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So far, they have done a damn good job of it too. We got CovertJaguar super pissed at us, and his resultant angry stuff was seen by a whole ton of people. Minecraft modding is a total cesspool with very few exceptions, but hey whatever, it's a game about virtual blocks. If you get to the point where your hobby making free stuff on the internet is making you angry, you should probably take a step back.
As much as I would love to disagree, I can't, not on this point at least.
But the main thing that pains me in this whole situation is that there are not that much great modders on Minecraft.
Sure, there are good mods here and there, but I am talking about mods that change the scene as a whole by giving a big push to quality.
Early on (mid-end beta phase), there were 4 main mods that pushed the scene forward, at least in my eyes (BC, RP, IC and BTW).
Strangely enough, the people responsible for starting the whole Forge project are the same base.
As time went, we saw many good sub mods for those (or at least the ones that authorized it by giving an API to work on). One of those became one of the big names today, I am talking about Forestry.
It pushed forward some other ways to interact with automations, with the relatively smart interfaces.
Logistics pipes also came around that time, trying to fill the need for real automation.
Then, we need to wait for things like Thaumcraft, with its research system, and Thermal Expansion, with the ability to configure the input and output sides.
Thaumcraft and XyCraft, even if some might argue that it is a little overdone and useless, are also trying to get things going for things looking better than just a texture applied to a block. Sure, there were other that did some improvements, even some mods dedicated to it, like the awesome lighting system that I never remember the name off, but to me, it feels like those two are actively including this to their gameplay.
As for the World generation, we have a lot of Biomes mods, some that create new dimensions, like Twilight Forest, or Mystcraft.
Some mods also try to get more life to the world, be it by adding animals and mobs, or other humanoids to interract with.
And let's not forget MCP, Forge and modloader, as they also helped quite a bit in making mods "easy" to make and install.
It might sound like there are a great deal of mods out there, but when one is missing, we don't have an other one pop up out off nowhere to replace it.
Just looking at the mess that happened while RP was updating is enough proof for that.
If you want more, try counting how many mods rely on BC for various things, be it the power system, or the liquids API (being rewritten and integrated to forge). BC had the chance to have two talented people take on the continuation, but it could have ended in just an other mod that is just ported, version after version.
When I see that, I get a little afraid when I think that there are actually not that many modders that have the talent and are willing to make great mods.
I know that we should not just excuse whatever thing they might do wrong, but they are still quite precious for the community, and when I see some taking extra time to code in DRMs, I can't help but think about what they could have been improving instead, if they were not raging over some petty fights over who gets to play their mod.
But modders are humans, and we all do stupid things, so is it really worth getting as far as needing to have the law by our side, when all it is about is a game?
In an ideal world, every mod would be open source, there would be a Nexus, or even a Steam workshop for Minecraft, making it easy to get mods and packs, while giving proper credit to every person that made this possible.
Yeah, instead, we got Curse, no official API, and forums and websites all over the place.
Anyway, wall of text, content: 0...