Bethesda should do more to reward and promote modders

[Athanasa]

 

Good luck trying to tell Bethesda what to do. If they were to implement a system to "reward" modders, it would simply be the re-introduction of paid modding. Is that what you want?

Yes. :P

No, because when you involve money suddenly it suddenly stops being mod-maker/mod-user and becomes producer/customer, with the associated entitlements (legal and otherwise).

 

Just imagine the "fit for purpose" drama every time Bethesda patches the game and stuff breaks.

[Reneer]

 

 

Good luck trying to tell Bethesda what to do. If they were to implement a system to "reward" modders, it would simply be the re-introduction of paid modding. Is that what you want?

Yes. :tongue:

No, because when you involve money suddenly it suddenly stops being mod-maker/mod-user and becomes producer/customer, with the associated entitlements (legal and otherwise).

 

Just imagine the "fit for purpose" drama every time Bethesda patches the game and stuff breaks.

I have thought about it. Extensively. And, surprisingly enough, none of my mods break when Bethesda patches their game. If you don't want to participate in paid mods, that's fine.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Reneer

[steve40]

 

No, because when you involve money suddenly it suddenly stops being mod-maker/mod-user and becomes producer/customer, with the associated entitlements (legal and otherwise).

 

Just imagine the "fit for purpose" drama every time Bethesda patches the game and stuff breaks.

 

 

Just like iPhone apps then.

[CiderMuffin]

 

 

No, because when you involve money suddenly it suddenly stops being mod-maker/mod-user and becomes producer/customer, with the associated entitlements (legal and otherwise).

 

Just imagine the "fit for purpose" drama every time Bethesda patches the game and stuff breaks.

 

 

Just like iPhone apps then.

 

Or the steam marketplace which is saturated with broken content and if anyone who tries to criticize the devs of the cheaply made and broken games you end up with Digital Homicides who literally try to sue steam reviewers.

[Reneer]

Or the steam marketplace which is saturated with broken content and if anyone who tries to criticize the devs of the cheaply made and broken games you end up with Digital Homicides who literally try to sue steam reviewers.

There are game companies that do shoddy work, just as there are construction companies that do shoddy work. No industry is safe from crappy companies that will use underhanded means to try and sway or stifle others. Simply because those underhanded companies exist doesn't mean that people who want to sell their hard work are also going to act like those underhanded companies. For every Digital Homicide out there there are multiple indie and small game companies that want to actually prove themselves.

 

And it also seems we won't be hearing from spacefiddle on his knowledge of Federal laws regarding publicly-traded companies, either. One would think after calling me "aggressively bonkers" he would be eager to demonstrate his knowledge.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Reneer

[Fistandilius]

Any mods created using the creation kit automatically become property of Bethesda. It's been that way probably since Morrowind's construction kit. Mods created without the creation kit can also possibly belong to Bethesda or otherwise be in violation of the EULA if they can be classified in court as a "Custom Game Material", or otherwise involve any stories, themes, lore, etc.created by Bethesda. Read your EULA's.

 

Bethesda can literally take almost any mod and turn around and sell it for a profit if they like and be completely within their legal rights. And if you choose to attempt to sell your mod, you would in fact be in violation of your EULA, and Bethesda can most likely take you to court for that as well.

 

Bethesda has released video's, created documentation etc. involving their various creation/construction/geck kits, and yes the software does NOT work 100%, and yes, they know this, and no, they are most likely not going to fix it. We've been told for years by Todd Howard that these are the tools they used to create the game. The part he is leaving out is that these are in fact stripped down versions of the tools they used to create the game, because they were legally obligated to remove any third party software they don't have redistribution licenses for, or aren't willing to give away free.

 

This whole thread smells like entitlement, but that's just my opinion.

[Reneer]

Any mods created using the creation kit automatically become property of Bethesda. It's been that way probably since Morrowind's construction kit. Mods created without the creation kit can also possibly belong to Bethesda or otherwise be in violation of the EULA if they can be classified in court as a "Custom Game Material", or otherwise involve any stories, themes, lore, etc.created by Bethesda. Read your EULA's.

You tell people to "read the EULA", but have you read your copy lately?

 

First, the Terms of Service from Bethesda.net state in Part 2, Section D states:

 

Each Game Mod is owned by the developer of the Game Mod, subject to the licenses granted by the developer to ZeniMax as set forth in the Editor EULA.

 

And, secondly, the Fallout 4 Creation Kit / Skyrim Special Edition Creation Kit EULAs both state in Part 2, Section A says this:

 

Ownership. As between You and ZeniMax, You are the owner of Your Game Mods and all intellectual property rights therein, subject to the licenses You grant to ZeniMax in this Agreement. You will not permit any third party to download, distribute or use Game Mods developed or created by You for any commercial purpose.

So, no, mods don't "automatically become property of Bethesda". Mod authors are made to automatically license their work to Bethesda by the EULAs, but we don't lose our ownership or copyright on what we've created.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Reneer

[bluesunmerc]

No, I don't think Bethesda should compensate modders and here is why.

 

If Bethesda somehow compensates modders then it gives Bethesda leverage over what the modders make and would also influence what modders make if they wanted to be compensated. Like for instance lets say that a mod author is allowed to make weapons but those weapons cannot be based off of any real weapons due to copyright concerns. You then wont get any weapons based off of real world weapons and some that have come out are very awesome like the M1 garand that came out a few weeks ago.

 

Don't think that im saying that they shouldn't be compensated I think they should I just don't think Bethesda doing it would be the best way to go about it.

Edited January 14, 2017 by bluesunmerc

[damanding]

If Bethesda somehow compensates modders then it gives Bethesda leverage over what the modders make and would also influence what modders make if they wanted to be compensated. Like for instance lets say that a mod author is allowed to make weapons but those weapons cannot be based off of any real weapons due to copyright concerns. You then wont get any weapons based off of real world weapons and some that have come out are very awesome like the M1 garand that came out a few weeks ago.

Legally speaking mod authors can't make any mods of items which are copyrighted and that has nothing to do with Bethesda's policies or whether mod authors are paid. It has to do with the actual freaking LAW. The only reason why some mods, including weapon mods, which blatantly violate someone's IP (intellectual property) aren't taken down is that no one reported the mod to Nexus admins (including the IP holder). Nexus has a pretty strict policy about not violating copyright and LOTS of mods are taken down by Nexus admins as a result of copyright violations. If a mod changes things from the copyrighted inspiration just enough to skate past legal copyright requirements in the EU and US, then Nexus is generally willing to overlook it. Or if it qualifies as a derivative work. Basically mods which use, are influenced by, otherwise related to, copyrighted materials have to meet the legal requirements of not violating the original IP in order to be allowed on Nexus per the Nexus terms of service. Bethesda can't say jack about that, because they too have to follow the same laws.

[Crimsomrider]

Oh look... another thread talking about paid mods.

 

Let the paid mods die already.