Skyrim is one of my favourite, if not my outright favourite game of all time. I'm having a hard time thinking of a game that I enjoyed more than this or played more than this (discounting some multiplayer games). However, there is a reason for my immense enjoyment of this nearly four year old title and the fact that I keep coming back to Tamriel over and over again even now.

Mods. Mods are an essential part of this game. I don't believe anyone who says that they have hundreds of hours only playing vanilla Skyrim on PC. It's nothing to be proud of or boast about. Mods are what kept this game alive all this time. Mods are the heart and the soul of this game in my honest opinion and I would have quit playing a long, long time ago if this game didn't support mods.

I'm not going to spend time bashing the vanilla game which was an excellent game.......in 2011, but I am going to tell you that if you intend to purchase Skyrim, you will not be able to escape the mods for long. This game was born to be modded just like it's predecessors. This title on it's own is capable of maybe around a hundred hours for the average player? This is extended to thousands upon thousands upon thousands when mods are taken into account. For £2.50? This is practically being given away for free.

So in short: BUY THIS GAME ASAP. YOU WILL NOT REGRET A SINGLE PENNY. I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE IT.

But now we come to the ugliest and sadly the longest part of this review. Paid mods. It's been talked about to death and I have no desire to beat this dead horse more that it has been but as I have said before, this cannot nor will ever be forgotten.

I have gone over the idea of paid mods in my head for the last couple of days and I think it has the potential to work but just not with existing titles and even then they are treading on thin ice. They must be very, very careful when they implement this in the future or it has the potential to break one of the cornerstones of PC gaming. Bottom line is you cannot go and start charging people extra money for a game that they bought and reviewed with the modding potential in mind years ago. It's flat out stupid for a start before I even get to the part about morals.

Also, this idea that has suddenly cropped up that modders are ENTITLED to payment is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous. Sure you can say they DESERVE it but you cannot say they are entitled to any form of payment and I'm willing to fight anyone on this point. They created the mod to better the game for themselves and for others. There was absolutely no significant monetary incentive involved whatsoever until about a week ago. When this ♥♥♥♥ ass system was introduced, it made people greedy. It brought out the worst in everyone, including myself.

I have a ton of respect for the people that take the time out of their own lives to better a game that they love for themselves and others. So it killed me to be seeing us fighting each other like rabid dogs and pointing fingers and playing the blame game. I have no doubt that some form of this will be implemented in the future and if Valve go about it in the right way, it can have the exact positive impact that they intended with this total ♥♥♥♥ story.

Another thing is that when money is involved, I won't give a damn how passionate you are. If I am paying good money for something, I expect it to be fully supported and updated without question. Your passion is not enough in that case. I and everyone else will hold modders to the exact same standards as we would any other game we purchased.

You think Valve had systems in place to prevent issues like the above? ♥♥♥♥ NO. You buy your mod for whatever price and in whatever state and then unless you refund it in 24hrs, you're stuck with it and a potential lazy ♥♥♥♥ who does not update the mod or fix the bugs at all. Valve had no plans to manage the mod store they set up. They just opened their wallets and hopefully the cash would flow in. Well a big ♥♥♥♥ you to you Valve.

However, I fully believe that hard work and effort should be compensated. I think people have lashed out because of the times we live in. Microtransactions, DLC, buggy games, pre-order bonuses, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ industry practices etc. This gaming market is already very hostile to consumers to the point where complaints are attributed to 'whining' and 'entitlement'. So who in their right mind would buy a mod that has zero quality guarantees, zero official support a tiny ass 24hr returns policy and something that can very easily be plagiarised? Think about it.

Lastly, I must thank the community and the thousands of you who stood against this move by Bethesda and Valve. It makes me very proud to see gamers just like me, standing up to ♥♥♥♥ like this and just goes to show that WE THE CONSUMERS HOLD THE REAL POWER AND WE. CAN. MAKE. CHANGE. Thank you so much to you all :'D

Link to my old negative review so the comments have more relevance:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XOoXI85kjFKOE3wVa3QTl8Rx8Hdh3ZZwBfibqOD1wts/edit?usp=sharing