One of the best things about pc games are the modding community, but since this will be an MMO, most would think you can't mod it apart from UI tweaks. But I had an idea... What if Zenimax had a user created content section on their website, where people sent in their mods for moderation. If they were accepted, any player can download and play them with friends using their ESO character. But since that would make things unbalanced, when you play a user created content your character is imported, and things you do in the mod don't change anything. I know some mods could break lore, but they would be optional. This could make for limitless end game. What do you think?

You mean like the foundry for Neverwinter? That would be cool.

Not really. User created content is mostly trash, exploits or doing the developer's job for them, none of which is particularly desirable in an MMO. In an MMO with a heavy PvP element, user content is pretty much poised to trash them game entirely.

As to the OP's idea, I'm not sure how anyone benefits from piles of extra content that needs to be hosted and run by Zeni's servers, but doesn't save anything.

It was so cool.

Especially when we were playing "Monster Box" maps where the creatures sat trapped in terrain while we farmed them safely and freely for free exp/loot.

This is why this type of content is bad. People ruin nice things.

This a problem with mod approval, not modding itself. With competent employees approving content, this wouldn't be a problem.

i have yet to see ANY MMO that allows this system to work at all.

And that's a reason to just leave it at the table? Learn from mistakes, revise the design, try it out extensively, Beta-test it, patch it and then review it. The most successful games reuse revised features that previously failed. I don't understand the hostility towards a little bit of optimism and actually trust that the developers are in fact quite a talented bunch of people.

A good way to go about something like this would be to make it so players have to be Level 50 to be able to use it, you know, when they have maxed there characters and cannot vertically progress any further. This way, the reason to do user generated content would be for the sake of content, as in stuff to do, rather than as an alternate way to level up.

Either that or remove rewards and experience gain from it. Let it be about the experience of creative expression.

Of course, with this game being a subscription-based game, rewards could be a part of the UGC. Authors who create exploit quests could have their account, game and forum, permabanned. No three strikes and out. You do it and you are GONE!

Except then they have to justify it, since this isn't a F2P situation, and they've paid their sub fees. Prove that it isn't just a bug, error, or scripting mistake. No, wait, you've already added the cost of adjudication and appeals on top of approval. That is yet more resources and employee time the company has to spend.

There are too many things wrong with allowing this. For one, too many people will simply create a map/creature/item that allows easy xp gains.

"Well, let's just restrict modding to level 50 people".

No, that's a terrible idea because this doesn't actually solve anything. The level 50 people will still make uber weapons that can one-shot anything in sight or make it so enemies are blatantly obvious.

"Not a problem, we can just have the developers or someone approve the content first".

Again, bad idea. It requires tons of effort and money to fish through thousands of mods just to find anything good and not gamebreaking. That same money could be better put to use actually making the game.

"Let's just have the community do it instead of the devs".

This is another awful idea as the community can't be trusted. What happens if thousands of people approve a gamebreaking mod? Just let it happen?

"Fine, let's just make it so the players can't get anything out of it".

First, this would discourage modding as there is nothing to gain from the effort put in. Secondly, how would the developers even program this, and why would they? It requires time and money for a feature that is useless.

In the perfect world, this would be a good idea. However, there is simply too much room for abuse.

Actually, SWG's system was pretty good. It didn't allow the awarding of experience, so it couldn't be exploited for power levelling. The only thing that could be rewarded were credits and/or items that had to be in the possession of the player creating the quests.

I said that your character would be imported into the mod, but things you do in the mod would not effect anything outside of it. That way you get new content as you level, but you can't level from that content as it could be unbalanced. And Zenimax wouldn't need to approve the mod, only some moderators, because what is actually in the mod doesn't matter since it doesn't change anything anyway. The only thing you need to worry about is people making offensive/illegal mods, which is why they would need to be moderated. And the players do get something out of it - You play MMOs for the experience, right, not just to get stuff and level.