MODed game or original version?

[Mango Choo-choo]

I respect the esthetic of developers.
Therefore, I barely use MOD while playing games.
Some commercial games don't support players developing MOD or add-in.

I think SDV is really open for anyone who purchased the game.
I presume some users only use MOD to update villagers' profile photos.
In my opinion, the photos of Emily and Abi still have space to improve.

And MOD is culture of single player games.
Sometimes it is controversial but I will go with no-MOD games.
What do you say?

 

[-Vista-]

I like the original game a lot but I do go with a few mods if available
Particularly one that tones down the colour palettes a bit, returning to the game the originals kinda hurt my eyes to look at so I used a mod to make it a bit less bright

Nothing really gameplay wise though

 

[Lew Zealand]

The only game I've ever modded is Minecraft, mostly to try out some world generation changes and shader upgrades. No changes to the game mechanics as whenever I try game mechanic mods, they seem to break the balance or try to make it into a new game. Crazy Craft was fun back in the day though, that was almost a different game.

It's almost like: If I need to mod a game so much, maybe I'll just play a different game instead?

If I mod Stardew, it'll be an expansion mod like Ridgeside or SDV Expanded but I need to get good and bored with it first and that hasn't happened yet as I still have 7 more spouses and a roommate to try out!

 

[Mango Choo-choo]

The only game I've ever modded is Minecraft, mostly to try out some world generation changes and shader upgrades. No changes to the game mechanics as whenever I try game mechanic mods, they seem to break the balance or try to make it into a new game. Crazy Craft was fun back in the day though, that was almost a different game.

It's almost like: If I need to mod a game so much, maybe I'll just play a different game instead?

If I mod Stardew, it'll be an expansion mod like Ridgeside or SDV Expanded but I need to get good and bored with it first and that hasn't happened yet as I still have 7 more spouses and a roommate to try out!

The interesting thing is that when I was a kid, I didn't have choice but playing commercial version even though some games contain small bugs.
That was because there was no upgrade mechanism before internet emerged.
The retail version of games have been morphed into disc or cassette.
By the time they were sold, they were already the entire game and no updates.

I know some people have bizarre faith that the original is the perfection.
But from my point of view, MOD is the outcome of players' wisdom.

Like Stardew, in early development, art resource was not that enough in terms of an indie game, you know... AI was not that smart before 2020.
MOD enormously improved the 'imperfection' of the almost perfect game.

nevertheless, I think we still need to be prudent to use MOD, because it can ruin a game without consciousness.
It makes you getting high sometimes but actually it sabotages the core logic of a game.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

I've always played vanilla stardew many thousands of hours in, I might eventually play with mods, but I'm not someone who really plays files to just get perfection and leave them (which I think a lot of mods cater towards as it's the general gameplay loop).

Instead the limitations of the vanilla game really make it enjoyable and define how I play, trying to find bugs and exploits, pushing limits that the game has, and so on, which don't give me the same satisfaction when the limits were arbitrarily put in place by whatever mod I wanted at that point. It's purely a personal choice but it suits me, and if I ever do truly get bored of the game then I'll have an untouched wealth of mods to play too, so it's a win-win in my eyes.