EPTFirst we must establish what we're talking about.
Maps, mods, and campaigns are forms of delivering custom content. What differs between them past semantic terminology is the environment this content is delivered in, the type of content, and the audience it's geared towards.
![[image loading]](http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4721/83571009.jpg)
Maps are not mods. They are very different.
A quick tl;dr bullet-point definition;
Map
- Small package, arbitrarily limited filesize (8mb in wc3, 10mb in Sc2 beta). Has very little custom assets ie graphics and voice acting or very low quality assets to conserve filespace.
- Takes advantage of region-dependent triggering for mechanics, spells, events, ect. (DotA heroes, creep waves, spawn points, ect).
- Contents of the map are exclusive to that map. Python and Outsider have different terrain. DotA has custom attributes, kitbashes, and sounds from UT. If you play DotA and then Castlefight, you're experiencing two different "games", but the elements are limited to each individual map.
Mod
- Effects the entire game. Menus, load screens, music, everything. Changes occur on every map regardless of content as long as the map is not loading assets that conflict/supercede those of the mod. For example, if I have custom Firelord unit responses in my mod you'll hear them in DotA.
- Mod is ran externally and changes persist until you exit the game. Because it's external and not run through battle.net its filesize is unlimited. This means a massive amount of custom assets are usually present.
- Because mods function on every map, they generally do not have map-dependent triggering that relies on preplaced regions or terrain or whatnot. This generally means that the mod is usually the same genre of the game it mods (A mod of Starcraft will almost always be an RTS, even if core mechanics are fundamentally altered like in Ad Astras or Armageddon Onslaught).
Campaign
- A campaign will typically use an external archive not unlike that of a mod, but relies on maps to deliver the content linearly or openly to the player. Ultimately, the campaign archive can still potentially function like a mod, but it's designed to work in co-existence with a set of maps.
Currently, Starcraft 2 does not support mods. Neither did Starcraft, Warcraft 3, or Diablo 2. But the three former games can be modded through third party tools.
What Blizzard calls a "mod" in Starcraft 2 is actually a streamlined, more easy to use version of their campaign system in wc3. You must modify the maps to tell them to use the external archive - a fundamental difference between a Campaign and a Mod, as mods most often do not need you to modify any maps at all for them to work.
However, what concerns me more than terminology semantics is Blizzard's stance on modding. They are under the impression that maps are mods for some silly reason. As a result, sc2 has no way to globally alter the game and take advantage of unlimited archives except through modifying the patch mpq files (this is also how you can get Zelniq's Manly Soundpack to work on battle.net again, as they disabled folder hotloading for release). Previously you've been able to run mods of wc3 and brood war without any issue at all, but they might be more heavy-handed with B.net 2.0.
The best solution would be to provide a mod loading menu like Sins of a Solar Empire and Supreme Commander. These either load an archive or a preset directory that can contain however many elements you desire. Currently, if you try to mod the game and play with someone who doesn't have it, it just crashes or drops you. With a mod loader, the game doesn't have to transfer the huge files over b.net (you download them from a website preferably), but it checks if you have the same version of the mod (SoaSE uses hash checks or something iirc). This gives us the best of both worlds; mappers can keep doing their thing and us modders can have our restriction-free modding environment without stepping on anyone's toes or expecting B.net to handle stupidly large file transfers.
The more you know!
One of my other pet peeves is people who fully capitalize "mod". You don't call someone BOB in all caps, short for Bobby, do you?
/edit Don't type posts like this so early in the morning.
. Just speaking largely from the perspective of Blizzard games, but this can apply to many other games as well.
