One the most prominent aspects of modern computer gaming is the creation of custom content. Custom content is usually made by the community, and modifies aspects of a game that is already completed and released. There are several major categories for custom content, including visual adaptations, audio modification, and level or world creation. Oftentimes, these styles of content are mixed and packaged together to offer a completely new experience from the original game.

The term generally applied to such custom content is “mod”, a shortening of “modification”. (Although it is used in other senses, in this observation is only intended to include software modifications of computer games). It’s a common word in many major game communities, often used as a verb. A “modder” is someone who mods, naturally. The creation of custom game content has become a large part of many game’s communities, as some games are especially flexible in accepting user made content or mods. Skilled modders sometimes form Mod Teams, where they work together to create an especially polished mod. Some Mod Teams can produce a mod of nearly commercial quality, such as the mod Dystopia based on the Half-Life 2 engine. These mods replace almost all of gameplay from the game, essentially creating what could be called an entirely new game.

Many game companies have realized the importance of mods. Games have a certain lifespan after release, varying upon their quality and customer reception. After that lifespan is up, interest will fade and sales will drop drastically. Mods, however, keep interest up in a game, increasing their lifespan. Custom content keeps a game interesting for much longer after its release, offering more playability even after the original game is played through. This basically equates to a longer game lifespan, and more sales over time.

The importance of mods to a game’s lifespan is clear enough by the variety of well established mods and their developers and company sponsored sites that keep users updated on new mods. Sites such as Dawn of War Files provides updates on community-made content for Dawn of War, of which there is a large supply. Planet Half-Life, in addition to reporting news about Valve products, also reports on mods and other custom content related to their products. There is even a site dedicated to tracking mods across a huge number of games, ModDB.

In Part 2 of this blog, I will examine several major games, their modifications, and how the two have interacted.

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