Bethesda’s updated Doom Remasters have opened up a portal into a hellish dimension where uncredited mods are uploaded: 'This represents a massive breach in trust'

Bethesda released last week a new edition for its Steam remasters of Doom and Doom 2. The update to Bethesda’s existing Doom + Doom 2 Remaster bundle adds enhancements such as cross-platform online multiplayer and a brand new official episode. It also includes a BOOM-compatible engine, which allows the use of more than two decades worth of existing DOOM Mods, which can be published and downloaded through an in-game browser. That's cool!

It appears that the mod browser allows you to upload any mod and claim you made it. This is less cool.

RockPaperShotgun noticed that the Doom + Doom 2 mod browser does not have any moderation or verification guidelines. I could take any.WAD from Doomworld and slap it into the mod browser, writing "I made this for true and no court can prove otherwise" as the description. Everyone would be unaware unless the mod's creator noticed it and reported it manually.

The in-game mods browser is already rife, with mods that have been uploaded without the permission of their creators. Jean-Paul LeBreton - a prolific Doom and BioShock modder and game designer who worked on Psychonauts 2 - called the mod browser implementation "a massive breach in trust" and "a shitty thing id/zeni did to a community they are now monetizing."

This apparent carelessness in regards to the possibility of stolen work is especially frustrating, as Zenimax and Bethesda has already acted out this debacle multiple times. In 2015, Valve canceled its short-lived experiment with paid mods on Steam Workshop in part due to users reuploading other creators' mods to sell as theirs. A year later, "stolen mods" appeared in console versions Fallout 4 after they were uploaded to Bethesda’s mod directory without the creators' consent.

Bethesda is able to capitalize on a selling feature that was previously only available to PC players.

Bethesda's need for modders is a big reason why it needs them to continue providing content. I would have thought that Bethesda would give a bit more thought before allowing mod publishing to become another wild west. It's been around for a while.