Why even in 'Bizarro World' FO:76 is not allowing modding

[zanity]

I and others have explained the words of Bethesda's most senior managers over and over on this topic. How 'private' servers have been now defined as servers you RENT from Zenimax server farms, and not server code you run on your own PC. And how OFFICAL modding means Atom Store downloads that will alter the rules of gameplay on that private server (like say, introducing a form of 'deathmatch').

 

But still there are those who listen to the voices in their own heads rather than Todd's very explicit words. So now I will explain why, even in the Bizarro world of "Todd always loved our modding community, and he still secretly supports us and will give us that pony for Xmas", third party mods CANNOT happen.

 

With an online game, even one that may exist in various forms on TRUE private servers, the publisher is legally responsible for the online experience. Kids play these games in massive numbers- and NO, the pretence of an 'adult' rating cuts no ice here. And so do 'sensitive' vulnerable adults. These vulnerable adults are already crying like babies in various Fallout forums over the 'nasty' 'wicked' players who do 'bad' things to themselves and their virtual 'possesions' ingame. The technical term is CAN OF WORMS.

 

Beth ain't, in a million billion years, open the can of worms third-party mods on an open world game represent. Beth can, of course, fully moderate and curate 'mods' on their own Atom Store. But third party mods, by DEFINITION would have to be a thing Beth both permits but cannot possibly control.

 

Does Beth want to account for a 'SECOND LIFE' experience in any copy of FO:76. No, no, no!

 

The logic expressed here is both plain, AAA industry standard and unassailable. So why are some people ignoring it?

 

Becasue these people 'think' PR double-speak is a promise of things to come rather than a placation of a certain sector of the fanbase. Beth does a LOT of PR double speak, but it also does a lot of EXPLICIT descriptions of its actions and intentions that reach the required legal standard for any corporation that could be held to account.

 

The bag scandal IS a scandal because there Todd (at E3) and Beth did NOT double-speak, but explicitly and illegally lied about the FACTS of the collectors ed. And the 'fallout' (Beth has now lost the Reddit/FO76 forum having kept support there even against the worst reviews of the game) shows exactly what Beth would have to face if it was ever insane enough to allow third party mods in FO:76.

 

What scares me is that to understand why Beth will never allow Nexus style modding for FO:76 does not require significant smarts nor an understanding of this particular industry. It is basic commonsense, an awareness of corporate vulnerability and liability, and a general knowledge of how the world works.

 

Yet even the creator of Sim Settlements had a video expressing his anticipation of the moddable version of FO:76. WTF?

 

PS Beth could release a SINGLE-PLAYER version of FO:76 (honestly I think the odds of this are less than 1-in-1000 down to Todd's arrogance, not the saneness of the decision), even without adding back into the game a story, dialogue trees and NPCs. If this happened, Beth COULD allow this single-player game to be modded like Fallout 4 (but they won't- even here the desire for PAID mods is all Todd is now about).

 

But no, an online multi-player title from Beth will never see third-party mods, 'private' servers or not.

Edited November 30, 2018 by zanity

[clif081]

I don't really care about gameplay mods, but the whole situation where we are talking about "adult stuff" and "sensitiveness" in a game where you can dismember and eat a human corpse is pretty hilarious.

[Mikado2116]

The problem with what you're saying is that it's based on assumption and speculation, there is no official statement that 100% prove that private servers will be only rented server from Zenimax. So far we only know one thing and it's that they are still thinking how they will officialy allow modding in the first place. And your point about adult theme/content doesn't stand. I mean, kids shouldn't even play Fallout 76 in the first place as it's +18 game. Then your point about "sensitive vulnerable adults", you could literraly apply it to any online games. And like clif081 said, it's hilarious to said that when you know the game is already full of blood, gore and dismembrement anyway.

 

In my opinion, that would be really bad to only allow rented server because in this case that would mean modders could only develop and test their mods by paying for a private server in the first place... That's beyond stupid at this point. Though, I can see Bethesda introducing "creation club" content via the Atom Shop, that's entirely possible. Honeslty, I really hope Bethesda will choose to do something similar to Conan Exile for private sever (and by extension modding). It works well as far as I know, and speaking of adult theme/content, knows that there is type of mods too and there isn't any problem with it (as far as I know again, maybe I'm wrong). But hey, only time will tell. I believe there absolutly no point debating on what Bethesda will do right or wrong about private server and modding, because there is no way to actually know what they are planning as long as they don't publish any official statement about it. And so far, they didn't block the basic modding we're able to do at the moment. It might change, who knows... But again, no official information about it.

 

And on a personnal note to you Zanity, no offence, but are you like on a crusade or something to scare people about FO76 modding? I mean all your messages are more or less all about "Don't mod Fallout 76, it's dangerous and bad!". I'm not sure what you're try to achieve by doing that. You should let people having fun and mod their game if they want to. There is no harm done as we can only do "aesthetic" modifications on the user side. So why being upset about it?

Edited November 30, 2018 by Mkdo40

[mcguffin]

Gameplay modding on private server can definitely work as long as all players on the same server have the exact same mods.

This works on other mutilplayer game, I don't see why not here.

[metaphorset]

I'm totally fine with that. At this point I wouldn't even touch Fall-Apart 76, if it comes to Steam and gets sold for a fiver.