Do you keep your modding hobby a secret?

[Sclammerz]

The title says it all. It can be Warcraft 3 or other modding hobbies of yours.

For me, yes, only my brother knows to what extent I am in modding. I find it difficult to explain it even with my close friends since they are not fond of the game anyway. And honestly, it is not something you can lay out in a normal conversation lol. It grew to be like a "me thing" only eventually.

How about you? Share your thoughts!

 

[deepstrasz]

Only my friends, relatives and whatnot that play games know about it, usually those that had anything to do with Warcraft, StarCraft, or similar games.
It's not about being secretive or ashamed to talk about it with others, non-gamers, but it just won't be seen as something worthwhile for them to talk about.

 

[Stefan.K]

I talk a lot about it to my relatives and friends even though they always give me comments like "you still fooling with those toys".
In a village where I live there is not too many people playing games and when I mention modding to them they act like "what the heck is that?!".

 

[ThompZon]

I say it to many of my (closer) friends, family and (closer) colleagues. I'm fairly open about it.
It's creative and a hobby...

 

[PROXY]

It's interesting because I pondered about that some time ago. I think only my siblings as well as my girlfriend knows. For others its simply "gaming". Same as for some others already mentioned, its not about keeping it a secret, but rather it not really making a difference.

But indeed, its also more a "me" thing more then anything else.

 

[loktar]

I tend not to tell people simply because it's very hard to explain to people who don't know anything about it. When I have mentioned it, people usually thought I was "making a game" or programming games from scratch, or something like that which is a lot more difficult and technical than what I actually do.

So when I'm asked about hobbies I just say gaming if anything, even though I barely do any actual gaming anymore.

 

[Tickles]

I used to play Warcraft 3 with friends from school around the time TFT came out. I was very talkative about the game and the maps I would make back then. But as the game aged, it became more of a closet hobby for me whenever I need to create something.

 

[General Frank]

My friends and younger folks in the family know the concept of game modding and it is really easy to explain what my hobby is.

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

The people I know who are into gaming knows, but I can't really be bothered to even attempt to explain the concept of modding to anyone who doesn't understand the basic concepts of video games. If my parents, cousins, aunts or whatever asks me what I do in my spare time I just say "stuff on my computer".

My girlfriend always asks me "when are you gonna be finished with your map? You have been working on it for years!", to which I always reply "I'm never finished, this is a new map!". At least she understands exactly what I'm doing. I try to show her some stuff every now and then, but she doesn't have any interest. I have four brothers, but one of them is more interested in Skyrim modding, two of them don't care about Warcraft, and one is actually really interested in my maps and knows some basic Warcraft 3 modding himself.

I don't bring it up in normal social conversations with coworkers or other people who are less close to me since hobbies isn't really that common of a subject in mostly professional settings.

 

[PROXY]

My girlfriend always asks me "when are you gonna be finished with your map? You have been working on it for years!"

I can relate lol.

 

[Daffa]

Used to be, though not really a secret since I do it in public space from time to time. I mean I never really bother explaining the details, just the gist of it if they are IT field people, and just the "stuff with computer" dialogue thing with non IT people.

Though now I am in Gaming Industry, I can just say "making games" (technically wrong, but not really).

 

[Knight of Arsford]

I've never really told anyone I'm close with what I do in detail. I just say I make custom maps for an already existing game. I felt that it's too niche and even if I did tell them, they won't be interested.

But I do enjoy it. This is the one thing that I enjoy doing that's truly mine, and not something I did because of others' influence. I haven't really made a proper map in a long time, and the last ones I finished were up in Epicwar nearly a decade ago. But I have a new project I'm working on, and hopefully I get to finish it, as some sort of a gift to the community for all the fun it gave me.

 

[Pwnica]

Every one know this issue...
But for people knowing / playing Wc3 or the Community on Hive our stuff have relevance because we know how difficult it is to do a Resource... like when I first did my first map (totally Garbage when reforged was released) people added me on Bnet giving me Feedback... when ever I show my Wife for example my Map or things I did she looked like... it’s just changing some numbers or stuff like that haha...
How ever maybe it’s good that out Hobby exist only on 2 Small Community‘s (Players/Moders)
And if your Map at least is for some People „Fun“ to play and enjoy some Hours.. it’s more then worth the Work we did...

 

[Ralle]

For the longest time I didn't dare working on Hive Workshop in public. I was afraid someone would insult it. Now I don't care. I will work on it anywhere. But the thing is. Hive used to be the only place where I gave my self 100%. And when you do that, an insult can be most effective. If someone makes a remark about your laundry skills you'll probably be like "fuck that, I don't care about how well I do laundry" but when it's about something you really care about being good at, it will hurt.

In high school I never talked about my coding/modding because I knew I would instantly alienate 99% of the people around me and I would potentially be stamped as a nerd. I was pretty social so I knew when to talk nerd and when not to. One of my classmates seemed to adore my skills so he wanted to talk about it anywhere and that might actually have helped me because I knew he thought it was cool.

@MindWorX how was this for you?

 

[StoPCampinGn00b]

I live in a pretty tech/media savvy area in Silicon Valley California, so it's pretty easy to mention it if you explain it correctly in more common terms. "Oh! It's like modifying things in a game in varying programs to make something your own, either as an art, technical programming adventure, or something simple such as creating your own "game in a game" for others to experience." Something like that.

Though I guess I'm not as much as a skilled tinkering modder as most are here, so I do tend to focus on the overview of what it is and what it means in comparison to "just" playing the game. How there are some similarities to game development and what it being a hobby can lead to - such as the connections you make with other modders working together or even with developers themselves. How you can point out that there are certain sought out skills in the greater game industry that you can earn from modding.

Maybe a little off-topic to the modding aspect but: Personally I don't keep any of my past community/media projects private in a general "what do I do" sense. I love talking about it and I think others love hearing about it, it legit makes me so happy when they think it's awesome too. I just don't like to mix the actual details too much so I do stray away from mentioning my username and website names, unless they actually do play Warcraft haha. I've never had the problem of fearing that this sounds "too nerdy" because it's common place in the current internet landscape nowadays, and I did grow up in a slightly younger generation than most here on Hive.

 

[Ralle]

I've never had the problem of fearing that this sounds "too nerdy" because it's common place in the current internet landscape nowadays, and I did grow up in a slightly younger generation than most here on Hive.

You are quite younger than me and I believe the culture is different these days than when I was a teenager. Everything that stuck out, so to speak, got hammered in for being different. These days being different is a good thing.

 

[hivemessenger]

I dont need to keep my modding activities secret because all my friends know about wc3. So its easy to say 'I make maps for wc3' and they understand.