Online communities are changing video games to make them better, weirder, and much more wonderful
One major advantage of playing video games on computers instead of game consoles is the ability to mess with the structure, look, and gameplay of your favorite titles.
This is known as "modding."
"Modding" is just jargon for "modifying" - altering - video games. Savvy fans dive into the back-end of their favorite games to fix bugs, update graphics, or introduce new elements. Sometimes, fans create new games altogether (we're looking at you, "DOTA"). Some game studios create custom "mod tools" for their games, making the process even easier for the less code-minded among us. In order to play a mod - even ones that are essentially full games - you need the underlying game on your computer. The mod runs on top of the original game. Think of the original game as the foundation. The mod is the house built on top of that foundation.
Video game players have been mucking about on the back-end of popular titles - from "Skyrim" to the earliest text-based adventures - for as long as games have been on the market. And, for nearly as long, those edits have passed back and forth on the internet.
Nowadays, it's thankfully much easier to install these mods: it's as simple as downloading a file and installing it. By far the best and largest source of mods is the Steam Community Workshop, which gathers, gives out, and sometimes sells player creations. And it does so within the confines of the world's largest, most popular digital game store: Steam, which boasts over 100 million active users.
Most mods just add items or characters to games, and many fix bugs. But others are deeply weird. Some people can only play a character for so long before wondering "What would it look like with a hamburger for a head?" or "Why doesn't its gun fire rainbows instead of bullets?"
Take this image, for instance:
Someone took a look at the dragons of the "Skyrim" universe and thought, "You know what those things are missing? The hair, voice, and headgear of WWE superstar Macho Man Randy Savage." I don't care if you're miles from WiFi, reading on your last megabyte of data. The video below of a freakish wrestler-dragon hybrid attacking a town is worth the watch:
- The Steam Community Workshop (super-safe and easy to use)
- MODSonline (a slightly more technical site, with articles and forums about the craft of modding and game design)
- Nexusmods (still more technical than Steam, but organized by game title and overflowing with user comments, screenshots, and video)
- MinecraftMods (for Minecraft)