What constitutes a mod?

[Domi]

Thanks, NM It is indeed the mod I meant.

[Smoketest]

Technically a 'Mod' is nothing more than a third-party modification to the default game, with default referring to the state of the game as it shipped from the publisher or after installing an official patch.

 

With that in mind, I view as a mod anything from barely noticeable bugfixes to big TCs, though people tend to break it down further into Bugfixes (corrections to default content), Tweaks (modifications of default content), and the overloaded term Mod (addition of new content, including content appended to default content.)

 

For further overloading of a term, Mod can also refer to mod-site forum moderators, among other things.

[Caedwyr]

Wasn't mod a fashion style as well?

[NiGHTMARE]

Wasn't mod a fashion style as well?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was about more than mere fashion, just as "goth" or "emo" is about more than fashion nowadays .

[Domi]

in at least one language 'moda' is litrally 'fashion'.

[the bigg]

in at least one language 'moda' is litrally 'fashion'.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Add Italian to the list, if it weren't already there

[Domi]

I am fairily sure that Italian is the original borrowed by other languages.

[SimDing0]

Technically a 'Mod' is nothing more than a third-party modification to the default game, with default referring to the state of the game as it shipped from the publisher or after installing an official patch.

The classic argument is that mod actually refers to "module" in the D&D sense rather than "modificaiton". I don't subscribe to this view, but since we're enjoying ourselves listing all the possibilities...

[NiGHTMARE]

I could be wrong, but I believe "modification" (which "mod" is generally accepted to be short for) actually has slightly different meanings in American and British English. In the former, it simply means "an alteration", whereas in the latter it's "a slight alteration". So as a UK citizen, I suppose I should be saying that it's actually the TCs and TDD-alikes which aren't mods .

[SimDing0]

Oh? I'd always read "modification" as "a change", which seemed to make sense since the verb "modify" doesn't seem to carry any connotations of limited scale.

[Andyr]

Wasn't mod a fashion style as well?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Mods and rockers!

[NiGHTMARE]

Sim: I always thought that too. But when I looked in my dictionary (Collins Concise English Dictionary 1991 edition if you're interested ) earlier, I saw this...

 

modify [-ff] v. mainly tr. change slightly; tone down (-fied, -fying) -modification n. -modifier n. esp. word qualifying another

 

Of course I'm more than willing to accept the possibility the authors of this particular dictionary were smoking crack at the time . Perhaps someone with a more reliable British dictionary (e.g. Oxford) could confirm or deny?

[SimDing0]

While I refuse to believe that my dictionary has simply vanished, http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/compact_oed/ defines "modify" as "make partial changes to". I'd be inclined to suggest the possibility that somebody somewhere along the line interpreted "partial" as "slight", although the online one's presumably more modern and more subject to Americanization or whatever.

[Caedwyr]

I've always felt that modification refers to a small change, and alteration refers to a more significant change. But I don't really have any reason for thinking this way. It probably has something to do with the context I've seen the words used over the years.

[KIrving]

Just to add to the various dictionary definitions, The 1981 ed. Australian Pocket(the book is the size of a large hard cover novel - large pockets in the early eighties ) Oxford Dictionary states 'modify' as, tone down, qualify; make less severe; make partial changes in.