Re: More Doom... that's a good thing, right?

On 2024-08-14, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, 09 Aug 2024 11:49:03 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
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Bethesda has just dropped an upgrade for the original "Doom" and "Doom
II" (yes, the classic games from the 90s). Bethesda really knows how
to milk their existing IPs; adding a few tiny upgrades, and then
repackaging it under a slightly different name and reselling it to
fans.

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Oh, Bethesda...
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So, this new "Doom + Doom II" release has, as mentioned, support for
mods. To use/play these mods, you need a Bethesda account before you
can access the 'workshop'. However, the mods themselves are just the
same mods as have been playable on Doom since time immemorial, just
made more accessible and easier to install/run. But how did those mods
get there?
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Why, end-users uploaded them, of course. The problem is that the
people who uploaded them - and are given credit for developing the
mods- aren't necessarily the same people who actually CREATED the darn
things. There's very little (or quite possibly) no moderation going on
in the unsorted mods list.
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Oops.
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There is a curated 'Featured mods' page which Bethesda has populated
with better known mods. But this selection is tiny compared to the
unsorted selection. That selection also has some very... erm, varied
material, including hentai-flavored material, stuff celebrating school
shootings, and stuff that blatantly violates copyright (such as MODS
that rip off Nintendo's IP. But I'm sure the notoriously litigious
Nintendo is fine with that).
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It's been described by some as a 'chum bucket of random shit'.
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So like the shovelware Doom Add-on CD's of the 90s, where they scraped
cdrom.com and threw everything on a disk?  I do admit I purchased a
couple of these, because it was easier to get WADs that way instead of
downloading over slow dial up.

I've made WAD's myself, and I'd by annoyed if they were distributed
without the corresponding text file.  I don't think it is right to use
other peoples work to create your own 'service' and not also supply the
authors text files with it.  I have the same complaint with some
multiplayer Doom launchers which will downloads WADS, but just the wad
file.

Bethesda wants to use their new Doom games and the attached
Bethesda.net service in order to better draw its customers into its
own ecosystem. But it doesn't seem to want to do the work that sort of
ecosystem requires, which includes moderation,
filtering/sorting/deleting inappropriate material, and ensuring
copyright is respected. It's lazy, in a way that Bethesda is too often
lazy. It doesn't inspire trust or respect.

No, it doesn't.  They should, at a minimum, curate the list, ensure the
mods are distributed as originally packaged, and as you said, respecting
copyright.