Fallout London Author Slams Bethesda for Lack of Clarity on Paid Mods

Dean ‘Prilladog’ Carter, the head of the team that made the maxi mod Fallout London for Fallout 4, he wanted to have his say on a very sensitive issue in the modding community, the one relating to the monetization of mods. According to him, Bethesda, whose games are the most modded on the scene, is managing the situation very badly, with its continuous steps backwards that have only created confusion.

We need clarity

All attempts made by the Elder Scrolls company have created strong contrasts within the communityincluding the latest one with Starfield. Carter isn’t against paid mods, despite Fallout London being completely free, but he’d “just like them to make a final decision,” he explained in an interview with VG247.com, before adding: “This is the third time they’ve tried it and they backtracked again. If they had stopped at the first try it would still be controversial, but the first try was about 10 years ago and people would have just been like, ‘Oh.’ But no, they did it again and they backtracked again. This is the third time they’ve tried it, maybe it’s the right one, but it seems to have been shelved immediately and, in my opinion, the way they’ve implemented it is strange in itself.”

In short, for Carter the attempts made so far by Bethesda have been clumsy and unconvinced. According to him they should choose a model and support it to improve it and make it the mold for the future. “I really want that, because then the modders themselves would know if it’s something they can make a living from. At the moment, nobody knows. Some people do it, but now it just seems like a cool kids club.”

Furthermore, the admission criteria for this club seem to be mysterious, since some members of the Fallout London team were not admitted and others were, despite having the same gigantic mod on their resume.

For his part, Carter thinks that “we are on the brink of pure monetization. I don’t see it as a good or bad thing, because I think it depends on the content.” He believes that the industry should decide and then stick with it, without Bethesda constantly second-guessing them. However, he personally would hate it if “companies just saw mods as a way to make money without giving anything to the people, because that, I think, is a dangerous point of view.”