Modding: A Brief History

Before this brand new term of uni, in preparation of our new Distribution and Platform module for Contextual Studies, we were asked to make a presentation on something that has changed the games industry in the last 20 years. I chose to look at modding since it's a scene I am particularly interested in. I think the area generally both inspires and requires creativity in an area it is often hard to get started in. Before this project I was vaguely aware of the history of modding and thought it must have affected the industry in some way. Here is what I found in terms of history:

History
The first real mod was for the original Castle Wolfenstein (1981) were a bored (probably) programmer replaced many of the enemies with smurfs. The mod was called Castle Smurfenstein (1983). Although silly it sparked a revolution.

Castle Smurfenstein: The first real mod

In 1990, the developers of Duke Nukem, 3D Realms, noticed that modders were not only making their own levels and content but also making their own level editors to make the process even easier.
Shortly after the release of  Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima Underworld (1992), id Software realised that allowing the audience to modify their game actually extended the game's life. Once the player's had finished the game, they could either play one of the many user made levels, create their own levels or both.

id Software discovered very quickly that the lifespan of Wolfenstein 3D was greatly increased by it's power to be modified by the players.

With this in mind, id Software legally and technically opened Doom (1993) and Doom II (1994) up to modification realizing the full potential it unlocked for players. They did, however, asked that modders specifically used the registered, fully paid for, versions of the game. The community fully supported this request. In-fact, many modders programmed their mods to only work on the registered versions. Many of the mods were so successful that Final Doom (1996) was not only a re-release of the original game, but also included many user-created levels.

Final Doom was an official release that contained user created content beside the official developer's content.

From this point on, id Software was pretty much seen as the head of the mod scene, releasing games almost specifically targeting modders. Quake (1996) was one of the first games released with a 3D level editor made by the developers, as opposed to being downloaded separately and being made by the users. Despite this, many people weren't happy with the official editor and created their own.
Ben Morris created WorldCraft, a level editor designed to work with the Quake engine. He was later approached by the game studio Valve and asked if they could use WorldCraft to make Half-Life (1998) and was later adapted into the Valve Hammer Editor for Valve's Source engine.

WorldCraft, later known as the Valve Hammer Editor.

In the same year, Epic Games released Unreal along with the UnrealEd, a level editor. The Unreal Engine was considered by many to be superior to the Quake Engine, the modders former top choice, in that it was simpler to use, could edit games in real time, had superior graphics and it's own scripting language optimized for game creation. Epic Games also licensed their engine out to other studios on a very regular basis. To this day it is still one of the most used third party engines.
Since then, level editors have become common place in PC shooter and RTS games.
It is because of editors like this that games like Defense of the Ancients (2005) were created, which was created from WarCraft III (2002). DotA was incredibly popular and brought mods to many who were previously unaware of the scene. Many of the people who worked on it were quickly taken up into the games industry.

DotA, a hugely successful game created entirely as a modification of Warcraft III.

More and more now developers are releasing their engines and editors for free so that people can mess with them at will including the Unreal Development Kit, CryEngine 3 and Unity.

How This Effects the Games Industry
 As previously mentioned most of the earliest level editors were built for by modders for modders. It was evident from very early on that these were a much faster way of creating levels. As a result many developers began integrating features from these modder created editors into their own editors. Editors also allowed designers and artists to jump in and actively edit the levels themselves instead of relying on the programmers. Editors also allow "amateurs" to create professional level work without necessarily having professional experience. This also meant that many good modders are hired by big companies such as id, Epic or Valve. 
Developers have started releasing their editors free of charge partially because of this. If people do well at messing around with their free software they can be considered both hireable and ready trained. 
Modding is also well known to increase a game's lifespan. Games that allow modding allow the player to explore player created content as well as the original content, or the player can make their own content for other players to enjoy.
Modding is often a jumping off point for wannabe developers and designers as it allows people to simply rearrange content into something new before experiementing with making their own content. A mentioned before this is greatly helped by the increased number of tools available.
This, in itself, has greatly contributed to the indie market which is beginning to grow big enough to be seen as a real threat to the AAA developers who are now having to adapt to compete with the innovation and creativity that comes from the players themselves.

References

•  Wagner, James Au. (2002). Triumph of the Mod. Available: http://www.salon.com/2002/04/16/modding/. Last accessed 09/01/2013.
• Username: CtChocula. (2012). A History of Dota: Part 1. Available: http://www.gosugamers.net/dota/thread.php?id=802775. Last accessed 09/01/2013.
• Thomsen, Mike. (2010). History of the Unreal Engine. Available: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/02/23/history-of-the-unreal-engine. Last accessed 09/01/2013.