As a heads-up: this blog applies to universally every game with a modding scene. At which point does Minecraft stop being Minecraft? When you remove the mining and crafting? What if removing the mining and crafting makes it better?
Why on Earth am I even writing about this?
Well, for starters, it is my blog and I can entertain whatever idea I desire to.
For seconders, I recently published a mod on the Steam Workshop for Your Only Move Is HUSTLE that disables XY Plot snapping. Technically it's called Oh Snap but I'll just call it No Snap for this blog. It's a great mod, by the way. You should download it. The issue is that, by removing plot snapping, I am allowing new angles into the game. Of course, this was the intended effect of the mod. I want people to play with these angles because I believe they make the game more fun and are valuable additions. In this article, I will defend my position, since some people can somehow disagree with making a game better.
As a footnote, I originally released this mod at first because I thought publishing a mod with a cheat so minuscule almost nobody would care was a very entertaining idea. Since publishing it, I have thought about it some more and realized that I actually really agree with the mod, and that I do not see any reason for it to be framed as this big bad.
How is this mod problematic?
Of course, the most complicated question to ask is usually the first one. I am not sure I could give a cookie-cutter perfect explanation with one reason that could explain everything. But I believe the reason this is a conversation at all is that some people have a reflexive disgust towards mods that they can instantly recognize as a Cheat. Like mentioned above, I, too, had that instinct while making the mod. The difference between us is this: I was willing to look beyond the reflexive thought, and to truly think about the mod as it is.
How is this mod a positive to the game?
Honestly, I have no idea how to format this blog. I'm kind of just doing whatever since I can't do it chronologically.
Anyways, here is a list of every pro this mod provides:
-More angles make the game have more depth and more fun by definition. You literally gained several extra moves! For free! This is the kind of change I live and die for. A tiny change, shaking the games very foundation, like dominos falling. I do not think a game changing is bad. Ever. We must always kill the past.
-Better accessibility for people without a mouse. There is a mod which lets you input XY coordinates using keybinds. Great! The issue is that it gets stuck on the aforementioned snaps. By using this mod, they will simply not get stuck and just go on moving. This makes the game more accessible, which is important because the premise of YOMI HUSTLE is "a fighting game that everyone can play".
-Its sheer existence is a thought exercise I can make a blog article about. Two birds with one stone!
Conflict(s) of Interest(s)
There are a few sides to this. There are people like me, fully for the mod in its entirety, includingthe accessibility features & the new angles. Then, people who only exclusively want the accessibility, and are fine with using the mod. Then, there are people who want the accessibility, but do not want to use the mod? Going forward, this last group will be referred to as the Opps.
To be fully clear, I will be going forward against both the Opps and Group 2. Not because of the fact that they want the accessibility but do not want to use what is currently available. I suppose that that is reasonable. What I want to argue for is that they do not want these new angles. That is unacceptable.
QOL: 1
Finally actually getting into the meat and bones of my argumentary. Context is almost as important as your arguments themselves usually. But I don't like writing context.
Going back a few chapters earlier, I mentioned some people could instinctively tell when a mod is "QOL" or "Cheat". Why is that? Well, I suppose there are simply some barriers you are not meant to cross. When a mod fundamentally alters a core mechanic of a game (or, at the very least, that person's perception of core mechanics of the game), I am suppose that that is when people are able to tell it is a cheat. Something like a mod that removes the hunger bar in Minecraft. On paper, that's preposterous, right? Removing a core fact of the game like that? What about automation, or a mod that makes you keep your inventory on death? At the end of the day, are you still playing Minecraft? When does QOL just simply become.. Not QOL anymore? When does QOL become a cheat?
But the angles make my Quality of Life better ::::)
Whoops. I lied about the meat and bones thing.
Here is the singular argument which is motivating me to write this: I like these Minecraft mods! Regardless of their legality, I believe they make the game more fun! The game may been transmogrified into something unrecognizable, I like it more that way! The author's intent can be damned, I will have it my way.
This idea made me think further. Why does being labelled as a Cheat matter? I have come up with two justifications; one, it ruins competitive integrity. To be clear, I took this one from other people, I would not ever ever fucking write competitive integrity seriously with a straight face. What the actual fuck does this term mean? Do not piss me off. Anyhow, the myth of competitive integrity can simply imposed by making people download the people. I have heard from those same people that they would not complain about the mod if it were in the base game. Which. Oh my God. And then they want to ban it from competitive play? Guys. GUYS. If you simply did not ban it, everybody could benefit from it! Furthermore, you cannot easily ban what mods someone has. What you can do, however, is verify what mods someone CAN have. And it's extremely easy to! If you simply tell people No Snap is the competitive standard, they will understand and go get it. Back in the olden Unstable days, people were not forced to play on Stable if their opponent didn't know how to use Unstable, did they? The same principle works here. A competitive community may have specific standards that do not apply to more casual gaming. This is normal. Thousands of games have competitive patches. It would genuinely be so stupidly easy to make people get the mod, to the point where it is not an issue. Provide a Steam Collection with every reccomended mod inside. In this collection, add a tiny mod that checks for these mods, and loads you into a custom version number. There! Problem fixed! When everybody has it, nobody does. The competitive integrity, bullshit fucking term, is maintained. Two, being labelled as a cheat means it shouldn't exist. It is wrong, it is barbaric; it has no right to exist. But what if it makes the game better? If the cheat were already in the game, would it being a cheat matter? Well, no, of course not. What's in the game cannot possibly be cheaty, by definition. Put a pin on that idea in your mind, because I need to talk about another extremely pressing issue: wait, what ISN'T a Cheat?
YOMIH is a game about perfect information - or is it?
Let's start with an example: you are not meant to be able to see your healthbar in YOMIH. This is an objective fact: -the concept of guts, even though it got removed --the healthbar still has visual guts ---the last few pixels of your health literally arent on the ui ----you do not have a goddamn number that tells you how much health is left on the screen at all times. And yet, some of the most famous mods, direclty promoted by the premier competitve scene, do exactly that: they tell you about your healthbars. Quality Of Life (there is a mod literally named this, I am not talking about the general concept here) is the most downloaded QOL mod, ever. It's features? Telling you all about values you do not have access to in-game: sadness, health, burst and super meter. You are not able to see any of these in games, and pixel measurements would only give you an approximation of these values. Of course, not that anybody would bother with pixel measurements, or simple math to see what kills or doesn't. Let's get fucking real here. Anyways, this begs the question, if these are assumed to be Cheats, why are they allowed and encouraged? Why couldn't someone play with No Snap if other Cheats are allowed? And, to this one, I am truly dumbfounded. Any kind of "logic" here renders me agog with how ridiculous and assbackwards it is.
There is a certain belief that perfect information is at the core of YOMIH, and that every mod that moves towards this is an objective good. That any mod who does provide you with perfect information cannot be a Cheat, because it is how the game is meant to be. This belief falls appart when you realize that Quality Of Life (once again, the mod, not the concept, although it does technically still apply here) has been around since goddamn forever, and still hasn't gotten built into the game. The same can be said for tons of other QOL mods. If perfect information is the expected standard, why doesn't the developer himself respect it? Shouldn't a game who truly has perfect information in its best interest make that information as available as possible? Additionally, if you consider my healthbar point earlier on, if the game truly was about perfect information, then why is that not represented in the game, at all? There is a big element I haven't mentioned here yet, which is the prediction system. This mechanic, does in fact give you perfect information. Because you always need information. If the game had absolutely zero information, you wouldn't be able to play it!
tl;dr Prediction + healthbars = not perfect information because healthbar is 0 information. I assume this belief to be purely false, from a casual, author's intended experience standpoint.
Competitive YOMIH, competitive information
There is a flipside to casual gaming. Which is competitive gaming, of course. The title of this chapter pretty much sums up everything I have to say. In the context of competition, YOMIH stops being a hype stickman fighter. You are actively trying to defeat your opponent, using everything that is available to you. In the context of competition, perfect information is a must.
Taking this idea further, in the context of competition, perfect information is a must, no matter the cost. """""""""""""""Competitive Integrity""""""""""""""""" is discarded (thank God), the concept of a Cheat simply doesn't apply, because the perfect information is a given. But why is it a given? Simply put, it makes the game better. I don't really have to explain this in deeper details because you basically just instinctively can understand it. More information is more interactivity. The competitor's job is not to figure out what the values are, but how to use them and how to win (if you're a lameass you might prefer the term play, but playing is instrically winning, or wanting to, at least).
Putting everything together
Technically my thesis.
So far, I have said that:
-a competitive version (really just a competitive modpack) is very easily doable
--destroying the """"""""""competitive integrity"""""""" (please never make me type this term again, for the rest of my life) argument entirely and utterly so we can just move on with our lives (hell, I can even make this mod myself! For everyone to benefit from! Not that I would bother unless asked to. Arguing against the Authority on Discord is simply hell. They are not budging. You literally cannot do anything about it, because you are not the Authority. They will have it their way. It's best to just laugh and smile).
-competitive games have a habit of playing community, competitive versions
-in a game like YOMIH, competitive gameplay has very different requirements and expectations than casual YOMIH. Namely, that there is a want and need for perfect informationµ
--Why the fuck COULDN'T a competitive patch exist? Not even a patch, just a standard modlist. Come on.
-QOL mods directly aid to this end
-however, QOL mods are inherently cheats
--any argument against No Snap that tries to go the "it's a cheat" path are therefore invalid, or should be consistent and also ban QOL. If you do genuinely believe this, please think about it for more than .3 seconds. Or at least read the rest of this blog post. It is deeper than this. There is obvious nuance. People don't play with extremely turbo mode cheats because that is just simply not fun. I am not arguing for ruleless anarchy.
-I personally believe the definition of a Cheat does not matter, as long as the game becomes better from it.
--which brings us right back to the original point of contention. If every single other Cheat is allowed, why not No Snap? Why arbitrarily stop there? Why stop where the game could grow so much? Why can't we let the game evolve? Is there an inherent wrongness in wanting to see the game grow? I simply believe any attempt made against No Snap is inherently hypocritical. You cannot let the game be stunted like this. You cannot stop your reasoning at "well, it adds new things". Yes! It does! That's what makes it so good and valuable! The game could benefit so much! Can you see that? Do you believe that? Could you believe that? Does your line of reasoning fully hold up? Do you have one? Was this ruling purely impulsive? Have you genuinely thought about it for longer than 5 minutes?
This is pretty much all I have to say on the matter. To anyone reading this, I beg you to seriously reconsider your opinion if you still believe No Snap needs to be banned. The future of YOMIH is at play. Don't you want it to become a better game? Are you satisfied with good when you could have great? That would be awful of you.
Do not trust Authority. Kill the past; if you believe in a YOMIH that can change, download Oh Snap.