Do you have a penchant for making maps? Do you like modding in things into games that developers didn’t intend to appear said games? Well, you’ll be pleased to know that Activision and Treyarch have put the tools of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 into open beta for interested modders.

DSO Gaming picked up the news from over on the Treyarch community page, where they revealed that the closed alpha program has concluded and it’s time to bring the modding tools into open beta.

Treyarch’s John Rafacz explained that one of the new features of the open beta modding tools is the unranked server browser, writing…

“In the coming months, we plan to continue to work on enhancing the user experience and the ability to create modded content. The Open Beta will include an Unranked Server Browser that will allow users running mods to connect to each other’s custom game lobbies.”

This is pretty cool and actually shows that both Activision and Treyarch respect the fans and their community more than Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive. Opposite of Take-Two, Activision is actually allowing for custom game servers so people can play online and experience modded content. Take-Two Interactive went out of their way to have their lawyers shutdown any custom multiplayer servers for GTA V.

We won’t know what the modding scene looks like Black Ops 3 until the tools are good and ready, but integrated Steam Workshop support and a healthy scene could keep the game going long after Activision moves on. It’s a nice gesture and I’m curious how long they’ll allow support to last? It’s a year late, but better late than never.

Also, isn’t it crazy how Battlefield became a huge thing because of mods and now EA and DICE have restricted mods in order to sell DLC, and Activision is now doing the opposite for Black Ops 3 (after they milked a year’s worth of DLC out of the game, of course).