Finding New Futures

I believe that when you put anything creative out into the world - art, code, music, writing, no matter what it is - you are not really engaging the present. The popularity, the trends, the various metrics of success or failure.. those are all kind of irrelevant in the bigger picture. All that will soon be gone, consigned to dust and vanity and flattery and random data bits on aging hard drives. Old news.

Creating something new means talking to the future, reaching to someone out there who will pick up the ball and move it forward after you are done. Just you and them, just two people living their lives, bridging the long divide of time and change.  

That’s the only way and reason to do any of it, the only way that lasts.

I began bridging my own time as a Fallout modder in 2011. I grew to love working with other creative people from all walks of life, exploring weird ideas, pushing the possible, and contributing to a greater collective work and community. Engaging the future was fun.

Nexus was an absolutely pivotal part of that experience for me, serving as a common fountain of collaborative energy, a place where creative gamers could gather, learn, and help each other become better at a hobby they loved.  

At one time, I had planned to stay until they turned off the lights.

Somewhere along the way, the future changed. A community of creators morphed into a flea market for gamers who only ever really regarded modding as a long-tail DLC for their favorite games. Discovery and invention stopped being the center of the process, replaced by a soulless scramble to preserve the endless moment: to grab attention, feed vanity, and avoid boredom.

Times changed - as they do - and Nexus changed with the times. I don’t begrudge them that. Nexus is a commercial enterprise, after all. In the end, they sell stuff. They have to go where the money is, and they realized that a flea market is profitable and cost effective to run. That is the way of the marketplace.

The time does come, however, when as an author one has to ask whether this particular street bazaar warrants continued participation. Are we still speaking to the future? If so, is it a desirable one? What does that future look like?  

Or do you just want what you have right now, only a lot more of it?

In my case, the answer is very clear. I want a mod community that values author collaboration, rewards pushing the artistic and technical envelopes, and recognizes basic creativity and self-initiative as the engine that makes it all go. And I absolutely do not believe that Nexus is going in that direction, or that their business model allows them to, even if they wanted it. And now they demand my decision.

So, after a decade at Nexus, I’m done. I’ll do something different.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with, understand, or even be interested in my position on all this. You don’t have to. Nexus is going in one direction, and I want to go in another: it is as simple, and as complicated, as that.  

My mods are now all available on the GreslinGames Discord, and I am reviewing my options for alternative hosting. Support will continue to be handled through the GreslinGames forums and Discord, and this Patreon page will be used for news updates and the like. Documentation, articles, and changelogs previously hosted on Nexus will find a permanent home somewhere else.

PANPC, PACE, and my other mods will continue development via these channels. However, they will not participate in Collections or any other similar automated modpack/modlist scheme.  

See you in the future,

Greslin