Skyrim mod drama gets ugly with allegations of stolen code and misappropriated donations
One of the more useful [The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim] mods, for developers but indirectly for players, is the Skyrim Script Extender, or SKSE. It basically allows for more complex behaviors for objects, locations and NPCs. How do you have a character seek shelter from the rain if there's no weather-based behaviors in their original AI? That sort of thing (though that's an invented example). SKSE goes back a long way and the creators provide much of the code for others to use under a free license, while declining donations themselves.
Another project is Skyrim Together (ST), a small team that since 2013 has (among others) been working on adding multiplayer functionality to the game — their Patreon account, in contrast, is pulling in more than $30,000 a month. The main dev there allegedly independently distributed a modified version of SKSE several years ago against the terms of the license, and was henceforth specifically banned from using SKSE code in the future.
Guess what SKSE's lead found in a bit of code inspection the other day?
Yes, unfortunately, it seems that SKSE code is in the ST app, not only in violation of the license as far as not giving credit, but in that the dev himself has been barred from using it, and furthermore that — although there is some debate here — the ST team is essentially charging for access to a "closed beta." Some say that it's just a donation they ask for, but requiring a donation is really indistinguishable from charging for something.
Response from Skyrim Together.
Related: Modder Fixes What Bethesda Couldn't -- Skyrim
Bethesda 'Creation Club' for Skyrim and Fallout 4: No "Paid Mods" Here!
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combatserver writes:
"The folks over at Dark Side of Gaming are reporting an interesting development in the game modding community--a recently released modification for the blockbuster game from Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC version). A long-running issue with the game since release has been recurring CTDs (crashes to desktop) and infinite loading screens that often bring the game to a grinding halt after just a few minutes of play, especially when heavily modded. Bethesda has tried to resolve the issue with several patches, to no avail.
Sheson, a member of the Skyrim modding community, fixed Skyrim. According to many user reports--thousands, in fact--Sheson's relatively minor adjustment to memory allocation has solved the vast majority of stability issues. The improvements have increased game performance far beyond what anyone had expected. Players are now merging mods to get around the hard-coded cap of 256 mods that Skyrim can load at any given time, effectively packing more content into the game. The fix also allows for Skyrim to run on lower-end PCs, widening the market for a game that has already sold over 20 million copies.
Since Sheson's patch released, the fix has been repackaged by other community members as a mod for Skyrim to make it even more accessible. Skyrim players who use the script-extender SKSE will be pleased to hear that the patch will be included in the next build."
[ED Note: Bottom line -- Bethesda shouldn't be packaging poorly written and untested code for sale, then requiring gamers to pay to play as beta testers. Kudos to Sheson for his hard work and effort.]
Bethesda will partner with modders to release new premium content for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
Bethesda Games Studio is launching Creation Club, a service for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One, this summer.
Bethesda's new Creation Club will contain a series of mods developed for Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition both by Bethesda and "outside developers," including those from the games' communities. These will include weapons, abilities and gameplay, according to Bethesda. A trailer above, from the publisher's E3 2017 press conference, shows a few of these in action.
[...] Yet the publisher also stated that Creation Club is not equivalent to "paid mods," similar to what it used to sell through Steam Workshop.
Bethesda will pay approved mod developers:
Creators are required to submit documentation pitches which go through an approval process. All content must be new and original. Once a concept is approved, a development schedule with Alpha, Beta and Release milestones is created. Creations go through our full development pipeline, which Creators participate in. Bethesda Game Studios developers work with Creators to iterate and polish their work along with full QA cycles. The content is fully localized, as well. This ensures compatibility with the original game, official add-ons and achievements. [...] Just like our own game developers, Creators are paid for their work and start receiving payment as soon as their proposal is accepted and through development milestones.
Also at PC Gamer, Kotaku, Gamespot, Gamasutra, and GamesRadar+.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @08:00AM
Everything is stolen and people claim they made stuff when they didn't all the time. Probably many people don't know better but surely some also do. And massive egos everywhere. Backstabbing, lying and cheating. And huge giant corporations shelling cease&desists left and right.
If you value your sanity, just don't go there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @05:15PM
A cursory inspection reveals that only the "common" and "skse64/xbyak" directories are under free licenses, representing about 15% of the code base according to sloccount. The remaining 85% is completely proprietary due to a lack of any copyright license whatsoever.
IANAL, but the specific prohibition against the ST team applies only to these no-license files (it explicitly covers the files in the skse64/skse64 directory), and the SKSE authors probably have no basis in law to enforce this prohibition. The files already have no license, which means nobody, including the ST team can use them except as permitted by copyright law (e.g., "fair use" or similar), and a note like this won't supersede that.
These guys might have a valid copyright infringement case against the ST team. I'm not sure what they expect this mudslinging on reddit to accomplish.