mods – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Sony Keeps Requiring PSN Account For Offline Games, Modders Mod It Out

from the in-mods-we-trust dept

There’s that well known adage that if you want to teach a child not to touch a hot stove, just let them touch it once and that will be all the teaching needed to have them never do so again. Whoever came up with that saying obviously has never met my children, for starters. And it appears that Sony just can’t help but continue to touch the stove.

Earlier this year we talked about Helldivers 2, a Sony title that went cross-platform. That part is all well and good. Less good was that well after the game became a hit, the developers announced that the game would be patched to require that anyone playing on their PC also sign up for a PlayStation Network account, or else the game would be unplayable. While the patch came from the developer, it was done so as a planned requirement by Sony. And it was Sony that eventually rescinded that requirement after the backlash over it was extensive.

Which makes it all the more strange that Sony then decided to do the PSN requirement thing again, this time for the PC port of God of War Ragnarok. This resulted in all kinds of backlash again over the requirement, as this is a single player offline game that required an online connection communicating with a PSN account or the game wouldn’t run. In other words: a game that has no online component and is a standalone PC port of a game was saddled with online and PSN requirements that aren’t needed and that nobody but Sony wanted.

Fortunately, an enterprising modder out there has already created a mod that removes the requirements.

The NoPSSDK mod, hosted on NexusMods, promises to “fully strip the PlayStation PC SDK runtime requirement for God of War Ragnarok.” The open source mod makes use of a simple Microsoft Detours library to get around the game’s calls to the PlayStation Network API without “touch[ing] or modify[ing] any original game code.”

The mod, which has already seen one update related to simulating offline mode, has been downloaded just under 2,000 times as of this writing. “I will try to maintain the tool even if something changes, but hopefully nothing crucial happens,” mod author iArtorias wrote in a NexusMods post.

If you’re about to go click on those links and get the mod yourself, don’t bother. The creator of the mod has already pulled it down out of fear of reprisal from Sony. And I don’t blame them. My first thought when I started looking into all of this was to wonder whether Sony would DMCA the mod over anti-circumvention concerns. It appears that it didn’t have to. Merely the fear it might do so was enough to get the mod creator to do the takedown themselves.

t was my personal decision to remove the mod since it has become way too popular and people started promoting it on Steam forums as well thus generating tons of attention.

“I just wanted to avoid the possible threats from the Sony side, even though the code has never touched any of their products in memory. You never know and it’s really a grey area to me.”

So, let’s summarize. While Sony was very upfront on the game’s store page that a PSN and internet connection would be required to run the game, the fact of the matter is that nobody except Sony wanted any of that. Then a modder came along that made the game operate in a way that the public actually did want, likely making that game more attractive for purchase to more people. Then that modder voluntarily took the thing that made people happy down out of fear of reprisal from the same Sony that was pissing people off.

Everything is bad about this. Sony’s anti-consumer behavior is bad. The chilling effect that previous enforcement has had on the modding community is bad. And the fact that buyers of this game are saddled with these requirements they don’t want is bad. And now the press’ coverage of this is bad for Sony.

Is having people get PSN accounts really beneficial enough to Sony to make up for this ongoing giant headache?

Filed Under: god of war ragnarok, mods, offline games, psn, video games
Companies: sony

Bethesda Reignites The Paid Mods Controversey With ‘Starfield’ Creation Kit

from the deja-vu-all-over-again dept

As the line from the Bill Murray movies goes, “It’s Groundhog Day… again.” Back in 2015, Valve launched its “Paid Creations” platform on the Steam client, through which those who made game mods could list them in a marketplace for a cost. This was done at least in coordination with, if not at the behest of, Bethesda. The backlash was both swift and severe, with a gaming community, that was used to mods made by hobbyist, suddenly had to contend with fees for these mods determined by the modder themselves. It got so bad that Valve nixed the platform shortly after.

But Bethesda never really gave up on the concept. Instead, it released the Creation Club modding in-game store in 2017, but insisted that platform would not incorporate paid-for mods. Then, in 2023, Creation Club was supplanted by the Verified Creations platform, which functioned similarly but brought back paid-for mods for titles like Skyrim. That game is nearly 15 years old and the paid mods program is still controversial for it.

And now Bethesda is kicking the controversy back into high gear, having just released the Creations program for Starfield.

A recent update heralding the release of the Starfield Creation Kit included a new mission that enables players to become bounty hunters for the Trackers Alliance faction, with the promise of future Trackers Alliance missions coming in subsequent updates. But the second Trackers Alliance mission, The Vulture, is only available as a paid add-on costing 700 Starfield Creation Credits—the equivalent of 7,whichinrealityis7, which in reality is 7,whichinrealityis10 because that’s the smallest amount of credits you can purchase to cover the cost.

The move was not well received. Unhappy players immediately recalled Bethesda’s disastrous attempt to launch paid mods for Skyrim in 2015, and of course the infamous Oblivion Horse Armor DLC from 2006. The mission also received unfavorable comparisons to the Starfield premium edition upgrade, which includes the full Shattered Space expansion, the Constellation skin pack, digital art book, soundtrack, and 1,000 Creation Credits for $35: “Is Shattered Space actually just two quests in a trenchcoat?” one redditor rhetorically asked. Steam user reviews, predictably, took a nosedive.

Okay, so there are really two things going on here, rather than one. There are still a lot of unhappy folks out there seething at the concept of paid-for mods generally, including from third party modders. It’s the same problem as with Skyrim and with Valve’s release before. The modding ecosystem with most games most of the time is one in which players do not expect to pay for mods, as those mods are typically produced by hobbyists and distributed for free. While I don’t hate the idea of modders getting something for their work inherently, it’s a massive shift in the ecosystem which isn’t going to be embraced readily.

And then there’s what Bethesda is charging itself for mission mods, which is what the above quote is referring to. The cost to value ratio players are doing in their heads is obviously not sitting well, and it’s not hard to understand why. $7 for essentially a single game mission and some in-game accessories isn’t a great look. The result of all this is fairly predictable as well.

That “feedback” continues to be reflected in Steam reviews, which are now down to “mostly negative” over the past 30 days thanks primarily to the paid mission—which some players find especially egregious given the sense that Starfield itself was a disappointment.

But while adjustments may be in order, Howard emphasized the importance of enabling content creators to monetize their work, which he said was a big part of ensuring the long-term health of the community—and for the most part, he said players dig it.

The mission in question certainly does have plenty of buyers, it seems, but there is also a ton of negative chatter in the community about it. And, while I have to admit that I bought and loved Starfield, and didn’t really agree with much of the criticism around it, the fact is that the game was considered disappointing by a large portion of the customer base. To suddenly have what feels like overpriced singular missions thrown into the mix only adds insult to injury for those folks.

And the really frustrating part is some of the comments by the Bethesda team, including from Executive Producer Todd Howard.

“We hear the feedback,” Howard responded when asked whether Bethesda will change how it releases content like The Vulture in the future. “We need to evaluate both pricing, what we put out for free, how we communicate what’s in something, and really hear from the community there.”

Frankly, this could have been copied and pasted as a response from any of the other responses to the backlash from the other times Bethesda has done this sort of thing, as we’ve noted in this post. Going all the way back to the infamous horse-armor running joke.

Bethesda may be hearing the feedback, but they seem to be ignoring it and making the same customer-angering decisions over and over again.

So it’s Groundhog Day… again.

Filed Under: mods, paid add ons, paid mods, video games
Companies: bethesda

‘Manor Lords’ Developer Reacts To VR Mod: ‘I’m Impressed’

from the mod-squad dept

We’ve been talking a lot about video game mods recently, typically not for happy reasons. There is a spectrum out there when it comes to how developers and publishers react to organic modding communities that spring up around their games. On one end of the spectrum, typically inhabited by larger companies, are those that somehow see mods as a threat to the game to be combatted and tamped down by any means possible. On the other end are the more reasonable folks, those who realize that modding communities represent some of the most passionate fans of their games, and that mods often times make games more attractive for purchase, or extend their gameplay lifecycle.

We’ve recently seen companies like Bandai Namco, The Pokémon Company, and Rockstar go to war with their own modding communities. It’s that larger climate that makes it so refreshing to see the developer behind the latest hit PC game, Manor Lords, go so far as to praise at least one mod for their game.

Manor Lords is a city building game with a third-person camera view. One modding community, Flat2VR, dedicates itself to making non-VR games playable in a VR format. And they did so with Manor Lords.

The community’s Twitter account announced the achievement, saying: “Seven years in development, Manor Lords was the most wish-listed Steam game & released in EA this past week. It has the highest concurrent user counts ever on a city builder. Thankfully, it works perfectly in 6DOF VR with Praydog’s UEVR!” They also confirm that the mod uses M&K, but with Demeo or Little Cities-like motion controls to help players navigate their budding villages and towns.

The short video attached alongside the announcement also shows how this VR mod allows you to do pretty much everything you’d normally do in Manor Lords, including building roads, managing resources, and walking around the streets as the Lord you’ve chosen to embody.

Imagine how the companies I mentioned before might react to something like this. Bandai Namco might just issue takedowns for the mods without explanation. The Pokémon Company would probably just scream “INFRINGEMENT!!!” while doing likewise. Rockstar could issue takedowns over some potential paid expansion pack including VR or some such nonsense.

But if you’re the developer of Manor Lords, your reaction is pretty much, “No shit? That works? Cool!”

To quote some of us from ten years ago: that’s it, that’s the tweet. Or X. Or whatever.

In any case, you will notice that the developer didn’t then follow up with a threat of a takedown, discussions of intellectual property laws, or really any hand-wringing whatsoever. Nope, just an acknowledgement of an awesome mod on the game’s official ExTwitter account.

It sure would be nice if more developers, and the larger companies, realized why this is the perfect reaction to someone making your game better and more attractive to a wider audience. That such enlightenment remains so elusive is a puzzle I have been unable to solve.

Filed Under: flat2vr, manor lords, mods, video games

Bandai Namco Sends Threat Letter To Modding Site Over Supposed Trademark Issues

from the dear-god-why? dept

Here we go again. There seems to be a thing happening among a select few big name video game publishers that have decided for some reason that they want to go to war with their own modding communities. The reasons for doing so vary, but they all amount to wanting to strictly control the experience gamers have with their products. Which is absolutely silly. Mods only exist because people want them. And they want them because they enhance the gaming experience they have with these games, thereby making them more attractive for purchase and continued play.

But when you’ve declared a war like this, it gets real easy for it to turn into a total war type scenario, where no method of attack is left unused. So it seems is the case with Bandai Namco, which for some reason decided to issue a trademark threat to modding site Tekkenmods.com.

Programmer and TekkenMods.com administrator Dennis Stanistan revealed the site recently received an infringement notice from Bandai Namco. The email from Bandai Namco states that the website uses trademarked visuals and logos without prior approval. “By doing so,” it accuses, “you intentionally seek to attract Internet users to your website. This unauthorized use of Bandai/Namco’s intellectual property falsely suggests Bandai/Namco’s sponsorship or enforcement of your website.”

It’s a ridiculous claim to make for several reasons. At the very highest level, PC gamers are not going to somehow think that a third-party mod site has some affiliation with Bandai Namco just because its name, game name, or logos appear on it. If the company was going to make changes to its game, it would simply do so in an update to the game. The whole point of mod sites like this are to do things the game developers didn’t do with their games.

And while the site did remove the logos and material as demanded by Bandai Namco, Stanistan was also very clear that he didn’t believe any of this amounted to trademark infringement, in particular as the site goes out of its way to state it is not affiliated with the company.

As TekkenMods in its official response, the mod’s creator deleted it from the website. However, Stanistan denies doing anything illegal, writing, “Acknowledgement of your complaint is not an admission of any wrongdoing.”

The site administrator also pointed out that the page clearly states it is not affiliated with Bandai Namco. This, Stanistan explains, was specifically done to avoid confusion about whether TekkenMods carries any official endorsement. “Furthermore,” he writes, “the alleged ‘infringing’ elements are used in the context of fan-based content creation which aims to celebrate and promote the Tekken franchise rather than infringe upon or compete with it.”

For the love of all that is holy, I do not understand why it is so hard for some game publishers to grasp this concept. Mods are not a threat to their games. They are a free source of labor for making the games more attractive for purchase, for replayability, and for extending the longevity of the game. It’s all a boon, with little if any downside that I can find.

But for some, the war continues. I sometimes wonder if these companies even understand why they are fighting this war.

Filed Under: mods, tekkenmods, trademark, video games
Companies: bandai namco

from the mod-squad dept

I really cannot believe it’s 2024 and there are still video game publishers out there that want to go to war on their own modding communities. I expect this sort of thing from the Nintendos of the world, but those that publish to the PC gaming market really need to stop it with this crap. Half the pleasure of gaming on a computer is being able to utilize fan-made mods for games. It’s one thing if we’re talking about mods that are used for cheating in online games, but it’s entirely bewildering that companies would want to punish modding communities creating mods for offline, singe-player games.

Bandai Namco has done this sort of thing in the distant past, when it sent a legal threat letter to a modder for Dark Souls who’s crime was making the game’s graphics render better. Now a bunch of mod-makers are having YouTube videos receive copyright strikes, not claims, from a 3rd party rights enforcer for showing off mods for Tekken 8.

Multiple modders and creators are reporting they’ve been hit with copyright strikes on YouTube videos featuring Tekken 8 mods as well as some ways to download said mods removed too.

Users including modder UMIN and I AM OP plus potentially a few others shared posts online seemingly confirming their Tekken videos had been taken down in one of the most severe fashions. These are not Content ID or copyright claims. They appear to be getting hit with full on copyright strikes, which means if you get three of them in a short period of time, your YouTube account can be permanently banned.

Some channels reportedly have already reached that threshold, it seems. Most of the mods in question are for things like character costume changes and other purely cosmetic modifications. Why those have raised the ire of Bandai Namco, even as other such mods and videos have been left alone, is anyone’s guess. In fact, some of the takedowns aren’t even for videos showing mods, but purely gameplay videos.

Now, to be clear, these strikes were not issued by Namco directly, but by a 3rd party IP enforcement outfit called the Association of Copyright for Computer Software. That group has been responsible for copyright notices going out for Tekken content in the past, but nothing like the volume we’re seeing now. There is no concrete way to know for certain that Bandai Namco has contracted ACCS for this type of enforcement, but it’s hard to imagine how it could be otherwise.

Why is this happening now? We’re back to speculating, but the best theory I’ve seen is that the company is worried about mods that might compete with DLC the company has for some of these cosmetic changes.

As to why this is happening now, we also don’t really know that either, but some are postulating it could be a measure to try and reduce what Bamco may feel as competition to their official DLC costumes (or targeting people who may be making money from mods) — though again, nothing is confirmed.

Under Japanese copyright law, Bandai Namco can do this…but why? Is it really the case that these modders’ work is so good that it will prevent the buying public from buying the company’s DLC? If so, its DLC can’t be all that good or worth the money.

But the overall question is why going this route is better than fostering a modding community that makes the game more attractive for purchase in the first place?

Filed Under: copyright, fan mods, mods, video games
Companies: association of copyright for computer software, bandai namco

Pokémon Co. Is Now DMCAing Years Old Videos Showing Pokémon Modded Into Other Games

from the DMCA-i-choose-you! dept

The war on video game mods that involve Pokémon continues! I can’t say for sure that the Pokémon Company’s renewed focus on taking down anything relating to these mods for 3rd party video games was kickstarted by the release of Palworld, sometimes pitched as “Pokémon with guns”, and a mod for the game that put actual Pokémon into the game, but it sure feels that way. Even before the game’s release, of course, the company has always acted as a jealous protector of anything related to its intellectual property, even as it has had no issues with using the work of others itself.

And now that renewed focus appears to be going to ridiculous lengths. YouTuber NoahJ456 noted on ExTwitter that a video of his featuring a Call of Duty mod that put Pokémon in the game seven years ago was recently DMCAd by The Pokémon Co.

NoahJ456, who has 5.21 million subscribers on YouTube, tweeted a warning to other content creators, advising that if their videos feature any sort of modded Pokémon content, “I would delete/unlist it ASAP.”

Tweeting a picture of the notice from YouTube, NoahJ456 said: “Just got a manual strike for a video I made seven years ago featuring Pokémon modded into COD Zombies. Two more strikes and my channel gets deleted.”

Now, as I am always willing to say, the company is within its rights here. It can issue these takedowns, given the use of Pokémon IP in these videos and mods. But as I also always say, the company doesn’t have to do this. There are all kinds of video game mods out there that have a lot of fun by injecting third-party characters and content into other games. And yet, despite the fact that all these mods exist without being taken down, the world still somehow manages to spin on its proper axle.

And I’m not the only one that thinks the Palworld mod is what set all of this off. Hell, even the creator of that mod, going by the handle Toasted Shoes, publicly stated that they felt responsible for this particular takedown.

“I didn’t think they’d go scorched earth and I certainly didn’t think it would lead to a chain reaction of them punishing @NoahJ456 and every other creator. I am truly sorry that me being reckless may have played some part.

“Crazy that it took a month to go after everyone else but it seems they now have their sights set on other creators.”

It sure does, which is a very shitty look for The Pokémon Co. These are fans of the company’s content that are looking to have a little fun within other games by injecting the Pokémon content they enjoy into them. This is the spread of fandom and culture at work and I can’t for the life of me even imagine how it represents any kind of threat to The Pokémon Co. or its bottom line.

But fun isn’t allowed if it is also a transgression on corporate control, it seems. What a lesson for youngsters out there when it comes to exactly what this company is all about.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, mods, pokemon go
Companies: pokemon

Palworld Modder Changes ‘Pokémon’ Mod To Include Generic Characters Instead

from the that'll-surely-do-it dept

Well, this is certainly moving fast. We had begun talking about the recently released PC game Palworld as a great example of the idea/expression dichotomy in copyright law, specifically as the game has both been described as “Pokémon, but with guns” while also not containing any specific Pokémon copyrighted expression within it. While the Pokémon people had begun making some noises about wanting to look into whether the game does infringe any of its copyrights anyway, modder ToastedShoes released a mod for the game that almost seemed perfectly designed to illustrate the point I was making. His mod specifically injected actual Pokémon characters and assets into the game. Nintendo promptly took down a video preview of the mod via a DMCA notice as a result.

And sometimes that’s where these stories end. Other times, such as in this case, the modder decides to make some changes after the complaint that are specifically designed to give the rightsholder something of a middle finger. It seems that ToastedShoes has gone back and redesigned the mod such that it now includes mostly generic placeholder characters once more, rather than specific Pokémon expressions, with one notable exception.

He explains in a video that “we were planning on releasing [the mod] for free on Nexus”, which clearly isn’t possible anymore. The intended video went up on YouTube, but before it could even hit 100,000 views it was taken down. Not one to be stopped, Toasted Shoes’ team of modders has instead devised an infernal concoction of bootleg Pokémon, straight from the pits of Hades.

Using a mod that is “not a reference to anything, I promise,” the YouTuber plays through the adventures of “teenage boy in cap” as searches far and wide, catching legally distinct creatures. This ‘loveable’ cast of characters includes Yellow Rat, Braided Sheep, Fire Fox, and everybody’s favourite—Fat Cock.

You can see from the video embedded below that the changes made somehow both create characters that are fairly distinct from actual Pokémon characters while also retaining the clear impression that ToastedShoes’ mod is inspired, in some cases quite sarcastically, from those same characters.

Will any of this keep the Pokémon people at bay? I doubt it, given their reputation as jealous protectors of both their IP rights and the rights they sometimes imagine they have. But at the end of the day we are back to the idea/expression dichotomy. “Teenage boy in cap” is an idea, while Ash Ketchum is expression. The character in this game is not Ash Ketchum, no matter the inspiration for the character to begin with.

As for that one notable exception? It has nothing to do with Pokémon, but could land this into DMCA territory with an entirely different player, I suppose.

Teenage boy in cap’s ordeals culminate in a climactic battle with Saul Goodman, who conjures a giant cease & desist letter out of a small mason jar. It’s a reskin of the game’s Syndicate Tower battle with Rayne, who rides astride an Electabuzz Grizzbolt. I mean Grizzbolt. Don’t hurt me, Saul, I have a family.

Points for humor and creativity, to be sure, but we’ll see just how this all shakes out with the Pokémon people, AMC, and whoever else wants to take IP potshots at this game.

But if all of this does nothing else, I at least appreciate the way it illuminates just how far from copyright infringement the original game, Palworld, actually is.

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, mods, palworld, pokemon, video games
Companies: nintendo, pocketpair

Starfield DLSS Modder Has Mods Behind Paywall, Briefly Threatens To Booby Trap ‘Pirated’ Mods

from the on-second-thought dept

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how Bethesda’s latest opus, Starfield, was shipping without support for Nvidia’s DLSS technology, but did have a deal to support AMD’s version of that upscaling technology. And after plenty of commenters pointed out that I was coming at that post from the wrong angle, I jumped into the comments thanking them and admitting so, particularly when it comes to how FSR is open source and works on all graphics cards, as well as several other particulars I wasn’t informed enough to recognize. Whoops! My fault!

Now that that’s out of the way, I also mentioned in that post that an enterprising modder, PureDark, had uploaded their own mod to add in DLSS support for the game to Nexusmods.com. And that’s true, though I hadn’t noticed at the time that there were versions of the mod free to download and one that sits behind PureDark’s Patreon paywall. And that created some controversy, both with the public and with PureDark themselves.

“Starfield Upscaler” is the second-most popular mod for Bethesda’s open-world RPG, but its creator sparked controversy earlier this month because the best version of it was locked behind a $5 Patreon subscription paywall. In a new interview with IGN he defends the practice, and threatens users who try to pirate his work with “hidden mines” that will break the mod.

He released a free version that supported DLSS 2, but access to DLSS 3 support, the newest version, was exclusive to his personal Patreon. Drama ensued and pirates who normally focus on “cracking” the DRM protecting games like Starfield instead took a moment to “crack” the “Starfield Upscaler” mod itself.

Those hidden mine threats? Essentially think of it as some of the more creative forms of DRM we’ve seen publishers put in their games. The idea is to make the game completely unpredictable if you’re using a cracked version of the mod. PureDark essentially said if you used a cracked version, the game would sometimes work, sometimes wouldn’t, would randomly crash, and in other ways would essentially just mess with the player’s experience.

And that’s kind of shitty. The reaction to PureDark’s comments was fairly negative as well. After all, are “pirated” versions of a mod really worth all the extra trouble that is essentially laying these traps?

As it turns out, the answer to that is no. A conclusion reached by PureDark themselves, it seems.

“The interview with IGN was conducted more than a week ago, and it was what I said back when I was angry at haters and those who cracked my Starfield mod,” he now says. “I did think about doing that at some point, but then I stopped doing it. It’s been a long time, and I’ve calmed my mind.”

He added that actually booby-trapping the mod would be a lot of work and not worth the effort. “It’s really not worth it to waste my time fighting or getting back to those people,” PureDark said. “I might as well focus on making new mods and updates.”

Glad they got there. It would also be nice if all the game studios that spend their time and money on things like DRM and anti-piracy enforcement could reach the same conclusion.

Filed Under: dlss, mods, piracy, puredark, starfield

Sigh: Rockstar Goes Right Back To Its War On Mods

from the about-face dept

Well, that was quick. We had just been discussing the encouraging news that Rockstar had scooped up Cfx.re, a community dedicated to roleplaying within GTA and Red Dead Redemption games, as well as several mods made within that community. The only thing that made this newsworthy at all is that Rockstar has had an awful reputation when it comes to modding communities for its games. In that post, I highlighted the welcome change of the embrace of these mods and wondered aloud if this meant there had been a culture shift at Rockstar towards embracing more of these communities.

Commenters warned me that that was unlikely to be true. Well, it appears you win, commenters, because just days later Rockstar is disappearing another very cool and useful looking mod that serves only to make its game more attractive, especially this far into the sales cycle.

In case you thought Rockstar Games’ acquisition of Grand Theft Auto V creator group Cfx.re meant a brave new era for open modding in the hit open-world game, don’t worry, publisher Take-Two is still going after fan projects it doesn’t like. Case in point is its recent sacking of a mod called Sentient Streets, which used AI technology to generate NPC conversation dialogue on the fly. Take-Two had the mod scoured from both YouTube and NexusMods, leaving its creator confused and discouraged.

The Sentient Streets mod, which was previously covered by a number of sites like IGN and Eurogamer, had a story that revolved around an AI-worshiping death cult and NPCs whose dialogue was randomly generated by a tool called the Inworld Character Engine. YouTube user Bloc, who created the GTA V mod, said a video showing it off had over 100,000 views before it was removed, while the mod itself had apparently been downloaded over 3,000 times before NexusMods, where it was hosted, took it down.

As the post goes on to note, part of the issue here might be the use of a third-party platform called Inworld Character Engine, which populates the dialogue randomly generated by the mod with AI-generated dialogue built off of samples and audio the makers of that engine paid for. There is a chance that part of the concern is over whether Rockstar could find itself in some legal quagmire as a result of not policing this mod into oblivion.

But I doubt it. Rockstar’s reputation towards mods generally makes the case for Occam’s Razor. The least complicated explanation for this is that Rockstar is just Rockstar-ing. Which ultimately just sucks for Rockstar’s modding communities, most of which are made up of folks who are huge fans of the company’s games.

“Knowing that large corporations can issue strikes based on arbitrary reasons, which can cause your work to go in vain in moments, is also discouraging to say the least,” Bloc wrote in their post.

Indeed.

Filed Under: grand theft auto, modding community, mods, sentient streets
Companies: rockstar, take two interactive

Rockstar Scoops Up Modding, Roleplay Communities In A Departure From Previous Policy

from the modding-their-behavior dept

It’s important coming into this story to know and note that Rockstar, the publisher behind hit franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, has waged a very public war on modding communities for its games for years now. Despite just how useful these modding communities tend to be in elongating the sales cycle for video games, Rockstar has gone after the tools for making mods for its games, has banned players for using mods even when those mods don’t change online gameplay, has DMCA blitzed the mods themselves, and so on. It’s a very purposeful series of actions clearly based on company policy.

Company policy that is perhaps undergoing some level of change. As Rockstar prepares for the release of GTA 6, the company also scooped up a community of dedicated fans of GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2, a community which has formed around roleplaying within those games and using all kinds of mods.

The team behind the biggest Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 role-playing communities, Cfx.re, is officially becoming part of Rockstar Games. The new partnership comes ahead of the possible launch of GTA VI in 2024, and will lead to an updated policy that officially allows the addition of mods created in the FiveM and RedM communities to the hit open-world games.

“Over the past few years, we’ve watched with excitement as Rockstar’s creative community have found new ways to expand the possibilities of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, particularly through the creation of dedicated roleplay servers,” Rockstar wrote in an August 11 blog post on its website. “As a way to further support those efforts, we recently expanded our policy on mods to officially include those made by the roleplay creative community.”

Despite Rockstar’s reputation on communities like this, this is really cool in a couple of different ways. The minor reversal or allowance on mods will get the headline, and it’s certainly deserving of attention. For a company like Rockstar to relinquish some small amount of control in this manner when it has been so staunchly against mods isn’t insignificant.

And perhaps it goes hand in hand with the other cool thing about all of this: Rockstar embracing a fan community that is doing new and interesting things with its titles.

In addition to allowing users to make all sorts of mods for GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, the Cfx.re team’s FiveM and RedM clients are also the nexus for massive role-playing communities around the games who use dedicated servers to make elaborate worlds where individual players take on various roles from criminal and civilian to create a more authentic online open world experience.

“This is a huge step forward in the growth of our community, and an opportunity for us to work with Rockstar Games to advance the FiveM platform and the creative community surrounding it,” Cfx.re wrote in a statement. “While our day-to-day operations won’t have any noticeable changes, with Rockstar’s support, we are going to continue to improve our platform and we are truly excited for what this means for our users, community, and creators!”

This doesn’t mean that Rockstar has definitely done a complete one-eighty when it comes to mods and these fan communities, but it’s a start at the very least. And we should appreciate that shifting this kind of company policy in a company as large as Rockstar is a bit like turning the Titanic.

In that context, Rockstar should be encouraged to do more of this and really open things up, allowing its greatest fans to make its properties more valuable through their fandom.

Filed Under: fan communities, fan mods, fans, fivem, modding, mods, redm, role playing, video game mods, video games
Companies: rockstar