Following the release ofMarvel Rivals’Season 1patch, NetEase has stealthily disabled mods from working. While it might seem like the developers are just doing this to prevent people from the community from releasing skins that could affect their bottom line, it seems there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Over on Twitter/X Del Walker, who previously worked on Naughty Dog as a Senior Chracter Artist at Naughty Dog (also worked at Respawn, Rocksteady), commented on why most studios despise mods and ban them in games.
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The official Baldur’s Gate 3 YouTube channel has revealed the silliest mods available for the game.
Why Developers Don’t Like Mods In Games Explained
Here’s the explanation byWalker:
Exploits: Some mods can make an enemy easier to see (imagine all your foes are freakin glowing), or make you harder to see. You can destroy the game balance easily with visual mods.
Server Strain: Mods that aren’t optimized can sometimes do some weird shit that can cause a strain to the server. Even if the mod is client side only, odd stuff can sometimes happen when the server is double checking things.
Gooners:As we’ve seen with nude Chun-Li appearing in a Street Fighter Tournament by accident - NSFW mods can damage a developers reputation or image if it’s floating around the net.
Moderation: Deciding wtf gets banned and what is harmless is a goddamn full time job. It’s a thankless task that will only lead to hypocrisy - or a dumb PR nightmare about “freedom of speech” vs racism.
Brand: The artistic vision and brand consistency is doomed to get diluted the longer you allow people to warp how your game is perceived.
Legal: Lots of mods infringe on copyrighted designs or assets. It’s basically an ocean of litigation waiting to jump you the longer that stuff stays up.
- Skin Marketplace: The most important reason is that skin sales drop if you have free mods as an option. Studios ain’t about to let you mess with their income.
As you can see, Walker mentions how mods affect the game’s revenue stream, which is probably the biggest reason they’re usually removed. That said, the other reasons are all quite valid as well.
10 Mods That Became Full Blown Games
Humble beginnings, huge impact
While NetEase will most likely never allow mods in their game, not every studio is against them. Larian Studios is one developer who isn’t against mods for their latest game, Baldur’s Gate 3. Surprisingly, they are even fine with mods on the game’s console versions, which is a rare sight. If you’re interested in that, look at ourbest mods for Baldur’s Gate 3to see what you’re missing out on.
I hope developers will take a softer stance on mods in the future,, given how clever the community has been in creating compelling content. Mods also help prolong a game’s life since the community usually releases them for free, which brings players back to check them out.
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