1. Introduction
[1.1] The Fallout games are known for their depictions of postapocalyptic America—a dangerous, highly irradiated landscape populated by mutated animals, hulking humanoids (known as super mutants), and zombified humans (known as ghouls). Though the franchise has evolved in its gameplay and visuals over the years, certain aspects remain intact. For example, its slogan, "War. War never changes," is present across the Fallout games. The line is often heard in the games' opening and ending sequences. It is a staple of the franchise. However, the line also appears elsewhere—in the fan-made Fallout: London (2024; https://fallout4london.com/).
[1.2] Fallout: London is a mod for Fallout 4 (2015). Mod is short for video game modification. It refers to the noncommercial modification of a digital game. As such, modding is when users manipulate a game's software code in order to achieve a desired effect (Unger 2012). Daniel Johannes Flaten Rosnes (2024) categorizes mods as fan creations, similar to fan art, fan fiction, and machinima. Given this, the mods produced for a particular game depend heavily on the community surrounding it—on the fandom. Often, these fans/modders are third-party developers or simply game enthusiasts who wish to alter the original game in some way (Lee et al. 2020; Curtis et al. 2022). Currently, there are over 68,000 mods available for Fallout 4 on Nexus Mods, with many still being updated and improved (https://www.nexusmods.com/games/fallout4). This shows that the Fallout 4 fan community is still very much alive, even though the game came out in 2015.
[1.3] In the case of Fallout: London, its modders are a mix of hobbyists and industry professionals. The mod was released in 2024 and is available for free on GOG.com, a game distribution platform (https://www.gog.com/en/game/fallout_london). It transports Fallout players into a completely new yet familiar world: postapocalyptic London. While it makes use of some of the assets of Fallout 4 and borrows themes from the Fallout franchise, it sets itself apart as a distinct Fallout experience and is not merely a copy of the mainline games.
[1.4] I argue that mods, particularly mods like Fallout: London, are postmodern pastiches that extend Fredric Jameson's conception of art under a capitalist society. This is because they are essentially noncommodities that contribute to the commercial success of the original game they are built upon. Thus, despite being unmonetized, mods still work within the capitalist system of the contemporary gaming industry, with total-conversion mods, like Fallout: London, being a notable example of such. To showcase this, I begin by elaborating on Jameson's idea of the postmodern pastiche, as well as his broader ideas about postmodernism and capitalism, after which I set out a definition of modding and its position in the video game industry. I then focus my analysis on Fallout: London to emphasize the main thesis. I end by elaborating on what makes Team FOLON a unique case in the modding community: the fact that they are commercializing their playbor by starting their own independent game studio.
2. Defining postmodern pastiche
[2.1] Pastiche refers to an arrangement or collage of styles, images, and themes copied from past referents, such as artworks. Jameson's (1991) conception of it is very much intertwined with his idea of postmodernism. Though his work elaborates on and examines the features of postmodernism, he recognizes that it and its many related theories are conflicting and contradictory. As such, he describes postmodernism not as a style that perfectly encapsulates all relevant works but as a cultural dominant of the time. Ultimately, he argues that postmodernism is the underlying cultural logic—in other words, a necessary symptom—of late capitalism.
[2.2] Late capitalism refers to the third stage of capitalist development, following from market capitalism and monopoly capitalism. This stage was marked by the establishment of multinational corporations, thus leading to mass consumption in many places throughout the world (Possamai 2017). Late capitalism is also known for its commodification of arts and culture. It is a time when the cultural and the economic "collapse back into one another and say the same thing, in an eclipse of the distinction between base and superstructure" (Jameson 1991, xxi). As a result, aesthetic production becomes subsumed under commodity production, and all forms of postmodern art become commodities. This is Jameson's particular brand of postmodernism—a cultural dominant that promotes commodification and consumerism. It is for this reason that postmodern art becomes depthless and lacking in originality—because the goal in their creation becomes profit rather than the creation of art per se (Jameson 1991). The video game industry stands as an example of this merging of culture and economy. Digital games, as artistic works and cultural artifacts, are commodified. This is apparent among triple-A games (AAA games or games by large companies) as seen in their recurring production, the creation of franchises, and the implementation of in-game monetization (Nieborg 2011, 2014).
[2.3] The pastiche presents itself as a symptom of this shift to late capitalism and, thus, postmodernism. Its description is connected to the depthlessness of postmodernism. Said depthlessness is born from ahistoricity—a detachment from historical referents that decontextualizes postmodern works. This then makes the pastiche nothing more than a surface-level copy of styles, images, and themes from the past. Jameson contrasts the pastiche with the parody, stating that the former is an imitation with no intention of satirizing or mocking its source material—a "blank parody" (1991, 17). One example of a pastiche is the nostalgia film because of how it takes aesthetics from a time past and presents them through a stylized, often romanticized, portrayal of said past. American Graffiti (1973) and Chinatown (1974) are examples of pastiches, both for how they emulate a version of America from the 1950s and 1930s, respectively (Jameson 1991). Meanwhile, contemporary examples include the films Bladerunner 2049 (2017) and Ready Player One (2018), which make use of imagery from the 1980s and 1990s (Kırmızısakal 2025).
[2.4] Yet the blankness of pastiche points not only to the empty regurgitation of referents from the past but also to a work's inability to criticize its source material, as well as anything else beyond that. Jameson later talks about the growing normalcy of the commodification of art. This signifies a growing subsumption of culture into the system of late capitalism. Such a development pushes Jameson to raise the question: "Do we know any longer what oppositional means in this total system, or what might 'subvert' it, or even function as its critique?" (quoted in Baumbach et al. 2016, 144). In other words, how might a work of art subvert or critique the capitalist system if it is wholly subsumed in it? Following this logic, pastiches, then—alongside any other postmodern artworks—are incapable of subverting late capitalism.
[2.5] The video game industry, again, showcases this inability to subvert the capitalist system. As stated earlier, it is an industry that is continually being commodified, especially now that digital games can be sold on online storefronts. In relation to this, Adam Possamai (2017) argues many parts of the world have since moved on from late capitalism and have entered digital capitalism. This new development to the capitalist system involves the internet and how it allows for easier access to commodities, as well as the creation of new ones. Video games and the miscellaneous purchases attached to them are examples of the latter—from the release of the game, to the inclusion of microtransactions (Almaguer 2018; Possamai 2017), and even to the selling of paid downloadable content, or DLC (Lizardi 2012).
[2.6] Mods, however, present a unique case because they are almost never monetized. Yet this is also a symptom of digital capitalism as its means of generating profit have evolved from merely digitalizing labor to the expropriation of unpaid labor (Huberman 2022). This is what Julian Kücklich (2005) refers to as the precarious playbor common among modders, which will be discussed in the next section on video game modifications, or simply mods.
3. The art of video game modding
[3.1] Mods entail the manipulation of a game's software code in order to achieve a desired effect. Essentially, they can be thought of as add-ons or patches—ones made not by the game developers or companies, but by the players (Unger 2012). That said, terminologies can vary, depending on the game being modified. For instance, some communities differentiate between mappers, skinners, and modders (Postigo 2007). Others differentiate between mission makers, add-on makers, and mod makers (Sotamaa 2010). I use the term mod in a general sense, encapsulating any form of modification done to a game.
[3.2] Mods can result in many different alterations. For example, some mods provide users with new skins, which are cosmetic changes that alter their character's appearance. Other, larger mods can provide new areas for players to explore or new non-player characters (NPCs) to interact with (Unger 2012). Still other mods are made primarily to fix bugs within the original game (Waldsdorff 2022). There are even mods that allow the player to cheat in the game. These cheat mods are common in single-player games, like Fallout 4. However, they're also present in multiplayer games, where the modders who make use of such cheats are labeled cheaters or hackers (Curtis et al. 2022, 226).
[3.3] Important to note here is the fact that modders often work within the parameters of the game engine. They "use the framework of a given game to create something new or to implement their ideas within this framework" (Unger 2012, 517). It's not uncommon for modders to utilize assets and systems that are already in the original game when creating their mod. There is, then, not only an adherence to the game engine's parameters but also a borrowing of styles, images, and themes. Thus, mods can be labeled pastiches.
[3.4] That said, Alexander Unger's findings on modding culture emphasize that there is also a level of innovation involved in modding. He states that "modders do not only consume, comment, or interpret the cultural artifacts of our commercial (media) culture [the digital games, in other words], but change and manipulate them" (2012, 516). Anne-Marie Schleiner (2017) shares a similar sentiment, referring to the act of modding as ludic mutation, a transformative process where the player sees not a static game world, but one of "play material, to be tweaked, hacked, altered, and reconfigured" (10). As such, while the borrowing of elements is inevitable, ludic mutation is what prevents mods from merely being derivative.
[3.5] The total-conversion mod (TC) is a type of mod that is transformative while still being a pastiche of its source material. Unlike other types of mods that add fan-made characters or new areas to an existing game space, TCs alter the source material to the extent that a new game is created. They often entail a complete reinvention of the original game's visual, audio, mechanical, and/or narrative content (Unger 2012). TCs are also known as overhaul mods (Lee et al. 2020). As the name implies, TCs overwrite most, if not all, of the game's original content, replacing it with that of the mod. When this happens, the only thing that remains is the game's engine, which is usually required to run the TC ("Spare The Mod" 2012).
[3.6] That said, such transformative acts do not exist in a vacuum. Modding still involves interactions between the commercial developers of the original game and the often-unpaid modders. Schleiner even compares the latter to parasites who infest the original game engine and use the tools that come with it to alter the game space (2017). Though even with laws that bar the creation of mods, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the end-user license agreement (EULA; Higgs 2024; Kretzschmar and Stanfill 2018), many professional game studios seem to have embraced their modding communities for their commercial benefits. One of the most striking examples of this is the case of Counter-Strike (2002), a multiplayer tactical shooter that is now a standalone game but started out as a TC. It was first developed by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe using the game engine of Half-Life (1998), a single-player shooter developed by Valve Corporation. Instead of shutting down the TC version of Counter-Strike (2002), Valve bought the rights to the TC and then released it as a standalone game. The company even offered Le and Cliffe positions within the company (Kretzschmar and Stanfill 2018; "Spare The Mod" 2012; Unger 2012). Valve did the same with the TC Defense of the Ancients (or simply Dota) (2003), which was originally crafted from the game engine of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) (Lee et al. 2020). Valve then did it again with Garry's Mod in 2006, which was originally a mod for the Source game engine (Donnelly 2015)—the same engine used by the aforementioned games under Valve.
[3.7] But developers can also benefit commercially from modders through other, less direct means. For one, an active modding community has been shown to extend the life of the original paid game because it sustains player interest in it through the creation of new user-generated content (Kretzschmar and Stanfill 2018; Lee et al. 2020; "Spare The Mod" 2012). Other developers lean on modders to fix the bugs present within their game. A notable example of this was Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), which was plagued by glitching character animations, frequent crashes, and drops in frame rate, among other issues after it was first released (Skrebels 2020; Waldsdorff 2022). Meanwhile, some industry developers provide official modding tools, which make it easier for players to mod their games (Curtis et al. 2022; Lee et al. 2020; Kretzschmar and Stanfill 2018). Bethesda Game Studios, the developer of Fallout 4, is an example of this with their Creation Kit (2022).
[3.8] Given the accessibility of the Creation Kit, it's no surprise that Bethesda games became known for their mods (TCs among them). For The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), one of its most known TCs is Enderal: Forgotten Stories (2019), which even has its own Steam page and is labeled as a community-made mod that users can play if they have a copy of Skyrim. As for the Fallout franchise, DUST Survival Simulator (2015) for Fallout: New Vegas and FROST Survival Simulator (2016) for Fallout 4 are two of the most popular TCs. However, the most recently released TC for Fallout 4 is Fallout: London. It's one of the few Fallout TCs that transports the player to another area of the postapocalyptic world (note 1). Other, similarly ambitious TCs, like Fallout: Cascadia and Fallout: Nuevo Mexico have yet to be released or have been outright cancelled (Robertson 2025). These TCs have been in development for years, and Bethesda has turned a blind eye to them despite their use of the Fallout name and branding. Perhaps this is because the developers know they have much to gain from the creation of such mods as they prolong the life of the original game.
[3.9] Regardless of how the developers benefit from their modders, Kücklich (2005) encapsulates the phenomenon with the term precarious playbor—a blurring of the boundaries between play and labor. The modder's leisure time is spent creating mods, and these mods are then harnessed by developers who ultimately reap commercial benefits from them. Among these benefits are the aforementioned extensions of the game's shelf-life, as well as the user-led bug fixes. Kücklich also notes that mods can be a source of innovative practices that the developers can then implement in their games, taking out the risk involved in experimenting with new features. Mods are, as Kücklich puts it, "a 'free' source of innovation" (2005).
[3.10] All this puts mods in an interesting position. They are essentially noncommodities. A commodity, as per Jameson, is an item that has been made into a marketable product and labeled with a specific price (2009). With this emphasis on pricing in late capitalism, the commodity becomes known primarily for its market value, instead of its intrinsic qualities. This is because an item's market value is often tied to its potential use (Jameson 1979). Mods are noncommodities because they—by law—cannot be monetized unless the developer decides to do so. Fallout: London is a prime example of this. By purchasing Fallout 4, you are given the option to also play Fallout: London. The mod is, thus, a noncommodity because it has no market value, or, at the very least, cannot be assigned one, given laws that bar the monetization of mods. Despite this, they act as products that are bundled in with a player's purchase of the game they are made for. In the following section, I turn to an analysis of Fallout: London, emphasizing how it fits the description of Jameson's postmodern pastiche.
4. Fallout: London, a postmodern pastiche
[4.1] As mentioned, Fallout: London is a mod for Fallout 4. While it was released as a TC, the initial plan was to release a quest mod, which is often much smaller in scope compared to TCs. Additionally, the original team behind it was small—certainly not at around fifty employees, which is where Team FOLON is at currently (https://www.linkedin.com/company/falloutlondon/about/). But in a BBC interview, project lead Dean Carter (@Prilladog) shares that the COVID-19 pandemic was when plans changed. Because the team had so much time on their hands, they decided to broaden the project, which eventually shaped up into Fallout: London (BBC News 2024). This was by no means an easy undertaking. TCs demand work and dedication to complete, with many such projects being dropped or cancelled (Robertson 2025). This is why Fallout: London's official release was so heavily celebrated. The mod has since experienced much success, garnering praise and positive reviews (Koreis 2024; White 2024).
[4.2] When it comes to Fallout: London and its gameplay, the TC effectively transports players from postapocalyptic Boston (in Fallout 4) to postapocalyptic London. This necessitates a complete overhaul of Fallout 4's map and world space. But while Fallout: London looks completely different from the original game, the modders utilized some of its preexisting assets in building the world of Fallout: London. This is evidenced by one of their earlier recruitment calls as they were looking for people to help with 2D and 3D art and modelling. This entails creating new assets for the mod but also editing outfits and/or objects from Fallout 4 to make them more suitable for the overall style of Fallout: London. Some of the creatures in the mods even appear to be reskins or, at the very least, act similarly to creatures from Fallout 4. For instance, the Wombles of Fallout: London are similar in shape and movement to the Deathclaws of Fallout 4. Some players have even reported running into a glitch where they fight a Deathclaw (a creature from Fallout 4 that shouldn't exist in Fallout: London), then loot Womble materials from it, seemingly confirming this reskin.
[4.3] Fallout: London also utilizes its different factions to draw from both Fallout 4 and British culture. Factions refer to groups or communities that the player can interact with in different ways. For instance, the Gentry are the current rulers of postapocalyptic London. True to their name, this group is composed of the descendants of aristocrats and government figures from prewar Britain. They rule over the rest of London from Westminster, which (in-game) still looks somewhat pristine despite the world having ended. Another faction is the Fifth Column, a populist group—one the player can join—that seeks to burn down postwar London then rebuild it from the ashes. It has been confirmed by the modders that this particular faction is based on the British Union of Fascists, a political party from the 1930s (Wallenfeldt 2024; VGT Gaming News 2024). Meanwhile, Camelot stands as an alternative joinable faction that references the legend of King Arthur. They operate on the belief that all Britons ought to have a seat at the proverbial Round Table. As such, they seek to implement a representative republic for London (VGT Gaming News 2024). These factions are clear nods to British history. Finally, Angel, which is the last main faction of Fallout: London, has strong parallels with The Institute of Fallout 4. Both are underground organizations with technologically advanced means of controlling and surveilling the postapocalyptic world around them. Moreover, both can be joined by the player character. From a gameplay standpoint, Fallout: London emulates the faction mechanics of Fallout 4, and even earlier Fallout games like New Vegas, because joining one main faction—either the Fifth Column, Camelot, or Angel—bars the player from joining another. As such, Fallout: London is a pastiche of both Fallout 4 and British culture.
[4.4] In spite of these changes, Fallout: London is still distinctly Fallout. As stated earlier, Fallout: London emphasizes the franchise's most iconic line: "War never changes." Thus, it "allows the player to explore pre-war European history and the effects the Resource Wars had on the class-structured society of pre-war Britain" (https://fallout4london.com/press-kit/). No doubt Fallout: London is largely a pastiche. It copies many of the styles, images, and themes of Fallout 4. However, it also innovates on these borrowed elements, creating an experience that is true to the Fallout series, while also being distinct from Fallout 4. Gaming outlets such as IGN and PCGamesN have said so themselves in their reviews (Koreis 2024; White 2024). Also worth noting is the fact that it's uncommon for such outlets to even review mods. But as stated in the editor's note of Justin Koreis's (2024) article, "It's true that this isn't something IGN normally does, but seeing as Fallout London is a project on a scale that rivals a full game, we've made an exception" (emphasis added). Fallout: London, then, is a completely new game that players can try for free upon purchasing Fallout 4 (at least, on PC) (note 2).
5. Fallout: London, a free add-on to Fallout 4
[5.1] By virtue of being a mod that relies on the game engine of Fallout 4, Fallout: London cannot be monetized. To do so would be in violation of laws such as the DMCA, EULA, Copyright Act, and so on. (Higgs 2024; Kretzschmar and Stanfill 2018). As such, a majority of mods are free to download. Fallout: London is no exception. Modders already know that they are unlikely to profit from the mods they create. As such, their motivations lie elsewhere. Hector Postigo's (2007) study on modder motivations identifies three themes: (1) modding as an artistic endeavor and as a means of contributing to the gaming community; (2) modding as a means of altering the game to their liking; and (3) modding as a stepping stone to a career in the gaming industry. Other motivations include a perceived shortfall in the game's current state and the allure of creating something (perhaps a different story or new mechanics) given the game engine's parameters (Unger 2012). This is emphasized in a study by Joanna Curtis et al. (2022), which states that the different motivations show that the modding community is not a heterogenous group. Rosnes's (2024) recent study further affirms these claims. In short, different people mod for different reasons.
[5.2] Despite varying motivations, all modders fall prey to Kücklich's (2005) precarious playbor. They spend their leisure time creating extra content for a game, and it's the developers who stand to benefit. Modding, often seen as a labor of love from the fandom to the game (Waldsdorff 2022), is thus exploited. As Lohmeyer (2021) puts it, "The host, the game developer, parasites off his own parasites [that is, the modders], stealing what modders remade of the commercial game during long, sleepless, unpaid for after-school and after-work nights" (56). Following this metaphor, the fandom then becomes a hunting ground for developers. For some modders, the circumstances might be like that of Counter-Strike, Dota, and Garry's Mod, where the developers poach their mod in exchange for a cut of the profits and/or a professional position within the company. But for many, as with the case of Fallout: London, the modders primarily receive community praise, while the developers enjoy the extra sales of the original game.
[5.3] Moreover, unmonetized mods contribute to the original game's commercial success by providing additional content to the player at no cost. In the case of Fallout: London, purchasing Fallout 4 on PC can be viewed as getting two games (and a variety of other mods) for the price of one. Thus, while mods have subverted commodification per se, they still remain subsumed under the capitalist framework of the video game industry by contributing to the commercialization of the original game.
[5.4] This is precisely what happened with Fallout: London. Some players actually repurchased Fallout 4 GOTY (note 3) to play Fallout: London. Leading up to its release in April 2024, Team FOLON revealed that the mod would be made available on GOG instead of familiar mod sites. This was because its file size was too large for websites like Nexus Mods and Steam Workshop (Bevan 2024). Since GOG is a gaming storefront distinct from Steam, players could either (1) redeem Fallout: London via GOG and use their Steam copy of Fallout 4 to run it, or (2) buy Fallout 4 from GOG and use that to run Fallout: London. However, this choice would be complicated by an official next-gen update for Fallout 4, which would require players with a Steam copy of Fallout 4 to downgrade it during their installation of the mod (Orland 2024). In other words, playing Fallout: London with a Steam copy of Fallout 4 involved a whole other step. Meanwhile, opting for the full GOG installation route was much easier, especially given the Fallout: London One-click Edition, which cuts down on the extra requirements of the Steam route (Faisal 2025).
[5.5] Thus, some players started buying Fallout 4 on GOG—despite some presumably already owning the game on Steam—in order to play Fallout: London. One user commented the following under a Reddit post on whether it's worth repurchasing Fallout 4: "I bought the GOTY edition of FO4 on GOG .com [sic] JUST to play this mod." There are also similar reviews on the official GOG page. One reads: "...I bought the GOG version of FO4 as downpatching my Steam version sounded like a headache." Additionally, a management board report from CD Projekt Group—a game development studio affiliated with GOG—even cites Fallout: London explicitly, stating that "the increased interest in [Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition] was due to the effect of worldwide interest in the [TV] series based on the games in the Fallout series and the release of additional content, the Fallout London mod" (CD PROJEKT Group n.d., 36).
[5.6] A noncommodity has, thus, directly driven sales for the commodity it is attached to. And with Fallout: London having been downloaded over one million times as of October 2024 (Sinha 2024), it is likely that some players opted to repurchase Fallout 4 on GOG. Clearly, then, the example of Fallout: London showcases an extension of Jameson's postmodernism. Contrary to his assertion, not all art is being commodified. Yet his point on the all-encompassing nature of late capitalism (perhaps digital capitalism now) still stands. Even noncommodified art, as seen with unmonetized mods, serves to contribute to commercialization. In the case of Fallout: London, this is seen in how the mod has directly driven sales for Fallout 4. In the next section, I discuss Team FOLON's relationship with Bethesda, drawing from it to showcase how Team FOLON has, in a way, subverted the exploitation of their playbor.
6. Team FOLON: From precarious playbor to labor
[6.1] Despite the success of Fallout: London, Bethesda has been completely silent about it since its release (Layson 2024). This stands in contrast to GOG, who congratulated Team FOLON on X (formerly Twitter) for reaching one million downloads (https://x.com/GOGcom/status/1849073448837906566). As of writing this paper, Bethesda has yet to even acknowledge Fallout: London, despite having poached some of Team FOLON's own development team. As detailed by Team FOLON's posts on X, some of their modders were offered jobs at Bethesda, including Carter (though he declined). This implies that Bethesda acknowledges the skill of Team FOLON's individual modders, regardless of their silence.
[6.2] Still, this silence has its drawbacks. It was mentioned in the last section that Steam users who wanted to play Fallout: London needed to accomplish an extra step (the downgrading process) in order to play the TC. This was wholly due to a next-gen update for Fallout 4 that Team FOLON was unaware of until a few days before its release. The update was a severe setback for Team FOLON because it introduced new code that they hadn't taken into account throughout their development process (Cripe 2024). After all, modders are limited to working within the parameters of their chosen game (Unger 2012). While Team FOLON eventually found a workaround, Carter stated that he and the team were blindsided by Bethesda's surprise update. Moreover, the team wished that Bethesda could have at least spoken to them about said update. But unfortunately, there was no communication between Team FOLON and Bethesda (Cripe 2024).
[6.3] Bethesda's lack of acknowledgment of Fallout: London is peculiar, especially when considering how Bethesda has treated other teams for major mod projects. One notable example is Skyblivion, a mod for Skyrim that was started in 2012 (https://skyblivion.com/press/). Skyblivion promises to remake the entire game world of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Skyrim's immediate predecessor) in Skyrim. Unlike with Fallout: London, Bethesda has made contact with the team behind Skyblivion. The Skyblivion team was even invited to the Bethesda office, where they talked to the developers about the modding culture and how Bethesda could improve it. In an interview, the team lead for Skyblivion, Rebelzize, emphasized Bethesda's strong connection to their modding community (Gould 2025). And later, when the official remaster for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was announced, Bethesda gave copies to the Skyblivion team for free, making it clear that "they have no intention of shutting down [the Skyblivion] project" (Scullion 2025). The team behind the aforementioned Enderal also received similar treatment. One of its modders shared that Bethesda was responsive to their questions and even sent the modding team pricy champagne after they were awarded Best Fan Creation during the 2016 Game Awards.
[6.4] There's a clear difference between Bethesda's treatment of Team FOLON and other modding teams, like those of Skyblivion and Enderal. There is no way to ascertain why this is the case. However, it doesn't change the fact that Bethesda has benefited from Fallout: London's successful release, either through the direct sales of Fallout 4 or through the acquisition of talent from Team FOLON's own ranks. What makes Fallout: London's case interesting, however, is how Team FOLON has found ways to benefit from the playbor they've already put into the mod. Kücklich (2005) defines playbor as precarious particularly because the modders who contribute it are often not financially compensated by the developers for their work. They distinguish between the developers' financial capital and the modding community's social capital. Often, it is the developers who gain financially from mods, while the modders primarily receive public recognition. Today, however, modders can profit through other means. For example, Team FOLON has an online store that sells Fallout: London merchandise, as well as a Patreon with just under 150 paying members as of writing (https://www.patreon.com/teamfolon/about).
[6.5] But what makes Team FOLON even more notable is how the team has harnessed its social capital to commercialize their playbor for their benefit. Piggybacking off the success of Fallout: London, Team FOLON started their own independent game studio, with Carter expressing excitement at the prospect of "creat[ing] our own game, and really work[ing] with the community without having to speak to anyone above us" (BBC News 2024). "Anyone above us" probably refers to Bethesda since creating another game using their engines (Fallout 4 or otherwise) would result in more exploited playbor. Note that this isn't the first time a modding team has evolved into an independent studio. One example is Modern Storyteller, which was created by the modder behind Skyrim's Forgotten City mod (https://modern-storyteller.com/). Another example is SureAI, which was formed by some of the modders behind Enderal (https://sureai.net/). Interestingly, Nicolas Lietzau, who was the project lead of Enderal, stated in a SureAI YouTube video that the mod's core team had since gone their separate ways, with some, including himself, having been hired by different commercial game development studios. As such, Lietzau describes the current SureAI team as an offshoot of the original core team. In other words, a majority of SureAI's current employees were not part of the Enderal mod team (SureAI 2023). To an extent, this mirrors the situation of Team FOLON as some of its team members left to work in commercial game development studios as well. One difference, however, is that Fallout: London's project lead, Carter, remains on board in the shift to independent game development. Despite this, Team FOLON has yet to reveal its lineup of developers, so it's difficult to say whether Team FOLON will follow in the footsteps of SureAI. The question remains though: How much of Team FOLON (the modding team) will remain in Team FOLON (the independent studio), and how will this affect the performance of the latter?
[6.6] Moving away from the parallels between SureAI and Team FOLON, it's also worth noting that the shift to independent game development presents its own form of precariousness. Independent studios "represent the creative fringe of the video game industry" (Styhre 2020, 138). While many enter the industry with the desire to follow their creative passions (as seems to be the case with Team FOLON), it is impossible to ignore the profit motive. SureAI, for one, has since put out Dreadful River (2023) and They Came From Venus (2024), a roguelike tower defense game and a survival horror shooter, respectively. These games don't take as long to complete as Enderal, which is a direct result of the shorter development cycles common among independent studios. These shorter timelines allow studios to save money and release more titles that need only moderate success to make a profit (Madsen 2025). After all, funding is a common problem for independent game developers, either due to lack of sales or the inability to secure a publisher (Madsen 2025; Malek 2021). And at the end of the day, developers have to create a game that is possible to sell (Styhre 2020). All this considered, Team FOLON could very well have traded one form of precariousness for another.
[6.7] Despite this, Team FOLON has subverted, at least to some degree, the exploitation of their playbor. While the mod as a noncommodity (Fallout: London) has promoted the commercialization of its source material (Fallout 4), said mod has also allowed the then-precarious playborers (Team FOLON) to commercialize their future initiatives, thus escaping exploitation.
7. Conclusion
[7.1] I argue that mods, particularly mods like Fallout: London, are postmodern pastiches that extend Jameson's conception of art under a capitalist society. This is because they are noncommodities that contribute to the commercial success of the original game they are built upon, as seen in how the release of Fallout: London led to an uptick in sales for Fallout 4. Thus, despite being unmonetized, mods still work within the capitalist system of the contemporary gaming industry, with TCs serving as a notable example. That said, Team FOLON's unique position as a modding team turned independent studio allowed them to subvert their precarious playbor (Kücklich 2005).
[7.2] This has been an exploration of how video game fandoms and modding culture fit into Jameson's conception of postmodernism—specifically, his idea of the postmodern pastiche and the widespread commodification of art. The analysis was primarily focused on the case of Fallout: London, so future studies may look into other types of mods and/or IPs. It might also be worthwhile to look into how major gaming storefronts, like Steam and GOG, treat mods. Are they packaged similarly to the commodified games sold on the same website? And if so, how does this affect their status as noncommodities? Further studies into modding teams turned independent studios might also be worthwhile. How does the shift to independent development change the creative process? And how does it affect the quality of said studios' outputs?
[7.3] To end, I will reiterate an earlier quote from Jameson: "Do we know any longer what oppositional means in this total [capitalist] system, or what might 'subvert' it, or even function as its critique?" (quoted in Baumbach et al. 2016, 144). It is all the more relevant now when even noncommodities such as mods contribute to commercialization. How might a mod subvert or critique the video game industry if said mod is subsumed in its capitalist practices? With this interpretation of the mod, fandoms become precarious spaces. While they still serve as venues to celebrate the love and creativity fans have for different media, they now also become hunting grounds for developers turned poachers. As it stands, the case of Team FOLON is an exception to the exploitation of modders, not the rule.