I was over on the PC boards at www.gamefaqs.com and another topic spurred this idea in my head. Maybe it's stupid, but I really think it could be something for Bethesda to benefit from.

There is a hugely strong and successful modding community that is still active for Morrowind and that is still thriving for Oblivion. Something like what I'm proposing could bring some of the best and brightest modders a bit of recognition as well as bringing Bethesda some good PR for acknowledging all the work that their fanbase has done over the years. Here's what I suggest:

Bethesda could release the toolset for download ASAP. Although many of the bugfix type mods would be unable to be created at this point (since there's nothing to fix yet), there are many modders who are fantastic at creating dungeons, guilds, weapons, armor, other items, and even interesting characters. Let these type of mods begin being created right now for the exclusive purpose of submitting them to Bethesda. Bethesda would then run a contest for the fans to pick which ones look the best/most promising and put the winning mods into the game so that when it is released it comes pre-loaded with the best user-generated content so far. The winning modders would, of course, get some sort of cameo character in the game as well.

Now, I know the success of many mods depends on the playability of said mods. I don't know how they could be play-tested by the modders themselves (especially without the risk of pirated copies of the game going out). I'm not a programmer, or even a modder. I tried a couple, but they were merely for personal use. Therefore, I know nothing about how to logistically make this happen. I just thought it would be a good idea. What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

Wait, so you want Beth to release the CS before the game is out to include the stuff in-game?

I don't think that's a good idea, so I say no.

Mods are not always lore-friendly, and it's Beth's role to create the lore. And how the hell would we create the mods if we can't have access to the game? Would it be like a private-beta for modders? Nah, someone would leak it and a lot of people would spoil the game, etc etc etc.

There are also a number of other reasons that this wouldn't work. Like the quality of the mods and the game isn't always equal, for instance, someone can create an awesome sword, with high-poly, ultra high resolution and detail, but it would look weird when compared to the models already in-game, usually they are mid resolution with low poly. Like the reviewers complaining that Gran Turismo 5 had a lot of unbalanced graphics, with somethings looking amazing and some others not.

That might produce too many legal issues. Any mod authors who get their content officially released by Beth no doubt are going to want a slice of the pie (money).

Yes, this too. It's like letting the modders do all the work and Bethesda keeps the profit.

how would we mod if we don't have the game, we could create new objects and thats it we wouldn't be able to put it in the game and if they gave us the game before release, you know people are gonna torrent it, remember Assassins creed

Without having access to the game, the only mods you could make are indoor places: caves, houses, etc... But still, that limited CS would have to have some objects TES V will have (because if it was just to create a cave or house walls probably it wouldn't compensate). Bethesda could request fans to do some indoors, it would save some work and possibly add more content to the game that otherwise Bethesda wouldn't do themselves. I don't know how picky Bethesda want to be with their content, but with the number of modders that would be interested in this, I think they'd end up with better content than they could imagine.



Just make them accept that they have no rights over the content they send to Bethesda and problem resolved.

Of course this could be bad for Bethesda image, taking fans' work for free, make a game with it and make money out of it. If anyone in Bethesda already thought of this idea, this is probably what's pushing them back from applying it.

"No...just no... are you stupid?"

You said it, not me...I just voted for it. :banana:

The only way I can think of that this might semi work is adding the more mainstream modded content in with patches, like WoW does. Patches are free.

Edit: Of course, that still wouldn't happen until the game is released first.

yes they should.

in a perfect world

just imagine the amount of content we could have on release date oo:

No. Too complicated when it comes to royalties (or something similar).

Also, not very fair to the modding community.

ditto

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/57558432

There's the link to the discussion that got me thinking along these lines. I don't use Valve, but a couple posters seem to think that Valve has done something similar before.

Like I said earlier, the technical side of it is where I wouldn't know how to make it happen. I think the idea itself is a pretty awesome one. It is implementing it that svcks. Yes, potential pirating. Yes, play-testing would need to be tweaked. The most intriguing counterpoint I've seen here is the royalty issue. I hadn't even thought about that - I mean, most modders are doing it for free anyways, right?

So maybe implementation wouldn't work out so well. But it seems like it's at least an explorable idea that doesn't need shoved to the side right off. Most ideas that turn out to be huge successes arise from humble beginnings and often from rather tumultuous situations along the path to success.

So, do Bethesda devs troll these forums? I wonder what they might say about it.

Erm...no. I want to be able to select mods for my gane, not have them selected for me. This completley defeats the purpose of modding and removes all individuality of your game.

are you dumb?

I'd say their most likely response would be along the lines of "Sorry, legal issues, not gonna happen, have a nice day" before quickly shoving it aside.

Voted for the last option in the poll.