Thursday, July 9, 2009

Compiling Error - Programmer Too Horny

Mods are created almost exclusively by fans of a particular video game. While there are some exceptions (kids looking into video game design will often practice by making mods) they are very rare. Video games are a recreation still dominated by males, especially younger males. While some say that males 18-25 are the largest gaming group, I would argue that this is only the case because of older males having more disposable income. Personally I would say that the largest group is males 12-18 years old. Including that teenage males tend to have a large amount of free time, and are often creating large projects individually for the first time, and it's not really surprising that most mods are created by teenage boys (note that I did not say "best" mods). Unfortunately having mods made by boys who are struggling with puberty leaves you with a problem that you might expect.

For every enhanced light shading mod you'll find three that add larger breasts. For every new area with content, there's a high chance that the new will include some type of brothel. Teenage boys are not the only ones to blame for this content, as males even before puberty often get such ideas in their heads, and if the content is homosexual in nature, odds are pretty much five to one that the creator is a teenage women (If you don't believe me check out the numbers on homosexual fanfiction for something like Harry Potter !FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY DO NOT DO THIS!).

Beyond these problems you'll find the inexperienced coders often have buggy code that leads to memory leaks or other game halting problems and it is rare to find a mod that isn't rife with spelling errors. Despite these difficulties, mods can add a tremendous amount of content to video games and extend their lifespan far beyond the usual six month maximum (most players get bored of a game in six months or less). Personally, I can't wait to play with the tools that Blizzard has announced will be released alongside Starcraft 2 when it comes out sometime in the next 6-32 months.

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