Now this is a question that I have been asking myself countless of times. I always wondered what could have happened to the modern fallouts if there were no mods to add and fix things. To me, if there were no mods, I think Bethesda would work a lot harder to fix their games.

@njmanga097 If there were no mods I sure would get a lot more work done... In all seriousness though, I think you're right, I genuinely think that 4's release would have been delayed and I have a bad feeling that there is a culture developing inside Bethesda HQ of "Meh, the modders will fix it/add it!" I think this can be easiest to see in the areas of 4 such as that Robot Racing area and the Combat Zone. I think the lack of weapon variety, as well as the lack of craftable ammo and other fun things was really just laziness on behalf of the developers who spent more time focusing on a voiced protagonist that NO ONE asked for, rather than time tested mechanics that they knew their fans loved. Fallout 4 was shallow as fuck, and I think the devs were hoping the modding community would fix it for them, why else would they have promoted modding so much with this release? It was barely even mentioned in their other E3 announcements for Skyrim, etc. Even SE modding didn't get that much of a who-ha, but Fallout 4 did, because Fallout 4 didn't have enough content, so they used the modding community to get that content into the game.

@quicksilver500 Amen my friend. It just really hit my senses a few days ago because its becoming a trend in video games these days; unfinished and unpolished. I like mods, i really do, and I appreciate a lot what modders have created and shared out here, but its a sad sight that modders are left to pick up the things that the devs didn't bother fixing. Its like they don't care anymore. I keep imaging a day that modders will just get really pissed off and not do it anymore because one way or another people will get sick of it. Isn't it just frustrating that you waited years for a game to come out, but only to be greeted by bugs and glitches and that you have to look for a fix online. A game. Probably worth $60. And then its like that. Fucking shit...and what makes it even more disappointing is how the community is getting used to Bethesda being like that.

@praising You all said right, there is nothing to add, I completely support every your word.

@praising That last part is really sad though. There are a lot of great people in the community, so many talented folks, but if its gonna be like that for the modding community (always fixing things), its gonna be an even depressing sight. Gone are the days when most games were complete and polished.

I would shit myself and have uninstalled Fallout 4 a long time ago. The mods are what keep the game alive, although I still keep rpg games on the side and watching Legion. (Sick yo)

Mods are definitely a gift from the gods, just like mead. I love you Odin.

From personal experience playing the vanilla games, I would still be playing Fallout New Vegas (how do I know this? Because I still am. Yeah, sucks to have a computer that don't play big games right. Been playing it on console for years) and I play Morrowind from time to time because both games have interesting enough game worlds and stories to keep me interested (New Vegas is more replayable though imo).

Anyway, I haven't played Oblivion since about 2008ish, Fallout 3 since 2009 and Skyrim since 2012. Haven't played Fallout 4.

There's just no replay value to any of them. You can complete everything in one playthrough so that's what I did, completing everything there was to do in Fallout 3 and Oblivion, didn't even complete Skyrim (because seriously, without mods that game is unplayably boring) and have never felt the need to replay any of them again.

So yeah, I think Bethesda would really have to up their game if mods didn't exist. Fallout 4 survived on hype and mods alone.

Sorry if I ruffle any feathers with this post but this is actually my own genuine experience only playing vanilla.

... I would not play Fallout 4.   FO4 has most hours net on any game I've ever played (my main character alone has some 800h), but it is not because of Bethesda. They got  60ish hs from 1st play-trough. But its because of the community. I still value the game highly because I treat it as a "community project" and platform for community driven game.  But this is not excuse for Bethesda to not certain things on their own they should.

I love FO4, and I love the art team that worked in it, but I must be honest - modding community rescued this pup and made this pup into the thing it is now in my system.

Then I'd say the popularity and lifespan of Bethesda titles would drastically drop.

I'll use GTA IV vs Saints Row IV as an example:
-Both are the fourth in their respective franchises
-Both take place in a city
-Both are hyper-violent open world games
-Both are about stealing cars and wrecking havok
-Both have their own sense of humor and story
-Both have multiplayer

One is still being played on PC to this day even with the sequel having been out for some time.
Of course the answer is GTA, but have you thought about why that is? GTA IV is heavily moddable with a still-active modding community running on offical dev-tools; I can play on the San-Andreas map, with the watchdogs hacking mod, in first person with near photo-realistic lighting and color correction(search for "GTA IV Natural and realistic ENB") with practically any gun or car that suits my tastes.
Saint's Row on the other hand doesn't explicitly allow mods and instead has paid-dlc for things like, playing as the "Hey Ash, Watcha Playin?" cast, because everyone has always dreamed of being Anthony Burch :^^^)

In all honesty though, as much as I love the game, I'm not too sure I'd have sunk the near 1000+ hours I have into New Vegas if there was no option for modding. Maybe only 950 hours.

If mods don't exist, I don't exist.

@Nukacide what okay i have to be honest, i really did not see that coming

but if mods didn't exist, this site wouldnt exist either, or even if it did it might be for a different purpose.

If there were no mods, then I might actually be able to play a game of fallout for more than 5 minutes at a time

@cyber_funk well partly, but Saints Row died not because it wasn't being modded but because it lost who it was. Saints Row 1 and 2 was a game about gangs, but then it turned into a game about superheroes, aliens and unintelligent comedy.

A better example would be Payday 2 mods. They too have kept the lifeline of the game seemingly infinite. Where other games restrict even slightest mods like even skins, Payday 2 allows.

Garrys mod is basically all just mods, so that's a good example too.

Good question, without the mods we would certainly have all played at Fallout NV, 4 or even Skyrim and once finished we would not have played anymore yet.
The certainty is that games, that have mods, have sold very well and thanks to the work of all the modders who have enriched the games.

Without mods we gonna be lose a lot of cool gaming experience. Without mods some gaming communityies would be less friendly. Some games would be forgoten. Keep in mind that the mods for first Doom (90s game) still exist and it's gaming community live and growing. Games modifications is a nice thing as long as it created from love to the game and not for profit. Without mods GUN community wouldn't exist and not only that.