Game Modders beware

[Digital Guerrilla]

This has to be one the most asinine things I have heard. In the news recently Tecmo is suing game modders for get this modding a couple of their XBox titles, (Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 3) that they bought legally. The company seems to feel that game modding is wrong because it lessen the integrity of their work. What the game modders did was what we game modders always do make skins for the game and improve on the visual aspects of the game. In the words of one of people associated with Tecmo "We spent millions of dollars to develop these games, and people are coming in and changing the code to their liking, and that's illegal." That is like Yamaha coming to sue me because I have tweaked my motorcycle for my own purposes it just does not make sense.

Game modding will be apart of video gaming as long as their are video games. Who cares if a few people make skins that make their characters appear naked. I bought the game it is mine and I can damn well please to do what I want with it. Tecmo also wants $1,000 to $100,000 in damages for every custom skin swapped over the website (www.ninjahacker.net). WTF!!! Someone should tell Tecmo that if people go through the trouble of making skins for your game then it is a popular game and the only thing they should be thinking about is making a follow up to that title and hope they love it enough make mods.

[Dragoon Knight]

I don't really see the problem with Mods, as long as the people making them aren't deriving any profit from it.  What harm does it do the games companies?  It just means people are playing their games more... it's not like piracy, where they lose profit.  Mods are 'modifications' to the original game, meaning that anyone who wants to benefit from a naked Dead Or Alve 2 Volleyballer will have to shell out the cash for the original in the first place.

I also heard a rumour that EA enlisted a group of Modders to do the latest 'Generals: Zero Hour' patch, because they thought they might do a better job of it.  Not sure if it's true or not, but there's still no way that these games companies can justifiably stop people from modding.

Well... aside from the illegality of it, of course... but the point is that it shouldn't be illegal! :P

[drahgoon]

why is it illegal??? as long as we buy the game, we should be able to mod the games to our liking... like dragoon knight said,

"It just means people are playing their games more..."

n btw, how do you mod an xbox game without a mod chip or is it not possible, i know that if you have a game developing buisiness you can get the xbox compiler/development tools, which make a whole lot of game code in to an xbox game, here is the link to the xbox development page.

[lowzeewee]

In a world that someone sues McDonalds for making them obese, such a thing can happen too.

[nemafakei]

There are copyright issues with modding: you are usually distributing some of the game and making it available to people who haven't bought the game. When I release a mod for Emp, I am giving people access to WW's intellectual property, namely, a good deal of the rules file if I haven't changed it, and probably a number of their 3d meshes.

[Edric O]

Of course, but a mod is worthless without the game itself. If you haven't bought the game, you can't play the mod.

[slaphapy]

In a world that someone sues McDonalds for making them obese, such a thing can happen too.

and for their coffee being to hot... but that's another issue (STUPIDITY!)

anyway... ya, i dont think they will get very far with these lawsuits, unless they manage to have some amazing lawyer prosecuting for them. or the judge is just a complete idiot, bickering old fool who doesnt want any part in technology or games in the first place.

[Digital Guerrilla]

@Nema that could very well be argued in a court of law but there is usually no exchange of currency with mods for games. For example here members will usually just make the mod and anyone who wants it can have it simply by downloading it from the site.

Video game modding is as natural as the people who only just play the game. Tecmo at this point has no understanding of us as a community (video game enthusiasts). How did the people who make the video games for a living get involved in the industry most started making their own games when they were younger or had formal training with software development. Our generation has taken it a step further with the game mods but there is no damage done to the sale of the video game itself.