Game mods have always been accompanied by the development of games, in the beginning it was just a "non-official" patch created by players to reduce the difficulty of the game, or to give the game more gameplay, and now, games such as PUBG and Dota2, which were born out of game modules, are becoming more and more popular, which is also constantly proving the ability of game modules to create explosive trends.
The game mod platform Mod.io was also born, its predecessor is the game mod community "Mod DB (Mod DataBase)" established by Scott Reismanis in 2002, this website provides players with access to a variety of game modules, can be regarded as a UGC module distribution platform, and its mods are mostly created by players.
On top of the experience of a long time of mod community operation, Mod.io 2018 officially appeared, in addition to continuing to provide high-quality game module downloads, Mod.io more in the cross-platform module and UGC market, one is to provide cross-platform game module tools, convenient for players on different platforms to download and use; the other is to build a trading market for game developers and mod creators, and provide tools for game developers to observe the development and use of their game modules.
Through the Mod.io service, gamers of different platforms can learn about the game's mod classification, ranking, and related content at any time, and download and use at any time; mod creators can use this tool to create more conveniently, and even build their own mod community; game developers can observe the use of various popular mods in their games in the Mod.io, and then understand the demands of different players.
In November last year, Mod.io received a $26 million Series A round of financing led by Tencent, and this year, the global download of Mod.io modules exceeded 300 million times, an increase of 250% over last year, and the number of module creations increased by 300%.
With the popularity of the metaverse concept, UGC is also increasingly regarded as an important theme of content production in the metaverse era, and Mod.io with a huge UGC creation ecosystem will undoubtedly become more and more important in the future game industry. It is worth mentioning that in addition to content production, the emergence of Mod.io has changed the relationship between game developers and mod creators, so that game mods from the "destruction" of game rules to the "redevelopment" of game rules, through the maintenance of Mod.io, developers and creators are no longer the same as before, excellent game mod creators can even cooperate with game manufacturers to develop games.
Recently, Scott Reismanis, founder and CEO of mod.io, talked about the role of Mod.io in establishing the above relationship, and described game modules as the "multiplier" of game success, and with the emergence of more and more game modules, modules are no longer tools that appear after the emergence of games, and the creative thinking and concept of excellent game modules will even affect the development of future games.
Here's the full interview compiled by GamLook:
Three of the four major games currently on Steam (PUGB, Dota2, and CS:GO) were all game mods in their original days—fan-made games built on top of another. Riot's most popular games come directly from two of them. The idea of mods as derivatives of games, or as irrelevant to the game industry, is undoubtedly biased for now.
Because the mod — which is constantly updated, has a very high level of community activity, and is also a customized service — this is arguably the prototype of a live service for games. One day, we might refer to mods collectively as prototypes, or "utopias," or "game metaverses." It is able to cross the barriers between different publishers, connecting and exploring between different game IPs and boundaries.
Maybe you want to have a fierce battle between the battleships in Star Wars and Star Trek, or maybe you want to use some real alien weapons in Doom, and the mods can help you achieve it. However, these things that appeared 20 years ago have now become the dream of metaverse suitors.
Mod DB was aware of game mods 20 years ago, and it was one of the first websites in the world dedicated to collecting, curating, and storing mods for popular and less popular games. From producing unofficial patches for game developers who have "abandoned the pit" to creating character skins and shapes that might have been unrecognizable to the original game, keeping up with UGC (User Generated Content) has been a challenge for Scott Reismanis, founder and CEO of Mod.io.
"At the time of Half-Life, all the major game sites and mod communities were fragmented, so I decided to 'selfishly' solve this problem and create a community where people could collaborate and share what they were creating in the game — that's the real reason mod DB was born, and it was just to create a mod database. Gradually it began to become a community and continued to grow and develop. Scott Reismanis recalled.
After building game distribution platforms Desura and Indie DB (a mod community similar to Mod DB), Scott returned to the field of mod planning in 2017 by building Mod.io. The background was that console gamers began to increase their demand for game mods, and cross-platform mod support for the same game became more important - players wanted to enjoy the convenience of mods on any platform. As a result, Scott seized the opportunity to make UGC play a role on a larger stage and continuously reduce the use conflicts between different modules.
"Whether it's Super Mario Made on Switch, some games on PS, Minecraft and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox, once I see those games on these platforms and developers rarely make them cross-platform, I know the opportunity is coming, and if I can design a solution for that, it's going to be a great selling point." Scott said.
How to bring people together is critical to achieving this goal, not only for UGC creators and players, but also for support from game developers, which is no easy task, especially if you need to consider that the relationship between mod developers and game developers is not so friendly. At this point, Scott believes that many mod studios have been modifying and tweaking games for a long time, which is not a good thing for gamers and their fans. Because "it's hard to measure the impact of modding on a game because they're usually free, there's no clear way to guess which mod is driving the game's sales, but that's where Mod.io comes in." ”
"Mod.io places a lot of emphasis on official collaboration with game developers to help them build stronger connections with mod creators and players. Nowadays, communities are very important to developers, and with them, they don't blindly develop one game after another, but work with players to create a new game that focuses on real-time service and is widely praised by players. "For Scott, there's nothing like a mod that creates a community," mods are a great way to bring fans together — no matter what platform and device they're using — and focus on what they love, looking for and exploring new content for the game." Whether it's on Xbox Games Pass or on Steam, Epic Game, or anywhere else. ”
Scott cites the success of Roblox as a sign that truly made the concept of UGC known to the general public and led UGC toward "specialization." He hopes that through mod.io provide game developers with the observation tools they need, so that the mods of his games can be more intuitively seen and understood. "This includes data metrics, dashboards, and observation tools that show developers how many players are participating in mod creation and what types of mods are popular in their gaming ecosystem." This way, game developers can recognize and help promote the creators who provide them with mods to make progress together. As the saying goes, the crowd gathers firewood and the flame is high, and the Mod.io is to achieve such a goal. ”
It sounds really good. However, even in the Roblox ecosystem, there are many players who deliberately challenge the boundaries of IP protection in mod creation, so it is biased to use Roblox as a pioneer in the field of UGC. Scott believes that it should not be up to Mod.io to determine whether UGC content is available, "each game developer can formulate a 'mod policy' for the creations they allow and encourage, and Mod.io will respect the wishes of developers and manage the mod community in layers." ”
It's clear that Scott wants to build a new relationship between game developers and mod creators, as mod creators are usually the number one fans of the game. "For most people, the reason they create mods is because they love the game so much, they think of themselves as more creative consumers, perhaps for the purpose of learning game development, and they are also willing to see their mods bring happiness to more gamers."
I think it's a shame that most UGC creations are on some kind of fringe, and most game makers don't interact with their gaming community in a really effective way, so everything Mod.io does is build accessible relationships. ”
Mod.io currently supports more than 97 games, including Mordhau, Space Engineers, and SnowRunners. Regardless of the platform, the fact that UGC is easily accessible to everyone is enough to delight. But compared to the large number of games supported by Steam's Workshop, Mod.io the current number of game supports also shows that there may be many companies that are hesitant about this service.
"Mod creation is definitely growing year by year, which is a really interesting thing because mods are very much a catalyst for game success. Game mods can't succeed on their own, you also need the support of a community of mods that are passionate, creative, and personal. Mods don't necessarily work for every game, because creating mods is really challenging, and it's completely beyond what game developers should do. ”
Scott also acknowledges that when game developers invite mod creators to modify their games, they must relinquish control over a portion of their game, which means there needs to be a strong support and moderation system to manage UGC's content. "One of the biggest difficulties for mod creators is creating, how to get started? At what level are the changes made? So Mod.io are also creating plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine that run directly while also supporting cross-platform. ”
"At the end of the day, it's all tied to what we're holding fast to – creating a compelling community and delivering incredible gameplay." Scott and his Mod.io team are challenged to make this belief a consensus of more people, "Getting the industry to learn more and more about us is a huge challenge, but we will not stop until the mod becomes more and more the driving force for more blockbuster games, not only that, some mods are created and motivated, and can even become the experience of game developers when developing new projects, not just using mods as a tool after the game is released." ”
"Mods have undoubtedly led to a shift in the way games are created, and this shift will continue to accelerate in the future."
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