Modding is the new Developing

ser Generated content is the in thing in gaming these days. One way of looking at it is the common misconception (in my opinion) that developers are lazy. Yes, they can certainly be lazy but I really don't think that the user generated content thing is a sign of laziness so much as following the money. People are less interested these days in an immersive and well thought-out experience as they are with being a part of the action. Perhaps for the very same reason I've become so interested in working in the gaming industry myself.

User generated content is the next logical step, when a developer realizes that the player wants to have a part in the creation of the game, and ultimately, the player knows what they want to play. This isn't to say that a game with a great plot isn't going to be something that people crave. If Fallout 3 was only a sandbox game and the GECK, then I don't think it would've been nearly as popular as it ultimately turned out to be. However, especially in the case of companies like Bethesda who specialize in very pretty games and detailed construction sets, they can rely on the players and the modding community to make 'improvements' on an already good product.

Modding has been around as long as people have had any idea how to mod a game. Even way back as far as the year I was born, two guys named Doug Macrae and Kevin Curran started a company called General Computer whose entire purpose was modding (though they did it the old-skool way, through hardware). Through their mod work, they were the guys who originally made Ms. Pac-Man and various other vast improvements on existing arcade titles of the day.

So when modding is as old as I am, it can be said that it's an institution, almost. And if it can get those two guys swanky jobs at both Atari and Midway simultaneously, it can't hurt to get one's hands dirty in other peoples' code.

Of course, this all could be a pretense for the fact that modding can also be lots of fun. I recently took my first walk down the path with a mod for Fallout 3 (which I spend a shameful amount of time playing these days), and forever put out into the world just how dorky I am a gamer by basing it off of content originally created for the Black Isle Fallout 3 game (that was never finished before the company died), codenamed Van Buren. Say hello to the Experimental Stealth Boy. Originally, the item is a short-term predator-esque light-bending technology that renders your character invisible and a fair bit more stealthy.

Because I'm an enormous Fallout fanboy, I actually did some research into the Fallout world, in order to make something canon that would be an improvement in an already pretty decent experience. Because I don't see myself as one of those modders who wants the Fatman to fire off 96 tactical nukes at once, or completely eliminate the point of having stats that affect my efficiency in gunplay, I decided to put together something that doesn't just give things away, but also adds an element of danger (?) to the game.

Taking a leaf from the Circle of Steel plotline for Van Buren, I decided to start my path down the road that is modding with a small item mod. A unique object. Although there was no talk of the Stealth Boy tech being modified in any way by the Brotherhood of Steel in the game (For non Fallout Players, the Brotherhood of Steel is a post-apocalyptic order of knights focused on gathering, cataloging and reengineering the technology of the past), I created a small modification to the existing tech to make it more interesting.

It turned out to be more complicated than originally thought. I wanted the Experimental Stealth boy to deplete a resource, be able to be switched on and off, and to have an element of risk if the player uses it too much, to discourage people from using it as a 'god item'. Think sort of like the One Ring, but with a replaceable battery pack.

So I went about the task of learning the Scripting language for Fallout 3 (Incidentally, mostly the same as the scripting language for Bethesda's other RPG titles), and worked out all the details of how to accomplish what I needed. After much muddling with base effects, actor effects, writing a custom addiction script and ammo depletion script and figuring out a workaround for the fact that the sound made when an item is picked up is also the same as when it's equipped in the game's standard setup, I have a beta version of the mod out.

It's still not perfect, but I'm proud of myself. For teaching myself some elements of a semi-complicated scripting language (With much help and hand-holding from awesome Fallout Nexus forum user Cipscis) and for building something that other people will use in their game.

It's still not real game creation, but I'm happy with what I've done, and I plan on expanding my jaunt into FO3 modding in the future. So if you play Fallout 3, and you care enough, give it a shot. If you missed the link above, here it is again. Feel free to drop me a comment here or at the Nexus, and if you like it, give me a good rating. It'll raise my clout in the modding community, and maybe help me on my way.