BobTheBard
Refugee
First off, I have to issue a disclaimer. I'm not against modding at all. In fact, I enjoy modding the crap out of my games, as my copy of RimWorld with its five-minute loading time will attest. Mods are great, and I love them. But, on to the post.
This post is intended to examine what I consider the faulty argument I see crop up in a lot of suggestion and complaint threads, the argument of 'If you don't like it, just mod it.' I think a lot of people miss the point when they respond to a complaint about the base game with 'Just mod it.' There is something very important to keep in mind when you make this claim, and that has nothing to do with the ease of modding or the scope and scale of what can be modded. It has to do with how easy the mods are for the average user to access and use, and right now 7 Days isn't in a great spot on that front.
The first question that must be answered is 'How do I find the mod I want?' which will be shortly followed by 'How do I know this mod works?' and 'How do I know this mod is good?' The lack of an easily-accessible, readily-understandable, searchable central repository for mods hinders this discovery process. Sure, you can technically use a forum for this (and a lot of games try) but if you really want to push mods you really need to use something better, like NexusMods or Steam Workshop. Having a central repository not only allows users to find what they want easier, but it also allows them an easy avenue of communication with the mod designer and allows modders easy ways to talk to each other as well and stomp out mod conflicts. While a forum can certainly do all these things, it doesn't do them nearly as well as a more dedicated platform.
The second question that they're going to ask is 'I like this mod, how do I make it work?' While 7 Days has gotten a lot better with this with A17, it's not quite there yet. Maybe this is because I used to work in IT and developed a cynical view, but asking the average PC user to modify things deep in the file structure is like asking a random passerby on the street to perform a virtual appendectomy - Most of them are going to mess something up without detailed instructions and some of them might somehow still manage to hurt themselves in the process. One of the main reasons games like Skyrim and Minecraft are praised for their moddability isn't just the ease, flexibility, and scope of the mods themselves, but also how easy it is for a user to set them up via methods like the desktop Twitch app or a special launcher like Vortex or the Steam Workshop. 7 Days still requires a lot of manual file-fiddling and directory-hunting.
A related and important question is 'Do I need this mod to play on the servers I want to play on?' and this is a big question for anyone who uses multiplayer. Vanilla is always going to be the widely-used default for multiplayer because coordinating mod installations and updates increases in difficulty exponentially with the number of players that server has. Additionally, most servers are going to want to use different mods, which magnifies any shortcomings in the systems mentioned above - The more involved a process it is to find, download, install, enable, disable, and remove mods, the more time-consuming it is to make them work in multiplayer and the less people are going to want to use them or see them as an answer.
In short, while 7 Days is getting there on the modding front and continues to make steady progress, it doesn't really have the systems in place yet to expect mods to be able to solve everybody's problems with the game. So remember this when you respond to someone complaining about a balance issue that's 'easily solved' with mods, because saying 'Just mod it' and ending the conversation there is doing the person you're replying to a disservice.
This post is intended to examine what I consider the faulty argument I see crop up in a lot of suggestion and complaint threads, the argument of 'If you don't like it, just mod it.' I think a lot of people miss the point when they respond to a complaint about the base game with 'Just mod it.' There is something very important to keep in mind when you make this claim, and that has nothing to do with the ease of modding or the scope and scale of what can be modded. It has to do with how easy the mods are for the average user to access and use, and right now 7 Days isn't in a great spot on that front.
The first question that must be answered is 'How do I find the mod I want?' which will be shortly followed by 'How do I know this mod works?' and 'How do I know this mod is good?' The lack of an easily-accessible, readily-understandable, searchable central repository for mods hinders this discovery process. Sure, you can technically use a forum for this (and a lot of games try) but if you really want to push mods you really need to use something better, like NexusMods or Steam Workshop. Having a central repository not only allows users to find what they want easier, but it also allows them an easy avenue of communication with the mod designer and allows modders easy ways to talk to each other as well and stomp out mod conflicts. While a forum can certainly do all these things, it doesn't do them nearly as well as a more dedicated platform.
The second question that they're going to ask is 'I like this mod, how do I make it work?' While 7 Days has gotten a lot better with this with A17, it's not quite there yet. Maybe this is because I used to work in IT and developed a cynical view, but asking the average PC user to modify things deep in the file structure is like asking a random passerby on the street to perform a virtual appendectomy - Most of them are going to mess something up without detailed instructions and some of them might somehow still manage to hurt themselves in the process. One of the main reasons games like Skyrim and Minecraft are praised for their moddability isn't just the ease, flexibility, and scope of the mods themselves, but also how easy it is for a user to set them up via methods like the desktop Twitch app or a special launcher like Vortex or the Steam Workshop. 7 Days still requires a lot of manual file-fiddling and directory-hunting.
A related and important question is 'Do I need this mod to play on the servers I want to play on?' and this is a big question for anyone who uses multiplayer. Vanilla is always going to be the widely-used default for multiplayer because coordinating mod installations and updates increases in difficulty exponentially with the number of players that server has. Additionally, most servers are going to want to use different mods, which magnifies any shortcomings in the systems mentioned above - The more involved a process it is to find, download, install, enable, disable, and remove mods, the more time-consuming it is to make them work in multiplayer and the less people are going to want to use them or see them as an answer.
In short, while 7 Days is getting there on the modding front and continues to make steady progress, it doesn't really have the systems in place yet to expect mods to be able to solve everybody's problems with the game. So remember this when you respond to someone complaining about a balance issue that's 'easily solved' with mods, because saying 'Just mod it' and ending the conversation there is doing the person you're replying to a disservice.
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