MODDING AND THE LIFESPAN OF GAMES

Transcription

1 RESEARCH REPORT MODDING AND THE LIFESPAN OF GAMES Name: Sharon van Koot Student number: Teacher: Annemieke Pesch Specialisation: Visual Design English Subject: Seminar Course code: JDE-SVISE.3V-13 Format: Mini-lecture Word count: 4072 Period: E (Retry) Date:

2 Table of contents Introduction with research questions 3 Methodology 4 What is the average lifespan of a game? 5 Lifespan 5 Ways to expand the lifespan 5 1. Downloadable content 5 2. Multiplayer 5 3. Online distribution 6 Finishing a game 6 Average lifespan of a game 6 What factors shorten the lifespan of games? 7 Factor 1: Micro transactions 7 Factor 2: Linear vs. open world 7 Open world 7 Linear 8 Factor 3: Levels 8 Factor 4: Content 9 What is modding? 10 Mods 10 Motives for using mods 11 Developers 12 Risk of modding 12 Modding community 14 Discussion 15 Online distribution 15 Why is modding important for CMD? 15 Limitations of the research 15 Conclusion 16 What is the relation between modding and the lifespan of a game? 16 Sources 17

3 Introduction with research questions Over the years, I have played my way through a diverse selection of video games. For me, some games never get old, I still enjoy playing them even though the game was released years ago. How is this possible when the majority of game developers nowadays release new games and expansions every year? These are the games that bore me the most. Some games I enjoy are improved by real die-hard fans, they make their own objects, stories and maps, and share it with the world. This usually happens when a studio stops releasing further expansions for the game. The fans start to make their own content for the game after they grow tired of the default content, but want to continue playing their beloved game. This occurs often - thoroughly enjoying a game, but after playing countless hours and completing everything, you strive for new content. It interests me how a game can be played through but can still be fun when you have all this new content. For me, this expands the lifespan of a game, but is modding the main cause of this? Main Question What is the relation between modding and the lifespan of a game? Sub Questions What is the average lifespan of a game? What factors affect the lifespan of games? What is modding?

4 Methodology To do proper research it was mostly important to show reasons why games don t last so long these days. In addition, explaining what a modification is, is important because not everyone who reads this knows what it a modification is. Doing that, I also used my own experience. The research methods that I have applied are: - Desk research - Survey Desk Research There were few scientific sources on this subject. That s why I used a lot of game websites and game videos on YouTube. Survey I have conducted a survey of 20 gamers. These are all different types of people. Women and men participated from the age of 16 to 35 years. They come from different countries, from South Korea to Turkey. I used Google Forms to take the surveys.

5 What is the average lifespan of a game? Lifespan Lifespan is the time between the start of a new game and the time untill its dead. This means that the players who used to play the game stopped playing it. The death of a game can have more reasons. In multiplayer, the presence of too many hackers can be a reason of the death of a game. Or when the game takes too long, players just stop doing it because they don t have the time anymore (Snow, 2011). Ways to expand the lifespan A few years back gamers could play the same game for months, or even years. At this time, gamers may find it hard to keep playing the same game for more than a month. The gaming industry changed rapidly. At present, there is a problem for the game developers. Games are getting increasingly expensive to make (Academy, 2014). How can developers nowadays make a game that can last longer? In general, there are three creative ways through which developers can increase the lifespan of their games. In the following section of this paper these three methods are described shortly. 1. Downloadable content After a game is released developers make DLC s. DLC s are mostly not free to download, you need to pay for them although you already paid for the game the developers also made (Academy, 2014). These are called micro transactions. There is a lot of discussion about this within the gaming community. Developers need a longer lifespan for their game, so making DLC s is a good way to ensure players are interested in the game for a longer period. However, letting the players pay for the DLC s, so they have to pay again for the game may not be optimal from a consumer psychology perspective. 2. Multiplayer Single player games can be fun to play. But after gamers are finished playing, what do the gamers have left to do? Some people play it another time but then in another difficulty, given the game provides this. However, after finishing two times the story, one may question the fun the game has to offer the gamers. Unless it s an open world game and you can still level and do side quests. If it s not, you need another reason to keep playing, multiplayer. Multiplayer means that you play with others, this can be random strangers or friends. The main characteristics of multiplayer gaming is that it has no definite ending. A lot of games that had great single players also made multiplayer because of this. Examples of such games are Assassins creed and Mass Effect. There is also a chance that players only buy the game because of the multiplayer option, so they could play together (Academy, 2014). 3. Online distribution Back in the days when gamers played on windows 98 or windows XP, they went to the store to buy games. On a CD-disk or even a floppy disk. Going to a crowded store where consumers have to travel to, takes time. Now people can easily buy games online. Many gamers use the online game service called Steam. Buying a game online lowers the buying threshold. Because you have the game immediately and you cannot lose your CD-disk. The developers could also make special limited online offers. Another successful way to let gamers buy your game is to make a try-and-buy version of the game. Developers do this before they release the game. They make the gamers download the game (of course not the full version) and try it, this could also be a beta version of the game. In this way, the interest in the game may grow (Academy, 2014).

6 Finishing a game Not all gamers that start a game will finish it. In fact, only 10% will get to the finish line of the game. Unless the gamers watch a walkthrough video on YouTube (Snow, 2011). I found out that the numbers are true. I asked in the survey: How often do you finish a game?. As you can see in Figure 1 the amount of people who always finish the game is only 10%. Only 2 people out of 20 finish a game when they start playing, they say. I only play online Figure 1. Survey. How often do you finish a game? Average lifespan of a game In the survey, I asked about how long somebody plays a game on average. I got a lot of different answers. Something that I have read a lot of times was: It depends on the game. And also: I get back whenever I feel like playing it again. So, I think that it is impossible to give a game a definite lifespan. Because everybody plays in their own way. Not everybody has the whole day to play a game, because of work and school. So, time also plays an important role. It depends on the person how long a game will be played.

7 What factors shorten the lifespan of games? As mentioned before I wrote about ways to expand the lifespan. But of course there are also ways that shorten the lifespan of those games. There are a few factors who shorten the lifespan. Factor 1: Micro transactions Not all games use them, but we all know some games who have them. Micro transactions. The the most famous game that uses this is FIFA. A micro transaction is a business model where players can buy virtual goods (Bray, 2014). For example: in FIFA you can not only buy new players for your team, but also shirts, footballs and even a better condition for your players. This is maybe the most accepted micro transaction. Gamers may hesitate to buy in-game items. Game companies are looking for more ways to earn money from gamers. Of course, it feels better to earn objects and work for it in a game then to buy it with even more cash then you already spend on buying the game in the first place. The micro transaction has something to do with the game becoming more boring or not willing to buy the game. But there are a few other factors why games may become more boring. What effect does a micro transaction have on lifespan? Well gamers can hate and in that way they stop playing the game because they find it annoying. Or they buy an object and find the game more interesting than before, so they keep on playing the game. Figure 2. Micro transaction Factor 2: Linear vs. open world Open world In open world games players can move freely in the world they are in. It gives the player a feeling of being in-control. The worlds are mostly quite large with all different kind of places the player can visit when he wants. Because of this freedom it gives the player a feeling of being more attached to the character. On the other hand: gamers may get bored with this type of game concept because it has too many opportunities. They need more content then just collecting items and climbing buildings. The quality of this game concept can be less then linear games. Because of the big world not everything can be as good as planned, because you have less time to make it. There can be bugs in the game. A few examples of open world games: GTA, Assassins creed, Sims and Far cry.

8 Disadvantages of open worlds You can spend a lot of hours doing the same thing in every zone. Collect this, find them and so on. After a few hours of doing the same thing it can get bored, without good content. However, in my survey, out of 20 people, 16 people choose open world games over linear as can be seen in Figure 3. Figure 3. Survey. Do you prefer linear or open world games? Figure 4. Assassins Creed Unity. Open world game

9 Linear In this game concept, you follow the storyline the developers made. Sometimes you are able to make choices in the storyline, but of course the developers will exactly know what will happen. A few examples of linear games: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Super Mario Bros and Tomb Raider. Disadvantages of linear You play it once and mostly never again. Unless, it s a good game with a good story and great content. In my survey, out of 20 people, only 4 people chose linear over open world, see Figure 3. Figure 5. Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Linear game Factor 3: Levels The survey has shown that people like open world the most. You have a lot of freedom and there is always a side quest. Although at a certain point it can become boring. This is when you are at the highest level, finished the quest and upgraded all your gear, weapons and outfit. There is no goal anymore. This also depends on how far you are in the storyline. If the story is finished and you can still grow in levels it can also get boring after a few hours. But there are games that put no limits on their levels, that happens mostly in multiplayer. For example. In GTA 5, online you can get to level 8000 as you can see in figure 6. Figure 6. GTA 5 online highest level possible

10 Factor 4: Content There is a difference between content and good content. Running around in a game with no real particular goal and just collect stuff may not be good content. Variation in a game can be a way for games to distinguish them from other games, especially for single player. So, what is good and what is bad content? Content needs to stay exiting, fresh and give you the feeling that you do something new (Timbo, 2017). But how can developers achieve that? Here are a few examples on how this can be achieved: - Multiple approaches to walk through the story - Cool collectables who give you more power - Variation in characters - Good written story with characters who you can rely to - Character grow through story But not all games need to have a great content. For example, the game FIFA. The players don t want a huge story about how their team players grew up and where they lived etc. They just want to play the game and score as many as they can. However, the game needs coherence. What if you really liked the game but there is no prospect further on because you are the highest level or the storyline ended. Then you can download mods to revive the game. There are a lot of reasons why people stop playing a game before they finish it, as you can see in Figure 7. The most common reason is that they have lost interest in the game. Other reasons mentioned are: I am too busy to finish it or there is a new game I am more interested in. Figure 7. Survey. What are the reasons to stop playing a game before finishing it?

11 What is modding? Mods A mod, is short for modification. You can add custom content to your game, this is usually created by the community or fan base. (Tanner, 2015) You have large mods, those can be as big as the game itself, which is called a total conversion. There are improvements such as better graphics, this is called a total overhaul. We use cosmetic mods most often, which expand the game world, like objects and clothes etc. Small mods are called: add-ons, see Figure 10. The reason why I used mods was that it prolonged my interest in the game and increased the chance that I would continue playing for longer. Figure 8. Example of a total conversion. A fan made expansion of the game Age of Empires 3. It s uncommon to use mods in console gaming. However, there has been some development recently, a game called Fallout 4 has a publisher that makes mods for XBOX ONE and PlayStation 3 and 4. The publisher is called Bethesda. They also make mods for the famous game Skyrim, as you can see in Figure 9.

12 Figure 9. Mods for console game Fallout 4 on the Bethesda website. Motives for using mods Because of modding, people get a whole new gaming experience. The most common reason why people use mods is that mods bring new content to the game. Other reasons: I finished the storyline and it makes the game more fun. One person told me that he thinks that it s fun to check out all the cool stuff you can do with mods, like the piano car as you can see in Figure 11. Therefore, experimenting is also a good reason. Another reason why people use mods are: I already defeated the end-boss (no further prospect in game) and there are no new games coming out soon (Techquickie, 2015). Nice to see what is... Figure 10. Survey, why did you use mods?

13 However, to use mods they need to have the original game to play, there are all different kinds of mods. You have large ones but also small additions. A comparison table can be found below in Table 1. Large mods Small mods Game mode Storyline Levels Game improvements Expansion packs Table 1. Large and small mods Objects Characters Weapons Clothes Textures Figure 11. Example of a modified object in the game GTA 4. A piano instead of a car. Developers There are a few developers who support the modding community. They don t see it as a threat but as an opportunity for their game. When people mod, the game becomes more interesting after the normal story mode or after a number of played hours. Because of this opportunity, developers make extensive tools and documentations to help the modders. A few examples of developers who use this are: ID Software, Firaxis, The Creative Assembly and Epic Games. A famous example of a modified game is Counter-Strike. This was made with a tool from a game called Half-Life, it received a lot of fans from all over the world. The Counter-Strike developers made some updates and they created 10 beta versions. Because of the popularity of the game, the original game founders thought it was intriguing and were willing to work together with the Counter-Strike developers. So, the original team collaborated with the modders and from then on, the quality of the game became better and better.

14 Risk of modding Whenever you download a movie or a file from the internet there is always a chance that you may download something that will put your PC at risk. For example, spyware, a virus or something harmful that you really don t want your PC to have. To lower this risk, you should always download from a big, trusted mod community. The other mod users will leave a comment below whether the uploaded mod is safe or not. Another risk is the installation, there can be a hidden virus in the mod file. After the installation, the game could be damaged. This could lead to bugs, lag or even worse - a completely damaged game. The solution for this problem is to uninstall the game and re-install it. When you do this, all the game progress will be wiped, a real nightmare for gamers. The worst-case scenario is that the mod damages your PC and you will need to reinstall your PC or buy a new one. An example of this risk was a few years back when some GTA V players downloaded a mod who could gather your passwords information. The makers of this virus secretly hid a little file in the mod called fade.exe. This file could give itself access to the internet and it turned out to be a key logger, a program that is designed to record and steal passwords (Parsons, 2015). Modding community The mod community is the biggest for PC games. A mod community is a group of people that makes mods and also the people that will use those mods. They mostly have a website or a forum where they come together and upload or download the modifications. The communities are mostly about one game. You can also call it a fan base. Of course, there are also communities where you can download all kinds of mods for different games. On a community website for one typical game you can find lots of things. Let s take a mod website about The Sims 3. Before you can download something, you need to register. That s how the community is able to how many members they have and how active they are. When you have an account, you will also be able to upload your own made modifications to the website, so other people can download your mods. You can download from all kinds of categories. And if you need help with something there is always a help or a search button. If you want to talk or ask other members, you should do that at the forum where members meet. Figure 12. Example of a mod community.

15 Discussion Limitations of the research When I started with this research I was sure I could find enough information about the subject. Although gaming is not a subject where many scientific articles are written about. For a certain part I was right. It was not hard to find information about modifications. But when the subject became more specific it was harder to find relevant sources. That is why I used a lot of game forums, blogs and YouTube to find information. Online distribution The person who wrote the part about online distribution from the New York Film Academy, thinks that downloadable content, multiplayer and online distribution are ways to expand the lifespan of a game. I agree with the first two reasons. But the last part sounds more like a way to make sure your game will be bought and not a way to expand the lifespan of the game. Why is modding important for CMD? To make a mod, it requires skills that we learned in our study. What skills do you need to make mods? First of all, you need to think of something to build, this requires imagination. For a total conversion you need a concept, you think about a new story line, characters, game play and of course the design. So, thinking about all this also requires some narrativity skills. I think that making mods is something we could earn money with. The most important part of modding is coding, we also learn this in our study. However, you don t have to start with just writing codes. The easiest way to start with this is just to change some codes in the original code, like a color. I think that every CMDer has some design experience, that s also necessary when you want to make your own modifications. If you want to make for example a car piano, you need to encode it, but of course also make a design for it. In this process, you test the mod a few times so you are basically working with on a prototype. Content is important when you make a total conversion. When you work on content for example a website, application, book or maybe even a game. We need to make sure that the content in the medium is interesting enough for the user to go on. An example: it s important to have relevant content on your website, so you get a higher rank in Google. This will lead to more visitors on your website. And more visitors will mostly lead to more profit.

16 Conclusion What is the relation between modding and the lifespan of a game? There is evidence suggesting that mods may increase the life span of games under certain circumstances. For each person, this is different. Each person plays in their own way. In my survey, I found out that a lot of people use mods because it brings new content to the game. So, if they need new content, it could mean that they were done with the game. But because of the modification it will give new enjoyment. The mods give a new life to the game. The average lifespan of a game is for every person different. It depends on how much time you have to play, which type of game you like more and the presence of hackers in the game. Some people like linear games over open world games. This could also increase the lifespan of a game for a person. There are a few factors that affect the lifespan of a game. Factor 1. Micro transactions. A micro transaction is a business model where players can buy virtual goods (Bray, 2014). You can buy items the developers are offering you. This will shorten the lifespan because gamers don t want to spend their money on a game the already bought. Factor 2. Linear vs. open world. If you let a gamer play an open world game who prefers a linear game, they could get bored easily. Or of course the other way around, it will shorten the lifespan of a game. Factor 3. Levels. When a gamer already reached the highest level in the game they don t have a further goal. This will shorten the lifespan. Factor 4. Content. If a game has content who is interesting and refreshing the players will appreciate this and the lifespan will grow. The final conclusion is that a game can become boring due to a lack of good content. Reaching another level too quickly or having no more goals to reach left can cause decrease the lifespan of a game. Moreover, I have found that a bad or boring multiplayer will be modified sooner. In the literature, no specific numbers can be found that show that mods expand the lifespan. In my survey, I found out that it does expand the lifespan of a game for some people. Every game is a cocktail of factors that impact the lifespan of a game. Most of the factors are merely personal reasons to enjoy a game for a longer or shorter time, but the universal factors that extend the lifespan of a game are, good content/narrative and a good community in online games.

17 Sources Academy, N. Y. (2014, September 26). Three Creative Ways Developers Are Increasing The Lifespan Of Games. Opgehaald van New York Film Academy Student resources: Bray, L. (2014, May 2). Microtransactions: 3 common misconceptions. Opgehaald van Gamesparks: Parsons, J. (2015, May 15). GTA V PC modifications hide a VIRUS - hackers use popular game to steal your passwords. Opgehaald van Mirror: Snow, B. (2011, August 17). Why most people don t finish video games. Opgehaald van CNN: finishing.videogames.snow/index.html Tanner, N. (2015, August 4). WHAT ARE MODS AND SHOULD MY KIDS BE DOWNLOADING THEM? Opgehaald van Pixelkin: org/2015/08/04/video-games-101-what-are-mods-and-should-my-kids-bedownloading-them/ Techquickie (Regisseur). (2015). Game Modding as Fast As Possible [Film]. Timbo (Regisseur). (2017). The Future of Gaming is BORING - Here s Why [Film].