Kenshi OSP Modding

[mstrdenton]

A common issue in many modding communities of many games is that while modders usually make a ton of content overtime, most of it becomes unusable because of licensing conflicts. For example, here is something that could happen: A modder makes a cool new armor mod for the game before he loses interest. A few years later, the game gets updated so much that the mod is now incompatible and/or commonly used mods people use with the game. Many people want to use this mod, but due to its non-permissibility, no one can fix it so it works again. The creator of the mod isn't even active on the same accounts anymore, so getting permission is impossible. Someone could make a replacement mod that is similar, but then the same problem could happen again a little while later, and the problem repeats itself. In the end, modders are forced to spend a ton of time trying to make replacements and combability patches to abandoned mods, which means less modded content gets produced overall and modders are having to do annoying work all the time that they would prefer not to be doing.

Of course, everyone puts conditions on their mods for a reason, and even I do this for almost everything I release. Releasing your own content as public domain can be a bad idea under most circumstances, because while the community benefits greatly from your generosity, you will not benefit in the slightest for your hard work. If you make something public domain, eventually it will be used by so many people, noone will even remember it was you who created it. You will lose recognition in the community, and people may even take your work for use in unrelated games, sometimes commercially, without you getting any compensation. Everyone wants to get something personal out of modding, which is why people rarely release major mods as public domain. This attitude is very understandable and respectable. If you spend your time making something, you should own it.


It seems that if you deal with the first problem I mentioned, it just creates another. However, there is a middle ground solution: an OSP license. If you want to know what I am talking about, you can look at the game known as Mount and Blade: Warband. This game has existed for a long time, and people have made mods as far back as 2004 on vastly older versions of the game. Even though a lot of time has passed, and many people have eventually left the community, the content available to find in mods continues to grow exponentially. This is mostly due to the developers of the game (Taleworlds Entertainment) having policies that encourage modders to use a special license designed for them to use called the Open Source Package license (OSP). Under this license, modders are allowed to use assets and code from each other's mods as long as they follow the following criteria:


[*] Provide adequate credits and explanation about where the content came from, especially in case if another modder wants to use the content so they can credit those people as well.
[*] Never use the content in games not made by the same company without explicit permission from you (the creator). The reason for making the license allow across games company wide, is to allow for modders to reuse assets from older titles of the same series.
[*] Never monetize content you created without your explicit permission.


The OSP license is very nice, as it protects creators while not hindering the sharing and expansion of content. Of course, this is not the best solution for everyone and every situation. In the end, it is up to modders themselves to decide on their licenses. However, when I make a mod, my end goal is to give other players more tools to have the experience they want. I don't want to tell other people how to play their game, so the OSP license is always perfect for me.

[Hatsune_Neko]

there is no best solution as there is already stolen content on the workshop.