‘DayZ’ Standalone Game Will Release Without Mod Support

Tuesday was a good day for masked collectors of souls, seafaring assassinsand bounty-hunting Jedi. It was a bad day for enthusiasts of the Russian nesting doll.

Dean Hall, creator of the wildly acclaimed Arma II mod DayZ, announced that the open-world zombie survival game will not feature mod support at the time of its standalone launch. Modding within a mod remains an elusive feat of PC plying savvy.

Posting under the handle “rocket2guns,” Hall addressed members of the Reddit community on Tuesday in a Q&A session regarding his upcoming plans for DayZ. When asked about the standalone support – which would allow players to openly contribute new enhancements and creations to the game’s world – Hall succinctly ruled out Day 1 DayZ modding: “Not initially,” he stated.

Hall didn’t elaborate on why the decision was made – if DayZ simply has too much on its plate before its late-2012 release, if Hall and Bohemia Interactive wish the game to succeed on its own merits for a while, or if the team has fostered a sudden unwillingness for public participation. That said, there’s a decent chance modding in Hall’s undead world will eventually stagger into fruition.

DayZ epitomizes how modding can unleash the creative potential of the masses, channeling it into the improvement on a base game that the public can enjoy while developers still reap the profits. (The game might be considered among the all-time zombie survival greats – but the only sales it’s moved so far have been for Arma II). It’s understandable that some developers are too proud of their work to have it spun off or tinkered with, but Hall and DayZ are those tinkerers. We’d be surprised if they ignored a phenomenon that, quite frankly, many games in the industry would benefit by embracing.

Ranters, has mod support ever changed your decision on a video game purchase? What new features would you like to see when Arma II mod DayZ becomes standalone-game-from-Bohemia Interactive DayZ later this year?