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"The last twelve months were all about laying the groundwork, even if it didn't always feel like it"
Last June, modding site Nexus Mods announced an ownership change. Site founder Robin 'Dark0ne' Scott stepped back, and in came a number of new leaders from Danish firm Chosen - principally Chosen CEO Victor Folmann. A year and a bit on from taking the reigns, Folmann's put up a post reflecting on the new regime's first year running the modding site and outlining hopes to turn it into "an operating system for user-generated content in gaming" in the long term.
"Our team has worked incredibly hard over the last 12 months, and I want to start by acknowledging this," Folmann wrote. "Most of their efforts have resulted in work that isn't always ideal for announcements, but I am extremely proud of what we’ve managed to achieve together, and they all should be too." After giving a number of specific examples of things the site's team have been up, such as redesigning the mod upload form, improving detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and viruses, and running various modathons, Folmann noted that Nexus Mods' staff has been beefed up.
"When I joined Nexus Mods, there were around 42 of us," he wrote. "Now we are 75 people strong (87 counting those hired and waiting to start), and we're not going to stop at that number; you can see that from all the open roles we have here. Every person we’ve hired is here to make modding easier, by developing Vortex, improving the experience, or solving the platform issues you’ve been telling us about."
Overall, the exec summed this first year up for him as one of better learning the site's modding community by speaking to various mod-makers and working with the team on "laying the groundwork, even if it didn't always feel like it". From there, Folmann's post pivoted towards outlining a bit more about his vision for Nexus Mods' ideal short and long-term future.
First off, he reckons a change in how Nexus Mods themselves view handling mods is key. "For going on 25 years now, this platform has been modeling mods as files," Folmann outlined. "Mods are not files. Mods are systems. With dependencies, with conflicts, with load orders, with versioning, with environments, all that complexity. Everything that has been making you angry over the years can be attributed to one factor: the platform models your mods as files."
Instead, the exec envisions "a platform that knows modding as systems", marketing gubbins shorthand for Nexus Mods handling as much of the "dependency resolution, setup validation, and change deployment" a mod needs to work as possible, limiting legwork needed from the people trying to play them. It's a philosophy similar to the likes of GOG's one-click mods, and not surprising for a site who've been very keen on pushing the likes of collections - ready-made modlists for games, often based around certain themes - in recent years.
Beyond that, the marketing phrases intensified. "The long-term vision, and I’m going to say this publicly for the first time, is for Nexus Mods to become the layer of the infrastructure that makes everything else possible," Folmann wrote. "Not only your home for mods, but a platform that enables modding on the whole ecosystem. An operating system for user-generated content in gaming."
I jest, but it is a very Fallout 3 bible quote way of - if I'm reading through the lines correctly - saying he's keen to position Nexus Mods as a ubiquitous platform for player-made add-ons and games somewhat akin to Roblox or Fortnite, with the obvious difference being that those two are built on individual base games made by the same company running the UGC everythingverses they support. Regardless, Folmann acknowledged Nexus Mods "still have a way to go" in terms of reaching these goals.
Given the general mixture of uproar and skepticism that greeted Folmann and co taking charge last year, from my perspective the best thing about their first year at the helm is that they've not done anything obvious to draw ire from modders or players. Whether the mixture of optimism and remaining skepticism that fills out most of the early comments on this year on post continues to move in a positive direction remains to be seen, especially as Nexus Mods' team start more visibly working towards Folmann's stated goals.
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