What do you think about Mods?

I began playing Railroad Tycoon when I was four years old and since then I've played almost every Microprose game. In all of these games, the big challenge has always been to improve my game and develop secret strategies that I use to get a better score than my friends.

Since Civ II, almost every game has been modded in some way. I admit that I've played the WWII Mod in Civ II a couple of times for a change and I've tried a couple of the Civ IV Mods as well.

But... I would never change the rules in a standard game. However, there are now a lot of different settings in the game and upon that, the entire community seems to scream "Mod this, Mod that"... It seems impossible to compare my game with others now. In the old games, this was much easier to understand: High difficulty settings -> Better score. This doesn't work anymore, with adjustable victory conditions, ability to chose the opponents and ability to set aggressive levels.

I would like a "Play a standard game" option, with fixed rules that can't be changed by anyone but Firaxis, so that when we know what we're talking about when we discuss new strategies. Then of course there should be a "custom game" option as well for those who enjoy messing around.

My feeling is that Colonization II and even the new Civilization games have become like Spore. People like to change the graphics, adjust the rules etc. but somewhere on the way a bit of the challenge is lost. Or like in Sims, where most people seem to use cheat codes to get unlimited amounts of money so that they can buy whatever they want. When I first tried Sims back in 2000, I thought it was pretty fun to go from being poor to rich by advancing in my career, but much of the fun was ruined when I learned that most people used cheat codes to build their dream houses.


A appreciate all the work that the modders have done, but I want an official patch. I want to learn how to play a game the way it supposed to be played and not enter some sandbox mode where I can set up my own rules. However, it feels as I'm in a minority here so I thought that it would be interesting with a poll.

I also couldn't understand why people would cheat in the sims. As far as I'm concerned, the game just goes downhill once you're not poor and having to make [semi] tough decisions anymore.

Mods are good for fixing bugs before the official patch. Good for keeping the game alive when development stops. Sometimes they can be used to make something new and amazing. Something that's beyond customization.

I see where you come from, but you have to understand, that game industry, like every other industry, chases profit. So they will only make an official patch, if they think they stand to gain from it. Development will stop at some point and bugs will be left unfixed, balance won't be good enough.

I haven't used them in any other game (even some of the "advanced setup" options are ones I don't usually play with), but I have used it for this colonization game, mainly since it has a few things which are good to be fixed. Using a crazy mod I'd equate to playing a scenario - it could be good for a change, but it's a different game.

Anyways, most games do allow you one option for a standard game - go to "Single Players -> Play Now!" and that's as standard as you can get.

I normally play the vanilla game and then tailor things to my own taste.
Designers cannot cater for everybody's wishes. Games are played for fun.
So I make those alterations that I want and can do to have more fun.

I always use mods. If people don't want to play with mods, thats fine, its their game, but being able to mod the game is the greatest thing a game company could do.

All of use modders and mod players shouldn't be locked into the developers vision for a game and denied how we like to play the game, just so some players can have an "easyer time creating statiegies".

There is no "right" way to play a game. If the people playing are having fun, then they are playing the "right" way.

I am going to have agree with Jeckel on this one. I almost always play with one mod or another, but the right way is whatever the person playing thinks the right way is heh. I am actually curious if the people who mod the game (The ones that also play the game heh..) play with more mods, then the standard person who doesn't mod.

But either way I can see why some don't play with mods, I mean I can't speak for everyone, but when I make a mod I am kinda doing it for selfish reasons.. I want to play the game with the specific changes that I am making. Of course I am going to share it when I am done, and hope others like it as well as I do.

Note: Don't get me wrong, I try to include other things people like as well to make it better once in a while.

I understand the want for an 'official patch' in the form of a mod of a patch is still a mod, especially when you like to play with other mods that conflict, and you will even see people who are using the mod going.. umm where is the patch? heh :LOL:

Finally, I think not wanting to change is a big reason for some not playing mods. This is a personal decision so I can't say nothing on this, and I don't mean "Everyone". But to consider mods a cheat, or sandbox mode because they change things can be unfair to the mod itself.. Many of us try to balance things out, but ya can't please everyone all the time so I guess it is bound to happen