report

Firstly, thanks for the article RPS & Lewis. Secondly, I wanted to emphaise that we are still in an early beta phase, and while comparisions with Steam are inevitable, we are not at that stage.

We are still perfecting the service and working with devs, gamers and publishers to make this happen. If you would like to see what stage we are up to send us an email for an invite to the beta. At the moment we are focusing on factors that differentiate us (i.e. seemless user-made content / mod install is a big one, community driven interaction and developer posted content being the three primary areas). We welcome all ideas and appreciate the support shown in the RPS comments so far.

report

report

report

report

It’s the mods for other games, though, that will decide whether Desura becomes anything more than a repository for Source mods… On one end, you have pretty convenient SEMPQ distributions for Blizzard games, but what about the weird edge cases that need INI file changes and file juggling and stuff? It’ll be difficult to maintain the “one-click install” mantra for everything.

report

report

The problem is, I don’t see how any automated system can possibly handle a problem like you had with Oblivion. Bethesda games running multiple mods are complicated beasts. Usually all the mods were authored by different people, frequently mutually conflicting etc. You can sometimes work all that out by hand, but I’ve never seen an automated tool that could handle anything beyond the most common mod combinations. The real issue is Desura, and the ModDB team, can’t fix that issue. It would have to be an effort on the part of the mod community themselves. Might Desura motivate that kind of community collaboration? I very much hope so. Does it guarantee it, and for that matter does community effort guarantee success? Sadly not.

None of this is intended to rain on the parade, so to speak. Making even relatively easy to install mods more acessible to more people is a very good thing. I just don’t think we should count on this platform to start working miracles. :)

report

I mean, I remember installing PoopMods, and I know a lot about Oblivion and how mods work. I installed everything, it all worked, and then I threw in the werewolf mod, I checked for compatibility, used all the relevant tools, did my research, checked the load order, even checked the script of the damn mod itself, but for some reason the introduction of the werewolf mod made the game crash and burn. Even after removing it. I was left sitting there and scratching my head. Eventually I figured it out, as I’m prone to do when presented with any problems, and I did it without pestering people, but it’d be nice if someone else was willing to do that work for me.

What I’m getting at here is that not everyone is willing to do this kind of work, and sometimes there can be baffling and almost inexplicable stuff. What will come of this? People will have greater access to mods, mods that can install cleanly, and when something goes wrong, there’ll likely be a link from within the client to a relevant forum, where a person can just make a post telling the relevant people that there’s something wrong with the install process. To be honest, I’d even be willing to get in on this on a voluntary basis, just to help set it up so that mods work. I’ve done my time with that, I have plenty of experience with making stuff work, and I’d be happy to.

I just love the accessibility of this, because I feel that accessibility is important. The thing is, I’m visually disabled, and it’s not something I can do a damn thing about. I’m willing to dig through the guts of a game though to change things where I can, and even get inventive with stuff like windows magnifier, but sometimes I’ll just be stonewalled, there’s going to be no solution for me, and unlike my mod tamperings I’m not going to be able to do anything about it. I feel that other people are going to hit upon such a wall too, and I’d be able to help them with their accessibility concerns, I’d feel great about that.

This isn’t like piracy, after all, and pirates I really don’t want to help. But someone trying to install a mod just to enjoy content that’s been created and freely given by a group of really great people? That I’d want to help with, even if not for the user installing it, but to help the mod creators themselves, because that’s a brilliant thing to be able to do, isn’t it?

There are many reasons why I think this is a great idea, and I could question why it’s never been done before. I really hope accessibility is the future, because it could mean accessibility in all things, and that would make me very happy.

report

Though if you take it solely as a simple way to install your mods, then it can’t possibly do any harm, to the contrary, it’s great. I remember the instructions on a lot of sites, and… it’s like piracy, the vast majority can’t wrap their minds around installing mods. If they had a simple interface where they could browse mods, click Install on the ones they’re interested in, and have a system do all the complicated bits for them… well, that’s a boon for the mod community.

That’s primarily why I’m excited about this, not because it’s another distribution platform — and really I could care less about that — but because all those modders who had to try to explain how to install their mods will be able to put them up on this thing. Mods that deserved so much more attention and love will likely get it. And frankly, I hope the client includes a direct-donation system too, where people can toss a small bit of money at the mods they like, with minimum fuss.

If all this is the case, it could breathe new life into the modding scene, and that’s grand!

report

report

Modders always deserved something like this, and when this comes out, it might be time for me to dust off some old games, reinstall them, and play some mods!

‘Nuff said.

report