Baldur's Village, a massive Stardew Valley mod merging ConcernedApe's farming sim with Baldur's Gate 3, has been a hot topic since gaining the approval of Larian Studios lead Swen Vincke and then facing a DMCA takedown from Wizards of the Coast.
The mod, which acts as a fan-created expansion bringing a bit of the Baldur's Gate 3 world and its quirky inhabitants to Stardew Valley, was reinstated following an apology from the D&D publisher, much to Vincke and fans' delight.
According to Vincke, a mod like Baldur's Village only serves to keep games like Baldur's Gate 3, which recently received its final update in the long-awaited Patch 8, alive.
Speaking in a recent interview with GameSpot, Vincke explains that while "IP law is really tricky," companies can make room for mods, like Baldur's Village, inspired by their games.
"As a company that owns IP, it's perfectly possible to give somebody a license," he says. "So you could just say, 'Hey, I think what you're doing is really cool. Here's a license.' And that solves it. I think that's what was done in this case. So, that's the easiest way of dealing with it."
While the concept of paid mods could complicate things further, "when it's free and when it's clearly fan-based," as is the case with Baldur's Village, players should be able to proceed with their inspired creations. In fact, mods can end up benefiting games in the long run. That's the plan with Baldur's Gate 3 – after seeing "mod support thriving" following Patch 8, Larian can instead shift its focus onto its "crazy ambitious" new RPG.
"If you're a company, especially in games or in any entertainment [field], and you have a group of people that spends I don't know how much time on creating something in honor of your game," explains Vincke, "especially in another game, I think you should applaud that. It's really cool, right? It's passion, it's word-of-mouth, from a marketing point of view, and if it's good, it's a contribution to the entire game's ecosystem."
The director cites beloved games like Skyrim as examples of titles "where modding made it huge," as "many cool things happen when you give people ownership over them and as a company you can perfectly profit from it."
Maintaining a solid relationship with a game's community and modders while allowing for player creativity to flourish is the way for companies to operate "if you want a game to live," he reasons.
As a fan of pretty much every one of these games – Baldur's Gate 3, Stardew Valley, and Skyrim – I'm inclined to agree. Mods are core to games' longevity, and it doesn't seem as though that'll change any time soon.
It's not just Baldur's Village, either. Now that Oblivion Remastered is here, impressive mods like Skyblivion and Skywind are re-entering the limelight, showing yet again that developers can pass the torch to players.
