Appropriation & Motivation in Game Modification; Analysing modders and historical mods

The videogame industry is enormous, growing and extremely lucrative. To illustrate the industry's revenue in 2018 was close to 140 billion dollars. It is essential to research the cultural value of such a booming industry, which affects millions of people over the globe. The participatory culture surrounding videogames includes users who aim to modify videogame content in order to alter the videogames. Altering videogames is known as 'modding', and these players produce, what is known as game mods. This thesis on games, modders and mods helps to understand the game industry, the participatory culture surrounding it and reflects on contemporary historical culture. Research into videogames has been relatively new in the academic field; even more so is the research into game modifications. Central in this thesis is the question how players appropriate the content of the historical digital entertainment game Mount and Blade through the practice of modding. Mods are a way for players and communities to react against the dominant historical representation put forward in commercial games. The research focusses on Mount and Blade, two game modifications and modders to study how the past is represented in videogames and mods and what motivates modders to create alternative narratives of the past. The application of the formal analysis model defined by Óliver Latorre has shown that the mods The Independence of Chile Mod and the American Civil War Mod: Revived! display counter-hegemonic properties. Furthermore, the modders state in the interviews that to them modding, similar to re-enactment, is a tool for history education. To the modders, modding is a way to keep history alive and to carry the lessons with us. Additionally, the modders deal with historical subjects not often seen in videogames and reiterate the importance and longing for their culture, traditions, country, and history to be represented in virtual interactive media.