Swing and a Miss: Valve and Bethesda's Paid Mods.

Modding is a cornerstone of PC gaming. Some of the most popular games in the world right now started as mods for other games: League of Legends, DotA 2 and Counter Strike to name a few. For some people, modding is one of the main reasons that they play games on a PC. So when Valve and Bethesda announced they would be trying out a system of paid mods for The Elder Scrolls Skyrim it was bound to ruffle some feathers.

For those of you who don't know, modding refers to modifications to an existing game. They can range from a simple tweak that changes small parts of the game, to a completely different game mode, like those mentioned at the start. The mods available for Skyrim range from unofficial patches that fix bugs, and SkyUi that fixes the issues with the default ui on PC, to visual upgrades, and complete companions with unique quest lines. They fix issues, add content, and are generally considered to increase the life span that a game has.

Valve's announcement was simply not taken well. At best there was unrest in the community, and as usual, the very worst of the community started with the death threats and general vitriol that we've all come to expect. Some modders were even against the idea of paid mods, and made their thoughts known in the Steam community forums. The final result? Well after four days of complaints from the community, Valve announced they were shelving the paid mods idea for Skryim, while still leaving the option wide open for them to try again with future games.

So why did the community react the way they did?

Of course, there is the obvious fact that people don't want to pay for something that was previously free. While some mods definitely are worthy of payment, most of them are tiny little things that people made for fun and decided to upload. There is also the report of a mod being pulled from Steam because it contained someone else's work without permission, adding to the idea that paid mods were just going to hurt the community.

The main justification for paid mods came down to supporting the mod authors, which in my opinion is completely fair. They did all the hard work, and by all accounts in situations where donation buttons were setup, they were rarely touched by those who used their mods. However as more information came to light about the exact model that Valve and Bethesda were using in the Workshop, that argument started to lose some weight. Bethesda disclosed that exact split of money from the sale of a mod was 30% to Valve, the standard cut Valve takes from all sales, and 45% to Bethesda, leaving only 25% to go to the mod creator. To many gamers, myself included, this seemed like Bethesda trying to profit from something they didn't work on.

There is another argument too. Skyrim without mods on PC has one of the worst UIs I have ever used, more bugs than you can shake a stick at, and the depth of a plate. Don't get me wrong, I love Skyrim. But I don't play it without the unofficial Skyrim patches, SkyUi and Live Another Life. I just can't. The thought of Bethesda profiting from those mods, mods that fix problems they still haven't fixed, feels wrong to me. It rewards Bethesda for releasing a buggy game, and encourages them to do it again.

Fortunately, mod authors seem to have rallied against Skyrim's paid mods. If that is because they don't want to face a backlash from the rest of the community, or because they truly feel that way remains to be seen. Valve will definitely be trying the paid mods route again in the future, so this is only the beginning. And if I'm honest with myself, I'm 100% against it. I don't mind paying full price for a game. I dislike DLC, but understand why it exists. But being forced to pay for a community made mod, especially when the vast majority of money goes to a developer who put nothing into that mod is not something I ever want to see. For me, donation buttons where the mod creator gets the lions share of the money would be ideal.

As always,

GAME ON!

The TetrisPC Upgrade

This isn't really news as such, but it is important (to me at least). I finally made some decent upgrades my PC for the first time since I built it in late 2011. When I built my PC, I built it with the idea to not have to upgrade for at least 2 years, and I think it's lasted me fairly well considering its been over 3. To give you an idea of what I changed, the original specs were:

CPU: Intel Core i7 960 (3.2ghz)

Mobo: Asus Rampage III Black Edition

Ram: Corsair 24gb DDR3

Graphics: EVGA GTX570 SC Edition

Storage: WD Black 1TB HDD (Windows install) + 2 x 2TB Seagate HDDs.

After setting a budget of $900, I spent some time doing research and discussing the upgrade with a friend. I knew I wanted to stick with nVidia for the graphics card, as I have had issues with AMD in the past (and the fact that nVidia was offering the Witcher 3 with their cards at the moment was a bonus). I considered simply upgrading straight to a GTX 980, a card which in Australia retails for around $800 - $900 depending on brand and retailer. 

However while looking around at prices for the card, something was niggling at the back of my mind. Solid State Drives (SSDs) were around when I built my PC, but were still very new and not really cost effective for what I was doing. Now however you can pick up an SSD for reasonable money with a decent amount of storage. This convinced me to make some changes to my plan.

The final upgrade? An EVGA GTX 970 SC with the ACX 2.0 cooler, a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD, and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler.

Replacing the stock CPU cooler took the most time out of all of the work, but has actually made a huge difference with heat and opens up the possibility for me to overclock. Where before I would idle at between 50 - 60C, I now idle at 39C rock solid. During gaming my CPU no longer hits temps higher than 90C, but sits at around 60C - 70C, and the fan no longer sounds like a small aircraft trying to take off. I have no idea why I didn't make the change ages ago, especially considering the reasonable price of the cooler. If you are having issues with noise, and you are running the stock CPU cooler, definitely consider the upgrade to a quieter, more efficient aftermarket cooler.

A clean install of Windows went onto the SSD, and two things I noticed immediately were the startup load times, and the noise. My old WD Black HDD was noisy, as that series of HDDs is intended for use in server farms where noise isn't a massive factor. The SSD makes zero noise, due to the complete lack of moving parts. For the load times, my old install of Windows would take a solid minute and a half to get to the desktop. On the SSD, that has dropped to 30 seconds.

As for the graphics card, there is no way that it could be worse is there? I kept the GTX 570 in there as a dedicated PhysX Card to help take the load off the GTX 970 (at least until I can afford a second one to SLi with). Because I am not aiming for 4k resolutions with my gaming, I'm pretty sure this card will handle most upcoming games at High, possibly even Ultra settings.

So that's the new improved TetrisPC. I want to take a moment to give a shout out to the fluffiest of FluffyMules. Your help in selecting the right SSD was invaluable, and having someone who is as interested in computer tech as I am to bounce ideas off is a great resource to have.

As always,

GAME ON!

Tabletop Games

Have you ever played a RPG and came across a situation where you want to approach it from a completely different way than the game allows? Do you really like to get immersed in a world and play a character living in it? Are you creative, but not skilled enough to create your own video game? Do you enjoy the company of other people? Then tabletop games might be for you!

I know, I know. This blog is mostly focused on PC games, but to be honest, lately I've not been playing many PC games. The Crew and Swat 4 have been the two I've been playing around with, but nothing at the moment has been holding my attention. Tabletop games on the other hand really do hold my attention. I use the term tabletop to loosely include all non-virtual games. Board games, card games, and pen and paper RPGs are all included. So here's a run down of the three tabletop games that I've really been enjoying.

Munchkin

Spawned from the mind of Steve Jackson, a game designer who started designing games in the late 1970s, Munchkin uses classic RPG tropes in a card game based around exploring and exploiting a dungeon, combined with a cute and clever art style and writing that makes fun of the source material. The goal is to level up your character to level 10, and is achieved by defeating monsters. With a simple combat system based around getting a higher power number than the target, Munchkin can be picked up and played by just about anyone.

Where Munchkin really shines is the comedy side of it. With cards such as "Sword of Slaying Everything Except Squid", the "Duck of Doom" and "Bribe the GM with Food", you can gather that Munchkin has a sense of humour about itself and the source material it jokes about. Some cards use the literal gender of a player, while others allow you to straight up win the game if you are a certain class. I can safely say that playing Munchkin with a group of friends around a table is some of the best fun I've ever had while gaming.

Apocalypse World

The first ever pen and paper RPG I ever played, Apocalypse World is beautiful in how simple it is. One type of dice, the standard D6, some paper and a pen is all that is required to play AP. A narrative focused game (rather than stat based like D&D) AW allows players to describe their actions to their advantage, then back up what they are doing with a dice roll to either confirm they completed the action, or if they fail, how they failed. AW aimed to make pen and paper RPGs accessible to everyone, and succeeds in doing so in my opinion.

Apocalypse World also succeeds at being easy to "hack" (essentially to rewrite the system to suit a different setting). Where AW is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the version we played was set in the Mass Effect universe and played surprisingly well. One of the more well known hacks is Dungeon World, written by Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorra, which has been commercially successful for both of them. You can find a community updated list of Apocalypse World hacks here.

Stars Without Number

My favorite pen and paper RPG by far. Written by Kevin Crawford, and heavily inspired by the old school renaissance RPGs, Stars Without Number is a stat based, super deadly, sandbox RPG that has one of the most robust world creation tools around. I GM a game of SWN, and have found that its simple take on stats based action is reasonably easy for new players to pick up. My wife, who has never played a tabletop RPG before, was able to easily pick up the game without too many questions at all.

Where SWN stands out for me is in world building. Creating a sector involves a lot of rolling (or using this amazing tool at swn.emichron.com), but once created, you can involve the players in writing the history of the sector as they pick home planets and decide on their own backstory. It has tables for rolling alien races, religions, encounters, missions and NPCs, making it easy for new GMs (like myself), to create worlds that feel unique. There is also a whole "mini-game" that GMs get to indulge in: the faction turns. GMs get to create factions with their own goals, agendas and resources, then pit them against each other between real life sessions, progressing the story around the players so that the world feels alive.

SWN definitely scratches an itch for me. The creative itch of creating worlds that players can then go to and have adventures on. Worlds that feel unique to each other and have history, filled with organizations that have goals that don't rely on the players to progress. It's a really well written system.

If you want to try a tabletop game out, its as easy as getting a copy of the game, a few friends and a free night. I definitely feel that tabletop games are making a big comeback right now, and look forward to a time when they become as popular as virtual games as well.

As always though, and no matter how you do it,

GAME ON!