Fallout 4 Console Mod Theft Threatens to Destroy Modding Community
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An editorial on TweakTown spells out a serious problem that has surfaced since Fallout 4 mods debuted on Xbox One - users are uploading previously released PC mods for the game to the Bethesda.net framework and taking credit for them rather than acknowledging the original author. To make matters worse, they're uploading them in an unoptimized state that leads to a variety of problems, and the original creators wind up having to support what is ultimately someone else's doing. A summary from the article:
The current Fallout 4 console mod structure is a pressure cooker waiting to explode. Piracy, glitches and greedy demands are jeopardizing everything. Piracy is undoubtedly one of the biggest problems, as "modders" are taking PC mods they don't own and didn't make and are uploading them to the Bethesda.net framework for Xbox One owners to enjoy. What's worse is that these mods are designed to work on PC, and aren't optimized for consoles, thus leading to performance errors and the like. But who gets blamed? The actual mod creators, of course.
But why would someone do such a thing? Console owners have bombarded PC modders with demands to port their mods to consoles, which inevitably pushes the mod creators away. Even still the process takes time, as modders have to scale back their creations to work on consoles. Gamers don't really want to wait, and these pirates see a demand that's going unfulfilled. So they download PC mods, do a few adjustments here and there, upload them and take credit for something they didn't even make.
Modders are tired of it, and are fighting back. This mod theft actually affects PC players, too, as some modders like Elianora, who made the Nuka Gear set, locked access to their mods "until people stop uploading stolen mods to Bethesda.theft and users stop endorsing mod theft."
It'll be interesting to see how Bethesda responds to this, given the realization that this is piracy, pure and simple.
