Modding Theoretics

[Rowan]

I should add that the whole shrouded in mystery thing should be applied to large quest type mods only. If it's gameplay changes or anything else, I usually like to see a lot of explanation...

[Lady_Nerevar]

it's starting to become an amazing read, but (I forgot who said it) What makes a good idea? is it something loved by the community or loved by yourself?

As G said, I think you really have to love your mod in order for it to succeed. A big mod, especially, requires a lot of dedication, and you simply can't do good work if you don't care about what you're doing. Since we all tend to have similar tastes (up to a point), something that you really love is likely to be wanted by the community.

[Critterman]

Agreed, I like to think I mod purely for my own enjoyment, but the reality is I always have the communities interest in the back of my mind. Sometimes I create a feature in my mod just for the community rather than for my own use because I want it to appeal to them more. Modding for the community is usually a death sentence for a mod, and should definitely not be the philosophy for a large mod. The best of my mods have been geared specifically for my own use actually, some I haven't ever released, mostly because it is so personalized for me. This is the best way to mod (at least for me); when you notice something that could be changed while playing the game yourself and then getting excited and make it all for yourself. That is the best kind of determination, in my opinion. After that, you can always gear it more for the community, which is far easier with the actual mod completed.

[WhoGuru]

and some types of mods are just doomed to slip into anonymity with rarely visited RELz threads and only a small group of people who think to tell you that yes, they love your work.

House/Village modding. You don't do it for the public accolades. LOL

[Arthmoor]

House/Village modding. You don't do it for the public accolades. LOL

Amen to that. It's a lonely niche, but one we still love

[Artisanix]

Quite interesting discussion there...

Though for me it all is quite simple. What makes the mod popular is... the content. And simply once again - the more the better.

The more content it has in comparison to already released things, the better. The more quality in your mod, the better. The more new things it contains, the better. The more finished product it is, the better... and so on, so on, so on...

[BootySweat]

That's an interesting point, some advice that I should probably heed.

step by step guide to a blockbuster release:

1. 
   
   
2. communicate with fellow players and modders - a lot - make some friends and learn from others failures and success
   
3. learn construction set basics - release mods using the skills you've learned
   
4. learn more difficult modding skills - release more mods using those skills
   
5. begin working on your dream project by your lonesome and create something substantial
   
6. make a WIP thread and post some screenies and a basic plan - explain as necessary, but don't reveal too much - you want to create feeling of mystery around the mod. Why download it if you already know what happens? You want to start off with a bang to get people interested and motivated - to show that you can actually accomplish something.
   
7. create a separate forum exclusively for the development of your mod
   
8. create a website exclusively for the mod and post your teasers and screenies there.
   
9. start recruiting a team
   
10. work your butt off for as long as it takes - stay dedicated and don't rely on others to get it done for you - but guide and motivate the team because they are an important asset and they've volunteered their time to help you.
    
11. continue to post teaser screenies and vids that don't reveal too much of the plot or full scope of the mod - the idea is keep people interested
    
12. before release, make a decent trailer and take some quality screenies. post them up while you polish the mod and playtest the heck out of it.
    
13. release! give support and take comments - fix and release as necessary
    

If we are talking about what it takes to build huge buzz for a mod and get a lot of people talking about it, along with some notoriety for the modders, I would disagree with this list.

There are some excellent mods that generate lots of downloads and are tremendously well known to many gamers with experience installing mods. On a certain level, these mods are famous and some will invariably be included in articles on gaming websites that review, say "The Top Ten Must Have Oblivion Mods," etc.

However, the number of people who frequent modding forums and follow the progress of mods in general is relatively small. To get press coverage for your mod on the level of Andoran or Neherim takes a different approach.

Step one: finish enough of your mod to make a kickass trailer

Step two: make a kickass trailer

Step three: circulate this trailer along with stills and key information about your mod directly to hundreds of gaming journalists and bloggers. Try to think about things from a journalist's perspective and tell the story of your mod in a way that makes it newsworthy.

Edited August 1, 2011 by BootySweat

[ub3rman123]

Nehrim had a ton of publicity for it. For one thing, it was a sequel to an already hugely popular Morrowind TC, Arktwend. So they have people who care about the mod right out the door. Second, they released a trailer just about every year which thousands of people watched. And third, it was actually a good mod. Few modders take the time to do what Nehrim did, and for that kind of quality Nehrim got a lot of publicity.

For those able to see it, QQuix posted an interesting topic in the Nexus modders' forum that has some interesting details about publicity affecting downloads.

[DarkRider]

For those able to see it, QQuix posted an interesting topic in the Nexus modders' forum that has some interesting details about publicity affecting downloads.

Maybe a reprint rather than a link would be more beneficial to this discussion as lots of us here have no access to the Nexus Elite House.

[BootySweat]

Nehrim had a ton of publicity for it. For one thing, it was a sequel to an already hugely popular Morrowind TC, Arktwend. So they have people who care about the mod right out the door. Second, they released a trailer just about every year which thousands of people watched. And third, it was actually a good mod. Few modders take the time to do what Nehrim did, and for that kind of quality Nehrim got a lot of publicity.

For those able to see it, QQuix posted an interesting topic in the Nexus modders' forum that has some interesting details about publicity affecting downloads.

That seems to be a broken link.

[ub3rman123]

I'll paste some of the more interesting bits.

I've not seen much discussion about download behavior over time, so I thought it would be interesting to share some data I collected over the last few years.

The graph below is for my oldest mod, the Divine Elegance Showroom. This mod is a not-so-popular-not-so-ignored type and I guess its download stats is typical for mods of this (mid-range) type.

There are several conclusions about player-downloader behavior one may reach from the shapes on the graph.

Some of the conclusions:

(the mod is tagged as "Mature" because it allows the player to control NPCs clothing and I don't want parents complaining about their kids looking at naked bodies on my account )

1. Lots of people look at the mod page (red line) but not so many download it (blue line). I would guess that those are the one that are looking for real mature mods and get disappointed as this one is not what they are looking for.

2. About the exposure given by the "top list" pages: the bend-up of the views line (red), about two years ago, happened when the Nexus created the "Top 100 most endorsed files (adult only)". At that time this mod was about mid-way on the list. Over time, the mod went down on the list and, finally, dropped off a few months back. The views line returned to its original inclination.

3. Notice that, although the rate of people looking at the page increased a lot during this period, the rate of downloads was not affected, reinforcing the aforementioned "disappointment" theory.

4. It is surprising that after 3+ years, the mod still has a steady download average of about 5 downloads per day (green line). It is surprising how slowly it falls and how steady it is. If I did not have the numbers, I would guess a much quick exhaustion of the interest and an erratic download curve after that.

The green line is the rate of downloads (number of downloads per day) for the last 3 years. So we see that the mod was, at the beginning after the first surge, downloaded at a rate of about 20 per day. Nowadays it is downloaded about 5 times per day, on the average.

The red and blue lines are cumulative counts of views and downloads (collected every weekend).

Thanks, sendo. Not really a big deal. Just a few minutes per Sunday.

As for the erratic vs. smooth curve, it is because up to that date I was collecting data daily.

In Oct 2009 I got tired of the process and started collecting data weekly and plotted the daily average for the week (more spaced points = smoother curve).

Btw, the two small spikes in April and May-2009, as far as I can guess, were caused by (1) a Japanese site mentioned the mod and (2) I added a video to the Nexus page.

Yeah, I forgot about the bots. They must account for some of the views.

The green line is the rate of downloads (number of downloads per day) for the last 3 years. So we see that the mod was, at the beginning after the first surge, downloaded at a rate of about 20 per day. Nowadays it is downloaded about 5 times per day, on the average.

The red and blue lines are cumulative counts of views and downloads (collected every weekend).

???

Edited August 2, 2011 by ub3rman123