Mods:
The world of Mods helps to illustrate the changing nature of the video game world. The same way that video game players have an interaction with the video games, the gamers now have an interaction with the game developers. Mods to video games help to underline the components of a game that gamers like the most. Mods underscore the fundamentals of the original game by bringing the best features of the original game to the lime light.
Counter Strike is an example of how a Mod can actually surpass the success of the original game. Half life was released back in 1998. It was an instant success and won the title of best of game of the year by most of the reputable gaming magazines. Half Life is a first person shooter, with the goal of killing the enemies. Half Life also came with the ability to play against friends on the internet or on a LAN.
The LAN games were the aspect that I knew best. I never played the single player mode, but I spent hours playing the LAN version on the UCSB network my freshman year. Kids all over my hall would get together and play against each other. Half-Life was revolutionary not only for its awesome first player game, but its online support. Few games back in 1998 supported online gaming, but the online game revolution was growing. The Half Life engine is a based on a combination of the Quake and Quake II engines (http://www.quake.com/index.php?flash=true&version=5), which were also both successful online games. OF course, Valve, the makers of Half-Life, has to pay licensing fees to the people at ID in order to use their engine. The makers of Quake is ID software, the same company that makes Doom, the video game that revolutionized video gaming and brought the first person shooter to the front of the PC game market.
Riding on the success of Half life many mods came out to enhance the game. The mods include different scenarios for the single player game, like the Blue-Shift mod that is available for sale in stores. However, the majority of the mods that are available focus on different “games” that teams can play online. One site that hosts over 30 Half-Life mods talks about mods and their different functions (http://half-life.gamehelp.com/mods/index.html)
A Half-Life mod (short for "modification") is simply a new game based on the Half-Life game engine. The changes could be relatively minor, such as a mod that allows server-operators more control over deathmatch game rules, or they could be so extreme as to make a completely new game (although these are usually referred to as Total Conversions (TC) or Partial Conversions (PC)).
One mod called “Cold Ice” was to play deathmatch mode with new sounds, skins, and weapons including decoy bombs, invisible trip-mines, and the elusive Chumtoad that was planned for, and then cut from Half-Life. In this case mods are also a way in which gamers can get to play parts of Half-Life that were left on the cutting room floor. Another mod called FirePower was a called a “Deathmatch on steroids” in which there was faster-firing weapons, more ammo, and more weapon kick. “There are also more changes planned for future releases” expressed on half-life.gamehelp.com website suggests that future updates were planned for the mod. So, these mods can be considered no different that most official software releases with updates and patches, Mod 1.2.
Whole expositions are still being hosted for the latest Half-Life
Game mods. The Third Annual Half-Life MOD Expo, showcased the latest Half-Life
community developed MODs. The last expo took place on
But can the popularity of the mod surpass the popularity of the original? That is left up for debate in the case of Counter-Strike and Half-Life. Half Life has recently been named #2 game of all time by gamespy.com, a very reputable online video game reference site. In the article explaining the honor that was bestowed upon the game, Counter-Strike was sited as one of the key reasons for the success of Half-Life (http://www.gamespy.com/articles/july01/top501aspe/index3.shtm):
Their support of the user community has brought them great success, including the most popular multiplayer action title of all time: Counter-Strike. What id started with Quake, Valve perfected with Half-Life.
Counter-Strike, being the most popular multi-player game ever has arguablely surpassed the original Half Life in popularity and visibility. There is not nearly the amount of servers running Half-Life as there are running Counter Strike. My roommates and I run a Counter-Strike server from our house, and would not even consider running a Half-Life map. First off, we like Counter-Strike better. Secondly, Half-Life is not as popular and thus does not attract the same level of competition as Counter-Strike. This mod has surpassed the popularity of a game that is now pushing 4 years old.
Some mods are for sale in stores. Some are downloadable.
Mods can shape video games and they way that they are made. Computer manufacturers make games with Mods in mind. Mods can also shape producers put out…subculture shaping mainstream culture.