Today, we are going to reflect on the past, check out the current landscape of modding, and glimpse at what both the community, as well as the studio, plans for the future. Although there are many modders out there working on creative projects for Halo, we can’t focus on everyone and everything in one blog so instead I’ve picked examples from a few people for this feature. If you have favorite modders or mods, please let me know and perhaps we can spotlight them in a future article. Welcome to our first modding blog! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//34690208/29276043515f7540ec00f3c3c01f33b388b6d208.jpg[/img] [h1]HISTORY OF MODS IN HALO[/h1] Before we dive into some new hotness, let’s take a minute to reflect on some history. Modding is not something new to video games. Since the dawn of time, players have found new and unique ways to inject their own custom data (or even code) into titles to create new experiences. Fast forward to today, it’s pretty much a mandatory expectation amongst PC gamers to allow modders to tinker and bring these new pieces to the forefront for the broader community to enjoy. Personally, I remember using the Game Genie (wow I feel old) back in my youth on the NES to get different flavors of Jellybeans. Halo has a long history of being modified, both officially and unofficially. It started, nearly 20 years ago, on the OG Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved and has continued to today. The explosion of new content, to bring this level of customized experience to Halo: Reach proves that players continue to love tinkering and building new ways to play in the Halo universe. In the beginning, these mods were entirely ‘unofficial’ and often were done behind closed doors, requiring a lot of effort from those partaking, and unfortunately, violating Microsoft’s Terms of Service. Note: to this day, modifying consoles and the content on them is still against Terms of Service. This is where the PC world bridges a gap for those interested in building new experiences in Halo games. Over time, these often-taboo Halo modding efforts were eventually supported and even encouraged. This mentality became more acceptable once the first PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved was released but was emphasized even more so with the launch of Halo “Custom Edition.” [url=https://www.halopedia.org/Halo_Custom_Edition]Here is a Halopedia article[/url] that covers some of the history and associated communities with Halo Custom Edition. To fully enjoy a time capsule of the history of Halo modding, just perusing [url=http://www.halomaps.org/]halomaps.org[/url] will give you a sense of the rich modding history Halo has had over the years. For those who played Halo 2 on Xbox, some may remember mods that were used online in matchmaking. Unfortunately, these mods were abused by many bad actors and many were banned because of these actions. As nefarious as some were, there were lots of community created mods that weren't intended to be used online in matchmaking, but purely for fun. My favorite mod from Halo 2 still is the one where the plasma pistol shot out sticky grenades, but when fully charged, it shot out the train from the map "Terminal." Here is a video showing off a small sampling of some old school mods from Halo 2. [previewyoutube=5HptMIgQN_k;full][/previewyoutube] While I have played Halo and many games for most of my life, I’ve not tinkered in mods myself. To learn more about the subject, I decided to interview a few folks from the modding community who have multiple years experience creating customized tools and content for others to enjoy. But before we dive into talking with the folks, let’s first talk about some resources folks might find useful, some do’s and don’ts, and general guidance on modding for Halo. [url=https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/modding-halo-a-community-tradition]Read the rest on Halo Waypoint now![/url]