created specifically for the mod. Nude patches are available for many games that have female characters and are moddable, including The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Lineage 2, Max Payne 2, Half Life 2, World of Warcraft, and Grand Theft Auto.
[edit] Fox'ing
Some total conversions and mods based on copyrighted franchises, like Star Wars or Alien, caused their owners to take a harsh stance towards modders. The particular aggressiveness of 20th Century Fox in sending cease and desist mails to mod projects inspired a new verb: being foxed.[3] Some strictly non-commercial mods appear to be tolerated, for example the Star Wars mods Galactic Conquest for Battlefield 1942, Warlords for Homeworld 2, and Troopers for Unreal Tournament 2004 (Troopers was later given the rights to continue production of their mod). It appears to be dependent both on the direction of the modification (does it use official characters in a story or cause conflicts with canon information, rather than merely taking place in a pre-established universe) and on the company that owns the IP - Fox's notoriety for a zero-tolerance policy against modifications based on their IP is where the term foxed originated.
[edit] Modders
The term 'modder' is sometimes used to refer to a person who creates a mod. The latter is especially true in cases where someone in a multi-player game is using a mod to give them an unfair advantage. Examples might include an auto-targeting modification in a shooting game or a mod which allows the player to move faster than others. Such mods are generally considered cheating, especially if the match is ranked or will affect the statistics of the players disadvantaged. Using a mod to cheat is now considered as “Hacking”.
However some mods can have an effect on all of the players in a multiplayer game. Such mods give every player the same increase ability and/or extra item(s) and therefore is sometimes not considered cheating, although it is possible that only the modder would use the changes especially if the changes are subtle.
[edit] References
- ^ Simtropolis
- ^ Building Architect Tool at the official SimCity 4 webpage
- ^ Being Foxed article at Binary Bonsai
