All RPGs should be moddable, dammit!

I’m late to the RPG Baldur’s Gate 3. I held out for over a year before purchasing it despite the fact that the game surpasses any released in the franchise so far with its excellent graphics, unprecedented freedom to explore, and ability to interact with the environment.

What finally got me in then? Admittedly, it’s the one thing I absolutely can’t resist in a top-rated RPG — the fact that it now has mods! That change in a game as detailed and intuitive as BG3 is sheer gold for me, making every cent paid for it an irresistible value proposition. It has also got me thinking: Why can’t all RPGs have mods?

Mods undeniably spice up games

It’s not like BG3 needed anything extra to make it a great game. No, it’s obviously one of the best turn-based RPG’s available today with its enchanting high-fantasy open world that reacts to you as a player and allows you to have your own unique experience.

It’s more that the mods — everything from character changes to new weapons and objects and new game mechanics — allow me to squeeze even more value from this classic game thereby multiplying the fun 100x. Whereas before the game was well worth $60, the value I will reap from this game over time will pay for itself many, many times over.

To be sure, now that BG3 has mods, the game will not only be different each time I play it, it won’t even be close to the experience I’ve had before — which leads me to an important point: I now have the agency to personalize it as I wish, just as I can personalize myriad other aspects of my life, from the topping on my vanilla ice-cream to the color of my cellphone case.

I can now play solo as a lone wolf by increasing the rate at which I earn XP, or as any exciting creature from the Dungeons and Dragons world by accessing dozens of other races. I can choose to give my character a funky new beard, new spells, or endless objects so as to never be without what I need on my journey, and that’s just for starters. Who knows what other tantalizing mods are in the works down the track…Additional quests? Bring it on!

In essence BG3 has been reassigned from occupying a frustrating category of RPGs where I quickly run out of content and lose interest, to being on my list of most important games — the games that can keep me engaged for decades, indefinitely even.

In this category some of my favorite games of all time reside — titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Portal 2, which together have more than 200,000 downloadable mods. It’s thanks to mods that these games have stood the test of time.

They’ve weathered a changing games industry characterized by new, more powerful hardware and better graphics, the release of countless new RPGs, and more importantly, they’ve kept their original communities alive — something that games without mods often struggle to do.

More reasons to get modding

Despite the replayability aspect mods bring, there are plenty of other reasons RPGs should have mods. For the detail-conscious among us that like to nitpick every spelling mistake, grammatical error, or abnormal pixel, mods are a great opportunity to fix these things — especially when official updates fail to do so.

Bethesda’s Skyrim is proof of this. Some of the best Skyrim fixes have had big, positive impacts on gameplay, like the AIM FIX mod that made archery and magic spells more accurately go where the player intended.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Others, although less critical to gameplay, like the Skyrim mod that fixed the illumination to the right side of a Khajiit’s tail, may seem funny, but they too work to keep discussion alive and keep players interested and engrossed in the game, which is entirely the point.

Yep, it’s almost never mentioned, but mods are a goldmine for keeping community together. I have friends I made way back in the fledgling days of 2011 when Skyrim first released that are still contributing regularly on forums today, which is so heartening.

An added benefit of games with mods is that they often spawn whole new games. Indeed, favorites like Garry’s Mod and DOTA owe their very existence to modding. These are games we never would have seen if not for budding games developers wanting to cut their teeth in development by modifying games they love.

The arguments against modding

Having just sung the praises of mods, there are arguments doing the rounds against them. Mods unfairly change competitive multiplayer games, open opportunities for cheating, or spoil the developer’s intended experience, some naysayers say.

I don’t wholly disagree with those points — mods can have the potential to do those things — but they can also be managed to avoid those problems. Mods are easy to make and quick to apply and remove, and they are entirely optional, which makes them so relevant to RPGs especially.

As a genre, RPGs have always been about giving players a choice — and you certainly have choice with mods, as opposed to game updates or patches that can prevent you playing the game if you don’t download them.

Indeed, if you don’t like a mod, you can always choose not to use it, in the same way you can choose to eat ice cream without sprinkles. Me? The more toppings I can get for my vanilla, the better!