For me, mods represent some of the best work done in video games. I’m not saying this just because these additions allowed me to introduce anime boys to Valley of Stars Or put Margaret Thatcher’s grave In Skyrimbut because modding has become a central element of video game culture and development.

In some cases, these fan-made add-ons can make a game playable or introduce vital fixes to players’ quality of life. major AAA titles. Other times, a mod may change a game so that its romance system, gender markers, or character design options are more inclusive. If you can imagine a change in a game, it’s possible a mod can bring it to life. Modders – who are developers in their own right – have worked on games like Stardew Valley’update 1.6 and Star Field. So why aren’t they getting their due at The Game Awards?

Fanwork – which includes modding – used to have an award category at The Game Awards. Called “Best Fan Creation,” this honor was awarded from 2014 to 2016. Why doesn’t it exist anymore? Polygon reached out to The Game Awards creator and host Geoff Keighley, and we haven’t heard back from him yet, but here’s what we do know: Keighley ran into some issues the last year the award was presented.

In 2016, Keighley announced the nominations for “Best Fan Creation”, and they included two projects using Nintendo IP: a Metroid fan project called AM2R And Pokémon Uranium. Initially, fans celebrated the inclusion of these ambitious fan-driven projects. However, ultimately, Keighley removed both nominations from the final show without giving any comment on why. Since then, there is no longer a similar category.

Polygon has contacted Nintendo for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

The idea that Nintendo bullied Keighley into preventing him from celebrating fan creations isn’t entirely out of the question. The famous Japanese developer and publisher has cultivated a reputation for being extremely litigious when it comes to fan-made projects and mods of its games. Nintendo’s legal team has released widespread DMCA takedowns on modding sites and has even taken action against YouTubers who use modified Nintendo games in streams. Looking back, the idea that Nintendo’s leadership would allow a fan of the awards platform to work seems almost laughable.

But now we find ourselves in the current unfortunate circumstances. The Game Awards now exclude all the remarkable – and completely legal – work being done in the wider game modding scene. Today, we have to settle for the nebulous category of “Best Community Support,” which seems to focus on team community managers rather than the fan communities themselves.

Many developers and publishers support modding. Bethesda Softworks not only approves the use of mods in its games, but has even attempted to monetize the work of modders with the Creation Club. Modding often plays such a central role in the legacy of Bethesda’s games that it is a running joke within the community that developers can release cruder games, with the understanding that modders will go and solve all the main problems themselves.

Bethesda is not alone in supporting modding. In the case of Baldur’s Gate 3 – which won the coveted Game of the Year award in 2023 – the Larian Studios team has updated the game to make it as easy to edit and add new content as possible. With Valley of StarsCreator Eric Barone not only worked to make the game as accessible to modding as possible, but also hired some of these creators as developers on his team for later updates.

While it may be difficult to determine what types of modding work are or are not recognized on a national platform, I think it will become even more difficult for Keighley to ignore the parts of the game development sphere created by the fans. The initial “metaverse” buzz may sound like a low hum two years after tech CEOs and game developers popularized the term, but user-generated content continues to play a major role in the metaverse industry. game as a whole. This year, Epic Games tinkered with fan creations Fall Guys maps and Roblox Dress to Impress – while not a fan game – was designed for the YouTube-like platform and became a viral hit that attracted new audiences to Roblox.

User-generated content is pretty hot right now, but there’s also a practical reason to recognize modders: it’s hard work.

This year, Barone released the most modder-friendly version of Valley of Starsand what I saw from its modding community was simply amazing. I spoke to people who distributed and shared detailed documentation, teachers who could mentor new developers, and community members who ran Discord servers with hundreds of active users.

For me, these kinds of efforts truly encapsulate some of the best and brightest work being done in games – something Keighley seems to be the very essence of. So while I understand why an award category like “Best Legally Sanctioned Fan Creation” might be a little wordy, it would certainly be worth it to give these creators the recognition they deserve.