Now see what moding does for a game and company!

[T}{OR]

Originally Posted by _1SMV_Gitano

My point is that there is no prejudice about new content from anyone. What you see as anti-mod mafia is just people complaining about the fragmentation of the online community, which is not questionable.

That sums it up nicely. The mods do enhance the game, it is fun up to a point where installing and updating them becomes a part time job. The real allure is long gone, for me at least. Thank Heavens we have modpacks or else I would have given up on this sim years ago. That and if it wasn't for all the great guys I've met flying online (someone mentioned fragmentation?).

What the stock game had was integrity and ease of use, i.e. you could join any server and hop into any plane that was available.

If I could choose between the enhanced sounds, more planes/maps etc. and the stock game with the undivided community as it was back in the day - I would choose the latter in a blink of an eye. In the end, the greatest sims are more into quality than eye candy if we're to be honest.

[whoarmongar]

There is a big difference between hacks and mods, hacks ruin a game, the thought that people are cheating online by hacking a game just kills the server and ultimatly kills the game online.

Mods however help the long term viability of a game by adding extra content and taking a game in directions the developers never explored or envisioned,and very often these mods are taken up and used in later patches by the devs.

Arma2 is a good example, moders gave us things that were ultimatly patched into later versions of the official game and now the latest mod dayz has led to new copies of arma2 being sold, this just before the release of arma3 ! This must be a nice little earner for Bohemia and totally unexpected.

Other games to are staying popular long after they have passed there sell by date simply because people want to play the modded versions ie Rome total war.

Going back to Arma2, this is heavily modded but thanks to modders making tools like sixupdater its easy to manage the various mods available and to be honest I have seen very few cheaters, although I play mostly coop and cheating in coop generally doesnt happen.

I think modding is the core of pc gaming it keeps games fresh and players involved for a very long time.
If you want to play vanilla games thats fine but you probably would be happier sticking to an xbox or playstation.