How often have you, confronted with a mediocre game, have you gone browsing for mods, only to find what you seek isn't there?

Perhaps it isn't that mods will "fix" the game, but it's been designed in a way that's fundamentally incompatible with the way you play. This is part of why I retired from the Pokemon series; I was growing tired of the fundamentally played out battle system and absurdly weak plotlines.

Mods cannot fix the problems I have with the Pokemon series, because it would transform the game at a level which may as well be a different game; to explore a beautiful world, care for creatures, and not have to even once think about a combat style that was getting outmoded when it was new.


I have a similar problem with Slime Rancher; except in that case the game is all sugar and no substance. There's no meat to the game, which is weird given that you're given all these options and "reasons" to explore, but nothing to really reward it for; because that's not actually what the game is "about".


I've noticed this sentiment around Starfield as well; fundamentally, it is a game stuck in a mentality of last decade, if not further ago. While many people are fine with this, many are expecting a game with a baseline competence approaching that of Morrowind; (which has problems with design you can trace back to Daggerfall and/or Arena.) But at least Morrowind had an interesting lore going for it.

I have this feeling with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games... I bought the 3 original games before S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 was announced but the vanilla game without mods feels too janky which is why i never got past the prologue.

I heard it's much better with mods though, but i never play with mods on my first playthrough.

The whole 'mods will fix this' trend is something that managed to pass me by, quite merrily, i like to add.

Even in Total War, i rarely felt the need to add a mod. And this is a series that has a 'strong' modding community.

The only exception i make is with older titles. Heroes of Might and Magic IV or III for example. I much prefer to enjoy those titles full screen.

Might be me but, if you have landed on the 'mods will fix this' stripe, you might want to consider if you set out with a wrong set of directions

Mods are sometimes useful for fixing minor issues. (In my current Dragon Quest 9 playthrough, I'm using an AR code that makes the text speed instant, for example.)

If the game is popular enough, mods may even allow for extensive changes, or even total conversions.

However, a mod won't fundamentally change the game. For example, I can't see there ever being a mod that would make me truly enjoy Baldur's Gate 2 (the real-time-with-pause combat is a major issue I have with that game).

I don’t understand the point.

Are you saying that a game isn’t the kind of game you want to play, that it was made for people with different tastes than yours, and that no one has created a mod specifically to cater to your preferences? Particularly since most mod creators likely enjoy the game as it is and focus on improving it or expanding its content, rather than turning it into an entirely different type of game.

I don’t get it, why not just find a different game that suits your taste, rather than expecting someone to read your mind from across the globe and create a mod that changes the game into what you want? Or better yet - become a mod creator yourself and change the game exactly how you want it.

PS: I like both Slime Rancher and Starfield.

My solution to this problem is research, and I mean EXTENSIVE research of any given game before purchasing. Sometimes (a lot actually) a game seems to be something that it is not... "Oh, this looks interesting... oh, it has nothing to do with what I thought it was... pass". That means I skip like 99,9% of games being released. My wallet is happy though. Think of it as a more focused approach to buying games. Quality over quantity.

Truth is I discovered most of the elements I like in video games, are actually being done in board games and "gamebooks", of all places. So I tend to complement both types of games (and reading) depending on what I'm looking for at the time. Some appropriate background music does wonders for books and board games.

Idle musing and contemplation, mostly. One part about me being at opposite ends of a franchise I used to be into, one part of the idea that people have seriously scored games including mods, and the strange world of paid mods... Sure. But all the research in the world won't save you from a bad developer roadmap or a fandom ruining throw; Starbound had quite the promising start, but the updates came and ruined the game by removing the openness of the traversal and systems. Darkest Dungeon used to be a reasonable game, but then it listened to the Soulslike tryhards and became a Kaizo dungeon crawler, and I'm sure other cases of this have happened.

I dunno….couldn’t read it. Too many haves in the first sentence that make it ungrammatical and incomprehensible . I didn’t even bother to try the rest. Try this instead: How often have you, confronted with a mediocre game, gone browsing for mods, only to find what you seek isn't there? You’re welcome.

I like to muse as well, but there’s musing, and then there’s musing.

Like, what if an elephant could spin spider webs? How thick would the thread be? And could it hold a charging rhinoceros?
Or if taste had colors, would bitter taste like brown, or would it have a pink tint? In the end, just musings, but completely pointless.

I always wondered what the sound of the word purple smelled like. ROTFLMAO and spot on.

The keyword there is "roadmap". If there's a roadmap, the game is not finished. I do not buy games that have a roadmap. I buy a finished product. If they change a finished game with updates, then yeah, that's actually impossible to prevent and that developer would be on a "no no" list from then on. If a franchise changes so much (like in your case with Pokémon) then you are no longer the public for said franchise. And that's ok, you can still play the old games, or you can look for a new alternative to that franchise. I happen to love The Simpsons (up to the 13th season) and still enjoy watching them and even quote them... everything afterwards I don't even bother anymore. To me, is the same with games. Tomb Raider I-III are among my favorite games ever... IV and V were meh to me, VI was a disaster some people like, the LAU trilogy was just ok... and the reboot was the death of the franchise for me... but they can't take my old games from me. They decided I was no longer part of their product target, I don't have to put up with that and simply moved on.

Those are not issues tho? you just want an entirely different approach, which is fine, but not something that needs to get fixed. And the competitive scene of Pokemon is perfectly healthy and interesting thanks to the terastallization which opened up a lot of combinations and picks, so objectively the combat system is in a great place right now

Also the main issue people have with Slopfield it's not that it's stuck in the last decade, but that last decade games did everything better lol

Personally, I'd say that if I need some major overhaul mods to enjoy a game, then that game it's just not for me. Mods exist to elevate what's already there, not to turn it into something completely different

be thankful, some games can never be fixed ever..

And I'd have 0 interest in that type of game lol

For me Pokemon is all about the training and adventure, they can of course spice up the formula like some entries have already tried (like taking a more open world approach) but nothing that radical, that would be a completely different thing