To Mod Or Not To Mod, That Is The Question!
Hello, Dragon Wench & Friends!
Well I already told how I was introduced to the game and why I wanted to play it. Now to compare non-mod to modded.
On my computer I didn't even start playing it without mods, because it was the ability to have the "Topless Mod" installed that attracted me to the game in the first place.
However, my brother happens to have the X-Box version, and to avoid boredom and to appease my curiosity, I played it too.
My PC went through several upgrades, so many in fact, it isn't even the same one that I had when I first got the game. My monitor then was tiny in comparison. Now it is an LCD, widescreen, HDTV ready one. From having a white or black filled picture with only working sound to having what may be what they had in mind, is a big difference in picture quality and sound.
Side Note: To appease my Elvis Presley curiosity about what it is like to shoot a TV set, I used my old monitors for target practice and took pictures of the results. That was before someone offered up a recycling service for them.

Oh, I also shot my old TV set too. But visions of "The Brave Little Toaster" spoiled the experience. It made me extra sad.
But anyway, for the X-Box version, my brother had it hooked up to his very big screen TV. Wow! It was as close to being like in a holosuite as we can get now. Actual virtual reality games aside I guess.
But.....but...... As beautiful as the picture was and as great as the audio was, it was tedious! Oh so tedious! Sure I missed the ability to make my female character look as sexy as she could be. But what I missed most were the other mods that I had at home on my PC version. Namely, the ones that allowed me to loot someplace in one trip! On the X-Box you could spend the entire alloted game play time to just emptying one place of loot!
Playing the X-Box version was fun it for itself, but the PC version is even more fun for me though. However, I concede that had I seen the X-Box version first at my brother's place, rather than the PC version at my best friend's place, I might feel different about loosing the size scope and settling for a much smaller screen as well as the Dolby Digital Surround Sound!
Now as for which system to use to manage the mods, ugh! I feel your pain, Dragon Wench! Every time I got a new computer system, having killed some trying to play the game, I had to do the re-install process and carefully pick and choose the mods and the managment system, so as to avoid another burn-out.
I've had to avoid some mods I wanted to try. I think I've done what you've described. I eventually got to the point where I had to force myself to be content with just enough to play the game as I do now. But sometimes I see a new temptation and I try it, only to have the game not even load up. So I unclick it, try to load the game again, and if it does, I sigh with relief that at least this time I didn't do permanent damage.
