What Is A Patch... And What Is A Mod..?

[Tessera]

What Is A Patch... And What Is A Mod..?
An examination of what is NOT simply a semantic argument.


PART I

In this essay, I am going to attempt... once again... to both clarify and expound upon the difference between what is referred to as a "patch," and what is commonly referred to as a "mod." I am doing this because over the years, there has been quite a bit of confusion and conflict taking place within the larger Bloodlines community (primarily between Wesp's camp and ours), so far as exactly how each of those terms should be defined. I have posted this sort of information before... but I want to expound upon it a bit, so that everything is crystal-clear within everyone's minds.

First, we need to understand that this is not merely a semantic argument. There really is a major difference between a patch and a mod. But that difference very much depends upon exactly who is producing the work in question.

I also need to acknowledge the fact that where Wesp comes from... Germany, to be precise... they don't seem to understand that there is ANY difference between a patch and a mod. Over in Germany, they refer to EVERYTHING as a patch. How many times have you visited a European web site and seen the term "nude patch," for example..? Obviously, anything that adds nude re-skins to a particular game is a NUDE MOD... because it is MODIFYING the game in question. But in Germany, they apparently don't understand this fundamental difference between "patch" and "mod" and so, they refer to ALL third-party content as being a "patch" of some kind. I am not sure why the Germans (and others) fail to grasp this fundamental difference between "patch" and "mod," but they almost always do. A language barrier, maybe..? A poor understanding of English, perhaps..? Who knows...

So let's start off with the term "patch." In completely unambiguous terms, what exactly is a "patch..?"

To answer that question, we need to understand that there are two types of patches in this world. The first type are called "official patches," which refer to a patch which was released by the actual developers of the game itself... the people who actually own the property rights to the game in question. In the case of Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines, those people would be Troika Games (which is now defunct) and ActiVision (the publisher of VTMB).

The other type of patch is a so-called "third-party patch." These are patches which were not created by the original developers (or the publisher), but were instead produced by the fans of the game in question. By amateurs like Wesp and myself, in other words. And since we are not the people who own the property rights to the game in question, we are therefore ethically restricted, so far as what we are (or are not) allowed to refer to as a "patch." Why are we restricted, you may ask..? Because as I just pointed out, we are not the owners of the property rights, that's why. We don't own any copyright to VTMB. We aren't the original developers. We aren't the publisher, either. No, we're just a bunch of fans who want the bugs in the game to be fixed. And since none of the official property owners have seen fit to repair all of those bugs, we took it upon ourselves to pick up where they left off. That's how third-party patches get made.

If you are the developer/owner of the intellectual property rights, then it is entirely acceptable for you to release all sorts of alterations and modifications to your game... and still refer to that release as a "patch." It's your baby... you designed it. So if you later decide that you need to alter it for some reason, then you are entirely within your rights to do so. You aren't releasing additional (and optional) content... you are releasing what you believe to be mandatory changes for ALL of your customers. And so, you can go ahead and make those changes and then release them as an "official patch." The rights to the game belong to you... and so, it is perfectly ethical for you to revise the content of the game after it was released. That's fine... that's what official patches are all about.

But if you are a third-party, then by default you are NOT the owner of the game's property rights. Hence it is not ethically acceptable for you to make arbitrary changes to the content of the game and still refer to your work as a "patch." Third-party developers are more restricted than the property owners are. We don't have the ethical or moral right to shove our personal desires up the asses of everyone else who downloads and installs our third-party patch. So in our case, we are obligated to avoid doing that sort of thing as much as is humanly possible and instead, we need to restrict the content of our third-party patch to LEGITIMATE repairs and ONLY legitimate repairs.

Okay... that all sounds simple enough. The property owner can release whatever they want and still call it a "patch." But third-party developers are more restricted, because they are not the property owners, and therefore can only release legitimate bug fixes and still call it a "patch." Those are the proper ethics of the situation at hand. So then, what exactly is a "legitimate" repair..?

Let me make it easier for everyone to grasp, by first telling you some examples of what ARE NOT legitimate repairs...

Wanting to see a parked car over here, instead of over there, is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to keep your Humanity points after completing a certain action is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to have more money during the course of the game is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to have super-duper weapons at a much earlier stage of the game than originally intended is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to be able to fuck Jeanette Voerman and -still- be able to reconcile "Tourette," despite the fact that doing such a thing is in direct violation of VTMB's canon, is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to heal yourself every single time that you become injured, by stupidly re-enabling a deliberately disabled ability known as "Blood Heal," is not a legitimate repair. Wanting to hear different music in the clubs, or see different NPC's walking around on the streets, or get more experience points for completing a quest... do I really need to continue..?

All of those things that I just mentioned ARE NOT what anyone would consider to be "legitimate repairs." In every single case, those issues (and many more) are most certainly representative of ARBITRARY CHANGES to the game content. Those things were not broken... they were simply different from the way that one or more players wanted them to be.

Well great... awesome... there are aspects of the game that you would like to see changed, for whatever reason. But those things were not broken. They were not malfunctioning. You simply did not like them. Well, goody for you... but it would be rather presumptuous and downright dictatorial for you, or anyone else, to presume that what you want, everyone else wants too. Therefore, it is absolutely unforgivable for any third-party developer to FORCE those arbitrary changes upon anyone else. If you insist upon incorporating one or more arbitrary alterations of the game content into your work, then ethically speaking, you can no longer refer to your work as a "patch." Only the owners of the intellectual property have the right to do such things. Third-party developers such as Wesp and myself DO NOT have that right.

Okay... so then, what would be some examples of LEGITIMATE repairs..? As third-party developers, what do we have the right to refer to as a "legitimate bug," when we take it upon ourselves to release a third-party patch..? Let's consider a few examples of actual, real bugs...

Wanting to exit the underground area of the Leopold Stronghold without having the game abruptly crash on us would be a legitimate bug. Wanting the cops to stop colliding with the scenery as they walk their beat would be a legitimate bug. Wanting the audio tracks to stop skipping whenever a certain bit of NPC dialogue was spoken would be a legitimate bug. Wanting the ambient lighting to function properly, instead of functioning poorly (or not at all) would be a legitimate bug. Wanting the NPC's to be furnished with the proper weapons within a certain map would be a legitimate bug. Wanting a malfunctioning "street scene" to function the way it was obviously intended to function would be a legitimate bug... but only if the game code for that scene already exists, and is simply broken or incomplete. Wanting the malfunctioning NPC pathing within one or more maps to function properly would be a legitimate bug. Wanting the subtitles and other written dialogue to be free of as many of those GODDAMNED ENDLESS TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS IN VTMB would be a legitimate bug. Actually, more like SEVERAL HUNDRED legitimate bugs. You have no idea how many fucking typos needed to be fixed within this game. But hey, I'm not bitter...

I think we all get the idea. For something to be referred to as a "legitimate bug," we need to establish two things. First, we need to establish that whatever we are talking about is indeed malfunctioning. Not simply different from the way that you might prefer... but actually and legitimately BROKEN. And we also need to establish whether or not it represents content which was intended by the original developers of the game. If the item in question meets both of those criteria, then it is accurate to refer to it as a "legitimate bug" in the game.

As I stated earlier, it is the responsibility of all third-party developers to refrain from inserting arbitrary changes into their patch. We are not within our rights, ethically or morally, to impose our own little notions of how the game should be played upon other, unsuspecting users. The people who download and install our work are simply looking for bug fixes. That's what third-party patches are for: fixing bugs, and nothing else. As third-party developers, we are obligated to make sure that our patch does not alter, undermine or interfere with the original game that the end-users purchased. We do not have the right to tell them how to play the game. We only have the right to fix the LEGITIMATE bugs which existed in the game, prior to the installation of our patch. That's it... that's as far as we are ethically and morally allowed to go. If we want to have the right to refer to our work as a patch, then we absolutely MUST NOT impose any arbitrary changes upon any of the end-users of our work. They paid real money for Bloodlines. That's the game they want to play... not some bastardized version of it.

Now, speaking as a third-party developer, I am well-aware that it is not always possible to fix a bunch of legitimate bugs, without being forced to re-arrange one or more elements of the original content. But such occasions are RARE... very rare. For example, the only way that I could reliably fix a particular bug inside the Skyline Apartments building was to physically move one of the NPC's and then, completely alter his pathing. I had tried numerous other ways of fixing that particular bug, without making such a drastic change. But none of the other methods were 100% reliable. And so, I finally realized that in that particular instance, I was forced to break my own rules and make a rather drastic change to the Skyline map. believe me when I tell you that I did everything that I could to avoid having to do it that way... but this was a serious (and game-breaking) bug, and none of the other methods that I had seen or tried had worked 100% of the time. There was no way around it -- the NPC had to be physically moved to an entirely new (and yes, arbitrary) location on the map. And then, he had to have entirely new pathing nodes installed into his location, so that he would know which way to move when the time came for him to do so.

But that instance is nothing more than a freak example. The rest of the time... 99% of the time, in fact... it is quite possible to fix each and every legitimate bug WITHOUT making any arbitrary changes to the original content. And that is precisely what every conscientious and RESPONSIBLE third-party developer should adhere to: just fix the bugs. But don't alter the original game content unless there is no other way possible to fix that bug.  

And therein lies the fundamental difference between the philosophy and execution of the True Patch, and the philosophy and execution of Wesp's so-called "unofficial patch." On our side, we have always adhered to our philosophy. We have always made sure that our patch will fix hundreds and hundreds of bugs, without doing a single thing to alter the way that the game was intended to be experienced by the original developers. We do not have the ethical or moral right to force other players to accept any arbitrary changes.

But meanwhile, Wesp has an entirely different philosophy which underlies his work. So far as Wesp and his followers are concerned, any and all arbitrary changes to Bloodlines are right and proper, regardless of whether or not they were necessary... and regardless of whether or not the end-user would actually want any of those arbitrary changes. And despite all of the ethical and moral contradictions in doing things that way, Wesp still feels that he has the right to refer to his work as an "unofficial patch." Wesp is convinced that if the end-user wants to enjoy the legitimate bug fixes that are contained within Wesp's "patch," then the end-user must also be forced into accepting the literally HUNDREDS of arbitrary and unnecessary alterations to the original game which are likewise contained within his "patch." In short... Wesp and his followers feel that they are completely within their rights to force ALL of the "unofficial patch" users to play a DIFFERENT game than the one that they paid for.

One of the saddest consequences of their dictatorial philosophy is the fact that thousands of first-time Bloodlines players have unwittingly installed Wesp's "unofficial patch," under the mistaken assumption that it is what it pretends to be: a simple collection of much-needed bug fixes. What those first-time players did not realize was that they had been deceived. They were now playing a game which had been significantly altered from the way in which the original developers wanted it to be experienced. And those first-time players may never know... they may go on playing Wesp's version of Bloodlines, never realizing that they have not actually played THE REAL GAME that they paid for. To me, that kind of deception and bullying is unforgivable... which explains why Wesp and I have been bashing heads over this exact issue for the past six years.

So by now, I hope that we have fully established the difference between a legitimate bug, and an arbitrary modification. And I also hope that we have established what is and is not ethically and morally acceptable, so far as third-party patches are concerned.


PART II

I will finish up this essay by touching upon the second half of this essay's title: let's briefly talk about MODS. We now know what a legitimate bug is. So then, what is a "mod..?"

I happen to be in an excellent position to answer that question, being that I am not only a third-party developer of patches for VTMB, but I am also the guy who has released the largest number of Bloodlines mods in the entire world. In fact, one of my mods... the VTMB Mega-Mod... is by far the largest single mod ever released for this game. It is absolutely ENORMOUS... well over 1.5 gigabytes in size, once it has been installed. I have literally been doing this shit for many years... so I know all about what mods are, and how they differ from patches.

In comparison to the definition of a legitimate bug fix, the definition of a mod is far simpler. Basically, any and all arbitrary (meaning: not absolutely required) changes to the content of a given game, which were produced by anyone OTHER than the original intellectual property holders, are considered to be third-party MODIFICATIONS... or "mods," for short. That term encompasses EVERYTHING which fits that definition.

Want to keep your Humanity point after killing a certain NPC..? Did you lose that Humanity point in the original game..? Then that's a mod. Would you like to see a bunch of different NPC's walking around on the streets and inside the clubs..? Then that's a mod. Would you like Venus to give you cash more frequently than she normally would..? Then that's a mod. Would you like to have access to a Katana sword in Act One... even though we were never intended to receive it until Act Four..? Then that's a mod. Would you like to get extra experience points after completing a certain quest..? Then that's a mod. Would you like all of the female Malkavian player characters to be partially naked..? Then that's a mod... a mod rather near and dear to my own heart, in fact.

The point being that every time a third-party developer introduces ANY changes into their work that are NOT legitimate bug fixes, then their work can no longer be referred to as a "patch." It is now very definitely a mod and it must be presented as such. You can no longer call it a "patch," because IT IS NOT A PATCH ANYMORE. You have taken it upon yourself to force a bunch of arbitrary changes into your work. Which means that every single person who installs your work is going to be forced to accept those arbitrary changes. That's not a patch, folks... that's a MOD that we're talking about. And to label it as being anything other than a mod is DECEPTIVE and MISLEADING and IRRESPONSIBLE.

You will be happy to know that the True Patch Gold Edition is exactly what it claims to be: an actual, legitimate, bug-fixes-only patch for Bloodlines. Aside from a tiny number of exceptions, of the type that I described (and hopefully justified) earlier, every single byte of TPG code represents a 100% legitimate and much-needed repair to various bugs within Bloodlines. Nothing is being shoved down anyone's throats. Nobody is being forced to accept any changes to Troika's original game... the game that we all paid for. The TPG is indeed a legitimate, third-party patch for Bloodlines.

And if, after patching Bloodlines, there are various things that the end-users would like to be changed..? Well, no problem... that's what mods are for. As I said, I make plenty of VTMB mods myself. And while there is, sadly, a very small number of high-quality Bloodlines mods out there on the web, there are at least a few mods which are fairly decent. I am quite certain that there would be a lot more high-quality mods for Bloodlines, were it not for the fact that thanks to Wesp, the larger Bloodlines community has effectively been chopped in half. One side uses Wesp's patch -- and the other side uses our patch. Due to the fact that the two patches are enormously different in their construction (ours just fixes bugs; Wesp's adds a never-ending series of game modifications), it has effectively become impossible for anyone to develop a baseline "standard" for Bloodlines. Instead, we unfortunately have two sharply divided camps: the True Patch version, and Wesp's version. And so long as that kind of stalemate exists, the future of Bloodlines modding looks pretty bleak.


CONCLUSION

I hope that this essay has helped to further clarify not only the differences between a patch and a mod, but I also hope that it has helped to further clarify my own philosophy regarding the past, present and future state of the Bloodlines community. On my end and within my own work, I am going to continue to stick to my guns and maintain a very solid separation between patches and mods. That is because I remain firmly convinced that no ethical and responsible third-party developer has the right to do otherwise.

And as for Wesp..? I will presume that Wesp will continue to release a new version of his "unofficial patch" every second Tuesday... just as he has consistently been doing for the past six years. And I have no doubt that every single new release by Wesp will consist of poorly considered arbitrary changes, along with numerous repairs to the things that Wesp himself broke in some previous iteration of his "patch." Essentially, that is ALL that Wesp has been doing, ever since 2006. Prior to that date, Wesp's work was okay. Not great, but just okay. But as soon as the first True Patch showed up back in late 2006, Wesp has been engaged in some sort of rabid quest, to produce the largest number of Bloodlines patches per month as he can manage. It would be comical -- were it not so damaging to the Bloodlines community.

FACT: the current version of the True Patch Gold Edition fixes more legitimate bugs than any version of Wesp's so-called "unofficial patch." That statement has been verified... and I invite anyone who feels so inclined to independently verify that statement for themselves. But what is even more important to realize is that we did all of that WITHOUT forcing the end-users of our patch to accept a slew of arbitrary and TOTALLY UNNECESSARY changes to the original Troika game. Nor do we revise our patch every two weeks, and force everyone to download yet another "new and improved" version. Trust me, folks... Bloodlines was a very buggy game when it was released, but it didn't have THAT MANY bugs. Not so many that it would require a hundred consecutive patches in order to repair it. Nope... Wesp just likes to see his name up in lights and so, he keeps re-releasing his work over and over and over again... ad absurdum. But never once has he managed to fix as many legitimate bugs as the True Patch Gold Edition fixes. Like I said... do your own analysis and verify that statement for yourselves, if you think that I'm just blowing my own horn. No really... go right ahead. I want you to.

You... the larger Bloodlines community... can decide for yourselves whether or not Wesp is actually doing you a service with his efforts. If you feel that dividing the community, setting everyone at each others throats, spewing great torrents of lies and deceptions about the True Patch, whilst forcing hundreds of arbitrary (and often foolish) changes upon every single user of his "patch," and undermining the mood, the flavor and the overall replay-ability of Bloodlines is somehow doing the community a "service," then you and I have very different notions about what is or is not ethical in this world.

Over here, we are quite content to keep producing legitimate, high-quality Bloodlines patches. And not every second Tuesday, either. Our egos are doing just fine and we actually have a life... ya know..?


- Tessera -
TPG Author
Bloodlines Modder