History of the Field
Modding as we know it has been around since some of the first big PC games hit the market in the 80’s. The introduction of the internet only accelerated this process of taking a game and making it your own. One of the first popular mods was in Castle Wolfenstein in which the usual sprites were replaced with Smurf sprites. Modding doesn’t really pick up speed until the release of Doom in ‘93. This is the first case of Developer assisted modding in where the developers released a data package that allowed players to create their own maps. This continues to this day where the owners of Doom, now Bethesda, still release modding tools to their fans. The introduction of the internet into the modding scene allowed for a whole community to be created around the creation and sharing of these mods. Some huge games nowadays, such as Garry’s Mod and Team Fortress 2 all started off as mods to other games. While it may seem that modding is dependent on the games that they are modding, it turns out those games have already learned so much from the mods themselves. Many features in Fallout 4, such as settlement building, have arisen from mods in previous games such as Fallout New Vegas’ Wasteland Defense.
Current State of the Field
When it comes to the state of the art in my field, the first thing that comes to mind is Fallout Miami. And modders aren’t really known for being, well, known. Usually, they are young are just starting to get into the industry. Most are modding because they don’t have access to the creation of the next big Halo game or what have you. However, on the Miami team, there are some very talented and vaguely successful young people. Some of them are still in school, like me, and some have seen their writings published.
I love what these guys are doing, and to do something that is even ten percent of what their team is accomplishing would be great. Reading about the tools they use and their methods about going about building this in their videos is very informative and inspiring. While they are leaning into what makes Fallout 4 already great, I hope to bring some new themes and feelings that something, like they are making, may not bring to the table, namely stealth and survival.