I couldn't bring myself to watch something like this for 17 minutes. I just don't see the appeal of this style of editing and direction at all. A constant stream of them going through a whole...
I couldn't bring myself to watch something like this for 17 minutes. I just don't see the appeal of this style of editing and direction at all. A constant stream of them going through a whole cartoon sound effect library and non sequiturs over 3-second clips. And that audible page flipping transition... It's like it's made to entice toddlers, which seems weird given a toddler would have no interest in the subject.
Not to be too much of a debbie downer I will add something interesting about the history of mods. In the European cracking scene of the home computer era it was common to add "trainers" to games. A lot of prestige was attached to being the first to release a cracked version of a game, which was nailed down to an art form by a few groups that had suppliers in the industry, so competition in that area was fierce. I think trainers were essentially one way to differentiate your crack from those that were quicker but didn't have trainers.
Trainers were basically hacks of the games, adding optional changes that you could pick in a menu before the actual game launched. Some changes are obvious cheats, like unlimited lives, invincibility or whatever. More interestingly, some trainers added fixes that basically rebalanced the games or significantly changed it in some way that wasn't just an obvious cheat. Clearly made by people who knew what about the mechanics annoyed them.
Several companies sold hardware intended to make it easier to mod games. There was a tool called Action Replay which eventually existed in some form or another for several computer and video game systems. The Commodore 64 version allowed you to freeze the game, inspect and modify the memory (including the code) and then resume the game with those changes. Marketed as a cheating device, this turned out to be a very useful tool for crackers as well as modders. The Commodore 64 version even included assemblers and disassemblers.
The console versions are interesting to me, because by definition you can't modify the content of a ROM cartridge. On the Sega Megadrive, the Action Replay instead sits between the cartridge and the cartridge slot and intercepts the memory accesses on the bus. That way it can present a different value to the CPU than the cartridge ROM would in some places and just forward the data from the cartridge in others. You could create a rather short list of such interception points in order to cheat. There were also rudimentary mods made this way. I recall there was one for Sonic 2 that simply swapped a palette entry, turning Sonic green and black.
There are course earlier examples of modding. Before the era of commercial computer games especially, when games weren't so strongly considered as proprietary, and hacking on a game you had access to was just par for the course for the people that did.
That's a little reductive. Jakey has been in the business for a while and was rather influential on youtube game reviews as a whole. He's been a fixture and the ranking isn't simply because of...
That's a little reductive. Jakey has been in the business for a while and was rather influential on youtube game reviews as a whole. He's been a fixture and the ranking isn't simply because of "toddlers".
I'd say this video and the Rockstar table tennis one, are him trying a style where he's overly excited to the point of near insanity because he found something he finds incredible and it's consuming him. It works better if you're aware of the baseline.
It's not even that I disagree this style is a bit much, but calling it for toddlers does sell short what NakeyJakey has made in the past and how this video relates to that.
The actual thesis of the video is "modding is great and lets you fix games + make them better", which is true. The title thesis (at time of comment, "How Mods Changed Video Games Forever") is...
The actual thesis of the video is "modding is great and lets you fix games + make them better", which is true. The title thesis (at time of comment, "How Mods Changed Video Games Forever") is totally unsupported.
One of Jakey's weaker videos, but if you haven't modded before (either installing or making mods) it's worth a watch.
Personally I don't feel obliged to play the game the developer's way, especially for the 'the one true way to play' games. There are a lot of games where they have an interesting idea but choose...
Personally I don't feel obliged to play the game the developer's way, especially for the 'the one true way to play' games.
There are a lot of games where they have an interesting idea but choose to add some obnoxious anti feature such as grinding or save restrictions. Removing that is one type of modding. For me the difference between spending several hours grinding and just adding the whatever is not a feeling of acomplishment but several hours of doing menial labour.
Then we have content or game mechanics mods that can change the way the game feels but do not specifically remove or bypass some the game design.
And finally the mods that simply use the base game as a foundation to do their own thing. Mods for Legend of Grimrock 2 are a good example, with several being larger and more complex than the base game.
It all comes down to the type of game and the context of the times. If you want to build tension, a limited save system in a series like Resident Evil makes sense. You don't to ruin the horror by...
choose to add some obnoxious anti feature such as grinding or save restrictions.
It all comes down to the type of game and the context of the times. If you want to build tension, a limited save system in a series like Resident Evil makes sense. You don't to ruin the horror by save scumming (also, save systems may be elements of limitation. Easier to establish a few safe points to save than any arbitrary position).
Likewise, grinding/life systems were made in times where games realistically only had maybe 5 hours of content. Dollars per hour is still an important metric to many gamers today, so developers needed ways to extend that playtime. The arcade style of forcing a high skill floor to see the end of the game is one such result. MMO grinds to give activities for guilds to bond over is another.
I'm all for doing your own thing if you so help it. But a key rule in UI/UX is that people stick to the defaults. Game designers try to ultimately make good enough defaults to satisfy the most people (including people so enamored they feel a need to take the time to modify the game).
Someday I might rescue Shawn from the Institute. But right now I've got a few dozen settlements to manage and Raiders to wipe out again. Thought you could retake Corvega Assembly Plant? You...
Someday I might rescue Shawn from the Institute. But right now I've got a few dozen settlements to manage and Raiders to wipe out again. Thought you could retake Corvega Assembly Plant? You thought wrong...
This, but custom games for warcraft/starcraft for me, there's a few of those spun up as full fledged games now. And the tools were so basic back then! I'm sure its a similar feeling kids get now...
This, but custom games for warcraft/starcraft for me, there's a few of those spun up as full fledged games now. And the tools were so basic back then! I'm sure its a similar feeling kids get now playing Roblocks with all the wild mods they have.
My first swing at modding a game was the old Macintosh System 7/8/9 game Escape Velocity from Ambrosia Software. I got tired of getting wiped out every time a pirate showed up in the system, so I...
My first swing at modding a game was the old Macintosh System 7/8/9 game Escape Velocity from Ambrosia Software.
I got tired of getting wiped out every time a pirate showed up in the system, so I made a weapon called The Big One, which had a detection range of the maximum system size, a payload powerful enough to wipe out the most powerful ships in one shot, and a range that would extend to pretty much the entire system. I also made it have an outfit size of 1, a weight of 1, and a price of 100 credits, then made it available at every single outfitter (that took the longest time as I had to work through a list of the outfitters in the game and laboriously input each one by hand). By the end I could take my little starting shuttle and begin taking over the entire known galaxy just for shits and grins.
I know that making an all-powerful weapon is supposed to make a game less fun, but I think when you build it yourself from concept to final product, it becomes a more interesting endeavor and even if it breaks the game you still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment (Jakey actually addresses this point in the video.)
In addition to learning how Escape Velocity worked under the hood, I also learned a ton about the 2-fork system of the MacOS System 9 stuff, where you had your data fork and your resource fork. This led to me learning AppleScript and automating my system, something I still use to this day on my Mac. It just makes using my systems that much more interesting to me.
If nothing else, I encourage modding so you understand more about what goes into the games you like so that you can understand why programmers made the choices that they did. To quote a tweet I once saw:
Programming is chaotic magic. There are no rules. You ask a game dev "Can the player summon a giant demon that bursts from the ground in an explosion of lava?" and they'll say "sure, that's easy" and then you'll ask "can the player wear a scarf?" and they'll go "oof"
I couldn't bring myself to watch something like this for 17 minutes. I just don't see the appeal of this style of editing and direction at all. A constant stream of them going through a whole cartoon sound effect library and non sequiturs over 3-second clips. And that audible page flipping transition... It's like it's made to entice toddlers, which seems weird given a toddler would have no interest in the subject.
Not to be too much of a debbie downer I will add something interesting about the history of mods. In the European cracking scene of the home computer era it was common to add "trainers" to games. A lot of prestige was attached to being the first to release a cracked version of a game, which was nailed down to an art form by a few groups that had suppliers in the industry, so competition in that area was fierce. I think trainers were essentially one way to differentiate your crack from those that were quicker but didn't have trainers.
Trainers were basically hacks of the games, adding optional changes that you could pick in a menu before the actual game launched. Some changes are obvious cheats, like unlimited lives, invincibility or whatever. More interestingly, some trainers added fixes that basically rebalanced the games or significantly changed it in some way that wasn't just an obvious cheat. Clearly made by people who knew what about the mechanics annoyed them.
Several companies sold hardware intended to make it easier to mod games. There was a tool called Action Replay which eventually existed in some form or another for several computer and video game systems. The Commodore 64 version allowed you to freeze the game, inspect and modify the memory (including the code) and then resume the game with those changes. Marketed as a cheating device, this turned out to be a very useful tool for crackers as well as modders. The Commodore 64 version even included assemblers and disassemblers.
The console versions are interesting to me, because by definition you can't modify the content of a ROM cartridge. On the Sega Megadrive, the Action Replay instead sits between the cartridge and the cartridge slot and intercepts the memory accesses on the bus. That way it can present a different value to the CPU than the cartridge ROM would in some places and just forward the data from the cartridge in others. You could create a rather short list of such interception points in order to cheat. There were also rudimentary mods made this way. I recall there was one for Sonic 2 that simply swapped a palette entry, turning Sonic green and black.
There are course earlier examples of modding. Before the era of commercial computer games especially, when games weren't so strongly considered as proprietary, and hacking on a game you had access to was just par for the course for the people that did.
It's #16 trending on gaming... So make of that what you will.
That's a little reductive. Jakey has been in the business for a while and was rather influential on youtube game reviews as a whole. He's been a fixture and the ranking isn't simply because of "toddlers".
I'd say this video and the Rockstar table tennis one, are him trying a style where he's overly excited to the point of near insanity because he found something he finds incredible and it's consuming him. It works better if you're aware of the baseline.
It's not even that I disagree this style is a bit much, but calling it for toddlers does sell short what NakeyJakey has made in the past and how this video relates to that.
The actual thesis of the video is "modding is great and lets you fix games + make them better", which is true. The title thesis (at time of comment, "How Mods Changed Video Games Forever") is totally unsupported.
One of Jakey's weaker videos, but if you haven't modded before (either installing or making mods) it's worth a watch.
Personally I don't feel obliged to play the game the developer's way, especially for the 'the one true way to play' games.
There are a lot of games where they have an interesting idea but choose to add some obnoxious anti feature such as grinding or save restrictions. Removing that is one type of modding. For me the difference between spending several hours grinding and just adding the whatever is not a feeling of acomplishment but several hours of doing menial labour.
Then we have content or game mechanics mods that can change the way the game feels but do not specifically remove or bypass some the game design.
And finally the mods that simply use the base game as a foundation to do their own thing. Mods for Legend of Grimrock 2 are a good example, with several being larger and more complex than the base game.
All are wonderfull.
It all comes down to the type of game and the context of the times. If you want to build tension, a limited save system in a series like Resident Evil makes sense. You don't to ruin the horror by save scumming (also, save systems may be elements of limitation. Easier to establish a few safe points to save than any arbitrary position).
Likewise, grinding/life systems were made in times where games realistically only had maybe 5 hours of content. Dollars per hour is still an important metric to many gamers today, so developers needed ways to extend that playtime. The arcade style of forcing a high skill floor to see the end of the game is one such result. MMO grinds to give activities for guilds to bond over is another.
I'm all for doing your own thing if you so help it. But a key rule in UI/UX is that people stick to the defaults. Game designers try to ultimately make good enough defaults to satisfy the most people (including people so enamored they feel a need to take the time to modify the game).
Someday I might rescue Shawn from the Institute. But right now I've got a few dozen settlements to manage and Raiders to wipe out again. Thought you could retake Corvega Assembly Plant? You thought wrong...
This, but custom games for warcraft/starcraft for me, there's a few of those spun up as full fledged games now. And the tools were so basic back then! I'm sure its a similar feeling kids get now playing Roblocks with all the wild mods they have.
I like to think I'd still be playing Warcraft 3 if blizzard hadn't completely fucked everything up with that dumpster fire they called "reforged".
My first swing at modding a game was the old Macintosh System 7/8/9 game Escape Velocity from Ambrosia Software.
I got tired of getting wiped out every time a pirate showed up in the system, so I made a weapon called The Big One, which had a detection range of the maximum system size, a payload powerful enough to wipe out the most powerful ships in one shot, and a range that would extend to pretty much the entire system. I also made it have an outfit size of 1, a weight of 1, and a price of 100 credits, then made it available at every single outfitter (that took the longest time as I had to work through a list of the outfitters in the game and laboriously input each one by hand). By the end I could take my little starting shuttle and begin taking over the entire known galaxy just for shits and grins.
I know that making an all-powerful weapon is supposed to make a game less fun, but I think when you build it yourself from concept to final product, it becomes a more interesting endeavor and even if it breaks the game you still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment (Jakey actually addresses this point in the video.)
In addition to learning how Escape Velocity worked under the hood, I also learned a ton about the 2-fork system of the MacOS System 9 stuff, where you had your data fork and your resource fork. This led to me learning AppleScript and automating my system, something I still use to this day on my Mac. It just makes using my systems that much more interesting to me.
If nothing else, I encourage modding so you understand more about what goes into the games you like so that you can understand why programmers made the choices that they did. To quote a tweet I once saw:
My first thought was forum/reddit/etc Moderators. Lol