A consumer mentality is killing creative modding

[temnix]

I have refrained from sharing my thoughts about this modding "scene" on this website up to now. Partly because I'm once burned, twice shy, actually, twice burned, four times shy. I was kicked out of the Beamdog forums not because of any egregious offense but simply because the staff wants to run that place as a kindergarten, and I was not convenient. Then I was kicked out of Spellhold. That was an interesting situation: another user was accused of violating forum rules, something the moderators detected using what they thought was an infallible method. Out of a sense of justice I posted in the thread, saying that perhaps the method may not be so error-free, and someone turned the X-ray on me, accused me of the same violation. I argued with the moderators and they applied a ban. Some time later, stopping by Spellhold, I read that the other user had been cleared, so I created a proxy account just so I could write to the moderators, remind them of their mistake and give them an opportunity to reinstate me. The result? The proxy account was shut down without even an answer. Apparently, I was not convenient.

What is the existential conclusion to draw from these dramatic events? Those people are dumb assholes. Yet I did want some kind of forum, quote-unquote, for my creative concepts, so I stopped by this place around a year ago, I think. After all, I had spent several years learning the craft of modding for the Infinity Engine, I needed some kind of venue to show off my stuff. Here it has been okay. Nothing great, and I have an objection or two to the moderators here as well, but I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. In fact, I have been very careful not to bother anybody.

I have noticed something happening over this time, though: my enthusiasm for modding has thinned, turned into a little whiff and evaporated. I feel dull and hopeless now. Why? Because I have taken a good look at this modding "scene" and realized it is dreary and dead. There is no encouragement or expectation of creativity here - but not on this website in particular, no; I have no special objection to G3, please mark; I am convenient now. Things are equally bland, boring and going nowhere at Spellhold, which has not gotten any better since I was thrown out, and Beamdog, which (judging by 5+ pages of replies that thread has accumulated over a week - if only a mod could gather so much attention!) might have gotten worse. The ball-cutting moderators are just a pleasant sideshow at all of these places. What is ruining everything is this consumer attitude in players and modders.

By that I mean... well, it is hard to explain. Either you know what the problem is with approaching life and creativity as something made for your shopping delight, or you don't. Either you read restaurant reviews or you skip them. Either you travel to Venice to sail in a biiiig gondola or refrain. And if players approach modders' work as consumers, modding is a waste of time. If players come to sites like this one to pick tasty berries - "Let's see who has toiled here in the last week or month to give me even MORE pleasure in my customized install!" - then only modules of a certain kind are going to be noticed. Now all of this is a storm in a cup anyway, yada-yada baby Yoda, sure, who cares about some ancient videogames? Not ME. I don't start the toolset to explore the destiny of the Bhaalspawn. To me this is a construction set for fantasy experience, fantasy storytelling, perhaps, only very little of that has a chance to be noticed or make a difference.

It pains me to be this unoriginal even with my analysis, because even the accusations have been formulated decades ago by others. The zombies have been around for a long time. Here is what they want, here is what consumers understand and respond to:

1) Lists; memes; other shit like that;
2) Complete equivalence. To consumers everything is on the level with everything else. They are never awed by any one thing, they never fall in love, they never go crazy over an idea to the exclusion of all others. If one modder creates an original NPC worthy of a novella and another produces a mod that makes crossbows single-handed (I've had the notion), to consumers these are comparable and equal. They have a point, too: on the molecular level there is no substantial difference between dog shit and Mona Lisa. And when someone tries to assert otherwise, bringing his balls dangerously close to moderators' scissors, consumers cry about equality, as if they are sans-culottes in the year 1793. They have no ideology even then, though, it is a purely automatic, instinctual response. In truth, they simply don't know what you are talking about there with qualitative difference. When you say that something is more important than another thing, higher than it, they don't argue contrariwise because of opposing convictions, they simply don't know what you mean. Their eye does not discern directions like "up" and "down," only "left" and "right";
3) Absolute comfort. Not that consumers are ready to pay for someone's work 99% of the time, but in an attention economy they are convinced that their time is so precious, modders must be grateful for every peek into the threads, every comment, every download. Attention is consumers' money, because most of them work at generating attention at their so-called jobs. And this attention-money, they feel, entitles them to the whole universe. They think they can demand something from creators: convenience, simplicity... is the installation process to difficult? How many steps does it have? A modder had better try to wrap them all inside each other, streamline, and remember to upload convincing screenshots, or consumers will take their attention elsewhere!
4) Modularity. Mods that have a chance of being noticed by this crowd must be as modular as possible. It is impossible to explain to these people that an idea is an integral thing, like a living body, it cannot be taken apart. One does not get to saw the upper right corner, with the sunset, out of a painting just because it is prettier. Maybe they could understand from example, if somebody bid them imagine a game like, say, Warcraft with an option to install only the orcs and the dark elves but not the humans. Maybe then they would realize how ridiculous those requests for modularity are. But they are just too lazy to bother anyway, to carry the whole load. The real reason they want modularity is because their perception is so wasted, their mental agility is so bad, they cannot wrap their minds around extensive gameplay changes. Tweaks is what they get - small changes one at a time. But a conversion, a whole new way of doing things... why? Why take a chance? And if they do condescend to take a chance, will it give return on investment? Everything must, you know. They ought to come out of a decision richer than they came in - see point 3;
5) A very low intellectual level. It struck me recently with these games. They have nothing that a 13 year-old could not understand or his vocabulary could not encompass. And most of the mods are down there too. I actually like simple language and simple feelings, they are often more genuine, but here it is a symptom of infantilism, not common sense and practical wisdom. These mods are just dumb! In principle, a fantasy world can stand up to the real world in anything but the fact of its unreality. Fantasy and sword-and-sorcery fantasy can be as serious, subtle, fine and funny (some universes have been created by the human imagination that impress more than reality), but all of that nuance could not begin to reach today's players. When I try to profile the average player as I see him here and elsewhere, I put against his figure the sensibilities and understanding even of 20-somethings - a conception of work, fun, hope, sex as could be achieved in that decade of life. And they aren't even up to that line. Of course, I realize that this is a poor standard, that I compare them to an imaginary 20-something, a 20-something from the past... who by that age has HAD sex, has had a kid, possibly, has worked at a real job, has read a number of books, perhaps. What I should be imagining instead today is a beetroot-colored gizzard of a hipster;
6) Lack of speech. Einstein has said that everything must be as simple as possible, and he must have meant as short, too, but consumers want any kind of text shorter than that. Descriptions. Dialogues. Is this too long? To consumers somebody's thinking always takes up too much time, they have no patience for the vowels and the consonants, for crescendo and diminuendo, for oratory. And no wonder - it is all a drone to them, they aren't listening. An inspired speech to them is a rant, and they have no respect for others' passion just as they have none for their own. They have a false humility, ready to apply the label of rant to their own expression just so they can do it to others. But the reason is again their deficiency. They are not taught to find information in what is being said. If there is any system of ideas in a mod, an ideology or anything of the sort, it is going to be ignored for sure by these sorry bastards. And then why should a modder bother with concepts? Why should he not just deliver to consumers the small-time, disparate plastic pleasures that they understand?

On the other hand, why would he want to? If well-engineered but boring crap, combat scripts and such, is what the crowd appreciates, why address himself to that crowd? What is a modder's incentive for researching toolset functions, for drawing visuals, editing, finding graphics, mixing sounds, being clever with text, testing - using all that together to turn gameplay on its head, here and there, if these people simply refuse to be turned? Because that is what all this comes down to, a point so sad and hopeless that it has taken me a long time to arrive at it. And also because I am worn out by years in this land of inertia - I spent them here because I wanted to create, and the toolset was what I could create with, and I was under an illusion. I sit on a mound of original stuff that will never be released, because I am so disappointed. Besides, do you realize that the situation with these videogames is exactly the same as with all others? The players everywhere have turned into these walking dead! And modders and designers try to walk in step. The last and ultimate feature of modules acceptable to consumers is, to use a term from philosophy:

7) Immanentism. The immanent is the opposite of transcendent. To transcend is to go beyond - into a new life, a new faith, a new hobby, not least. It is to wear a cross or become a raving fan of rock music or give birth or rob a bank or write a story. It means going on an adventure, going for a one-way ride where you may crash and die. But the players - and most of the modders too, for that matter - here, and at Spellhold, and at Beamdog, and everywhere - don't want a ride without a seat belt long as a mummy wrap. They live in a world without boundaries, a world of equality, yeah, because it is one whitewashed empty room, and all day they go from one corner to the other, without jokes, without air, without birds fluttering in - and without growing out of this bland, foolish, jejune, irritable environment.

I think I have been forced to grow out of that environment.

[Jarno Mikkola]

A temporary ban is a different than a permanent ban. And ha, you were accused of doing the exact thing you then decided later to do, WTF is your logic there ?

Now, the thing with Roxanne is, she is welcomed back to SHSforum if she uses her original account, but not multiple proxies like she had in VERY many linked forums, unless an explanation is given like a lost password, and even then only one account is permissive... I know the situation well, I lost mine a long ago and an account of 10000+ posts, which I then gained the password back, but as messing up the profile files of the forum is a thing admins would rather not do, as at least with mine, it's a database with serious issues if something went off. This coupled with my absence which is today a very short one from the scene, made the remake a not worth the trouble.

3 hours ago, temnix said:

And then why should a modder bother with concepts? Why should he not just deliver to consumers the small-time, disparate plastic pleasures that they understand?

Erhm, there's a reason why you were asked to separate your mod into multiple smaller components... it's that the content wasn't persistent with itself, and trying to tug many miscellaneous probably undefined hacks together without any assurance of them being able to be used with any other content is a matter of intelligence. As you have been seen in the community to simply not even care about any other mod or their compatibility. And I myself don't still have the confidence of trusting you/your hacks.

Now, yes... I applause your post length, I have not seen one from you EVER. It might have made it easier to understand you earlier, had you said any of this before. Now, that's not a crime, but understand that, we also need to understand you. So doing it now, is a good effort.

3 hours ago, temnix said:

5) A very low intellectual level. It struck me recently with these games. They have nothing that a 13 year-old could not understand or his vocabulary could not encompass.

You are greatly overestimating something... it's the age of men who understand their own-selves. Just because a person is smaller, doesn't make them more agile... it probably actually makes them more clumsy, as they have never needed to use the muscles the way one needs to use it in a new task. This is why apprenticeship is used in many things, and technology can only progress forward or back, not leap million miles ahead.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Jarno Mikkola

[subtledoctor]

Sigh.

a) These games are 20 fucking years old at this point. Most players approach them like a comfortable old sweatshirt that you only bring out of the closet around Thanksgiving. (Happy Thanksgiving everyone!) If that doesn’t seem creative or exciting... well no, it’s not. And that’s okay.

b) It’s a squad-based tactical combat game, not a real RPG. The dialogues are a maximum of three responses long, by design. Non-combat aspects of the underlying game rules were mostly simply omitted - by design. It’s just a bunch of set-piece battles... Dark Souls with different mechanics and crappier graphics. It’s not deep, and it never will be. Most modders don’t smash their heads into brick walls trying to make the game into something it’s not.

c) Modularity is important. If there’s no technical reason players can’t combine mod C with mods A and B, why not let them? It is the player who will install mods onto their copy of the game, on their computer; why try to dictate what they can and can’t do? Why try to control the story they create when they play? You may craft a better story... but that doesn’t matter. Your story is only important on your computer; their preferred story is entirely up to them. Enabling more people to create more varied stories is better than trying to convince everyone to only like yours. So modularity is the ideal; it is aspirational.

d) There is creativity in engineering. Da Vinci’s design for a bridge over the Bosporous is as artful as his oil paintings. A new class to play with is not inherently special compared with the classes already in the game. But figuring out how to make it work is an interesting and I daresay creative endeavor, and for players maybe it gives them just a slightly new appreciation for the boring, but comfortable, old sweatshirt. That can be a fine thing.

e) If no one has acclaimed you (or paid you) for your artistry, maybe it’s because you just haven’t produced a Mona Lisa yet.

Et cetera, et cetera.  (I won't get into the characterizations of people, except to say they betray a fundamental failure to understand how people work.  The age stuff is funny if a bit scrambled... from the focus on one's 20s I'm guessing the poster is about 28 and thinks that he has now amassed all the wisdom there is to be had in life.)

[InKal]

18 hours ago, temnix said:

 Besides, do you realize that the situation with these videogames is exactly the same as with all others? The players everywhere have turned into these walking dead! And modders and designers try to walk in step. 

That is simply not true. And quite disrespectful to a lot of people.

As for all the rest I don't understand what is really your point? Are you really that much concerned about modding and games or you just need to express yourself in this exaggerated, exalted  manner? I can understand the second but not the first. Are your modding achievements really that great to justify all this wall of txt?

In general I found your post too abstract and vague for any emotional reaction, which is ironic because this kind of posts relate rather to emotions than intellect.