Fair use and how far can you go to mod games (Lucasfilm shuts down total conversion mod)

[izzi]

Hi guys,
I just want your opinion and hope this is the right place.
I am a modder (TotalWar series) and a big fan of Star Wars. For example the KOTOR series are one of my favorite games. Now there was a team of fanbase developers/modders (project apeiron) that decided to remake or mod a total conversion of the original game. But, sadly they got a a immediately shutdown request form Lucasfilm to cease the mod.
Here is an article that talks about the situation and a comment of a (youtube) tech lawyer.
Can this be a first step of big corporations to shut down mods or have creators the right of free use?
Let me know what you think? Because as many of you are here are using mods or are modders.

[Steph]

I modded Civilization in the past (it comes with an editor), a bit Europa Universalis (which has alway been opened to modding), and Total War.

Usually, we mod games with access to a workshop, with semi official tools, or at least are unoffficially supported by the game editor (that's the case with Total War). So we know the game editor won't have issues with modding on a general principle.

Then comes the question of IP:
- If you mod the game reusing its own assets, the game Editor usually doesn't mind (supposing it HAS an editor)
- If you create your own graphics or animation, no problem either
- The problem can be want you want to get things from another game, or from another IP. Then you need to be careful, because you have no right to it.

Two examples
- When I modded civ, and later NTW, I used graphics from Cossacks for the building (and for civ, units from Cossacks). I contacted the game Editor, and they granted me the authorization to use it: I gave them credits, link to their website, etc so it was more publicity for them.
- With Warhammer total war, it's clearly stated in the conditions that we can mod, but not use another IP. So we can take a Game Workshop book with pictures, and use it to add new units with the same look. but we couldn't make a Lord of the Rings mod for it.
And in that case, not because of the owner of the LotR IP, but because of Game Workshop.

So I don't think it's a general step of big corporation to shut down mods, but may be some specific IP to control it.

The rule anyways is to always ask permission first. And in the case you mentionned, I'm not sure they asked... and it doesn't seem to be a mod but a "remake" (i.e. copy) of the original game. That's quite different.

And of course the golden rule: NEVER CHARGE FOR A MOD!

Some modders are sometimes really borderline with that.

[izzi]

If i remember correctly, they created they're on own assets (and some 3th party ones from other creators that they had permission to use it or bought it) and where using the unreal engine 4. But you still needed the base game to play the mod. Also, they didn't charge for the mod, it was completely free (as mods have to be).

[Steph]

First, I was giving a general feedback about modding, not for this specific situation.

Second, yes it may have been their own work, and free, but it's still based on a game they don't own. And the owner of the game (i.e. editor) has the right on it, and so they can allow to change it or not, included for modding, it's not open source!
Even Open Source has several levels of allowed change and usage.

Imagine for exemple Disney may have wanted to make their own version of a new Kotor and sell it. This mod could be a competitor!

Game modding is usually done courtesy of the game editor. As I said, some like Firaxis, Bethesda, Paradox, or Creative Assembly encourage it and provides some supports
- from a full editor like Bethesda with Skyrim for example of Firaxis with XCOM2)
- limit editor like Assembly kit for Total War most recent games
- no official tools, but blessing for Total War older games.

But there's no obligation for them to allow it, even for free, even with the same engine.

It always comes down to business: does the editor prefers to allow / support modding, hoping it will increase sales and give them a better image or not?

And there's the issue of possible competition.

Even if CA let people mod older game, they provide not support or update pre tool kit, because they want the focus on their most recent games which are selling well, rather than extgend the life of older games.


And so to answer your question
"Can this be a first step of big corporations to shut down mods or have creators the right of free use?"

I think it's the opposite
- Firaxis game much more modding tools for CiV4 and Civ5 than CivIII. Same for XCOM2 compared to XCOM
- Paradox still provides lots of modding support
- CA has the tool kit for Total War recent games. It's not perfect and still requires complementary tools from the community, but it's still a good move
- With the creation kit, Bethesda gives a lot of support to modders.

There are other games around which are built with moddign support in mind from the start.

However, I think it maybe different for games with a strong IP, used for marketting purpose (like Star Wars, Marvle, Lord of the Rings), and then the IP owner maybe more touchy.

[izzi]

I understand what you are talking about. I just made the question to see what modders or players in general think about this. The question i made, is a general one, that doesn't mean that i support/ not support it (as you can see in the article/video). It's just to start a conversation to see what people think in general of it.