Bethesda Says it's a Coincidence that a Far Harbor Quest Resembles a New Vegas Mod

[ffronw]

Bethesda Says it's a Coincidence that a Far Harbor Quest Resembles a New Vegas Mod

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1336/1336461.jpgA Fallout: New Vegas modder pointed out similarities between his work and a Far Harbor, but Bethesda says it's just a coincidence.

If you're into Fallout: New Vegas mods, you may have played Autumn Leaves, created by modder BaronVonChateau [http://www.moddb.com/members/baronvonchateau]. The mod adds a quest Based around solving a murder mystery in a vault. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because there's also a quest in Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC named "Brain Dead," that has a similar theme.

BaronVonChateau (whose real name is Guillaume Veer) wrote about the similarities between the mod and the official quest in a post on ModDB [http://www.moddb.com/mods/autumn-leaves/news/big-publishers-and-a-small-mod]. He particularly mentions the theme of the quest, as well as some of the plot points and story beats. It also includes a number of screenshot comparisons.

The two quests do seem fairly similar, but Bethesda VP of Marketing Pete Hines told GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-4-dlc-quest-resembles-new-vegas-mod-bethes/1100-6441826/] the similarities were coincidental. "We love our mod community and would never disrespect them. I checked, and any similarities between the two are a complete coincidence," Hines said.

While Veer posted about the similarities he saw, he didn't seem angry or upset. In fact, he said, "I seriously think this is perfectly okay. After all, Autumn Leaves' inspirations are countless ... and being influenced is a natural part of the writing process." But Veer also told GameSpot that he'd like to be acknowledged by Bethesda.

"Being acknowledged in the game's credits, for instance, would be a very nice--and costless--move towards us modders. Many of us are making mods, often taking years of our free time in order to get a job in the industry, and this kind of recognition would really gives us a tremendous boost."

While that's an understandable sentiment, it's unlikely to happen in light of Hines' statement. You can check out Autumn Leaves at ModDB [http://www.moddb.com/mods/autumn-leaves/], and you can find the "Brain Dead" quest in Far Harbor.




Permalink

 

[Dr.Helios]

Nothing story. If I were brain storming Fallout quest ideas a murder mystery in a vault would come up pretty early I imagine, its a fairly generic idea

 

[hermes]

I don't think the idea of a murder mystery in a closed space where everyone is supposed to know each other is such a novel idea that it couldn't have come from different sources...

Although I also have to point out Bethesda is not above repackaging popular mods and sell them as DLC...

 

[Dying_Jester]

Oh wow, that modder came up with the idea of a murder mystery that plays out more like one of those themed parties? Gosh darn, Bethesda is just terrible for not giving credit to that modder. I can't believe that they would steal someone else's totally original ideas like that!

Seriously, it's a quest that plays out like a murder mystery party. Hell, Final Fantasy 14 just had an event that is just that only a short while back, does that modder want to be credited for that too?

 

[Xyebane]

Bethesda's track record on dealing with stolen mods (with paid mods and now console mods) makes a lot more sense now. No wonder they are so bad at stopping mods from being stolen, they are stealing them themselves!

 

[Redvenge]

Oh wow, that modder came up with the idea of a murder mystery that plays out more like one of those themed parties? Gosh darn, Bethesda is just terrible for not giving credit to that modder. I can't believe that they would steal someone else's totally original ideas like that!

Seriously, it's a quest that plays out like a murder mystery party. Hell, Final Fantasy 14 just had an event that is just that only a short while back, does that modder want to be credited for that too?

There are ALOT of mods for Fallout 3 and Fallout:NV that "inspired" several aspects of mechanics and gameplay in Fallout 4. To assume that they took "inspiration" from yet another mod is not that big of a stretch.

With Fallout 4, Bethesda just basically gave up and said "You are going to mod it anyway. We might as well charge you for some mods and get our money that way".

 

[martyrdrebel27]

come on people, the mod came out only a few weeks before Fallout 4. Far Harbor was already in development at that point. AND HAVING READ THE ARTICLE i still call coincidence.

for a murder mystery, makes sense it would take place in a vault, closed eco-system eliminates the variable of outsiders and vaults are iconic. talking to an AI/robot to gain entrance, par for the course.

hell, even a robot with an appreciation for art.... okay, i can see where that could be kinda damning, but only because they're both within the context of this particular story.

 

[Pyrian]

There's too much similarities for this to be a coincidence. Everyone who thinks otherwise probably didn't look at the mod author's comparison.

I've read the comparison, and it looks like coincidence. The share a couple of very similar, very common premises and arrive at a couple of similar conclusions from those premises. It's cute, but... When there's a lot of mods and quests, official and otherwise, it's pretty much inevitable that this level of similarity crops up here and there.

 

[Link Kadeshi]

Seems like too many people played Clue, to me.

 

[Gennadios]

I have a low enough opinion of BethSoft writing to find the assertion that they're ripping off modders to be perfectly plausible.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I have a low enough opinion of BethSoft writing to find the assertion that they're ripping off modders to be perfectly plausible.

Second this.
They are more than willing to copy a modders work *cough* Automaton *cough* and sell it for a way too high pricing.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I have a low enough opinion of BethSoft writing to find the assertion that they're ripping off modders to be perfectly plausible.

Second this.
They are more than willing to copy a modders work *cough* Automaton *cough* and sell it for a way too high pricing.

The Settlement and Survival systems were directly lifted from the Fallout 3 survival mod, and the New Vegas settlement mod. Fallout 4's survival mode seems to draw heavily from Skyrim's iNeed mod.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I'd be quite frankly shocked if this were simply a coincidence.

 

[Amir Kondori]

I have a low enough opinion of BethSoft writing to find the assertion that they're ripping off modders to be perfectly plausible.

While the average quest mod doesn't have great writing at all, there are some that easily surpass anything Bethesda Softworks has done.

 

[CosmicCommander]

Having played this mod, I do know that is's very well written and has a plausible premise. It's actually one of the best written NV mods I've played; it managed to put in place a lot of choices and consequences, a huge amount of skill and perk checks, and it also rewards players for exploring. The similarities between this mod and Far Harbour seem far too numerous to be mere coincidence.

Considering how ridiculous that quest was, he should be happy not to be mentioned.
I don't mean to be a negative nancy, but finding a new vault (which are scarce in the game) is supposed to be special, not a lame gag.

In AL the vault was actually a pre-war venture to create a library of Alexandria to preserve knowledge through the nuclear holocaust (hence it being in the middle of the Mojave desert), and it's explained that numerous wealthy backers plus connections at vault tec managed to get it built. The mod takes the time to ground, explain, and make the existence of this vault consistent with the Fallout world and what we know of it.

 

[MerlinCross]

I have a low enough opinion of BethSoft writing to find the assertion that they're ripping off modders to be perfectly plausible.

Second this.
They are more than willing to copy a modders work *cough* Automaton *cough* and sell it for a way too high pricing.

The Settlement and Survival systems were directly lifted from the Fallout 3 survival mod, and the New Vegas settlement mod. Fallout 4's survival mode seems to draw heavily from Skyrim's iNeed mod.

You sure the survival mode didn't copy from New Vegas? Cause outside of infections, they seem to be the same to me.

Also Which mode was Automaton copied from? Cause I can think of a couple modes where you can make robots.