Dude, I just explained it to you, if you run a game intended for a crt monitor from the mid 90s on a new display you are getting a crappier experience because of resolution/aspect ratio differences, so mods address that, your ''purity'' argument doesn't make sense.
Aspect ratio would effect full screen, not windowed. I get what you're saying though, I really do, I'm just saying there's no need for those things to play the games. Sorry if that offends you. The guy specifically said a "high resolution" mod, now, I have no idea about the specifics of Fallout's High res mod, obviously, and the guy didn't elaborate on it, so I'm assuming a high res mod makes the game have more pixels than the original, specifically changing the look of the game. If that's not what it does, then we're talking at cross-purposes anyway.
Also the point of a mod is not to rescue shitty devs from their shortcomings as you think, most people use mods on already great games to make them better, financial constraints and development times force devs to make compromises and rush things out here and there, so mods can improve/add stuff and features that make the experience better. Plus, there are mods that change the gameplay drasticly and give players new challenges and new experiences so what the fuck is the point of being narrow minded about them?
This paragraph is just ranting. I'm not being narrow minded about them, I'm providing the perspective of someone who's never needed or bothered with mods who's fed up of forums always being overrun by modders who begin and finish every fucking debate with "mods you need" "mods fixed that" when never in my entire life have I used or needed mods and when the specific point of criticism is to criticise the original product, not the obscure offspring of some crazy modder's 20 years later re-imagining of the game.
In no other medium do people fuck around with their media like they do with computer games. Some aspiring artist doesn't 'improve' the Mona Lisa. An aspiring composer doesn't 'improve' Mozart. An aspiring film director doesn't 'improve' their old movies [oh, right, wait...], An aspiring author doesn't 'improve' someone else's book [they tried that with the Bible, and that really helped a lot...].
As I said before [this is now the second time] you can perpetually 'improve' a game, from here to eternity, but at some point you will be playing the version you're playing. IMO, the 'ideal' [read, not 'best', not 'purest', just "ideal"] version will be whichever one comes with the version you acquire. The idea that purchasing/acquiring a game merely represents the first stage out of many before you sit down and play the thing is, to me, absurd. To find replay value in increasing the breast size of NPCs is, to me, utterly absurd.
And you might well think that mods have nothing to do with lazy/incompetent, whatever, devs, but modding has the duel effect of making devs care less about their content, ie: more likely to provide dull templates, but also care less about day one bugs/balance and everything else.
The reason why I'll replay a game has nothing to do with if someone has tweaked some minor shit or replaced some sprites with other sprites, the reason I'll replay a game is because I enjoy the gameplay. Changing the Pong blocks to penises will not make me have a greater desire to replay Pong, having a desire to knock a pixelated ball about again is what'll motivate me to replay pong, and it doesn't matter if its in 1080p or 360p, I'll want to play the same 'version' of Pong I always played, because that's the game that I'm thinking about when I decide to replay Pong.
Take Serpents in the Staglands. That game had tuns of patches. I can't remember how far they got, maybe up to the late 20s, I honestly can't remember and they might still be patching it to this day, but I downloaded it a month or two after release with patch number 13 or whatever and it played fine, I had no real issues to speak of in that regard and when I feel like replaying it in 5/10 years time I'll play the version I already have downloaded, because it plays fine and it's the version I know and remember, it's the version I'll be thinking about when I think about replaying it. Comprende?
