Game Over for Modders?

[Shagz]

Take Two blaming moders for "Hot Coffee" incident

One thing I found interesting from the article was the quote from the ESRB saying it was calling "on the computer and video game industry to proactively protect their games from illegal modifications by third parties, particularly when they serve to undermine the accuracy of the rating" of the original game.

Where does that put Epic/Digital Extremes, id and Valve? Epic/DE actually *rewarded* players for modifying the content of their games with a game license and cold cash. I wonder what the ESRB would have to say about that.

On the other hand, he does raise a point. I remember way way back, with Wolfenstien 3D, a game that would probably be rated M today, you could get an editing tool that would allow you to replace the wall tile graphics with whatever you had handy, resulting in a number of mods of "questionable" content. And there's countless skins for games that leave little to the imagination.

If you're a parent, your kid gets an M-rated or less game, but then downloads a mod that contains Adults-only rated material. Who's responsibility is it to police that kind of thing? ESRBs? The game developer? The publisher? Parents? *Should* it be policed? In doing so, you might kill the mod community. Well, not kill it, but certainly ruin the "fun" (and by "fun" I mean the whole sense of innovation and artistic expression that comes from having no limits)

Thoughts?

 

[[toj.cc]phantom]

I think it is stupid. The game gets the rating it gets because of the stuff in the original game. The modders mods are not made by the creators nor are they supported by the creators, most of the time. The game owners have a choice wether to download the mod. So I say no and will completely support any underground mods\modders if that is what ends up happening. And I know that I have supported GTA: SA since the 'issue' came up, but if Take Two is blaming this on the modders then I will not, only because the code was only in the game the mod didn't add anything just unlocked the code.

 

[Killerah]

Mod communities are HUGE, it would be an incredibly difficult task for ESRB to dismantle them. And if they forced companies to remove mod compatibility from their games then there would be a huge loss of money and fans.

 

[MASH 4077]

I think thats stupoid too, i LOVE mods for games, thats the only reason i bought half life, cus of all the mods out there for it. Its not the developers of the games fault if some moron out their puts bad content in their mod, has nothing to do with the game. I will also support the people who still make mods if it does happen, cus, i want my mods, if it wasn't for mods, after about 3 weeks after i buy the game i would be selling it on ebay cus i am bored with it lol.