Bethesda making cheaters and modders write essays

[pxfbird]

Yeah, cause every publisher allows people to freely mod and tamper with your game that runs on persistently online servers, lol. Looks like Bethesda, again, is the only publisher on the planet that can't do what literally everyone else is doing without being the bad guy. You people do know Bethesda has already stated they will be opening up specialized servers for that, right? If you did, would it make a difference? Something tells me I doubt it.

As others have stated, modders have fixed buggy Bethesda games for years. And Bethesda has supported that same modding community all of those years. Bethesda has to realize that they would not be where they are now if modders had not fixed and improved their games. Modders could not find anything on their site stating that mods would not be allowed and would result in bans for Fallout 76. All I had seen was something along the lines of "mods aren't supported and might cause problems with the game". I can't remember what exactly it said, but it was taken by most of us to mean that it could "break" the game, so to speak. (Bethesda did fine with doing that on their own. The worse still was the bug that deleted our downloaded game files on PC the day that PC Beta launched. I don't see how they will ever top that.) Since F76 is basically just F4, modding works the same way so was fairly easy to create mods for it that didn't cause any problems.

Then all of a sudden, Bethesda and ZeniMax start swinging the ban hammer down. Including on NON-CHEATERS that are just using what I would call cosmetic mods to improve their game. These are mods that add no advantage to that specific player (unless you count making the game look/sound better for that player), nor any detriment to anyone else on the server.

Below are the mods that I run. Should I be banned for these? As texture, graphics, and music mods, these give no unfair advantage in a multiplayer game. I'm aware the only reason that I probably haven't been hit with the ban hammer is that I haven't been on in weeks.
Texture/Graphics from Nexus Mods:
Ceano's ReShade, Radiant Clouds and Sky
Music Mods : NeebsCountryRoads (Personal mod, not released.) or Main Menu Music - Country Roads
Inventory Mod:
Better Inventory, Rat Monkey's Easy Sorting
Map Mod:
Glow in the Dark Map (which makes the game map kind of look like the Glow in the Dark poster map in the Power Armor edition)
I attached a link to a video of my in-game menu.

If Bethesda is going to take a crap on the modding community that has fixed their games all of these years, then I won't be supporting them by buying any games that they make. The exception might be for something they only publish, like Doom.

[fenrif]

Yeah, cause every publisher allows people to freely mod and tamper with your game that runs on persistently online servers, lol. Looks like Bethesda, again, is the only publisher on the planet that can't do what literally everyone else is doing without being the bad guy. You people do know Bethesda has already stated they will be opening up specialized servers for that, right? If you did, would it make a difference? Something tells me I doubt it.

No other publishers released games with bugs and issues that have been present in their software for years, with the expectation that their fans will mod a fix in for them.

Nothing about Fallout 76 requires persistantly online servers ran by Bethesda. Besides their cash shop. Players should be able to host their own servers.

EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc all get called out for being bad guys all the time.

Bethesda states a lot of things. You'd be a fool to believe anything they said at this point. Why are you taking one of their many sweet little lies at face value?

[isturbo1984]

Yeah, cause every publisher allows people to freely mod and tamper with your game that runs on persistently online servers, lol. Looks like Bethesda, again, is the only publisher on the planet that can't do what literally everyone else is doing without being the bad guy. You people do know Bethesda has already stated they will be opening up specialized servers for that, right? If you did, would it make a difference? Something tells me I doubt it.

[isturbo1984]

In what persistently online game on public servers are you allowed to tamper and mod your game?

[Erebus]

If anyone should write an essay, it's Bethesda.

[pxfbird]

I'd like to say I have hope for Bethesda, but it really is dwindling fast. Thank the gaming god that they only publish Doom. Hopefully, they at least can't ruin that.

[pxfbird]

LOL I'll keep Mein Kampf in mind if I get banned and am required to write their stupid essay.

I think you are probably right in regards to why they are allowing banned players back in.

[PriestTroit]

LMAO

I wish I could read some of them

[Methpoodle]

The thing I found funny about this is, if Fallout76 wasn't floundering in the water. They would probably ban people with no recourse to get their game back. But seeing as they really cant afford to lose a single player, they're giving peeps the opportunity to get back in.

for anyone who does get banned and wants back in, I'd just plagiarize Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream" or something. I doubt support reads more than the first few lines. Hell, throw 'em a few paragraphs from mein kampf if you're that way inclined. Im sure Bethesda would love that crap.

Todd Howard - "the final solution to modders"

[aileron]

I haven't been following this story very closely. Absolutely agree that it's sad that a company that supported and benefited from a community of modders has now turned on them.

[aileron]

Ha ha good one. I really hope it hasn't come to that

[pxfbird]

I heard about this a few days ago. I really am regretting having preordered F76 with how Crapthesda and Zenicrap have been acting. Not even counting the other snafus, banning PC players for using mods for things like reshading and the ultrawide fix is about the last straw for me. It personally concerns me, as well, because I made a mod to change my menu music, use a reshader so my game looks more apocalyptic, map texture to make it look like the collectible glow-in-the-dark map, and a better inventory mod. This banning nonsense makes me a little wary about getting back on it. lol (I haven't been on in at least three weeks because I just got bored and had better games to play.) Considering that modders fix the Fallout games (and I think Elder Scrolls, too) and Bethesda's past support for the modding community, I don't agree with them banning players that aren't using cheats and only are using cosmetic mods.
Considering their Atom shop with its ridiculous prices, I'm guessing that they just don't want any competition from Nexus and other modders. It's sad because Bethesda was a company I really enjoyed prior to all this.

[Saskia]

Looks like you cracked the code!

[fenrif]

<facepalm emoji 100x>
The only part I found a bit lame was this, "While it may be difficult to distinguish who is using mods for good as opposed to evil." Really? Nah.
[/I]

Never fear, I'm here to clue everyone in on Bethesda and Kotaku's mod morality guide:

Modding to fix mistakes Bethesda have left in their games for decades = good.
Modding to fix UI design issues because Bethesda is lazy = good.
Modding to test new features for Bethesda to lazily impliment in their next game = good.

Modding the game to change the colour of your armour = evil. Please buy our armour colours from the cash shop, only £7.99 to paint your power armour red
Modding in assets from old games = evil. Please buy these in the cash shop.
Modding in things that will extend the life of the game past 12 months = evil. Please buy Fallout 77. Collectors edition available for £200. Comes with a paper bag to hold your empty steelbook.

[aileron]

<facepalm emoji 100x>

It's outrageous. I can barely figure out what to type. I have to give Kotaku credit though, it's a decent article. Maybe a corp finally went too far even for them. The only part I found a bit lame was this, "While it may be difficult to distinguish who is using mods for good as opposed to evil." Really? Nah.

The article does a really good job pointing out all of the major games that have come out of mods, "Counter-Strike was originally a Half-Life mod, and Rocket League's origins can be found in Unreal Tournament when it was a mod called Car Ball.

Locally, Aussie indie Antichamber started out as a mod for Unreal Tournament 3.

When it comes to well-known devs - Justin Browder was offered a job at Westwood to work on Red Alert 2 after creating a successful Starcraft mod. He then went onto being the game director for both Starcraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm over at Blizzard.

Then there's Brendan Greene who created the ArmA 2 mod for DayZ: Battle Royale, which formed the basis for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds."