Swen Vincke’s point is very simple: if the player is happy, the company is happy, and Baldur’s Gate 3 has proven that.

Swen Vincke has once again proven that Baldur’s Gate 3 is on the side of modders and the modding community in general. In an interview with GameSpot, he once again came out in support of mods and even advocated modding as a fundamental part of the long-term maintenance of the game. He’s defended Baldur’s Village for Stardew Valley before (we wrote about it), and he’s doing so again. The controversy surrounding the mod and Wizards of the Coast’s stance on it has raised questions about what is fair and what is not when it comes to modding. Vincke’s position is quite clear.

Things get more complicated when someone is trying to profit financially from a mod, but as long as it is clearly fan-based, the project can be considered fair. Vincke seems to think that mods are essential for keeping games alive after development is complete, and even as a means of promoting games. He argued that modding can also be a huge driver of a game’s long-term popularity, with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Warcraft 3 being prime examples.

“As a company that owns intellectual property, it’s perfectly possible to give someone a license. So you can just say, ‘Hey, I think what you’re doing is really cool. Here’s a license. And that solves it. I think that’s what was done in this case. So that’s the easiest way to deal with it. If you’re a company, especially in games or in any entertainment field, and you have a group of people who spend I don’t know how much time creating something to honor your game. Especially in another game, I think you should applaud that. It’s really cool, right? It’s passion, it’s word-of-mouth, from a marketing standpoint, and if it’s good, it’s a contribution to the whole ecosystem of the game.

If you want a game to live, that’s the best way to do it. It’s the same with development. If I want our games to be great, I have to make sure that the developers own it. If I’m the one who owns it, it’s never going to be great because I can’t do everything. I need the developers to do it. Same thing with the players. If the players own the game, they’ll make it fantastic,” Vincke said.

As Vincke pointed out, mods are a huge part of many game communities. Developers would be wise to embrace and support modding as a way to support their game’s fan base, rather than unnecessarily discouraging harmless fan content…

Source: PCGamer