Nexus Mods owner takes Bethesda.net mod theft into own hands
After more than a month of inaction on Bethesda's part, the owner of the largest site for Skyrim and Fallout mods has taken matters into their own hands to prevent people stealing user creations.
We've picked out what we think are the best Skyrim mods for PC.
In an impassioned blog post on Friday, Nexus Mods owner Robin "Dark0ne" Scott called out Bethesda for their lackadaisical reaction to people stealing his users' mods and uploading them to the publisher's own site.
Bethesda.net and the Creation Kit were released by the Skyrim and Fallout developer at the end of April to allow modders access to a set of tools that make user-created content easier to implement.
A month later, mods uploaded to the browser on Bethesda.net were now capable of being installed on Xbox One, creating an ecosystem outside of the existing PC mod community Scott had been overseeing for 14 years.
"There is no reason consoles should not be allowed to have mods, provided the PC modding community is appropriately protected and not dumbed down or negatively affected in any way," Scott wrote in a 5,100-word epic. "However, in order for the mods to be available on consoles, PC mod authors would need to upload their mods, as a separate entry, to Bethesda.net’s system."
This lead, unsurprisingly, to people taking the best mods from Nexus and ripping them wholesale onto Bethesda's system with no attribution, often taunting the original creator in the description.
This is soul crushing for mod authors. To see their hard work being taken, without their permission, often times by people actually openly goading, trolling and mocking the mod authors about the theft and that nothing was being done about it," Scott says. "It became clear, early on, that Bethesda had not planned for the eventuality of mods being stolen. They had no clear moderation system in place. No way of quickly dealing with the issue or indeed any sort of decent reporting system so that users could report stolen mods in detail to the (seemingly non-existent) moderation team."
Despite an active moderation team and the history of the largest PC modding community, Scott claims Bethesda has never consulted Nexus on how to approach moderation. The only contact Scott has had with Bethesda community manager Matt Grandstaff was consulting during the Skyrim paid mods fiasco, and once when a Nexus Mods submission leaked an official DLC.
The Nexus Mods moderation team removed a "mod" which included the entirety of Fallout 4's latest DLC Far Harbor more than a week before its official release, and according to Scott this was done at 3AM on a weekend morning, eight hours before Grandstaff contacted him.
Rather than wait for Bethesda to improve their response times to reporting mods stolen or implement an effective moderation strategy, Scott has decided to add an extra permissions system to his own site so stolen mods are easier to see.
"We already have an extensive permissions system for mods, but today we’ve released an addition to that system for console modding," he says. "You can now choose from a set of options in our Fallout 4 section to express your wishes. These are:
- I have uploaded my mods to Bethesda.net and they are available for console users.
- I have not uploaded my mods to Bethesda.net for console users yet, but I will at some point.
- My mods will not be available on Bethesda.net for console users.
- My mods won’t work on consoles or would not be acceptable on Bethesda.net according to their rules.
- I give my permission for someone else to port my mods to console and for it to be uploaded to Bethesda.net by someone else. Please credit me, however."
This system also allows console players to search the Nexus system for mods they can find via their console's Bethesda.net browser if they like the look of them.
"Ultimately, I think the thing that disappoints me the most is that Bethesda’s influence within the community after largely staying out of it these past 14 years has had such a polarising effect," Scott concluded. "It should not be the case that the official developer of the games you’re modding has such a negative effect right from the start with their new modding endeavour."
Bethesda clearly didn't think this through. Seriously, wasn't there a lesson to be learned in workshop ?
Anything to shift more copies of a substandard product! You know how salespeople are.
It's just incredibly sad, and embarrassing for everyone involved. The moment just about everyone heard that mods would be coming to consoles, we all foresaw this. Why didn't Bethesda? The obvious answer is that they did as well, only they didn't care.
Precisely what I would have expected from the Xbox community. Not enough to steal the mod, gotta goad, troll and mock the people who created it.
"The Skyrim & Fallout developer"
Yeah I guess the rest of the Elder Scrolls series never happened
Things might get a little wordy if we list them all out each time.
anything prior to skyrim is inconsequential in the discussion of console mods, which is what this article is about
Is it possible to make a mod unplayable on consoles, or make them PC only? I don't want my mod on consoles unless I upload it myself. I might be able to alter the mod otherwise to require PC-only files, or other mods that only work on PC... which would effectively make my mod make console versions of Skyrim... outright crash/unplayable. Really dont want it on consoles.
The worst part of this is the backlash at mod authors. As I've mentioned elsewhere. The minority of console users who've turned up on PC mod author pages to attack them for the mod (that they didn't upload) not working properly on their console has left a sour taste in my mouth. Not only is a grand display of privilege (which console owners profess to be immune to), but it's also one of arrogance, greed, and stupidity.
These are console owners acting like they're entitled to fixes from PC mod makers even if, as I said, the mod makers didn't upload them to Bethesda's console-based mod offerings. And what's making console owners even more salty is that without various tools available to PC users, they're not having much success getting more than a tiny handful of mods running together at the same time. They can't adjust their load order, they can't bash them, they can't merge them, they can't edit ini files, they can't use dynamic java compiles, they can't use script extenders... the list goes on. And all of this is the fault of the PC mod author that their console can't handle this.
The only people at fault here are console manufacturers for pushing closed systems (instead of open), and console buyers for not understanding what they were getting into by buying a closed system. There's no blame to be laid at the feet of mod authors.
Like I said, this is likely a minority, and I'm usually the first to defend console owners... But this left a sour taste in my mouth because I value the work that mod authors put in.
Hey, just thought I would let you know that you're being ignorant about this situation. Sure some "bros" on Xbox are dumb but their new to this, they don't understand that the mods are mostly PC port because that isn't how this has been marketed to them. Also you might want to play using an Xbox because almost all mods that work together on PC work together on Xbox due to the hard working mod creaters. Also Xbox fallout always has had a mod load order since beta. I would like to point out that you poke at the face that Xbox is a closed system and that they need to open it up but at the same time you're attacking them for opening it up, I know they didn't blow the system wide open but it is a start. As a mod maker for some other games I understand the annoyance but try to remember that most of the Randies getting made at the mod makers are kids, because on Xboxs THE trolls.
Virtually impossible to police these kinds of thefts! What THEY want Bethesda to do; obviously is become a MOD NAZI and constantly patrol the .NET for mods. Good luck with that Modders. I doubt you could find someone to stomach 8 straight hours of reading through everyone's mods for 7 bucks. Heck even Nexus has a hard time patrolling mod theft. There have been times where Nexus Modders have lied about who owns what, and Moderators have even given the mod rights to the thief of the mod instead of the actual owner!
"Heck even Nexus has a hard time patrolling mod theft."
No, they don't. Did you even read the article? Actually, they're really good at it. And you don't need manpower for every tiny little thing. How can you own technology and not know that? You have tools which can heuristically detect this stuff, then all you have to do is have a human eye look over things to confirm/deny so that you don't get false positives. In fact, the opposite is often true that things are left entirely to the tools because people are lazy.
But with something as simple as detecting wrongfully uploaded mods, you're looking at a few minutes per day, here. Especially for someone able to get the kind of people working on tools that Bethesda could. Doubly so considering their connections. Unless you want to insinuate that Bethesda are garage coders, in which case I don't think you live in my reality and your posts don't really have much relevance here. Why are you posting in this reality again?
Uh, do YOU have experience with Nexus mods? The article has little bearing on what Daniel said, as the stolen mod that they took down so fast was clearly obvious considering it was an official DLC. I've been on Nexus Mods since Morrowind days, and Nexus mods HAS had issues with stolen mods, and as Daniel said, part of the problem is knowing who is telling the truth. You have two people on the Internet.
Plus, there's so many mods that are simplistic and easy to copy I'm sure a lot of the time it's not worth it to bother anyway.
No system is perfect, and we're dealing with content that is nearly impossible to verify beyond ALL doubt. So saying Nexus has had some problems.. and comparing that to Bethesda 100% hands off approach to mod theft.. are two ENTIRELY different things.
Nexus least took the initiative to add that extra layer for authors to say they did or did not authorize their mod to be put on Bethesda. Thus far Beth is doing.. nothing.
Absolutely, I agree with you! I was just saying that to say they HAVEN'T had problems, and using the article's only example of an incredibly high profile and obvious theft as a basis for all performance isn't realistic.
I also think though that what people expect is a little far off. Remember, modding has always been an "Extra." A pleasing, welcome extra, but the amount of support that Bethesda has ever put into modding beyond their basic tools (CES/GECK) has never been much. So to think that they were going to ACTIVELY police a mod database seems a bit far out, and the idea as said above that they're going to take the time/money to program a tool that somehow scans files from every upload to compare them to others (plus also remember, most mods are uploaded at the Nexus which I doubt Bethesda would even have access to, in which case they CAN'T compare new mods on their system) is a little silly. They've set up a system where you can report mods, and I doubt they'll really ever do more. Why would they? To the majority of people this is a tiny blip in their life. Don't get me wrong, I've modded games including TES, and to have work stolen would be horrible. But I would never have expected Bethesda to step in and do something about it.
WTF are you running your mouth about? You probably don't even OWN Fallout 4 and are just bitching about internet words.
I also have been using Nexus since Morrowind, I am a supporter member for their site and read the articles and forums. Do You?
Fuck no! I seriously doubt you have any insight on this shit.
Let me break it down for you so you know:
To make a mod you open up Fallout Workshop.
You fill it with your information.
You save it.
You upload it.
That is all! There is nothing else involved.
This means, I, as a user can download the mod. Open it up in Fallout Workshop and copy it's contents and resave the file as my own.
I have never done it before but I have edited mods for personal use. It HAS been a major issue for Nexus in the past though. So why are you shit posting in this reality again?
Really don't care, mod creators don't own their mods, and they can't profit from them. I looked at the pc community's response on reddit and it wasn't about stopping mods from being credited incorrectly, it was about using scripts so that console people can't use mods anymore. One toxic community complaining about another toxic community, and what is at stake is credit for work on a project they don't even own to begin with. Not losing sleep over it.
How would you feel if you spend months making more content for a game you love,only to have some 14 old brat steal it and go "YOLO lol",claim it as is own,and have to deal with a bunch of 11 olds screaming at you to fix the bugs despite you never uploading it in the first place.You seem like a guy who never does anything unless you can profit from it(not that there is anything wrong with that)and have never been invovled with the modding community.As you have don't care about it and have never been involved with I ask you to stop acting like there is nothing wrong here.
"You seem like a guy who never does anything unless you can profit from it"
This is an incredibly stupid thing to infer from what I said. I have tons of hobbies, lots of leisure time that I spend doing things that I find fulfilling. I don't work for free though, only an idiot would.
This is about either:
People who need credit for their hobby, or
People who don't want another platform to have what they released on PC
I don't care about either of these things. I supported paid mods, and if that initiative went though my mind would be completely different.
So you only care about things that you can sell and get paid for?