Myths and Legends
"In the modding world, all roads lead to Counter-Strike."
...or so the modding community believes.
The spectacular commercial success of Counter-Strike single-handedly revolutionized how we approach video games, and how game developers view their work. In light of this success, many new thoughts have come into the mainstream consciousness of the modding community.
In this post, I look at some of the most commonly held views in the modding community, and look at just how much truth there is to each.
Half-Truth: Anyone can make a mod
One of the binding elements of the modding community is that modding is equal opportunity. Everyone has access to the same tools, and the implication is that, given enough time, anyone can learn to do anything.
While true on the surface, there are some realities that this belief does not consider.
First, we have to consider what we call a "mod". Game modifications come in a wide variety, from simple feature tweaks to full scale total conversions. For simple feature tweaks, such as changing the damage of a weapon, changing how quickly a character moves, or changing how a tree appears, those are relatively trivial tasks which almost anyone can learn how to do, and do so in a reasonable amount of time.
However, there is a tide of opinion shifting in the community which feels that every modification should strive to be "perfect" - and with this feeling comes the desire to expand the scope of a mod project to meet these expectations. Never mind the reality that says producing a change which would take a skilled professional 10 hours will take many many times that for someone who is still learning, or has less than above average talent.
Sure, you can still practice often enough to produce something professional quality, even with limited amounts of talent. But what much of the community does not, will not, and outright refuses to face is that for the vast, vast majority of people, producing high-quality work takes way more time, both in learning, and in practice, than is practical.
Modding is a time-consuming activity even if you know what you're doing, and for someone who doesn't know the ropes, they could potentially take 50 hours of time to make one single change (a new model, a new piece of code, a new piece of music, etc.), scattered across perhaps 2 hours of free time a day, 3 days per week. This amounts to over eight weeks of production time to produce a single asset which may or may not be of good quality. By comparison, a talented seasoned veteran could produce that same thing in a fraction of the time.
For most ambitious projects (read: nearly all of them), this rate of asset generation simply isn't sufficient - you'd be old and gray and your computer will break long before you'd ever finish a project. Thus, the statement that anyone can produce a mod is only partially true.
For limited-scope tweak projects that are within the grasp of the average user, yes, anyone can make one. For the sort of full-scale production which has become the accepted standard in the modding world, I think that statement is completely false.
Partial Myth: Releasing a mod is a stepping-stone into the game industry
One of the most cherished sacred cows of the modding community, especially amongst mod developers, is the idea that you can use a successfully completed mod project as an "in" to get into the game industry.
Before I dive deeply into this discussion, it's necessary to talk about the nature of the community as a whole. The amount of innate talent and skill in the community is a bell curve, which is skewed heavily away from competence due to the relative youth of the community (nearly all are under 25 years of age). Thus, the proportion of people in the mod community with truly exceptional skill is very tiny; at a rough guess, I'd say from experience that the really brilliant people represent less than one tenth of one percent of the community as a whole (0.1%).
If you're one of the lucky few who have the talent, intelligence, and enthusiasm to fall into that 0.1% bucket, then absolutely, producing a successful and quality mod can get you a valuable portfolio piece, and even get you some industry attention.
However, for the supermajority of the community, they lack one or more of the critical elements which define a successful mod developer. Insufficient talent, dedication, enthusiasm, focus, maturity, or any of a host of other qualities can result in failure to produce quality work. Without proof of the ability to produce a quality product, no amount of released material will get you noticed by the professionals.
There are many people who feel that sufficient practice and exposure can elevate you from the 99.9% who don't succeed into the 0.1% who do. Sadly, experience shows that people who have completed a sucessful mod were already exceptional even before they began, and their continued dedication only served to hone that advantage further.
...or so the modding community believes.
The spectacular commercial success of Counter-Strike single-handedly revolutionized how we approach video games, and how game developers view their work. In light of this success, many new thoughts have come into the mainstream consciousness of the modding community.
In this post, I look at some of the most commonly held views in the modding community, and look at just how much truth there is to each.
Half-Truth: Anyone can make a mod
One of the binding elements of the modding community is that modding is equal opportunity. Everyone has access to the same tools, and the implication is that, given enough time, anyone can learn to do anything.
While true on the surface, there are some realities that this belief does not consider.
First, we have to consider what we call a "mod". Game modifications come in a wide variety, from simple feature tweaks to full scale total conversions. For simple feature tweaks, such as changing the damage of a weapon, changing how quickly a character moves, or changing how a tree appears, those are relatively trivial tasks which almost anyone can learn how to do, and do so in a reasonable amount of time.
However, there is a tide of opinion shifting in the community which feels that every modification should strive to be "perfect" - and with this feeling comes the desire to expand the scope of a mod project to meet these expectations. Never mind the reality that says producing a change which would take a skilled professional 10 hours will take many many times that for someone who is still learning, or has less than above average talent.
Sure, you can still practice often enough to produce something professional quality, even with limited amounts of talent. But what much of the community does not, will not, and outright refuses to face is that for the vast, vast majority of people, producing high-quality work takes way more time, both in learning, and in practice, than is practical.
Modding is a time-consuming activity even if you know what you're doing, and for someone who doesn't know the ropes, they could potentially take 50 hours of time to make one single change (a new model, a new piece of code, a new piece of music, etc.), scattered across perhaps 2 hours of free time a day, 3 days per week. This amounts to over eight weeks of production time to produce a single asset which may or may not be of good quality. By comparison, a talented seasoned veteran could produce that same thing in a fraction of the time.
For most ambitious projects (read: nearly all of them), this rate of asset generation simply isn't sufficient - you'd be old and gray and your computer will break long before you'd ever finish a project. Thus, the statement that anyone can produce a mod is only partially true.
For limited-scope tweak projects that are within the grasp of the average user, yes, anyone can make one. For the sort of full-scale production which has become the accepted standard in the modding world, I think that statement is completely false.
Partial Myth: Releasing a mod is a stepping-stone into the game industry
One of the most cherished sacred cows of the modding community, especially amongst mod developers, is the idea that you can use a successfully completed mod project as an "in" to get into the game industry.
Before I dive deeply into this discussion, it's necessary to talk about the nature of the community as a whole. The amount of innate talent and skill in the community is a bell curve, which is skewed heavily away from competence due to the relative youth of the community (nearly all are under 25 years of age). Thus, the proportion of people in the mod community with truly exceptional skill is very tiny; at a rough guess, I'd say from experience that the really brilliant people represent less than one tenth of one percent of the community as a whole (0.1%).
If you're one of the lucky few who have the talent, intelligence, and enthusiasm to fall into that 0.1% bucket, then absolutely, producing a successful and quality mod can get you a valuable portfolio piece, and even get you some industry attention.
However, for the supermajority of the community, they lack one or more of the critical elements which define a successful mod developer. Insufficient talent, dedication, enthusiasm, focus, maturity, or any of a host of other qualities can result in failure to produce quality work. Without proof of the ability to produce a quality product, no amount of released material will get you noticed by the professionals.
There are many people who feel that sufficient practice and exposure can elevate you from the 99.9% who don't succeed into the 0.1% who do. Sadly, experience shows that people who have completed a sucessful mod were already exceptional even before they began, and their continued dedication only served to hone that advantage further.
posted by Jim Tran at 12:42 AM
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