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

On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 12:27:55 -0000 (UTC), Borax Man
<rotflol2@hotmail.com> wrote:

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.

At least the shovelware disks included the text files attributing the
WADs to the creator. It doesn't seem like Bethesda.net does even that
much. They just accept that if John Doe uploads
ThisWADWasMadeByBobPeterson.zip, they give John Doe credit for the
work.

Or so it's been reported. I've never bothered to make a Bethesda.net
account, so I can't check for myself. Honestly, I uninstalled the
"Doom + Doom II" pack after less than an hour of playing it; it just
doesn't feel "Doom" to me. If I need another Doom-fix, I'll just fire
up GZDoom (a Doom sourceport) and play that instead.

And if I want to add a mod, I'll just browse ModDB.com and download it
manually.