A Case Study of Elite: Dangerous
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Trepo - Institutional Repository of Tampere University MODDING IN MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAMES - A CASE STUDY OF ELITE: DANGEROUS Juha Syrjä University of Tampere Faculty of Communication Sciences Information Science and Interactive Media Master’s Thesis April 2018 UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE, Faculty of Communication Sciences Information Science and Interactive Media SYRJÄ, JUHA: Modding in Massively Multiplayer Online Games - A Case Study of Elite: Dangerous Master’s Thesis, 61 pp., 1 appendix April 2018 The aim of this thesis was to study played-created third-party tools in the massively multiplayer online game Elite: Dangerous through the lens of modding and argue that Elite tools constitute a type of game mod. Modding historically refers to players modifying game software, but modding in Elite is not sanctioned by the game developer. Elite players have instead created standalone tools (both web applications and downloadable programs) that harvest and utilise the game's informational content, or game data, to enhance Elite gameplay. The existing academic typology of game mods do not account for standalone tools, largely due to a lack of precise definition on what modding is and what player-creations can be considered as game mods. Both Elite tools and their creators are studied. First, an empirical research on Elite tools was conducted that produced a typology of third-party tools and analysed their relation to the game. Second, a survey on Elite tool developers carried out to find out how they relate their creations as well as inquiring about their modding habits and views on the concept. Although third-party tools can be considered as game mods as per academic definitions, the main finding of the thesis was that there is a disconnect in how players and academia define mods and modding. For players, game mods are those creations that explicitly alter game software, while academic definitions are more wide-ranging and include the notion of changing how a game is played. Keywords: games, modding, mods, mmog, elite dangerous Contents 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................6 2.1 What is modding?....................................................................6 2.2 Evolution of modding...............................................................7 2.3 Types of mods......................................................................10 2.4 Paratext...............................................................................13 2.5 Participatory culture...............................................................15 2.6 Free labour...........................................................................18 2.7 Modders and their motivations.................................................21 2.8 Working definition of digital game modifications.........................23 3 ELITE: DANGEROUS MODDING......................................................26 3.1 Elite: Dangerous....................................................................26 3.2 Method and data...................................................................28 3.3 Game data...........................................................................28 3.4 Types of third-party tools........................................................30 3.4.1 API tools........................................................................31 3.2.2 Online tools....................................................................33 3.2.3 Trading tools...................................................................35 3.2.4 Player character tools.......................................................37 3.2.5 Overlays.........................................................................38 3.2.6 Mobile device tools...........................................................39 4 ELITE MODDER SURVEY...............................................................41 4.1 Method and data...................................................................41 4.2 Survey design.......................................................................42 4.3 Results.................................................................................44 4.3.1 Background....................................................................44 4.3.2 Play...............................................................................45 4.3.3 Modding.........................................................................46 4.3.4 Modding in Elite...............................................................49 4.3.4 Views on mods and modding.............................................52 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS..................................................54 REFERENCES.................................................................................59 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY FORM............................................................62 1 INTRODUCTION Games, particularly commercial ones, are often thought of as closed systems that are designed to be played in a certain way according to the rules set by the game designer. However, games are by their very nature malleable with room for free play and manipulation (Sotamaa and Wirman, 2015), be it through implementing house rules for a board game or creating a variant of a card game. In context of digital games, players have a long history of altering games by tweaking game code, adding or removing content, and generally consuming games in ways unanticipated by their designers. The practice of modifying digital games has become an important characteristic of gaming culture, known as modding (from modify or modification) (Laukkanen, 2005; Sotamaa and Wirman, 2015), and it has permeated virtually all types of digital games. In modding, players create modifications, or mods, that vary greatly in terms of how, what or to what extent they alter or add to a game (Sotamaa and Wirman, 2015). Game mods range from altered game code that transform game rules to audiovisual changes and, depending on definition, may even include modifications to gaming hardware (Scacchi, 2010). More ambitious mods called total conversion mods may replace all original content of a game, leaving only the underlying game engine untouched, and in the process create new game modes (Laukkanen, 2005; Scacchi, 2010). Although modding has become a common practice that game companies nowadays support by releasing modding tools and generally opening up the game system for players to tinker with, in online multiplayer games it is typically prohibited or limited to certain aspects 1 in order to ensure that players are on a level playing in terms of game balance. In massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which great numbers of players inhabit the same virtual world simultaneously, modding is typically altogether prohibited or limited to certain aspects of the game, such as the game’s user interface (UI). World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004), for instance, has a vibrant UI modding scene where players create add-ons that change the functionality of the UI or reveal information that would otherwise be inaccessible. Perhaps more often than not, however, modding in MMOGs is not possible, which is not to say that players are left without means to change the way the game is is played. In the MMOG Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments, 2015), even the UI is off-limits for players to tinker with. Elite is a spaceship simulation game set into the far future, when mankind has settled thousands of star systems and space travel is commonplace. Elite players captain spaceships to explore the virtual Milky Way, fight off space pirates (or become one themselves) and trade between the myriad settlements of the populated space and so on (Elite is introduced in more detail in chapter 1.3). Being an online game, Elite game servers are in constant communication with game clients to keep both the players and the game world up to date. In the absence of ways to modify the game software itself, Elite players have instead developed tools that observe the traffic between game servers and game clients, copy and store the data, and allow players to sort, filter and manipulate it in ways that are not possible in the game itself. The most common functionality of these third-party tools is to keep track of the game’s virtual market data and discover profitable trade routes by cross-referencing the saved data. Considering that the game does not provide players means to keep track of the trading or other relevant data players come across during play, these tools play an important role for Elite players. In other 2 words, third-party tools extend the game’s information management capabilities and thus enable players to play the game in a more enriched way - effectively circumventing the game’s rules. The existing academic definition of modding and typology of mods do not account for these kinds of player-creations, largely due to the lack of precise definition on what modding is and what constitutes a game mod (Laukkanen, 2005). As Scacchi phrases it, “if in some way you alter a game, how its [sic] played, or on what it is played, have you created a game mod?” (Scacchi, 2010., under Customizing, tailoring, and remixing game embodiments). Adopting a similarly wide-ranging view, I would argue that Elite third-party tools significantly alter how the game is played even though they