Here is my dream: I want to be able to check a load of boxes and have modlists install themselves automatically whenever I download a game. I want Deus Ex to hit my hard drive already-loaded with Deus Exe and a D3D10 renderer. I want Morrowind to arrive already purified by the Morrowind Code Patch and MGEXE.
That’s the dream of the Steam Workshop, I suppose, but it never quite took off, both because it lacked key features like load order management until relatively recently and because devs didn’t quite embrace it.
But maybe we’re a step closer to that sunlit upland as of today: GOG just announced at the PC Gaming Show that it’s introducing one-click mods to its vast library of golden oldies, letting you quickly plug in user-created stuff from a curated library of mods.
It’s not quite one-to-one with Steam Workshop, mind you. It sounds like GOG itself will be creating store pages for an expanding range of specific mods that you can then install much like any other game on the platform.
The store actually already kind of has a version of this system in place—it’s how you install Fallout London for FO4—but now it’s buffing it up, expanding it, and giving it a proper name. At launch, you’ll be able to install three new mods using the one-click system, with a fourth—none other than Skyblivion—promised to hit later in 2025.
The three mods GOG is launching on day one are Horn of the Abyss for Heroes of Might and Magic 3, a fan-made expansion that adds a working multiplayer lobby; Doom 3’s Phobos mod, “a prequel to the original game, delivering a narrative-driven, classic-style FPS experience with modern enhancements; and the GOAT of unofficial patches everywhere: Wesp’s Unofficial Patch for Vampire: The Masquerade–Bloodlines. That one makes Bloodlines, well, playable. Which is handy.
It’s a pretty tight selection, but a promising start, and frankly I’m just happy to see modding continue its slow creep down the avenues of ‘official’ videogame distribution. I’m on the record as an absolute sicko for faithful remasters, but I gotta admit, I’d love to live in a world where I could easily gin up my own by clicking a few buttons rather than relying on the whims of IP-holders.