The modding community is experiencing a shift with the rise of AI-generated mods, with some fearing it could be killing the hobby. Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer modder Mgamerz expressed concerns that AI tools like Claude are creating an avalanche of low-effort content, making it difficult to sift through. He believes the inherent difficulty of getting into a game's files and changing things was a natural filter that's slowly eroding. The difficulty of making mods and getting into it filtered out a lot of low-quality stuff, Mgamerz said, comparing it to the Switch eShop, which is full of low-quality content due to lack of quality control.
The problems start to appear once AI-generated mods are distributed on platforms like Nexus Mods, where they can interact with other add-ons and potentially break people's games. Mgamerz explained that in the modding community, there's an ecosystem that requires careful consideration of how mods will interact with each other.
He fears that AI tools are making it easier for people to create mods without understanding how they work, leading to a lack of quality control and potential issues for other modders. Mgamerz believes that the modding community is dying, and that people who want to get into modding now have to work in secret to avoid being overshadowed by AI-generated content.