You can mod a bunch of games, like Half Life 2.

Here's one called Pirates, Vikings and Knights:

http://www.pvkii.com/

I haven't played it and I don't have my HL2 copy anymore so I can't really check it out, but I think you go around killing other players with swords.Anyways, that's probably a crappy example, but just something I quickly googled.

But the developers just used the HL2 game, and made a mod for it. They changed the rules a bit and made some new models.

What happens when we finally get some MMORPG games that we can mod? You can just start up a server, and change the rules a bit and make some new models.

Do you think it will be a sea of crap, and we'll still just buy P2P games, or play Asian F2P grinders? Or do you think the MMORPG universe will splinter into a bunch of pieces with people playing a bazillion different games with a bunch of different pay models, everything from cash shop, to 5 dollar a month fee, to advertising, to just plain free like some FPS servers?

PVK is just a normal deathmatch mod to half-life. There is 3 teams, small sever and you run and kill people. Nothing similiar with RPGs. And if we have modable MMO "that we just change rules a little" then the system will be like CSS and characters server-based, it will not be MMO any more just online role-playing game. There is RP Mod for Garry's mod and it's pretty nice, so I have nothing against it as we still have real MMOs too. Though those can't really be played alone nor there is always players online when 64 is max population and there is millions of servers.

Originally posted by Jazqa

PVK is just a normal deathmatch mod to half-life. There is 3 teams, small sever and you run and kill people. Nothing similiar with RPGs. And if we have modable MMO "that we just change rules a little" then the system will be like CSS and characters server-based, it will not be MMO any more just online role-playing game. There is RP Mod for Garry's mod and it's pretty nice, so I have nothing against it as we still have real MMOs too. Though those can't really be played alone nor there is always players online when 64 is max population and there is millions of servers.

I don't know much about PVK, it's just a random example of a mod.

I"m not sure why you think a modded MMO would be "just online role playing game" or what that means exactly.

The idea is you can change anything you want, like in the illegal servers for EQ and WoW that are out there. You can change the mob behaviors, the loot drops, the death penalty, make it perma death, make it FFA PvP, etc.

How does that make it no longer an MMORPG?

WTF?

WHERE THE HELL ARE THE NINJAS?

Pirates and no Ninjas is just.... it's just... wrong.

And what makes things worse is:

"PVKII Is a Halflife 2 Modification based on 3 teams from times past locked in a never-ending battle for wealth, dominance and power."

Pirates and Ninjas have been at eachother's throat for millienia!

I think you mean, "what happens when Mods become like MMO's".  That is simply a HL2 mod on the source engine.  Unforunately, the source engine is not capable of being used as a traditional MMORPG engine unless it has very small instanced zones.  Actually, I'll be surprised if that is even possible either.

However, my idea of a moddable MMO would be a sandbox game, kind of like Second Life.  I suppose allowing amauter developers screw around with Darkfall Onlines engine to create their own versions of the game would be very interesting, and possibly even do-able.

Not happening. Private servers are never going to be mainstream, because the publishers will never allow them; they want those subscription fees for themselves. Without private servers, there can't be mods.

Originally posted by ChrisMattern

Not happening. Private servers are never going to be mainstream, because the publishers will never allow them; they want those subscription fees for themselves. Without private servers, there can't be mods.

I'm not saying WoW, CoH, or LoTRO will release their game to modders.

I'm saying eventually you get a game engine that is easy to use, and someone builds a decent MMORPG with it and makes it open source. Then you buy the game engine, and download the open source MMORPG, then mod away, make anything you want that doesn't require changing the source code, which would be quite a lot.

There you go, private servers. No, they are not WoW or Lotro private servers.