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I once believed that Blizzard had my interests at heart. In retrospect, that was naïve. The shin-kicking that the company gave to Diablo aficionados early this month brought unwelcome clarity: The third installment will not support modding in any way, and the developer will "expressly prohibit" such activity in the terms of use "for a variety of gameplay and security reasons."
What you see is what you get in Diablo 3.
Blizzard made a big deal about the robust editor that launched with Starcraft 2. The studio even included a top-down shooter, The Lost Viking (a reference to Blizzard’s early console days), accessible in the single-player campaign to showcase the versatility of this tool.
With the Galaxy editor, savvy players can transform this real-time strategy behemoth into a variety of distinct genres. PC Gamer’s list from earlier this year showcases some of the best, which includes a role-playing game, a survival-horror adventure, and a space-themed Defense of the Ancients clone. Why the about-face for Diablo 3, then?
Action-RPG fans need not worry, though, because Torchlight 2 developer Runic Games’ Minister of Culture, Wonder Russell, and Crate Entertainment’s Arthur Bruno, lead designer for Grim Dawn, each told me about the ways that their respective, upcoming titles in the genre will support mods.
Both companies have extensive experience with user-generated content. Part of the current Grim Dawn (pictured right) team came from Iron Lore, where they created Titan Quest, a title that continues to host to a vibrant mod community due to the release of free tools.
Runic supported user content in Torchlight in the same way, and the team plans to continue that policy with the sequel. Ironically enough, co-founders Max and Erich Schaefer also ran the now-closed Blizzard North studio. There, the duo released the first two Diablos, which both allowed modding even if the practice wasn’t officially sanctioned.
For Torchlight 2, "Runic will be releasing the same tools with which we made the game, including TorchEd 2.0 and our 3D Studio max exporters," says Russell. What can players expect to do with those? "TorchEd 2.0 is the in-house tool used to build our levels, skills, UI [user interface], quests, particles, items, monsters, and effects. We also use it to manage game statistics and balance." She continues, "The 3D Studio exporters will allow people to import their own models and animations." Worried that this all might be a little over your head? Fear not! TorchEd 2.0 will use "a visual logic system that requires no programming experience."
Similarly, Bruno says, "We haven't established any limits on what we want modders to be able to do," and "we've greatly improved some of the modding tools over what was offered with Titan Quest."
For example, players didn’t have access to the exporter for Titan Quest, and thus, they experienced much difficulty when adding new models and animations to the game. In Grim Dawn, Bruno says, "I expect we'll probably release that to the public this time." He adds, "New gameplay systems — like factions — and the significantly more robust quest and conversation editors should provide a lot more power for modders to generate unique settings and experiences."
Think that giant skeleton is unfair? Torchlight 2's editors will let you manage statistics and balance.
What about multiplayer mods? That seems a little trickier than allowing user content in a single-player setting. Diablo 2 solved this issue by forcing players to create distinct Battle.net and non-Battle.net characters (i.e., for unmodded and modded play, respectively). Blizzard seems to think that’s too unwieldy for Diablo 3, though, so the studio has decided to go with an online-only model, which means the upcoming sequel will require an always-on Internet connection to play.
Both Russell and Bruno each told me that the developers at Runic and Crate intend to support multiplayer mods in their respective titles. Russell explained further that her team plans to make moving a single character between online and offline, modded and unmodded games "as seamless as possible." She continued:
The answer is somewhat complicated as the scope of mods can limit the flexibility of certain characters. If you create a character using a class mod…well, it becomes impossible for that character to play without the mod. We'll release more details about how we'll manage per-character changes from mods as we get closer to release.
Having developer-provided tools and explicit support for multiplayer mods makes a big difference, but all that can be for naught if downloading, installing, and mixing all this user-generated content is too arduous. That’s where Firaxis took off with the idea of the mod manager (e.g., the fan-built TorchLeech for Torchlight) and implemented an in-game browser for Civilization 5. Would either Grim Dawn or Torchlight provide such functionality?
Russell says that Runic has no plans for a browser; however, the company will support community mod managers where possible. "Torchlight will be showing you a list of mods that you have installed as well as the mods that other players are using." She adds, "We will attempt to streamline the process of acquiring, enabling, and disabling mods as needed and making the process of joining games requiring mods as simple as possible."
Indie studio Crate just doesn’t have the spare resources to add the feature to Grim Dawn (pictured right); although, Bruno says, "Players will still be able to install, uninstall, and mix mods; it just won’t be as slick as having a polished mod manager." He adds, "It might be something we can work in down the road if things go well for us."
Allowing and supporting user content seems like a mountain of additional work for already thinly stretched programmers. Why support them at all?
"We think that modding is a big factor in increasing the longevity of a game," says Russell. Bruno agrees and goes a step further: "I think modding really helps to extend the life of a game and strengthen the online community around it." How so? Bruno explains:
I’ve seen some exceptional and large-scope mods created for Titan Quest over the years such as Lilith: Will of the Demon and Underlord. The Masteries and xMax mods have greatly extended gameplay for avid fans. The community also banded together to create a fan-made patch after Iron Lore closed.
I’m sure that all these great mods, utilities, and fixes have been a big part of what has kept the Titan Quest community not only alive but growing since 2006. I think there are actually more people actively playing Titan Quest now than there were six months after the original release!
With all these positive benefits of mods, why would Blizzard give their Diablo community the cold shoulder? The developer says "gameplay and security reasons," but I have my suspicions. Bruno does, too: "I don’t see why modding would pose an increased security risk, but then again, I’m no expert in online security." He adds, "It should be sufficient to just restrict mods from secure servers and have open servers where anything goes."
Russell says, "We've chosen to squarely focus on the idea of playing modded games online with friends rather than a closed, competitive system" in Torchlight 2. And taking an opposing position to Blizzard, she says: "The scope of the modding tools that we are providing means that you can certainly imbalance or fundamentally change the game, and we're OK with that." While Runic will ensure that you can play vanilla Torchlight 2, Russell says, "We're really focusing on having an open system. We want to provide tools to manage with whom you play rather than restrict the content you can use."
Runic looks forward to what the community comes up with for Torchlight 2.
I contacted Blizzard to expand on the published justification for prohibiting mods in Diablo 3, but no one had returned requests for comment before publication. I suspect that the real-money auction house is the actual culprit. Now that Blizzard has involved bona fide dollars, the studio has an interest in carefully monitoring in-game items (and the company will potentially take three cuts for each transaction: one for listing, one for selling, and one if the seller cashes out). The developer can’t very well let people play Diablo in any way they choose — lest they use mods to flood the market with either ultra-powerful, unsanctioned weapons and armor or incredibly rare drops.
So, you’ve a choice: You could stick with the big guys who popularized the point-and-click action-RPG (hell, we call them Diablolikes for a reason) but who now want to assert greater control over your playing experience, or you can give the smaller outfits a shot — those who want to give you the tools to make the game your own.
I’ve already made my decision.
