I find myself spending a lot of time in Skyrim. Recently I had to unload and reload most of my mods to stabilize some STEAM errors that popped up. In doing so, I kind of had to examine what I had applied. Various clothing and graphic mods seemed to be harmless. Even a few that add missions and minor content aren't bad. Some minor rules changes aren't damaging. But start combining them? Play balance goes out the window.
I mean some I really like -- I've seen Breezhomes that are WONDERFUL compared to the standard one -- roomier, with chests galore, definite locations for armor and weapons far beyond the basic home. Even with a full forge in the basement -- right next to the heated bath. I love most of the ones that remake the familiar towns by adding more trees -- even if periodically I see NPCs stuck trying to continually walk through something that isn't there on a default game.
Some mods are not lore friendly - but frequently you don't find that out until you get into them. Some go beyond mods and really become cheats. But hiding under the banner of "mod", it makes them somehow less a cheat. At least at first.
One of my favorite mods was one that allows you to use multiple rings. It makes sense -- I mean most games allow you to have at LEAST 2. But when you have enchanters that can't double enchant the jewelry, that means you've added two more enchantments to your total. But another mod allows you to spend ANOTHER perk to get 6 enchantments per item, and another to get 20. Wearing 6 rings and one amulet gives you 140 enchantments -- ON top of your armor, which adds another 80 or more. I'm not saying that it isn't fun to have a character that can one shot giants and handle multiple dragons at once. But you do lose a true sense of accomplishment. Part of me says I earned it by getting a character with 100 enchanting AND spending the perk points to max out the number of enchantments.
I found myself playing the XBOX version to escape the mods -- I really didn't want to turn them off - but if I play a Nord through to level 60, I find myself wondering if I could do it WITHOUT the mods. If you start turning them off, where DO you draw the line? The XBOX version is still MOD-free, save the DLC.
The thousands of hours I've put into this game -- IS it a waste at some point with the mods? I'm having fun, and that is a good thing. But did I accomplish things? I can make enchantments to overpower my low Two-handed weapon skill, or my low Sneak -- But is that the same as EARNING the skill?
Considering my next venture into the Elder Scrolls universe will be in the MMO in a few weeks, and that such mods will be off limits, I can't help but wonder. Is the appeal of the game in part DUE to the mods? Can a MMO based on the world work without them? Or will the players get bored playing with only what is in the game -- not being able to paint their armor to be like Captain Americas or add that oversized Anime sword to the game. Makes me wish I had an Elder Scroll to see what the future of the game would be...