Skyrim Mod Tools Coming Next Week

There's so much to see and do in Skyrim that I might make a mod to hide half of it. I keep getting distracted by bears fighting dragons fighting the Forsworn, when all I really want to do is harvest some Nirnroot. Next week I'll be able to start the long process of unfunning it when the mod tools, The Creation Kit, are released, alongside patch 1.4. You can pretend you were born on the first of January and look here for the full patch details. Read it in Max Von Sydow's voice, for greater effect.

1.4 also brings the Skyrim's Steam Workshop, a browseable mod store that players can use to upload, rate and download mods, all hosted on Steam. I'm fascinated: mods are usually treated like an unexploded bomb by publishers and developers, especially after Hot Coffee. They can plausibly deny the content and their connection to it if they just give the development tools and let you get on with it, but Valve and Bethesda are hosting player's creations. They're essentially publishing it. That's rather brave.