Or less.

Modding can also be a great way to learn about game design. Don't underestimate the value of a couple hundred hours on the forum learning about what people love/hate about games and thousands of hours learning about how a big, professionally made game works from the inside out. It's at least as valuable as starting a game from scratch and working your way up. Great artists learn by studying the masters, not by reinventing the wheel.

But it's no shortcut to success in the industry. You have to do it because you love it, or you will hate it.

I do it because I hate it, and I'm a masochist.

But that makes me enjoy doing it, so I stop. But then I enjoy denying myself, so I have to start again.

And it's also an opportunity to play with YOUR mind...

:whisper:

Well, I was forced to do it - I mean, I bought the game ...

I was forced too, worse than you, I was given it. I could hardly snub a gift by not modding it, right?

:whisper:

I hope you realize that I paid money for it; not to mention the therapy that followed.

Ah, at the time I was too young to fully appreciate the holes wallets can grow, so you were definitely hit harder. It's a hard life, either way.

Modding is fun for Fallout 3 and Morrowind, but it is a necessity and mostly not that much fun for Oblivion. At least when you're modding the things that I am, which is really just trying to fix broken parts of the game. I've failed more often than I even tried, and know that most of it is in vain, because the game is (what I consider to be) broken in a very fundamental way.

Benefits of modding? Well, sometimes, a project is just small enough, just carefully enough done, just tackles exactly the right thing without too much hassle, and then it satisfies me very deeply - because I was able to change one of the many flaws of Oblivion in a non-intrusive way.
If I may be so bold as to name a few examples:
My "Morrowind Style Legion Armor" only changes one little texture (actually two, but I'm only using half of the mod), yet it has a very dramatic effect in that to me, it perfectly blends Oblivion's style of Legion armor with the general look of the Legion armor I have known from Morrowind without changing all that much. To me it now feels like the Legion we knew from Morrowind simply got a new style instead of being completely retconned. That is satisfying.
Another example is my retexture of the Dremora ("Morrowind Style Dremora"), which has the same intentions, but is a much more serious case: It changes "fiendish abominations from Hell" to "alien but noble warriors from Oblivion" (though it doesn't change that the Deadlands still look like Hell).

When I first played the game, I knew I'd have to make these mods, because I wouldn't be able to enjoy Oblivion without them. And now that I have them (and several other mods), I can actually play and to a certain degree enjoy the game. So that is a definite benefit of modding for me.

Also the ability to mod the game allows you to edit other people's mods as well. So you can change things to your liking, or fix bugs if the mod is no longer being updated by the author.

Exactly this. I mod because I need something to pass the time with, and modding is just so darn fun!

I definitely don't do it for recognition by anyone and especially not to get some sort of reward. I've never even released one of my mods (although that's partly from some obsessive perfectionism).

The creative outlet.

The intellectual challenge.

And, above all - the interaction with other modders - to work together in order to achieve some new kind of improvement. To brainstorm over subjects with likeminded. The feeling of victory when something previously 'impossible' has been made possible by mutual efforts.

If people like the finished result of the efforts - well, that's a huge bonus, of course.

If something I have created has given others a few enjoyable hours, then that's wonderful.

Still, I don't think anyone can have more fun by playing a mod than what the modder had while creating it. At least I don't think that anyone could have more fun playing my mods than what I had while creating them.

I started to mod back in 2002, but was 'forced into retirement' for three years when first my mother got ill and died and then my daughter got seriously ill. Only last summer, my daughter's health had become so stable that I could start on my old hobby again. And it was and still is such a wonderful feeling - I don't think I had fully understood how much I had missed it. I'm so happy to be here again, so happy to again be able to open up a construction set and start working.

i would also have to go with the hobby and creative outlet points. to me its chalanging and a learning experience. i started with just a bit of retexture work . so i had to learn to use new softwear to allow me to do that. now im getting into making my own moddels . ppl mod for many diff reasons. being recognized as a modder though would be the least on my list as out of the 50 or so mods i have made ive only released 1 though ive taken requests from time to time. i dont consider that a release of a mod.

i no longer PLAY morrowind or oblivion i MOD them that is how i get my enjoyment out of the games.



great one ghastley ( I do it because I hate it, and I'm a masochist.

But that makes me enjoy doing it, so I stop. But then I enjoy denying myself, so I have to start again.

And it's also an opportunity to play with YOUR mind...)

IMHO generally modders are actually just creating the game THEY want to play. thankfully they are kind enough to share

I want to play the game. But I can?t enjoy it before I can play with the mods I?m working on, cause then it?s going to be so much more fun.

So I?m forced to mod. I?m a victim, like so many others like me.

Agreed, I want to play the game but I can't, I have to finish OblivionReanimated first, then I can fully enjoy it.

thats what you say now :lmao:

Yup, exactly this.

I'm just starting my first "real" mod and I have to say it isn't fun at all. Not because of the modding but because of the limited amount of time I have to do anything like this. I usually have 3-5 hrs a week to myself and the frustration I have is from the fact that I'll get to something that requires scripting and I can't...so I'm spending all 25-30 min of my free time for the day trying to figure out what I'm doing. And I don't figure it out so that time is wasted. I've currently shelved trying to mod and I am just playing the game again. Hopefully once my wife starts grad school and I find myself with tons of free time I'll be able to get back into it.

I'm not trying to complain (even though I am lol) but even if it only takes me 3-4 hours to figure out a problem I'm having thats 2-3 weeks of all my free time and I'm sadly having to put this aside untill something changes.

I disagree. I don't believe your time is wasted. You are likely getting a tiny bit closer to understanding scripting each time you study it. If you keep at it long enough you will understand it one day. And when that day comes, all of those frustrating 25-30 minute sessions will have contributed a portion towards your understanding of the subject. None of them will have been wasted.

@Schitzoflink: I agree with Pseron Wyrd. That time is definitely not wasted. I run into the same problem a lot of the time (too big a problem for too short a time to work on it). What you need to do is change your strategy. A half hour might not be enough time to write a script, but it's enough time to study a single function and figure out how it works. If you spend half an hour a day for even three hours a week you can learn 6 functions a week. When you finally do get the time to sit down and work on your script you'll understand much better what you need to do and how to do it and you'll spend less time fixing bugs. A lot of the time you spend 'scripting' is actually spent learning about new functions so you're not wasting any time at all. You just need a better way to 'chunk' tasks so you're not taking on too much all at once.

Just one more mod or mod update and then I'll finally be done and start playing the game... Done! Hmm... That thing could use some improving too. Alright, one more mod before I start playing...

Leo Gura or "liquidgraph" created The Lost Spires strictly as a portfolio piece to apply for game design jobs, and he actually got hired at 2k Boston because of it.

Then he quit.

benefits? don't think I have had any of those. no health, dental, or free parking. I think I'm getting jacked.

Why I do it- I'm addicted. Or it's one of my hobbies, take your pick.
depending on what I'm doing, I think it is relaxing, challenging, creative, technical, and sometimes fun. Always a lot of work, and definitely more than you originally thought.

there is no fame or glory in modding, that happens when you play the game, slay the dragon and save the princess.

edit: I think the more interesting topic- what are drawbacks modding as a hobby has, no sleep, redeye, wrist strain, brain explosion, killing 4 hours is like a blink of the eye.. bliviongate: