Game Modding as an Art
As we see the gaming industry rise and gain popularity, there has been an increase in third party modifications to games. We have seen many mods for different aspects of a game, some are aesthetic changes and others are changes to software that have minimal impact to actual game play mechanics. A statement Galloway (2010) said speaks on how “artist mods tend to consider video games as nothing more than game technologies, and thus most artist-made video game mods to date are mods of game technologies,… not mods of actual game play” (p. 108). This pertains to mods that add different character skins, or that alter character behavior, like Kara Gut’s intimacy mod for Skyrim.
Kat (2019) unintentionally created “a metaphor for our post digital society at large”. This is actually a list of mods Gut created with help from flexcreator to showcase forced intimacy and parallel that to the real world and how it can affect us and our surroundings. With this Kat is trying to subvert the expectations of the players because Skyrim is a mostly male oriented action game. After reading the article and watching the video I can see it and it also brings to light the hilarity of how modding affects a game.
This is the website that contains the video in mention along with the article.
Galloway, A. R. (2010). Chapter 5: Countergaming. In Gaming: Essays on algorithmic culture (p. 108). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bittanti, M. (2019, October 13). GAME art: Kara gut’s INTIMACY mod SUPERCUT (2019). Retrieved February 10, 2021, from https://www.gamescenes.org/2019/10/game-art-kara-guts-intimacy-mod-supercut-2019.html
