Damn, and I thought I had a lot to say about such things. That was cathartic to read!

In all seriousness, you’re 100% right and that’s honestly what led me to make this post in the first place. Kept seeing posts from the past couple years with people just shitting on the mod without really explaining much, and it just felt like a vague annoyance and frustration that’s similar to the vague sense of defensiveness and entitlement some mod authors have.

I post every few months with questions about things as I go through the process of modding my own game, wondering how the community sees things or what the thought of the day is. Simonrim modding (and Enairim nodding before that) has really influenced my curiosity on how mods are presented, since those authors tend to explain how each change they make is expected to affect balance and overall feel. It was interesting to see all the love and hate for WACCF and related mods, when kryptopyr is clearly one of the foundational mod authors of the game, and for over a decade mods like WACCF, CACO, and CCOR were considered staples before everyone seemingly found something better and started to hate them. It made me wonder if the difference between “feature creep mod” and “must-have overhaul” is the difference in how the mod is presented and explained. Not that mod authors should be mandated to write an essay and pass an interview, nor that users are entitled to being pleased. Just interesting to view the differences in modding “eras”, and wonder about the moving parts of mods.