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Reasons Behind Crusader Kings’ Loyal Modders: An Analysis on Crusader Kings’ Modding Community

Nov 2022

1 Introduction

One of the most prominent aspects of Paradox games is its player-created content and the sizable modding community surrounding its games. The Crusader Kings series, for example, is especially favoured by modders. It has a modding discord server of 6000+ members with 1000+ online. It also has 5000+ steam workshop mods for a game released two years ago.

Furthermore, Crusader Kings is one of the most modded Paradox series. It hosts a majority of famous total conversion mods, the Game of Thrones mod, the Princes of Darkness, and Elder Kings(Brown, 2022). Modders even update these mods across games, from Crusader Kings 2 to 3, utilising the new engine and graphics.

There must be some underlying reason why modders are encouraged to create content for Crusader Kings. After all, it is time-consuming, and a good reason is needed to start. Discovering the reason can bring insight into building a loyal modding community, whether modders mod more for personal or impersonal reasons. Thus, this paper seeks to discover the motivations of Crusader Kings’ modders and analyse the common traits that drew them to Crusader Kings specifically.

The formalised research questions:

  • What motivates Crusader Kings’ modders?
  • Why are they willing to contribute to the Crusader Kings modding community?
  • Are there commonalities between their motivations?

The paper is structured as follows. Firstly, it overviews the game, providing backgrounds and gameplay. Secondly, it provides a detailed account on the methodology of the research. Thirdly, the results are presented, identifying the underlying reasons that motivate Crusader Kings modders. Fourthly, The results are discussed, reflecting upon the implications of the research. Finally, a summarisation is given to show the answers found during our research.

2 Game Overview

2.1 Crusader Kings

Crusader Kings is a series of grand strategy games developed by Paradox, with currently three games in the series. Its first title, Crusader Kings, was released in 2004, following Crusader Kings 2 in 2012, and now Crusader Kings 3 in 2020. Originally a small title, it gained popular success after Crusader Kings 2, slowly forming a loyal player base expansion after expansion. The game can be considered the turning point for Paradox Interactive, where the company went from 45 employees in 2012 to nearly 500 by 2019 (Hafer, 2019).

Crusader Kings can be played single-player and multiplayer, with multiplayer replacing the ruler AIs with actual players. Therefore, it can involve a lot of role-playing elements. The player personates a medieval character through the ages, with endless possibilities of what to become: a duke, baroness, emperor, or even a loyal vassal. The game does not enforce an objective on the player, and the player has the choice to decide what to do. She can aim to expand her kingdom, duel her childhood friend, or even seduce the Pope. The only thing fixed is the setting.

Crusader Kings is faithful to history in mechanics. While it has inaccuracies here and there, such as Low mortality rates(Cantalini, 2021), most of its mechanics are true to history—for instance, its detailed treatment of the feudal system.

The game’s uniqueness comes from the fact that it makes history personalistic. Compared to Europa Universalis’ rational treatment of states, Crusader Kings is a battleground of rulers with different personalities(Devereaux, 2022). It creates a space where organic stories can emerge. For example, when a lazy and charming son replaces a diligent, brave father as ruler, significant changes will happen to the kingdom. The game’s charm comes from being entirely organically character-based. The player needs to court, balance her vassals and pay attention to conspirators, Unlike most grand strategies where rulers are abstract representations of states.

Crusader Kings’ review improves with its titles. Its first game lacked a tutorial and had technical issues, as reflected in its mediocre reviews. It had depth but discouraged casual players because of its lack of approachability(Butts, 2004). Crusader Kings 2, being the pillar of the franchise, took off as one of the most loved grand strategy games. Being the unique role-play Grand strategy on the market, it has a Metacritic score of 82(Crusader Kings II, n.d.). Crusader Kings 3, on the other hand, did even better, with a Metacritic score of 91. Despite that, it has a lower user score(Crusader Kings III, n.d.) and is less fleshed-out than its predecessor. However, Crusader Kings 2 have had years of expansions and community content growth. That is still to come for Crusader Kings 3 (Hafer, 2020).

As a whole, Crusader Kings is genre-defining. It created the character-based grand strategy genre and became one of the best Paradox titles and grand strategy games. It is even more famous for its countless player-created content and its sizable modding community.

2.2 Crusader Kings’ Modding

Modding has evolved over the years for Crusader Kings. Crusader Kings 1 does not have mods available online, not on Steam Workshop or Nexus mods. Some tools exist, such as the DNA maker(Useful Tools, n.d.), where you can change characters’ appearance, but that is about it. The modding for the game only took off after Crusader Kings 2, after it slowly gained following. It was an excellent platform for hosting character-based fiction for its role-playing elements. Game of throne mod was created for it, which benefited the game greatly (Kaiser, 2016). Modders have many choices in modding. From minor mods that add icons and portraits to overhaul mods and total conversion mods that can completely ignore vanilla directories (Modding - Crusader Kings II Wiki, n.d.).

Crusader Kings 3 expands on Crusader Kings 2’s modding even more. The game is now powered by the brand new Jomini Engine, which expanded on ways the game could be modded. It includes DirectX features, dynamic audio, and better performance options. It also lowers the barrier to entry for modders, as now modders can mod even without knowing any scripting (Boudreau, 2018). One of the interviewees who had worked in Paradox as a content developer for Crusader Kings 3 also mentions that modders are given the same tools to create in-game content as paradox employees.

The modding community currently revolves mainly around steam workshops, with its discord server for easy collaboration between modders. It has 5000+ mods for Crusader Kings 3 in just two years. Other platforms that host mods also exist, such as Mod Nexus and Paradox’s website, although with a smaller mod base.

3 Methodology

The methodology of the paper is Qualitative analysis, using grounded theory specifically. It creates codes from the interview data.

Qualitative analysis is selected instead of quantitative analysis because surveying many Crusader Kings’ modders in the selected time frame is impossible. In addition, quantitative analysis is more suitable for gathering value-based data. For something ingrained such as personal motivations, in-depth personal discussions are more suitable. At the same time, surveying methods can lead to superficial answers.

3.1 Grounded theory

Grounded theory, a qualitative method, combines the strength of quantitative and qualitative approaches. It is a method for discovering common themes in the collected qualitative data. It first breaks down the data into labels and then finds the similarities and differences through categorisation. It is an iterative process to reduce the data to its core themes or theories (Walker & Myrick, 2006).

It first collects data related to the topic through forms such as accessing public records, biography, news report, and faceto-face conversation. Both qualitative and quantitative data can be collected for analysis (Brodin, Hellzen, & H ´ aggstr ¨ om, ¨ 2017). This paper uses interviews as means of data collection and focuses purely on qualitative data.

After that, the collected data are open-coded, where textual data are labelled and broken up, forming codes(Flick, 2018). Axial coding is then used to find the relationship between these codes, forming categories. Memos are written throughout the process to document the details during the coding process.

After the core categories emerge, selective coding starts, which connects the related categories around one central category. The core category then represents the central thesis of the research. The open coding, axial coding and selective coding process are also iterative and should be treated as a non-linear process in order to consolidate the data (Williams & Moser, 2019) continuously. Finally, the coding outcome is developed into theory.

3.2 Demographic Selection

A subset of the modding community is selected from the Crusader Kings modding collaboration discord. The discord hosts players of varying skill levels, from brand new modders that only started days ago to very experienced ones that had been doing it for years. Some even have direct ties with Paradox and have worked on the game itself as content developers. The discord provides a good selection of modders that ensures sample variety. A total of 10 participants were interviewed and selected based on their skill levels, from very experienced to completely inexperienced. Inexperienced modders provide fresh motivations, as their decision to start modding is recent. They can provide direct accounts. Experienced modders, on the other hand, have long-lasting motivations that keep them going and are likely to have worked on big collaborative modding projects. They can provide more detailed and personal accounts. Both kinds are valuable for analysing the commonalities.

3.3 Interview Questions

The interviews are in free-flow form, as the research is exploratory. The questions are open-ended and focus on discovering their motivation. As the participants’ skill levels vary, the questions are also modified accordingly. Depending on their initial answers, follow-up questions were added as further exploration. Their ages were also queried to gain a perspective on the demography of Crusader Kings’ modding community.

The general questions are listed below: - How experienced are you with modding? - When did you start modding? - When did you start modding for Crusader Kings? - How long have you been modding? What drove you to continue? - What motivates you to mod?

3.4 Privacy

Because of the subjectivity of the answers of interviewees, the results can be identifying. Therefore, subjects interviewed during the research will remain unnamed to protect their privacy.

4 Results

4.1 Open Coding

  • Creative aspect
  • Practice writing skills
  • Roleplay
  • Love of history
  • Teamwork
  • Make another universe playable
  • Love the vanilla game
  • Fan of other franchises
  • Fan of other mods
  • Versatile platform
  • Good documentation
  • Expanded tools
  • Industry knowledge
  • Same tools as Paradox employees
  • Collaboration
  • Entry to programming
  • Vanilla roleplay annoyances
  • Game famous for its mods
  • Easy to ask questions
  • Community atmosphere
  • Starting small
  • Easy to find Collaboration
  • Other’s Code available
  • No programming knowledge required
  • Fixing own gripes
  • Create visual effects
  • Shader follows industry standard
  • No prerequisites
  • Advantage from pre-existing programming experience
  • To prove oneself
  • Enjoy problem-solving
  • Requests from community
  • Helping other modders
  • Easy to jump into work
  • Joining an interesting project
  • Project success
  • Project gained following
  • Easy to join projects
  • Minimal schedule requirement
  • Ties into the current profession
  • Game is intuitive to mod
  • Simple for beginner modders
  • To change things up
  • Help out another mod team
  • Long hours in the vanilla game
  • Fan of Paradox franchises
  • Making own scenarios
  • Relative ease in modding
  • Easier than any programming language
  • Just text files
  • Can view base game code
  • Jomini engine increased modding ease
  • Expanded moddable content
  • Workarounds to create sophisticated content
  • Lots of community interaction
  • Great internet resources
  • Not difficult
  • Easier to build on top
  • Enjoy a self-created world with friends
  • Having others play my mod
  • Cannot make a real game

4.2 Axial Coding

Improve Vanilla Game Motivated by discontent with the vanilla game, and wish to add more or fix certain features. (Vanilla roleplay annoyances, To change things up, Fixing own gripes)

Self-improvement Motivated by wanting to improve one’s skills or achieve personal objectives. (Entry to programming, To prove oneself, Practice writing skills)

Community Aid Motivated because help is always available from the community. Lots of community feedback on your work. (Other’s code available, Community atmosphere, Easy to ask questions, Requests from community, Lots of community interaction, Great internet resources)

Collaborative Synergy Motivated because interesting collaborative projects are always available from the modding community that are flexible. (Easy to join projects, Easy to find collaboration, Joining an interesting project, Teamwork, Collaboration, Easy to jump into work, Help out another mod team, Minimal schedule requirement)

Modding Support Motivated because of the great modding support from paradox, which makes it easy to create anything they want. (Expanded tools, Jomini engine increased modding Ease, Can view base game code, Good documentation, Expanded moddable content, Workarounds to create sophisticated content, Same tools as Paradox employees, Shader follows industry standard)

Creative Actualization Motivated because they get to enact their creative vision. (Creative aspect, Roleplay, Make another universe playable, Making own scenarios, Create visual effects, Enjoy a selfcreated world with friends)

Related Hobby Motivated because modding gives them a chance to participate in their hobbies. (Love of history, Fan of other franchises, Enjoy problemsolving)

Low Barriers to Entry Motivated because of how easy it is to start modding, and therefore easy to keep going. (No programming knowledge required, Starting small, No prerequisites, game is intuitive to mod, Not difficult, Relative Ease in modding, Simple for beginner modder, Just txt files, Easer than any programming language)

Fond of the Game Motivated because they love the vanilla game, and wants to create content for it. (Love the vanilla game, Long hours in vanilla game, Fan of paradox franchises, Game famous for its mods, Fan of other mods)

Existing Expertise Motivated because they have existing expertise related to modding. Making it easy to keep going. (Industry knowledge, Advantage from pre-existing programming experience, Ties into current profession)

Game as Creative Platform Motivated because they can use the game as a platform to enact their vision. Almost like playing in a sandbox. (Versatile platform, Can’t make a real game, Easier to build on top)

For Supporters Motivated because supporters are waiting to play their mod. Wish to contribute to the supporters. (Having others play my mod, Project success, Project gained following)

4.3 Selective Coding

Axial coding was applied again along with this process as more general patterns emerged. For instance, Low Barrier to Entry, Modding Support and Existing Expertise are all related to the difficulty of the modding process and can be merged into a single category.

After the final secondary categories had emerged, as shown in figure 1, it was clear that vision realization is the main theme for mod creation. The category community distinguish whether the vision is collective or singular and demonstrates community support. Technical Ease serves to make modding more accessible and give modders more freedom. Game Optimization and Creativity are two different but not mutually exclusive vision goals in themselves. Self-actualization is a result of achieving their visions. All categories either are the vision or help with achieving the vision.

5 Discussion

5.1 Process reflection

Figure 1: The Selective Coding where the core category ”Realization of Vision” emerges; Realizing vision itself is always the goal, regardless of collaboratively or individually. Modding support or a Low barrier to entry merely supports that goal.

Because the paper used free-flow interviews to collect data, the amount of data generated per interviewee varies. This method can make the codes generated lean towards some of the more talkative interviewees. Some were very willing to share, even providing their previous interviews as references. In contrast, some others were less willing to talk. This bias could be mitigated if there were a larger selection of interviewees. However, that leads to the next concern, the number of codes.

The number of codes the analysis stage included can cause omission. Too many codes could be extracted from the data as motivation, as ten people were interviewed. This sample is still quite large for qualitative analysis. The significant number of codes increased the difficulty of axial coding, and the more codes there are, the more different ways the data could be interpreted. There exist code relations that this paper was not able to find. One way to mitigate this is to have multiple people perform the same process, which could not be performed in this paper because of time constraints.

Also, axial coding was performed twice instead of doing the entire process multiple times. Partly because the number of categories available made it too difficult to find the core category and partly because there are clear relations between specific categories. It was an excellent decision to perform axial coding again, as it made selective coding much more straightforward.

5.2 Result reflection

The resulting core category was Realization of Vision. The final secondary categories were all surrounded by the same theme. For Community, it is usually some shared vision that needs to be expressed. For Game Optimization, SelfActualization and Creativity, they are different visions, with different goals needing to be realized. For Technical Ease, they are an assortment of tools that helps with vision realization. Therefore it can be concluded that modders mod because they wish to enforce or see their vision achieved, whether individual or collaborative. They are more likely to continue if there is support from the community, and easy access to tools and help.

The issue with the final theory is that it can be obvious. Also, it gives little guidance on how to build a loyal modding community. Modding itself can reflect that you want to create something, which already means you want to realize a particular vision. Therefore, this paper’s open and axial codes are more valuable for community building purposes, for finding ways to draw people to mod. They give more detailed information on why people mod.

The Technical Ease category, for instance, gives concrete steps on what the company could do if encouraging modding is the goal. It can be done by making game content code available, expanding modding tools, making more aspects of the game moddable, have good documentation.

Research on modding communities exists but is rare. We were able to find one done on another game title, Skyrim. It follows a similar research process to this paper, using ground theory. The difference is that they used surveys as means of data collection. They concluded that modders are motivated by several motivations instead of just one or two, and interconnectivity exist between them. They found their motivations are correcting game flaws, artistic expression, personal advancement and enjoyment(Hackman & Bjorkqvist, 2014).

6 Conclusion

This paper set out to find why modders are encouraged to mod for Crusader Kings, what drew them towards modding for the game. Specifically, the commonalities between their motivations. We were able to find the answers to these questions, with both a general motivation and more diverse motivations specific to the individual.

We found that modders mod for Crusader Kings because they wish to realize their vision. It can be a collective vision or a singular vision. Their goals are primarily divided into either creative purposes or optimizing the game as forms of self-actualization. Their motivations are further increased by the community help surrounding it and the technical ease of creating mods.

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