Earlier as we speak, I noticed a put up on Reddit complaining about individuals utilizing a plugin in Last Fantasy XIV that permits gamers to autoplay dungeons. Based on the put up, it was apparent as a result of the person in query was doing a horrible job at dungeoneering. The poster additionally famous the truth that the particular person in query didn’t communicate past the final courtesy on the finish and would solely transfer with the poster moved, that means the particular person being complained about seemingly put them on observe as a result of XIV dungeons aren’t all the time enjoyable when doing them for the a hundredth time.
All that put aside, nevertheless, the put up did spawn an attention-grabbing dialog about mods within the recreation usually, and it acquired me to fascinated about mods in video games as an entire. Video games with mods have been a factor for a very long time, and aside from pure dishonest, a whole lot of the time, they’re created to deal with points with the sport. enhance present options, or add one thing enjoyable.
I’ve by no means personally been the largest consumer of mods in video games, not for any ethical causes, however as a result of I’m just too lazy to spend the time getting them working. I like to simply activate a recreation and play with out having to fiddle with settings or fear {that a} DLL file may get eaten.
That mentioned, my normal feeling about them is that I merely don’t care if somebody is utilizing mods in video games, as long as it doesn’t influence my or different gamers’ experiences. Largely, which means I’m in opposition to cheats that give gamers an edge in aggressive video games. Nevertheless, utilizing one thing that negatively impacts somebody in a dungeon isn’t cool both. And, nicely, should you’re taking pictures for a world first in a raid sequence, you undoubtedly shouldn’t be utilizing mods. In any case, you’re purported to be exhibiting off how good you might be as a participant. One can hardly make that declare if the pc is doing the work for them.
That mentioned, gamers are individuals, and a few persons are going to cheat, and the devs are all the time going to must take care of that. What I’m extra focused on is all the opposite mods, those that make the boring duties a bit much less boring, tackle accessibility points, or assist enhance the sport in another manner, like permitting gamers to essentially make characters look how they need. For XIV, no less than, a sizeable portion of the PC participant base is utilizing these sorts of mods, and if the devs had been to go on a full-on ban spree, they’d lose a whole lot of sub cash. (And since XIV is kinda performing some heavy lifting for Sq. proper now, they don’t need that.)
So, what are they to do? What are any devs on this state of affairs to do?
I feel the devs are sort of doing it already, though maybe not quick sufficient for everybody’s liking. Maybe we are able to blame it on the spaghetti code. The reply is to take a look at the mods, see what persons are downloading and why, and work out how this may be tailored to the sport. Admittedly, not every little thing can. But when we’re speaking about methods to deal with issues that solely get extra tedious as the sport goes on – crafting being one – or the necessity to tackle button bloat and the truth that many gamers have circumstances that make coping with a slew of skills troublesome, these are issues that some mods tackle and the sport would profit from having.
To be truthful to the devs, they’ve taken a swing at addressing the button bloat situation by permitting the gamers to activate sure combos, nevertheless it’s a bit like they’re simply sticking their toe within the pool. One factor that’s proper about it’s that it’s an optionally available function. Not everybody wants or desires it, so not everybody needs to be caught with it. I’m all for being hardcore if you wish to be hardcore. It’s your sub, you do you.
That mentioned, it’s additionally a good suggestion to take a look at what different video games are doing. And naturally, all devs are studying by doing. HoYoverse is an efficient instance. Whereas I’ve a whole lot of love for Genshin Affect (that’s the place my dragon boys dwell), there are issues about it which are simply so tedious however required if you wish to degree characters and equipment correctly. When Honkai: Star Rail got here alongside, they handled that tedium by giving us the choice to auto-play repeatable boss fights. We nonetheless must be round to hit the button, however in any other case, we are able to do different issues and get the objects wanted for leveling.
I might say I don’t know what one thing like this is able to seem like in XIV, aside from the truth that we do have responsibility helps and trusts now. So, maybe a system could possibly be carried out for content material like that, which is successfully solo. Though perhaps particular drops like minions may must be faraway from auto-play dungeons, in order to not overfill the market board. (Not that they drop loads, anyway.) The gear isn’t tradeable besides to your grand firm, so that may be much less of a problem. That mentioned, such a function may encourage gamers to take their auto-play to the responsibility helps and go away different gamers out of it. It seemingly wouldn’t remove the issue fully, nevertheless it may assist.
As for different content material, like crafting, it’s not probably the most thrilling or participating of content material in nearly any recreation. If it’s drawn out (even utilizing macros) like it’s in XIV, it turns into the sort of content material you do whereas watching TV. On the opposite finish of issues, video games like Genshin and Star Rail have shortened your complete course of to deciding on how lots of the objects you need to craft and clicking go. Probably the most troublesome half is gathering the supplies, which might simply be carried out as a part of your regular adventuring. (Really, that was my favourite factor about gathering in Aion, too. Effectively, that and the truth that gathering helped degree your main class.)
On the finish of the day, I take a look at it like this. In video games like XIV, which have been round for a decade or extra, there’s a ton of content material, an nearly daunting quantity. New gamers coming in are going to need to do all that content material, and so they can’t do this if some issues are slowing them down with tedium. Worse, that tedium may maintain them from sticking round.
