General News - Bethesda: Make Modding Great Again

@sugerbombed they discuss Bethesda and modding and feel Bethesda has dropped the ball by not rewarding and promoting modders enough for their efforts.

One of the hallmarks that distinguishes Bethesda Game Studios' games from others are the modding tools released by Bethesda and the amazing mods that consumers of their games make. Some mods just add little things to the game, while some like the recently released Enderal for Skyrim or FROST Survival Simulator for Fallout 4 add totally new worlds, or revamped ones, that sometimes almost take as much time and effort to make as the games that are used as the foundation for them.


This is not news to consumers of Bethesda games, but Bethesda themselves have increasingly touted this aspect of their games in recent years. At Microsoft's E3 conference in 2015, Todd Howard used a brief showcase mainly to announce that mods would be coming to Xbox One before coming to PS4. Then with the reveal of Skyrim: Special Edition, one of the main selling points of that remaster was that Skyrim mods would be playable on console for the first time as shown in the game's reveal trailer, as well as being displayed on the back of the game's case and on steam. Undoubtedly, many people purchased Fallout 4 and especially Skyrim SE on console because of the promise of console mods. Therefore, Bethesda is profiting from the hard work of thousands of modders, most of whom do not get any sort of compensation or promotion, donations or otherwise. Now, there is no real problem with this; Bethesda doesn't even have to release these modding tools, and the modders know that they are pretty much exclusively doing this for the fun of it and to bring joy to others. However, I and many others believe Bethesda could do much more in the way of rewarding and promoting modders, without giving any sort of monetary compensation or constructing a process similar to the "paid mods fiasco" on Steam a couple of years ago. How you ask?

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Well my suggestion is a "Modder Royalty Program". Here are my ideas for how this could work: Bethesda can create a tiered system based on either downloads or favorable ratings across all platforms (whichever they deem most appropriate). So once a mod reaches 1000 downloads/ratings say, that modder receives some sort of badge to display on their Bethesda.net profile. When a mod receives 5,000 downloads/ratings, that modder receives a badge and a discount code on the official Bethesda store. When a mod receives 10k downloads/ratings, that modder receives a badge and a code for a free item on the Bethesda store of $40 or less value. When a mod receives 20k downloads/ratings, the modder receives a free Bethesda game of choice and a badge. Any mod that receives 30k downloads/ratings or more receives a badge, is displayed on the Bethesda.net main page for a period of 30 days, and if he/she so chooses is granted a "MyCreation" interview. Of course Bethesda could make these rewards/tiers however they want, these are just suggestions.

More information.

Or they could collaborate with Steam to make money off the modder's efforts while doing absolutely nothing themselves, other than destroying the honest and pure spirit of modding that likely motivated the modder in the first place.

Just a thought. I wonder how that might be received…

Or they could hire the damned modder who fixed what they couldn't instead of trying to rip the modder (and the audience) off.

Bethesda gave everyone the mod tools; that was their contribution. It cost them considerable time and money to make a toolset able to be used by a script moron instead of a real programmer. Do they profit from it? In spades. That was the idea. Bethesda is a "for profit" company, not an altruistic entity. What other company supports modding better?

Why not hold CDPR to task for not creating mod tools as powerful as Bethesda's? Why make excuses for every other company out there since none of them have a modding community worth spit compared to Bethesda? What I do is support the Nexus site and individual modders/mods that I enjoy. It should be up to the individual, not a company to pay for extra content.

Bethesda will keep screwing up, trying to monetize the mod community and then perhaps they'll kill their own modding scene. Everybody loses if that happens, but I expect it to.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Bethesda gave everyone the mod tools; that was their contribution. It cost them considerable time and money to make a toolset able to be used by a script moron instead of a real programmer. Do they profit from it? In spades. That was the idea. Bethesda is a "for profit" company, not an altruistic entity. What other company supports modding better?

Why not hold CDPR to task for not creating mod tools as powerful as Bethesda's? Why make excuses for every other company out there since none of them have a modding community worth spit compared to Bethesda? What I do is support the Nexus site and individual modders/mods that I enjoy. It should be up to the individual, not a company to pay for extra content.

Bethesda will keep screwing up, trying to monetize the mod community and then perhaps they'll kill their own modding scene. Everybody loses if that happens, but I expect it to.

You are so right about Bethesda already supporting mods way way beyond their competition. Instead of asking Bethesda for more, more, more, perhaps ppl ought to focus on other companies, like Bioware, who did away with their mod tools so that they could charge for every single tiny mod possible and nickel and dime their customers to death.

No mod engine by Square Enix; none by Bioware or EA in general; none by CDPR; none by Obsidian… Seems to me that ppl ought to take care not to jeopardize Bethesda's free mod tools. Those tools have been used to build thousands of mods freely enjoyed by gamers.

"You don't miss your water till your well runs dry."

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Make modding grate again.

I'm very thankful that Beth gave us the construction kits. But lets be honest, the Beth game that is fun without mods has yet to be made.

Its kind of bizarre with the unofficial patches for skyrim, thats just plain lazy of beth not to incorporate.

C

Eventually I believe they should monetize mods. I think it would give an incentive for more people to make mods (although there are plenty out there now making good stuff, obviously). I'm not sure how it would all work, but I also believe that Bethesda should use the talent pool that make some of these mods to enhance their games during the development process. Of course, the team would have to be paid, but there has to be some way to add some of these modders to help with certain things while Bethesda is developing the game. Right now it is still an untapped talent pool in a sense. Imagine 50+ quality modders being able to help out during the game to make it even more expansive before release. Bethesda's no doubt a billion dollar+ company so I think they could afford it and it would be a wise investment. Dunno, just rambling here.

I just want anyone to try and take up the modding gauntlet that Bethesda threw down. C'mon other developers. Show us your tools.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I just want anyone to try and take up the modding gauntlet that Bethesda threw down. C'mon other developers. Show us your tools.

Yep. Bethesda is so far ahead in that regard, and even they aren't tapping into it 100%. But they are still far ahead.

I would like to see some other style of RPG modding tools. D:OS has tools, right? Has anyone made anything with that? The idea would be make the easiest to use tools but that still have all the depth to make something really good. I wouldn't mind playing some unique modder campaign or overhaul with the D:OS engine, or any other engine for that matter.

Shoot, let's see a Jeff Vogel modding kit. I'd be into it.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Eventually I believe they should monetize mods. I think it would give an incentive for more people to make mods (although there are plenty out there now making good stuff, obviously). I'm not sure how it would all work, but I also believe that Bethesda should use the talent pool that make some of these mods to enhance their games during the development process. Of course, the team would have to be paid, but there has to be some way to add some of these modders to help with certain things while Bethesda is developing the game. Right now it is still an untapped talent pool in a sense. Imagine 50+ quality modders being able to help out during the game to make it even more expansive before release. Bethesda's no doubt a billion dollar+ company so I think they could afford it and it would be a wise investment. Dunno, just rambling here.

"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

Joni Mitchell -- Big Yellow Taxi

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Why not hold CDPR to task for not creating mod tools as powerful as Bethesda's? Why make excuses for every other company out there since none of them have a modding community worth spit compared to Bethesda? What I do is support the Nexus site and individual modders/mods that I enjoy. It should be up to the individual, not a company to pay for extra content.

The article is about Bethesda not modding in general, and he doesn't make excuses for other companies. I'm guessing the Beth fanboy in you kicked in before you actually had time to read anything.

Hell, he even starts the article by praising Bethesda for being ahead of everyone else in regards to modding.

One of the hallmarks that distinguishes Bethesda Game Studios’ games from others are the modding tools released by Bethesda and the amazing mods that consumers of their games make.

Well, one could certainly expect Bethesda to at least keep up with their modding tools - they're not progressing whatsoever when it comes to their antiquated infrastructure and game design. Although a game such as Witcher 3 doesn't have modding tools as accessible as those of Gamebryo#03289, it also doesn't need them to such a degree as Bethesda's practically always broken and console-centric titles.

But, on topic, I'm not holding my breath on Bethesda giving any praise to mod authors; afterall, this is the company that took a New Vegas mod and called it their own content for FO4.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The article is about Bethesda not modding in general, and he doesn't make excuses for other companies. I'm guessing the Beth fanboy in you kicked in before you actually had time to read anything.

Hell, he even starts the article by praising Bethesda for being ahead of everyone else in regards to modding.

Would it have helped you understand if crpgnut had said, "As specifically acknowledged in the subject article, Bethesda is already supporting modders far in excess of their competitors. That being the case, wouldn't it make more sense to ask Bethesda's competitors to do more for modders rather than hitting on Bethesda for even more modder support while ignoring Bethesda's competitors' lack of modder support?"

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Originally Posted by RPGFool
Would it have helped you understand if crpgnut had said, "As specifically acknowledged in the subject article, Bethesda is already supporting modders far in excess of their competitors. That being the case, wouldn't it make more sense to ask Bethesda's competitors to do more for modders rather than hitting on Bethesda for even more modder support while ignoring Bethesda's competitors' lack of modder support?"

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You must be wielding the Sword of Snark +1 for this one.

More like the sword of Fail +1.

Originally Posted by RPGFool
Would it have helped you understand if crpgnut had said, "As specifically acknowledged in the subject article, Bethesda is already supporting modders far in excess of their competitors. That being the case, wouldn't it make more sense to ask Bethesda's competitors to do more for modders rather than hitting on Bethesda for even more modder support while ignoring Bethesda's competitors' lack of modder support?"

I'm not the one having trouble understanding here. The article is specifically about what Bethesda could do. Is that really so tough to grasp? Other companies' mod support is completely irrelevant in regards to what he's saying.

The Fail Flail?

Originally Posted by JDR13
More like the sword of Fail +1.



I'm not the one having trouble understanding here. The article is specifically about what Bethesda could do. Is that really so tough to grasp? Other companies' mod support is completely irrelevant in regards to what he's saying.

I think that's nut's point. Why would Bethesda need to do anything for modders that wouldn't be expected from other companies?

Because they owe a great deal of their company's success to the hundreds of millions of dollars garnered in free publicity over the years. From modding.