My personal thoughts on mod theft.

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Category: Giskard's Blog

Last Updated on Thursday, 28 June 2012 15:55

Written by Giskard

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You may not believe this given my fight over the past few years to stop idiots ripping off my work but I am PRO open source. I think allowing others to edit mods freely is the way to go. Unfortunately when I arrived on the Oblivion scene to start modding that the very first thing that happened when I allowed people to edit kvatch aftermath was a 3 year flame war when Elminister launched his version of my mod by attacking mine in my own thread.

Nobody in on Beths forums seemed to concerned how Elminister released his mod or what he said and did to it or the methods he used. The sold me out in a heart beat for a guy who didnt even have the skill to make that mod but had edited it anyway and made several huge errors in doing so.

The way that turned in to flame and got my mod thread locked because none of them showed any gratitude or manners is why I say NO to english players asking to mod my work these days. I have no desire to go through that crap again when I know the community doing the asking does not even know what thank you means.

Foriegn players on the other hand get a completely free hand when editing my mods, I have never placed conditions on them other than never to make an english language release and even help them when they ask because none of the none english speaking modders ever caused me any trouble. So they know my views on open source style mod releases.

I say open source but its still subject to Bethesdas Eula of course. Its just open to all modders that is all. 

Knowing that saying yes leads to trouble is just part of the problem.

The other part is if a modder could make a mod like mine, they would have done so. So I only get asked by users that lack the experience to know what they are doing with them. Even the most well intentioned modders quickly end up out of the depth when their edits lead to bugs they cannot fix.

At which point they quickly start blaming me for it or their mod users do and they expect me to fix that problem when my mods do not have that problem. Only that users own version has that problem.  Telling them that is seen as mod bashing and a hostile thing to do. Mean while I have to suffer abuse and none sense claims about my mod being bad for various reasons that can be traced directly to some noobie assholes shoddy work.

When the shit hits the fan, they are gone.... history... disappeared, leaving me to clean up their mess. When I refuse too, players turn trollish and make the situation worse.

I have no reason what so ever to say YES to English players asking to mod my work and every reason to say no. Where as none english speaking modders seeking to translate my mods never caused me any problems at all, so I always say YES to them. They get to edit my work freely any way they like with my blessing.

Its only the English players I say NO because of the trouble they always cause.

If players start believing its okay to rip off mods whole sale without needing to ask, that crap is going to get 10x worse for all us modders, modders will quit 10x faster than before and you will be left with nothing 10x sooner that happened to the Oblivion scene, because those doing it do not understand the meaning of words like "thank you" or "gratitude", they just know how to be complete dicks to the guy doing them all a favour.

NO modder, not even me will continue making mods for you under those conditions.

So if the rip off merchants get their way it on Steam for Skyrim mods, I'll be walking away from TES games for good. I am hardly impressed with the state of Skyrim anyway so i need very little reason to leave. Especially with Guild Wars 2 release date now known.

For that reason, its very important you players support your favourite modders on this and see to it our wishes are respected because we make the mods you like, without us there are no mods people can rip off.

You have nothing, the rip off merchants have nothing, so your reward for supporting a rip off merchant is nothing..... but if you supported the original modder, you could look forward to updates and new mods. Which is a dam sight better than the nothing you get if you do not support original modders. 

On the topic of mod ideas, I tend to ask for feedback and ideas from users and mix up the best ideas to make something new. But I do not lay claim to the ideas I come up with. I consider it a compliment when others borrow the same ideas from me and make their own mods from it.

I do not think any modder can claim an idea because no modder can prove he was the only person that dreamed it up. I have known many modders come to the same conclusion independently and believe the differences in implementation of any idea makes both versions unique in the end and gives players a choice that is desirable and welcome.

A wise modder looks at his competition and takes note of what they did right and learns from it.

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