Understanding Game Modding through Phases of Mod Development
Satyam Agarwal and Priya Seetharaman
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Keywords: Modding, Games, Development Phases, User-interaction.
Abstract: Game modding has been rapidly emerging as a source of competitive advantage in the gaming industry.
While gaming companies are increasingly focusing towards establishing modder communities, very little is
known about the process of modding itself. In this paper, we have carried out an analysis of activities of
mod developers on mod distribution websites and their interactions with mod users. The theoretical lens of
meta-structuring of technology use mediation helps us understand the phases of mod development. The
phases relate to the activities that gamers and modders perform in order to maximize the game-play
experience and usage of the mods respectively. We believe that these phases are integral part of mod
development and can be used to establish appropriate support infrastructure to nurture modder communities.
The paper concludes with implications for gaming firms and modding communities along with potential for
further research in the area.
1 INTRODUCTION
The size of the world gaming industry is an
estimated US $ 76 billion (Osathanunkul, 2014).
Numerous business models operate in this industry
that offer game development firms and gamers a
diverse set of options while at the same time the
industry is gradually attempting to adopt standards
towards portability across platforms (Laakso and
Nyman, 2014). The new platforms also offer the
possibility of co-creation of gaming content with
intense involvement from a community of people,
often called “modders”.
Modding can be defined as the activity to modify
an existing game with dedicated tools. (George,
2012). Mod developers, or modders, as they are
generally called, are the people who develop
software patches known as “mods” that modify an
existing game.
Mods offer numerous advantages to firms in the
gaming industry, to the extent that some game
publishers view mods as means to achieve
competitive advantage. The advantage of modding
can be nurtured by establishing dedicated and loyal
modding communities who provide priceless value
addition to the games. Firms make conscious
choices regarding the degree of formal support
extended to modders and modding communities.
At a fundamental level, mods are akin to any
software update or patch. Yet, unlike traditional
software development in proprietary software, mod
development has certain unique characteristics. First,
official patches or updates to software are usually
developed by the firm which released the software.
Mods are more commonly “unofficial patches” that
are developed by third-party modders. In some sense
this is similar to the open source software
development. Second, patches to software usually do
not alter the fundamental purpose or ‘tone’ of the
main software or application, while mods can extend
to altering the entire look and feel of the game (often
termed ‘total conversions’). Third, unlike utility
software and applications, games are “high-
involvement” products whose purpose is “fun”. This
“fun-factor” significantly influences game-playing
decisions. This makes development of games a lot
more complex than developing utility-oriented
business applications. Such complexity results from
the need to combine graphics and animation,
simulation, artificial intelligence and gameplay,
audio and in more recent times high degree of
networking resulting from multi-player options.
These unique characteristics necessitate treating
game development and therefore modding as a
unique phenomenon that deserves special attention
in information systems research. This paper attempts
to take a closer look at the process of mod
114
Agarwal S. and Seetharaman P..
Understanding Game Modding through Phases of Mod Development.
DOI: 10.5220/0005378801140121
In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2015), pages 114-121
ISBN: 978-989-758-098-7
Copyright
c
2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
development. While some similarities with
traditional methods of software development are
unavoidable, certain uniqueness in mod
development and modding as a phenomenon of
technology use can be seen. Considering the process
of modding as co-creation of content presents an
opportunity to also view it as a complex meta-
structuring of technology use. IS literature has
viewed structuring of technology use in the context
of utility-focused systems that are commonly one-
way (user uses the system) and sometimes two-way
(end-user uses the system and makes changes to the
system to suit her preferences) (Orlikowski et al.,
1994). But in the context of modding the complexity
increases by a magnitude much higher given the
interactions between a few thousand users and a few
modders within one game-one mod context. Our aim
in this paper, is to capture this complexity by
adapting and extending an existing framework of
structuring of technology use.
The paper is structured in the following manner.
We begin with a brief background on mods. Since
our paper uses meta-structuring of technology use as
the theoretical lens to understand modding and
phases of mod development, we then present a brief
review of meta-structuring in the context of
technology use. Section 3 presents an overview of
the methodology used to understand phases of mod
development. Using textual analysis of
conversations between modders and gamers on third
party modding platforms, and drawing from a
theoretical lens of meta-structuring of technology
use mediation, we then present phases in mod
development. We use conversations from a modding
forum of one particular mod as a case in point to
highlight the occurrence of the phases. The paper
concludes with implications of these findings for
modders, game development firms and for further
research in the area of modding.
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 Mods and Game Publishers
Mods are extremely valuable for game publishers or
gaming firms. Mods are essentially content
generated by modders free of cost that would have
otherwise been difficult for the game publishers to
create, design and develop on their own. It has been
estimated that the financial value of 39 mods
developed for top six first person shooter games of
2004 alone was between $10 million to $30 million
(Postigo, 2007). In addition, mods increase the value
of the game for the gamer. This results in increased
sales of the game and longer shelf life (Postigo,
2007). Mods also tend to create a dedicated
community of modders and fans which strengthens
the brand identity of the game and results in longer-
tailed sales curves (Harvard Law Review, 2012).
Two popular games to have specifically
benefitted from the phenomenon of modding are
Half-Life and Arma II. Half Life developed by
Valve, was a regular first person shooter game
which allowed users to add modifications such as
custom maps. These mods helped Half Life to
achieve extreme popularity. Indeed, one of Half
Life’s mods, Counter-Strike became so popular, that
it was repackaged by Valve as a separate game. Half
Life sold a total of 9.3 million units, and was the
most sold game ever till 2008 (Remo, 2008). In
addition, the sales of Half Life in its second and
third years were actually higher than its sales in its
first year, clearly indicating lengthening of its shelf
life (Arakji and Lang, 2007).
Another success story for user created mods has
been the DayZ mod for the game Arma II. The game
was released in 2009 by Bohemia Interactive (BI) as
a military simulator. The mod was developed by
Dean “Rocket” Hall, who then received critical
acclaim for his work and also joined BI as a lead
developer to work on the standalone version of
DayZ (Harman, 2012). The mod DayZ instilled life
into a game to which the response had hitherto been
lukewarm.
Many game publishers appreciate the impact of
mods on their revenues. This is evident when game
publishers - such as id Software,
BethedsaSoftworks, Epic Games, etc. explicitly
encourage modding activities (Postigo, 2007). About
38,000 mods are hosted on nexusmods.com for one
of Bethedsa’s game - Skyrim. These huge numbers
clearly indicate that given the right support from
game publishers, the modding community can churn
significant amount of content which will be
beneficial for both gamers as well as game
publishers. It is obvious, therefore, that the
companies, which can successfully foster dedicated
modder communities around their games, will stand
to gain a lot in an industry where increasing costs of
development coupled with unpredictable gamer
response have made game development an
extremely risky venture. In order for game
publishers to promote modding and modders,
understanding the uniqueness of modding and
modder communities is essential.
This paper attempts to answer the following
questions:
UnderstandingGameModdingthroughPhasesofModDevelopment
115
(a) How do modders and gamers interact? Can their
interactions help us understand the uniqueness of
modding as beyond “application” development?
(b) Can we draw from existing models of structuring
of technology use to help us draw parallels in the
modding context, but capture the nuances and
complexities in the co-creation of content?
2.2 Structuring of Technology Use
Most studies in the area of technology structuring
have thus far been able to capture the nuances in
structuration when the relationship between
developer and user is well-defined using the
software application or the organizational process
supported by the software application as the basis of
such interaction. Unlike such organizational
applications, games operate as “applications” with a
wider appeal and hardly any specific expected
“process support”. Interaction between modders and
gamers is reflective of a combination of co-creation
of content and application.
‘Structuration’ is the process through which
defined forms and arrangements are produced and
reproduced through the interaction between the
organizational human elements and technology.
Structuration theories in IS research (such as
DeSanctis and Poole, 1994) have argued that use of
technology (created by an interaction of the human,
organisational factors and the technology) is
structured by the context over time.IS research has
used structuration theory to understand various
aspects of technology use in organizations. A
detailed review of use of structuration in IS research
is available in Jones and Harsten (2003).
Adaptive structuration theory was also in parallel
supported by the Orlikowski’s duality of technology
model and subsequently meta-structuring of
technology use. In this stream of thought,
technology is identified as the outcome of human
action being fundamentally created and sustained
through human action, and being constituted through
use by such action. This emphasizes that only
through the appropriation of technology through
such continued use by humans can it exert influence
(Orlikowski, 1992). This is further extended in the
concept of meta-structuring where technology
structuring and use is influenced by the users’
understanding of their application of such
technology to their work, the social and
organizational environment, and the norms
governing such use in their context. Such meta-
structuring, therefore occurs over a period of time,
resulting in phased transitions of technology
structuring (Orlikowski et al., 1994). Further studies
have examined meta-structuring in the context of
more recent media including groupp support systems
(Henrikson et al., 2002; Yu and Khalifa, 2007).
3 METHODOLOGY
Our research questions mentioned above
necessitated analysing modder-gamer interactions
over time in order to understand the phases of mod
development reflective of the meta-structuring
process. Such interactions between modders and
gamers were usually on mod-sharing websites –
forum meant for interaction between modders and
gamers. We found that modders and gamers
primarily interact through third-party mod websites
and on game development firms’ platform. Third-
party mod websites are likely to be more neutral,
unrestricted by the gaming firm and therefore
present greater depth of conversations.
From amongst various third party mod websites,
we found nexusmods.com to be a relatively popular
mod distribution website. For the purpose of this
study, we have used the game The Elder Scrolls
V:Skryim developed by Bethedsa Game Studios and
distributed by Bethedsa Softworks. Skyrim was
chosen because it is one of the most popular single
player video games ever built, having sold over 20
million copies (Makuch, 2014). It must be noted that
only 14% of Skyrim’s sales were on the PC platform
(Statistic Brain, 2013), the platform for which mods
actually exist. Even so, it has become a phenomenon
and today of all games hosted on nexusmods.com,
Skyrim boasts of highest number of mods. It must
also be mentioned that the game’s developers,
Bethedsa studios, have always supported modding in
a big way and as a result a dedicated modding
community has been created around their Elder
Scolls franchise and Fallout franchise, since the days
of The Elder scrolls III: Morrowind, released back in
2002. Our choice of Skyrim does not preclude us
from extending our study to other games in the
future.
We chose to study two mods of Skyrim - Skyrim
Unleashed and Skyrim Redone. Our choice of game
and mods were based on various factors. Both these
mods can be categorized as overhauls, i.e. mods that
change multiple features of the game in order to
provide a new experience. Both of them are
available on nexumods.com for download. These
mods took around six to twelve months to develop
and are extremely popular amongst the Skyrim
gamers. We believe that popularity of a mod is
ICEIS2015-17thInternationalConferenceonEnterpriseInformationSystems
116
reflective of the level of engagement between the
users, i.e. gamers and the creators, i.e. modders
being very high. Both mods, Skyrim Unleashed and
Skyrim Redone have used some form of
collaboration between the mod creators to reach
their present forms.
We downloaded the conversations between
modders and gamers for the two mods mentioned
above for over a 24 month period from the mod
platform. Typical conversations included guides to
game play; clarifications on game features and mod
features; experience sharing; comments on game-
play experience; suggestions for mods; questions to
modders on mod-related and game-related issues;
solicitation of feedback from gamers by modders;
responses of modders to gamers’ requests; and
notices on new releases of the mod. These mods
were hugely popular going by the period of time
over which they were being downloaded (close to
two years) apart from the continued activity on the
mod forum.
The conversation text was coded using a
thematic coding approach. Thematic coding helps in
identifying patterned meaning in a dataset (Attride-
Stirling, 2001). In order to truly reflect the spirit of
the interaction, we used a combination of deductive
and inductive coding methods. Deductive coding
allowed us to be directed by our own understanding
of potential themes underlying the interactions, but
inductive allowed us to capture the surprises in the
data. To be specific, we have used the Word Lists
and Key words in Context technique (Ryan and
Bernard, 2003) to categorize the conversation
snippets into phases.
A total of 21000 snippets of conversation were
analysed using two levels of coding. First-level
coding was used to generate codes based on standard
phrases and keywords characterising the interaction.
For example keywords such as “interesting”,
“promising”, “endorsing” etc. were coded as
comments on game-play experience while keywords
such as “await”, “coming soon”, etc. were coded as
response of modders to gamers’ requests. Given the
volume of conversations, we partially automated the
first-level coding process using auto-coding
mechanisms, but random snippets were checked for
accuracy of coding. This first level coding process
was aimed at capturing a few types of interaction –
request, response, comment, feedback, etc.
A second level coding was done to look for more
in-depth themes surrounding mod development as
‘content’ or ‘application’ development such as
gamer involvement, requirements generation,
continuous development, iterations, mod rejections,
expression of user satisfaction, modder-gamer
collaboration, etc. The second level codes were
generated based on analysis of the text itself. One
author completed the coding process although codes
were agreed upon by all authors through discussion.
The codes were categorized and summarized to
help identify patterns and dominant themes in the
conversations between modders and gamers. An
iterative categorization and summarization process
enabled us to visualize the structuring of the gamer-
modder experience through the lens of meta-
structures. Due to paucity of space, we do not
present our complete textual analysis here, but
snippets are presented as part of the analysis and
findings.
4 RESULTS
A lens that we felt suited the meta-structuring of
modder-gamer interaction is the Orlikowski et al.,
(1994) technology use mediation phases. Their work
refers to four phases through which meta structuring
occurs in technology use mediation–establishment,
reinforcement, adjustment and episodic change.
While retaining four of the phases from their work,
we also felt the need to include one other phase
termed “promotion” as gamers and modders do not
necessarily function in an organizational context and
in most cases, active promotion of the mod is
required in order to enhance its user base. While this
is similar to the action of technology champions and
sponsors in organizational application diffusion, it is
usually an activity engaged upon by the modder
himself and through gamer-followers.
We have also replaced the phase “episodic
change” with the phase “expansion” since mod
development does not generally follow time-specific
episodic changes related to other organizational
variables. Although it is not rare that special needs
of different class of mod users warrants development
of more than one version of mods. We refer to this
as “expansion”. It must be noted that these phases do
not follow each other chronologically but exist
simultaneously throughout the lifetime of the mod.
We describe each phase in greater detail below.
Table 1 presents a summary of the five phases in the
context of modding. In table 2, we present snippets
of the conversations segregated according to the
phases. These conversations demonstrate how
interactions of modders with their target audience
drive the development of mods.
UnderstandingGameModdingthroughPhasesofModDevelopment
117
4.1 Establishment
The establishment phase begins with uploading the
mod on the distribution platform. In general,
overhaul mods change one or more features of the
game to make it more appealing to a particular class
of people. This target group is clearly defined by all
the mod developers. The changes to his/her
gameplay that the user will be required to make after
installing the mod are also communicated clearly.
Also, the mod developers have to take into account
that their users might be using other popular mods
which might be incompatible with their mods. Such
compatibility issues are resolved by making changes
to load order or using patches.
Table 1: Mediation in the Context of Modding.
Phase Description
1. Establishment:
Upload the mod on the internet and
establish the basic usage guidelines
2. Reinforcement:
Maintain the operational fidelity of
the mod and enable the users to
make changes to their game
configuration and gameplay in order
to use the mod
3. Adjustment:
Make changes to the mod to bring it
line with its stated objectives based
on discussions with the mod users
4. Promotion:
Advertising activities, especially
those other than development and
support that focus primarily on
increasing the usage of the mod
5. Expansion:
Produce additional versions of the
mod to cater to the special needs of
different class of users
4.2 Reinforcement
The reinforcement phase entails enabling the users
to make the fullest use of the mods. To remove any
bugs, the mod developers enlist some early users as
the beta testers of the mod. They also regularly
answer the queries of the mod users using the
comments section for each mod. Skyrim Redone and
Requiem also released guides which explained all
the changes made by the mod in detail. The guide of
SkryimRedone was 110 pages long while it 83 pages
long for Requiem. The developer of Skryim redone
also released a Reproccer which was basically a
software which allowed a user to make his own
compatibility patch for Skyrim Redone. Thus the
modders increase the usage of their mods by
enabling users to run them.
4.3 Adjustment
The Adjustment phase deals with making changes to
the mod according to the users’ demand to keep it
relevant. Since overhaul mods are more complex as
compared to most mods, they introduce far more
bugs. Fixing the bugs is the most important activity
of the Adjustment phase. Simultaneously, long
discussions with users on the comments section are
carried out where feedback is collected and the mod
developer may choose to carry out further
development provided there is sufficient number of
users demanding it.
4.4 Promotion
The nexusmods distribution platforms provides the
mod developers with some promotion features. The
mod developers can write articles giving a glimpse
to users about the upcoming features of the mod,
thereby keeping them engaged. The developers also
release videos and screenshots that show the
difference in gameplay brought upon by the mod,
thereby making it easier for the user to decide
whether to install the mod. They also host user
testimonials on their mod description page as a
means of attracting more users.
4.5 Expansion
The expansion phase deals with activities that allow
more users to use the mod. Skyrim has multiple
versions due to regular release of game updates as
well as release of 3 DLCs (downloadable content).
Therefore mods built for one particular version on
Skyrim may not work on others. These issues force
mod developers to build different versions of their
mod, each for a different version of Skyrim. In
addition, Skyrim was released in various languages.
To serve users using different languages, Skyrim
redone has been released in different languages. A
mod utility, Skyrim String localizer can translate
content introduced by mod into other languages.
5 DISCUSSION
The paper has attempted to analyse the interactions
between modders and gamers. This is the first time
interactions between modders and gamers are being
studied. Sotamaa (2010) states that the mod users
give ideas to modders and demand new features,
however, the extent of user participation and its
impact had not been investigated, until now.
The snippets show that modders are not only
active on mod forums, they also listen to their users
and even make changes to their mods according to
ICEIS2015-17thInternationalConferenceonEnterpriseInformationSystems
118
Table 2: Snippets of the Conversation between Modder and Gamers.
Phase Classification Keywords Examples
Establishment
In the establishment phase,
we have classified those
conversations which help to
clarify the purpose and the
target audience of the mod,
as well as some guidelines
that are to be followed while
using the mod. It is usually
available in the mod
description. However many
times, users do require
clarification.
Since most mods focus on a
particular type of change in
the gameplay, the keywords
referring to this
classification usually denote
the change that the mods
bring into the gameplay
Difficult,
Specialization,
Realistic
USER: “SOUNDS, brilliant... My argument though with the
average RPG, is that they tend to avoid realism..<<>>... I love
the idea of a harder Skyrim... But I'll just raise the difficulty to
the highest if need be... <<>> I'm gonna track this one and see
if things change to the tactical and realistic... <<>>
Modder: “realism and rpg are not always a good combination.
Gameplay is the most important thing to keep in mind. Killing
mobs in one shot, or being killed in one shot, ok it is ultra
realistic, but I don't think it would be appreciated by a lot of
players.<<>> an elder scrolls should remain a "not so realistic
but immersive and modded" RPG ;)Unleashed adds the
realistic leveling and DUEL adds the tactical combats, so why
don't you give it a try? ^^”
Modder: “<<>> If you only wield one weapon, you have a free
hand to be filled with a shield, spell, whatever; with two
handed weapons, you have less options, and therefore need
more specialization.”
Promotion
Promotion is done by
modders to increase the
usage of their mods.
Modders make videos,
screenshots, available and
gamers write testimonials.
But such promotion is also
likely to occur through
positive user comments
about the mod which serve
to validate the mod’s
promise and thus increase
the probability of its
download. Therefore, such
positive comments have
been categorized under the
promotion phase.
Keywords referring to the
promotion phase are usually
those which represent
possible adjectives used by
the users for the mods.
Awesome,
fantastic,
impressive,
thank you, nice
User: “This sounds awesome! But I will probably wait for the
Immersive armors compatibility. Tracking!”
User: “This sounds fantastic. Very well laid out and it's
obvious that a lot of thought and testing went into it. "Skyrim
Unleashed" is now featured on Skyrim GEMS under category
300 - Gameplay Overhaul.
User: “This looks promising! Basically it seems to be exactly
what i've been looking for regarding scaling. I'm going to test
it soon.”
User:”Reading through the changelog, it appears to be an
impressively well thought out amount of content. <<>>.”
User: “I managed to load it with a recently started game
without corrupting any data, as I'd only taken basic perks.
Everything looks good, and it's good to have such room to
grow, seeing as I also use the uncapper. Thank you for sharing
this with us.”
User: “Wow, really nice mod you got there! I think your mod
is the closest thing I've seen from the perfect intelligent and
not overpowering balanced needed for perks. Quite a feat!”
Reinforcement
In the reinforcement phase,
the snippets represent the
conversation where the user
has already downloaded the
mod but is having problems
in playing the game with the
mod. Hence the modder
solves the problems &
doubts of the users, thereby
reinforcing the mod usage.
The keywords used for the
reinforcement phase are
generally indicative of some
of the problems that the user
might be facing while using
the mod.
crash,
compatible,
working
User: “Im using better horses and its compatible so far as i can
tell. Havent done much riding but at least it doesnt
crash..”<<>>
Modder: “@ shiaun: Good news on Better Horses. Bad news
on the Nord racial... I'll look into it<<>>”
User: “This mod is great! however, as i am using midas and
Phenderix with this mod, the game always crash when i use
conjuration spells, so could i ask you to kindly made a
compatible version with these two mods?”
Modder: “@donald926: Your PM was answered. I'll also add a
paragraph about compatibility to the description.”
User: “hum ... i just updated from 1.5 to version 1.6 and hum
... the item seems not to be working anymore.<<>> Think i'll
just try to go back to version 1.5 ....”
Modder: “@Zack777 Version 1.6 works fine (I play with it
and users of this mod too), be sure it's loaded last in your load
order, and...je suisfrançaisaussi ^^”
UnderstandingGameModdingthroughPhasesofModDevelopment
119
Table 2: Snippets of the Conversation between Modder and Gamers (cont.).
Adjustment
In adjustment phase, users
induce the modder to make
changes to the mod, either
to remove a big, or further
updates to make the mod
more relevant to their
needs.
Keywords referring to
adjustment phase either
refer to bugs, or focus on
further changes in the
mod.
Additional,
shouldn’t,
Bug, update,
suggestion
User: “Stability could use some more ranks. Like maybe 1
additional rank for another 50% duration or 2 additional
ranks for 25% each.”
Modder: “Stability definitely needs additional ranks.
Somehow I managed to overlook that.”
User: “Impact shouldn't be allowed to be 100% of the time.
You could set it to only 30% or make 2 ranks of 15..<<>>”
Modder: “Destruction: Agreed completely on Impact..<<>>”
Modder: “I've added a new version that makes Impact chance-
based..”<<>>
User: “There's a bug that removes the Ice Spike spell from the
game, also enemy shouts level up the player's speech”
Modder: “@ archxeno: “the shouts-bug will be fixed in a
couple of minutes. <<>>”
User: “I think modifying Speechcraft so that shouts increase
the skill is an incredible idea.<<>>”
Modder: “<<>>(next update). That update will also include
shouts that level Speechcraft”<<>>
Expansion
Expansion phase refers to
those conversations that
result in development of
additional versions of the
mod for users running
different setups of Skyrim.
The Keywords for expansion
refer to parameters on the
basis of which Skyrim
setups are differentiated.
Language,
version
User: “Hi! Is there any chance that this mod will be translated
in other languages, like Italian?”
Modder: “@Begazzo81 If you use the standard version, it can
be easily translated in your own language using Skyrim string
localizer. Try to learn how to use this tool (really easy by the
way)”
User: “A version without Dawnguard? :(“
User: “Sounds promising, but sadly won't be able to use it
because it requires dawnguard.”
User: “Would love to buy the Dawnguard DLC but sadly it
brings too much trouble/issues with other mods”
Modder: “COMING SOON: NON-DAWNGUARD
VERSION! (If everything is well...)”
Note: The snippets are not chronological, but have been edited to show continuity
users’ wishes. Users also help modders by giving
ideas for future development of mods & contributing
in the form of beta testers. Hence, tracking
interactions on mod forums using thematic analysis
proves to be an effective tool to study mod
development.
Mod forums provide an excellent platform for
the interaction between modders and gamers, with
their reach, focus, and flexibility. However, not all
mod platforms might be suitable for research. For
example, the most all-time top rated Skyrim mod on
Steam workshop, another popular mod distribution
system, had only 1600 comments and 2 small
threads. By comparison, on Nexusmods, the thread
of Skyrim Redone mod alone has over 38000 posts.
Hence, Nexus is the best platform to study
interactions between modders and gamers for now.
6 CONCLUSIONS
It is intriguing that despite obvious benefits of
modding for the gaming industry, the process of
modding itself has not been dealt with in greater
detail. A similar phenomenon such as open source
software development received tremendous attention
in the IS literature. One possible explanation is that
gaming and simulation researchers are more
concerned with the technological aspects of the
gaming and modding less with modding as a
phenomenon – behavioural or sociological. IS
researchers, on the other hand, are more interested in
organizational and individual technology use with a
focus on infrastructure and utility applications, far
less with entertainment-focused “applications”. The
trend, though, is fast changing. Games, apps,
especially in the context of ‘mobile’ and ‘social’ are
indeed amongst the interests of IS researchers.
Modding as a phenomenon has attempted to
enhance gaming experience while the process of
modding through community driven discussion
forums has introduced a significant social aspect to
the entire phenomenon. ‘Are geeks social?’ is a
question that has often been asked. Modding as a
phenomenon is testimony to the fact that geeks (in
this case, modders) are indeed tending towards
‘social’ as more and more technologies that enable
social interaction come to play.
ICEIS2015-17thInternationalConferenceonEnterpriseInformationSystems
120
REFERENCES
Arakji, R., Lang, K., 2007. Digital Consumer Networks
and Producer-Consumer Collaboration: Innovation
and Product Development in the Video Game
Industry. Journal of Management Information Systems
24(2), 195-219.
Attride-Stiring, J. 2001 Thematic netweorks: An Analytial
tool for Quantitative Research. Qualitative Research,
1(3), 385-405
DeSanctis, G., Poole, M. S. 1994. Capturing the
complexity in Advanced Technology use: Adaptive
Structuration Theory, Organization Science 5(2), 121–
147
George, S., Lavoué, E., Monterrat, B., 2012. An
Environment to Support Collaborative Learning by
Modding. Le Centre national de la
recherchescientifiqueestunorganisme public de
recherche.
Jones, M., Karsten, H. 2003. Review: Structuration
Theory and Information Systems Research, Working
Paper, Judge Institute of Management, University of
Cambridge.
Harman, S., 2012. DayZ's Dean Hall: Rocket Man Rising.
August 21. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-
08-21-dayzs-dean-hall-rocket-man-rising. [Accessed
3
rd
December, 2014]
Harvard Law Review. 2012. Spare the mod: in support of
total-conversion modified video games. Harvard Law
Review, 125(3), 789-810.
Henrikson, D., Nicolajsen, H. W., Pors, J. K. 2002.
Towards Variation or Uniformity? Comparing
Technology-Use Mediations of Web-Based
Groupware. In Proceedings of the 10
th
European
Conference of Information Systems, Gdansk, Poland
Laakso, M., Nyman, L., 2014. Innovation Opportunities:
An Overview of Standards and Platforms in the Video
Game Industry,Technology Innovation Management
Review, available at http://timreview.ca/article/808.
[Accessed: 3rd December, 2014].
Makuch, E., 2014. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sells 20
million copies. January 27, available at
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-elder-scrolls-v-
skyrim-sells-20-million-copies/1100-6417363/.
[Accessed: 3
rd
December, 2014]
Orlikowski, W. J. 1992. The duality of technology:
rethinking the concept of technology in organizations.
Organization Science, 3(3), 398-427.
Orlikowski, W., Yates, J., Okamura, K., Masayo F., 1994.
Shaping Electronic Communication: The
Metastructuring of Technology in Use. Organization
Science, 6(4), 423-444.
Osathanunkul, C., A classification of business models in
video game industry. International Journal of
Management Cases, 17(1), 35-44.
Postigo, H., 2007. Of Mods and Modders: Chasing Down
the Value of Fan-Based Digital Game Modifications.
Games and Culture.2(4), 300-313.
Pozzebon, M., Pinsonneault, A. 2001. Structuration
Theory in the IS field: an Assessment of Research
Strategies.In Proceedings of European Conference on
Information Systems held at Bled, Slovenia.
Ryan, G. W., Bernard, H. R. 2003 Techniques to identify
themes. Field methods. 15(1), 85-109
Remo, C., 2008. Analysis: Valve's Lifetime Retail Sales for
Half-Life, Counter-Strike Franchises. December 3.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.
php?story=21319. [Accessed 3
rd
December, 2014]
Sotamaa, O., 2010. When the Game Is Not Enough:
Motivations and Practices Among Computer Game
Modding Culture. Games and Culture, 5(3), 239-255.
Statistic Brain. 2013. Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V
Statistics. Dec 19, available at
http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls
-v-statistics/. [Accessed: 3
rd
December, 2014].
Yu, A. Y., Khalifa, M. 2007. A Conceptual Model for
Enhancing Intra-Group Knowledge Sharing [Online]
http://sprouts.aisnet.org/7-15 [Accessed: 29
th
January,
2015]
UnderstandingGameModdingthroughPhasesofModDevelopment
121
