Rarer, dedicated amateur game developers will attempt to remake a classic or retro game in a newer engine, or with updated visuals. Effectively, this kind of modding/hacking amounts to cheating, and is generally opposed by gamers for creating an unfair multiplayer community, and by developers for throwing a wrench in whatever monetization plan they have set for their multiplayer game. Other examples are when a player in a MOBA (a so-called multiplayer online battle arena) uses a third-party software to make their character invulnerable. A common example of this is the “money drop” phenomenon in “Grand Theft Auto V”. Some make mods to gain an unfair edge in competitive multiplayer titles-typically referred to as “hacks”, but their use are as much video game mods as those discussed above in the sense that they are third party software which alters a game’s mechanics. Star Wars Battlefront II mods allow players to alter the appearance of certain heroes to resemble other characters in the storied franchise. A popular mod emerged for “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” shortly after its release which caused dragons to instead appear as a positively horrifying image of the Macho Man Randy Savage. When you hear about a video game mod, the mod was likely a player-made mechanical or cosmetic alteration to an existing game. This description tells us both too much, and not enough. What are Video Game Mods? Who are Modders?Ī “mod” is any program, asset, or other piece of software- not produced and distributed by the video game’s developer and/or publisher-which alters the mechanics, look and feel, or other content of a video game. In this article, we will be exploring whether video game mods qualify as copyright infringement (they do), and what exceptions exist (very few). This presents a problem for both developers and the players who mod their games.
Thinking Before Modding-Players Don’t Own What They MakeĪs the Games Industry grows ever larger and as game engines’ modding tools become increasingly accessible to the average player, game modding is not just more common, but practically ubiquitous.
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