Obviously there are strong feelings raised by creation of new Mods for IL2, and the tiny but vociferous minority of online gamers feel the need to passionately support their belief in the primacy of an unmodified stock version of the game…Unfortunately though, they also feel the need to impose that belief on the large numbers of people that want to utilise the new additions to the game…as for them its not enough that
they wish to remain with stock IL2 installations…they feel the need to ensure
everybody else only utilises a stock IL2 installation for online compatibility.
Now because they feel so passionately about it, numerous emotive accusations are thrown into the discussion…its
illegal to use the Mods, its
immoral to use the Mods, Using the Mods is an
insult to Oleg, Mod users are
cheaters, development of Mods
destroys a flight sim etc etc…
Now in the interest of balance I’d like to add my counter-arguments to the mix…
Its
Illegal
This argument centres upon the fact that modifying the software is a breach of the EULA – notwithstanding the fact that the EULA is a commercial document intended to protect software publishers from financial loss through the reproduction and modification of their software in a commercial marketplace, ignoring the fact that there has never been a single instance of a software publisher taking a single user to court for modifying software they have purchased legitimately, not withstanding the fact that whole communities have grown up dedicated to modifying software for third party use…But it’s a big stick to beat the modding community with because then we can be accused of being Criminals!
Well for starters there is a big question mark over whether
any EULA is enforceable in law…it breaches standard contract law in that you are not made aware of the conditions of purchase until
after you have purchased the software – and typically you will have no re-dress because most computer games retailers will not refund money on a purchased product once it has been opened (to prevent piracy). Meaning that you the purchaser were coerced into agreeing to the EULA.
Secondly the EULA refers to
Quote:
To modify the Multimedia Product or create any derived work
- To create or distribute unauthorised levels and/or scenarios,
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Which means that movie makers, mission builders, skinners etc etc are all in breach of the EULA, something that I think we’ll all agree is ridiculous – no-one is going to be considered as breaching the law by creating a third party campaign and distributing it nor releasing a populated map template and releasing it…so why would it be considered illegal to create a retextured map and release it for example? The EULA makes no reference to what is considered acceptable and not acceptable in this context…simply because it was never written with the intent of preventing third party modification of legally purchased software…it was written to prevent commercial abuse, piracy and plagiarism!
Besides UBI the software publisher has a very pro-modding attitude towards the games it publishes – look at the Mod sections and discussions that exist within the official communities for Sims like LOMAC and Silent Hunter III & IV. If the publisher isn’t opposed to us modifying its software…then who else is there to tell us what we are doing is wrong?
Its
Immoral
Ignoring the fact that its ridiculous to consider what I do with my copy of Il2 in the comfort of my own home a morality issue…I mean, if I kick my dog, hit my wife, steal my neighbours milk from his doorstep…that’s
immoral, I really don’t consider installing an illuminated gun sight reticule a moral dilemma!
If modification of the software was considered
immoral where was the hue and cry from the community when people were discussing the release of a no CD hack? Or ways of bypassing the securom copy protection on the initial Pe2 release? In fact people were tripping over themselves to find a way round these issues…So much for morality!
Its an
Insult to Oleg
Well surely not as much as one as the times again and again he has been accused of Pro-German or Pro-Russian bias! Wasn’t that the reason he stopped visiting and posting at the Official UBI forums?
Mod users are
cheaters
Well as far as I can see none of the Mods released so far are designed to create, uber planes, uber weapons and uber DMs, so I think there is far too much concern over this issue.
The Mods are intended for use by offliners anyway – and most of the major servers have put in place a check value to ensure that the servers cannot be joined by users of the Mod.
Besides Online cheating is an issue for online players…cheating and bad sportsmanship has existed in many forms for a long time…Flaps on a Slider, Prnt Scrn, Disconnecting, Team Killing, Shoulder Shooting, Kill Stealing etc etc…Its not something Offline players should concern themselves with…Its something for the Online community to police themselves with strong server rules and admin.
Nothing Offline players do or don’t do is going to affect what happens in the major hyperlobby servers is it?
Besides, I cannot understand why anyone would want to make the game easier for themselves anyway…surely the fun comes from the challenge! (In fact I’d love to see the Mod making planes more difficult to handle – giving more realistic quantities of Torque and making undercarriages more fragile for example) But then I’m interested in the whole combat flight simulation experience – dogfighting and air to air kills are only a small part of it for me personally – which is why I welcome something that increases immersion like the Sound Mod.
Development of Mods
destroys a flight sim
The truth is, nearly all popular Flight Simulators have been heavily modified by third part communities and in every instance it has improved the game, extended its usable life and created a great deal of interest and enthusiasm amongst the users…Look at the evidence
Falcon 4 – heavily modded and yet a game that was released in 1999 is still going strong today, EAW modded to within an inch of its life and then some…and yet was by far the most popular World War 2 flight sim prior to the release of IL2, Janes F/A18 – the demise of Janes meant the game was dropped almost straight after release…but hard work by a dedicated community (Team Super Hornet) has created a game far beyond what was initially released…New theatres, new graphics, Track IR functionality, new cockpits etc etc. LOMAC – look at some of the fantastic mods that are being released for that game at the moment. Enemy Engaged! Probably the most dedicated modding community of all – have created a Sim that is so good that the modded EECH is far better than the newly published EECH2! So if none of these flight simulators have been destroyed by user mods…then why should IL2 be?