14 DAY TRIAL // Apparently, developer Techland and publisher Warner Bros. don't look kindly to modders, as a recent update for the open-world zombie bashing sim Dying Light has made it much harder to tinker with the game files.
The patch notes state that the change is meant to block cheating by changing the game's files, which is fine and dandy for multiplayer-oriented video games but seems a bit excessive when taking into account the fact that Dying Light is a single-player game with some optional multiplayer content.
In any case, due to the fact that modding is, essentially, changing the game's data files, this means that any innocuous single-player mods are also affected.
Given that Techland's former zombie survival game, Dead Island, is still alive and kicking due primarily to the multitude of mods that the community has crafted, and the fact that many times, modders solve some of the issues that the developers can't be bothered to, this seems like a puzzling move.
Not only this, but Techland and Warner Bros. also seem to be hell-bent on preventing any type of modding action whatsoever from occurring, as they have issued several DMCA takedowns on various Dying Light mods hosted on media sharing websites.
A move against the consumer
The report on Reddit notes that the mods' functionality was simply to remove the film grain effect that the game has, and that many gamers complained about, without getting any official response.
Fans of Dying Light have expressed their ire regarding the move, and we're waiting for an official stance on this.
Taking into account the fact that the creative modding scene for Dead Island kept the game alive on PC long after it had outstayed its welcome on consoles, this seems like a really backwards decision from the powers that be.
Furthermore, even the company's upcoming fantasy dungeon crawler, Hellraid, initially started out as a mod for Dead Island, created by one of the company's employees.
Update:
Techland issued a statement clarifying the situation, revealing that nothing shady is going on, and that the patch issued in order to prevent cheating in the Be the Zombie multiplayer mode had the unfortunate side-effect of preventing modders from doing their thing.
The move wasn't intentional on Techland part, and the dev team is working on a quick fix for the issue, that will allow common tweaks to be used once more.
In addition to this, the developer is also looking into the DMCA complaints filed for the mod, as for the time being it is unclear who or why issued them.
Techland made sure to reiterate their full support for the modding scene, closing the statement by assuring everyone that they want Dying Light to benefit from the same level of passion and creativity that Dead Island enjoyed from its modding community.
