There are obviously a wide range of philosophies companies have when it comes to both intellectual property and modding communities that tend to spring up around successful video games. Some are jealous protectors of all things IP, which is generally a giant mistake that limits the reach, the fun, and the engagement these companies should be having with their biggest fans. The other is one that is more lenient or even celebratory of the harmless use of these fan-works. But rarely do we see the dichotomy at work in one specific instance.
But rarely doesn’t mean never. You can see both philosophies at play in the case of a mod made for the hit game Stardew Valley, still kicking nearly a decade after release. The mod in question is called Baldur’s Village and consists of a new town to play in, along with the inclusion of a bunch of characters from another hit game, Baldur’s Gate 3.
Created by NexusMods user BV and uploaded on March 8, Baldur’s Village added over 20 characters from the 2023 GOTY winner to the farming sim, along with new locations, shops, special items, dynamic story events, and other content. “So much love went into this—amazing work!” Larian CEO and BG3 director Swen Vincke wrote at the time.
But the fan mashup of two beloved games is no longer available to download on Nexus. “This mod is under moderation review,” reads a disclaimer added to the page on March 29. According to a spokesperson for the mod database, Wizards of the Coast was responsible for sending a DMCA takedown notice against the fan content for infringing on its ownership of Dungeons & Dragons, which Baldur’s Gate 3 is based on.
It’s a bit stunning to see this play out with such diametrically opposed responses. Larian Studios, the folks that actually poured their efforts into making an absolute masterpiece of a game, saw the mod that made use of that work and loved it. This isn’t entirely surprising, given that Larian has a habit of doing new and interesting things generally. That a higher up like Vincke even chimed in personally to express his admiration is genuinely unsurprising.
Sadly, it is equally unsurprising that Wizards of the Coast simply sent the lawyers at the mod. WotC has been slowly descending into IP troll-dom in recent years. Whether the takedown ends up getting rescinded now that this is all going public is an open question, but it should be obvious that nothing in this free mod represents any kind of threat to WotC.
And it is natural to wonder, given Vincke’s comments on the matter, if this sort of philisophical difference didn’t play a role in Larian deciding to get out of the Baldur’s Gate franchise moving forward.
Apparently someone at Hasbro or Wizards thinks a fan mashup of BG3 and one of the most popular games of all time in a non-competing genre might get in the way of whatever it’s doing with the franchise. Vincke wasn’t impressed with the move. “Free quality fan mods highlighting your characters in other game genres are proof your work resonates and a unique form of word of mouth,” he wrote on Monday. “Imho they shouldn’t be treated like commercial ventures that infringe on your property.”
One of these two is the good guy in this story and the other is the big bad. If you’re having trouble figuring out which is which, you may have an evil alignment problem.